Journal

2023 - Week 46 Cooking Results

Sausage

Cased brats, good things.

Burgers

All beef, local beef, good things.

Brioche bun Baked Sandwiches

I had a thought about serving these buns for thanksgiving, but by the time I got around to ordering they were already out. But they’re pretty good. I have seen a few people pumping these type of sandwiches, so I figured out it’d be a fun use of the buns. It was pretty good.

Noodles with egg

Delayed.

Mix of a Bacon Wrapped Pork Loin and Sausage Stuffed Pork Loin

The bacon didn’t finish like what I wanted, so what I’m going to use is the finishing and cooking method for the pork. So what’ll happen, because I did like the flavor boost of the BBQ sauce and shake, so I’ll add those, and sous-vide it just to make sure it’s ready to go and still finish in the oven. So Suasage stuffed, glazed with sauce started in sous-vide and finished in the oven with (gasp) no bacon.

An Evening with the Late John Cleese - Vibrant Music Hall, Waukee, Iowa - 11/15/2023

So this was one of the “Oh I’m going, if you want to come that’s great” times for me. We ate out before hand, where when asked who were were going to see, we got to feel old, but in the car after we were “the headless painting guy in Harry Potter” to try to get the person some context. However, lets break this into two parts.

Venue:

So if it’s just the way it’s displayed how they put thing into context, but it seemed clear to start at 6:00 PM. However on further inspection and expanding things, it appears that it was doors open at 6 show starts at 7:30 PM. So showing up early wasn’t exactly desired.

Parking was a bit absurd. We often go to shows or events downtown and it’s $5 for parking for the event. For a city like Des Moines, this does not seem crazy. For the venue it was $15 to park, in a place that is way out in Waukee and surrounded by a corn field. As of Tuesday, it still shows on Google Maps and street view as an under construction field. I don’t have a problem paying for parking, but for the area, it is way above market value, so much so it seem like it is an abuse. They’re not of how to enter the lot was confusing, it being night, and it only being a sign, that the entrance appears to be blocked off, where it is half blocked off. And why, pray tell, as someone that showed up early, should I have to park on the far side of the lot.

Generally, with the exclusion of one of the parking lot attendants, everyone was pleasant, and tried the give good service. Some were pretty slow, but that could’ve been the customers they were serving too.

The men’s bathroom smells like someone took several urinal cakes and ground it into every surface. It was a lot. I know my nose is more sensitive then some, but not near as sensitive to others and it was pushing the edge of painful scent for me.

The chairs were trash. Just trash.

The Show

A bit of comedy from Camilla Cleese, which was funny. Some about the interactions with and just joking on her father.

John Cleese was a mixture of the hits, some opinions, joke telling, the structure of jokes as a whole (tension, release) and stories. As someone who was introduces to the Pythons in my early teens (duplicates of the albums on tape, note: I now own all of them in more then 1 format)), this is certainly something that reminded me of my youth and led to what I like these days, humor wise.

After the intermission, Camilla and John came back and had a bit of a Q&A and story time and a bit of complaining about the Drive not to just make a living but to just make as much profit as possible. He may have mentioned, unknowingly, the owners of the venue that he was in.

I was happy I had gotten to see one of the icons of my humor.

2023 - Week 45 Cooking Results

Sausage

Cased brats for the first time in a bit. Good Things.

Egg Sandwich

More of that bacon, eggs, and English muffins.

Sheet Pan Roasted Chicken with Hot Honey Spiced Apples

I used granny smith apples, and boneless chicken thighs. Good, and pretty simple.

Skillet Goulash

It says, specifically in here to use sweet and not hot or smoked varietals. I used both (didn’t have enough hot). And frankly it was the paprika punch that I was looking for. Good things. I think I had a bit too much steak in there (I think I was a little heavy on each strip steak). Even so, good, good for leftovers. Enjoyable to make, enjoyable to eat.

Rush Creek Cacio e Pepe

This was excessive. Swiss (I was surprised myself, but it’s quite good.) pasta, Wisconsin Rush Creek, and Italian Pecorino Toscano. Butter? Anyways it was quite good, I need to add a bit more salt and pepper then I expected, but it was also a lot of food, normally I would make this in a half pound of pasta at a time.

Iðunn plays with lamby

It is hard to catch Iðunn with her favorite lamb toy, cause as soon as I start to pay attention to her, she just drops it like she can't be seen to care. Right before this she had tossed it down the stairs.

2023 - Week 44 Cooking Results

Sausage

All pork hot dogs, good things.

