At some point during the week, my sense of smell became degraded, and all my tastes muted.  It became harder to effectively cook, because I started to get worried that I might get Shannon sick and I just generally felt like monkey butt.  So some of my tastes are based on the muted taste plus the texture (the spicy chicken and pork tacos last night were mostly on texture).  So I've been a bit sick, but not so much so that I stopped going to work (though maybe one of the days it would've been nice to just sleep in).

With all the lime usage this week, I'm very glad that I bought that juicer a while back.  It is a simple tool, but so effective.

Grass Fed Beef Burgers (Crooked Gap) (low and slow)

Mixed the beef with some salt and pepper, then made a burger using a little vegetable oil in the pan.  It took quite a bit longer to make, but the end result was a juicy burger.  It didn't have that same sort of char on the outside that makes it have that extra savory flavor.  At least it didn't taste like bacon.  Anyways, it turned out pretty good.  I'd call it a success.

Cube Steak with Lime Mojo

I think this turned out well.  It was lime flavored with some spice.  Other the not finishing her peppers (Shannon's not a big bell pepper fan), she cleaned off her plate.  

Chicken with Spicy Mexican Marinade

So in thinking about what to do with this, I thought tacos...why tacos?  Well apparently the Tacopocalypse tacos I had for breakfast wasn't enough (the wasabi brisket was extra good yesterday), and I thought hey, maybe the spice will help clear me out the lingering lung stuff.  Normally I wouldn't hesitate to dose out some extra spicy salsa (Habanero or hotter) proceed to eat a jar (one way or another), but lately I've been having more and more trouble with the extra hot.  So with this, I used some red pepper, red onion, jalapeno pepper, some green zebra tomatoes and topped with a little salsa verde.  The mayo marinade worked out pretty well I think.  It wasn't too spicy (no complaints) but honestly, this was probably the worst of it, so I felt textures (chicken and pork were done right) and broad chemical heat taste (yes, there were jalapenos in there), but that was about it.

Pork and Chicken tacos after a Spicy Mexican Marinade

Banh Mi Burger

So the change I made to this was to add pickled jalapenos and used champagne vinegar since I don't have white vinegar.  The quick pickled carrots turned out well.  Even though I had to eat the first carrot, because I didn't have enough of a shape to make match sticks (even fat match sticks) sized pieces.  Going back and doing it over, I got t eat a carrot and I got a nice, relatively even carrots.  Everything combined together and I think the vinegar helped things stand out enough to taste.  I'm fairly certain it was good.

Banh Mi Burger

10 Minute Tomato Sauce

This turned from something simple to "Sam's cleaning out his fridge".  So that leftover ricotta?  A bunch of other things ended up in there.  It tasted ok.  But not a true test of the recipie.

Chorizo and Eggs on toast

So we've come to the decision that this was pretty bland.  It's one thing to have something special and sell it.  It's another to treat it as something special and sell it.  I guess it's to be expected and it shows the difference between Hy-Vee (where I bought the Chorizo) and The Cheese Shop (where everything I've had there has been at least good, most excellent, and a number of things freaking amazing).  So we learn, Trust Your Cheese Monger.