Brats

Jalapeño and cheddar, Crooked Gap. Skinless. Nom nom nom.

Chicken and Rice with Coconut-Ginger Sauce

I didn’t have crispy chicken skin, which is a loss, but over all this came together well, was pretty good and made good leftovers.

Chicken Sausage with Braised Red Cabbage and Potatoes

I have been hoping for the apple growers to show up so I can get some fresh pressed cider and fresh picked apples, as it is almost that season, though with the lack of rain, who knows. I picked up a can of cider from an Iowa based cider company (they make hard cider too), which is convent since it’s small enough to buy a can or two instead of a whole jug. With that, the cabbage and potatoes and sausage, it felt very German to me.

I enjoyed the mix of texture flavors and how everything joined together.

I also had some Toppling Goliath Oktoberfest with this, which fit well.

Spicy Sesame Chili Oil Noodles

I was thinking I could pick up some black vinegar at the store, but it wasn’t there. They added some more Asian ingredients, ones I would take an extra trip for, but the Black Vinegar disappeared at some point. That being said, I tried my best to follow this. And it came out pretty well. I used fresh fettuccine noodles, and this was pretty easy together. A nice quick email with not a lot of heat needed, on a very hot week (though not the hottest day).

Modern Baked Mac and Cheese With Cheddar and Gruyère

Let’s talk about the good.

First the expected texture was spot on, the noodles were a bit over done, but I could’ve probably pulled them off the water a bit earlier.

Let’s talk about the bad.

It used a lot of pans. I had a whole load of dishes with just pans.

It was dramatically under seasoned. As a comparison:

  
    Modern
     
    Alton Brown
  
    1# Noodles
     
    0.5# noodles
  
    1/2t Mustard Powder
     
    1T Mustard Powder

Get some more mustard, paprika, garlic powder and then we might be talking

The breadcrumbs should have had some seasoning in there, like some pepper some Parmesan cheese, something.

I used 1.5# of Hooks 3 year and 0.5# of an actual quality Gruyere, so I didn’t skimp on the cheese.

I also added some Extra Chet (special batch, Red Table Chet sausage with extra fennel) on top of the noodles and below the breadcrumbs