Taco Salad

Good as always.

Burgers

Beef, I got it in my mind to make some mini burgers, so I did so. Good meal.

Egg Sandwich (holy crap there was some lucky george bacon in the bottom of the freezer)

Bacon holds up well, happy with finding it at the bottom of the freezer.

Bangers and Mash with Guinness onion gravy

I think I’ll make this again, but, not use the Guinness to make the gravy, cause it’s a bit too bitter. When I was slicing the onion I was thinking about only using half of it, since it was a rather large onion, but ended up using the whole thing. Overall fairly tasty, but the gravy could use a bit of work. Crooked Gap Bangers, did work well, though.

Sweet Potato Ramen

I adjusted. I added a bit more broth, and boiled the sweet potatoes rather then baked some of them. Generally this worked out well, and the broth mixture was tasty and goes well over rice too.

Oak Park (DSM)

We went to the newly opened Oak Park on 11/4. This was the first reservation that we were able to get, that did not conflict with existing plans. We dressed up a little to go, and showed up just a little bit early. And after looking at the property from several sides, we headed in. So let’s talk about what’s important, the design.

Shannon had to listen to a lot of this already. So the normal ceilings are fairly tall, but in comparison to the center of the dining area, where the bar is, the space is compressed. This was something that was noticed a lot in the FLW houses where the entrances and other areas had a confining feeling then you get into the main shared area and it opens up with a much higher ceiling, but in this case you went from a normal, perhaps tall ceiling, to a very tall probably two story ceiling. We were led into our dining location, near the front windows, through the bar, so we had that opening up experience, but then got the feeling of compression as we headed out of the bar area. So my general thought was that it might be better to lead people through the windowed dining areas on the side, rather than to get that mild feeling of compression.

After we sat down, one of the first things I noticed was the inconsistency of the brick. About 5 feet from the floor the pattern of the brick changed a bit, which is fine, but that line didn’t continue with the serving stations, nor the line of the windows. And the serving station didn’t match with the windows. I kind of want that line at the base of the windows to go all the way around the space, to only be broken by the doors.

The brick, which may not have been actual brick, didn’t have the deep cut, and almost full line to reinforce the lines around it (re: Meyer May house, etc).

The on table candle was held in a container that had a sort of feel of the place with lines and patterns and I liked it. However the sconces at even placement around the area, seemed more Victorian-esque, then mid-century, so they seemed a bit out of place. Not that they’re not pretty, but it doesn’t quite fit in my mind.

The Champagne bucket stands, seem like they should have had a built in place for them to hide. While at hand for staff to retrieve for customers, it really seems like they should have had a nook to rest.

I noticed that the flatware had the line break up on most pieces, which was a continuation of that theme.

In watching the staff work, I notice more then once that someone would have to get pretty low to get something out of the bottom cupboard, so perhaps if it was a bit higher, they wouldn’t have to bend so low.

My complaints are just me being picky for the most part, mainly because this is a style that makes me feel almost immediately relaxed, in most places, even when it is outside my general comfort zone.

Generally, we were very pleased with the food and the excellent service. This will certainly worth a second visit. The food was presented well, interesting, flavorful. Cocktails were made well and other Sam is quite knowledgeable (we’ve met a few time and Grade A and Cheese Shop events).

My biggest note was that I chose a vegetable focused dish (Carrot Wellington), and was pleased with the decision over a more meat focused dish.

ehhh....

Since I, for the most part, don’t generally post to that one picture site anymore, I’ve turned that page off.

2023 - Week 44 Cooking

I have been blocking of about 2 hours every weekday to study for a certification exam. While blocked off, I tend to only get about an hour in most days, cause work. I’ve done some pluralsight training and broken down what we probably will need to get some practice in, but after a recent event I became so more uncertain of the test, that I worked a good chunk of the day on my study guide, yesterday, and got 3 of 7 competency sections with answers? or definitions. The search on their site isn’t great, and I swear they block some of there site from being indexed. Since the terms used are often used in multiple contexts and it really seems to me that the test prep document seems to use terms that they stopped using after version 8, it is often very frustrating to find things.

Last night, Shannon headed off to bed, and I planned on going to bed after I got done with the 3rd section. 2 hours later, I finally headed up stairs. I’m pressing the limits of apple notes I think, as behavior got a bit weird maybe? I have exported things to pages, just in case. It’s at 23 pages and is an outline for the most part.

The point being, simple meals this week, more studying to do.