Journal

2012 - Week 53 Cooking / 2013 - Week 1 Cooking Results

Corn Soup with Potatoes and Smoked Ham

Simple to make, I used the last of my Applewood Smoked Iowa White Spread (La Quercia) and a chunk of well smoked ham and you end up with a nice simple soup that makes for a good meal on a cold Sunday eve.

Thai Coconut Chicken Soup (RC Cook's Country December / January 2013)

So Shannon got home late, and when I said I was going to make soup, I got a bit of push back because there was an assumption that it woud take forever to do.  This came together pretty quickly.  And tasted pretty good to.  In fact, I still have another sweet potato, so I might make this again.

Skillet Teriyaki Beef and Vegetables (RC Cook's Country December / January 2013)

Pushed to next week.

Reduced Fat General Tso's Chicken (p29 Cook's Country December / January 2013)

My figure shows that I don't generally like reduced fat anything.  This, however, turned out very well.  Bringing everything together to a bit longer then I expected, but when it came down to it, it was still pretty speedy.  It tastes similar (but better) to what you'd order from the take out Chinese place.

Well's Fargo provided, Omaha Steak's Burgers

These were kind of pathetic.  It didn't stand up to the bacon, nor the Dunbarton Blue cheese.  Quite disappointing.

2012 - Week 53 Cooking / 2013 - Week 1 Cooking

Who would've guessed that 2012 had 53 Sundays?  So here we are at the end of one year and the start of another.  Lots of cooking done, lots of time passed some new things tried, some massive quantities of baking done.  A good year overall, cooking wise.  I've gone up and down in cycles of busyness and interest.  I'll get way behind in my magazines  catch up, get way behind, and catch up.  I added Lucky Peach to my food input (which I actually read, not just skim).  I still have a pile of cookbooks to get through (skimming/reading) and my list of books that I think I should read and want to read also has grown to near unmanageable levels (even with that there had been a large block of time where little to no progress was made, for a reasonable reason).

If I have time I'm going to try to break down my food spending, just because I find the idea interesting.  Yes, clearly we are in a position where we can make choices that many people can't about where our food comes from and the sometimes excessive amount of money that we are able to spend to make those choices.

We are in the middle of the winter, and the two things I miss the most are fresh greens (spinach, arugula, etc) and eggs.  Eggs that were laid a day or two before, rather then at some undetermined date.  There is a clear difference, not to mention the treatment of the chickens.

  • Corn Soup with Potatoes and Smoked Ham
  • Thai Coconut Chicken Soup (RC Cook's Country December / January 2013)
  • Skillet Teriyaki Beef and Vegetables (RC Cook's Country December / January 2013)
  • Reduced Fat General Tso's Chicken (p29 Cook's Country December / January 2013)
  • Well's Fargo provided, Omaha Steak's Burgers

2012 - Week 52 Cooking Results

Ham and Potato Chip Tortilla (p144 Food & Wine December 2012)

So I do like to have some jalapeno potato chips from time to time, so to read another excuse to eat them, seemed like a good idea at the time.  It certainly does taste good and is very quick to make and is clearly not that good for you, but I sit here recovering where somewhere in my head there's a difficulty chewing.  So anything that takes excessive crunching or chewing leaves me with an itching pain in the middle of my head (I'm guessing where one of the two cuts in my nasal cavities were).  Even so, after getting through that (I've been doing that for days now) it was good.  Good on toast, good by itself, just good over all.  I apparently forgot to buy the scallions, it's clearly been a forgetful week, but even with out.  I used the holiday ham received from work for this (meh ham, but works as an ingredient).

Smoked Turkey Sandwiches

Still very good, nice quick Sunday meal.

Light and Fluffy Baked Apple Pancake (p160 Food & Wine December 2012)

So years ago, I got a bug in my head to make a pancake cake, it worked out pretty well, but I quickly let it go.  This is a much better way to entertain that idea.  It works with the same idea as an upside down cake, where you put the topping on first then cook pancake on top.  I really liked how this turned out.  The combination of the apples and maple on top then the fluffy pancake?  Worth another go without a doubt.  Easy to do, as well.

Monte Cristo Strata (p158 Food & Wine December 2012)

I got part of the center of the Gruyere from the cheese shop and luckily I had enough to feel the recipe needs (didn't write down what I needed).  So it was nice and layered and again used the free ham from work.  It might have been better to be served with fresh fruit or jam on the side, but it was nice and savory (I did use more mustard then the recipe called for).  The broiled cheese on the top, was quite good.  Good use of the Gruyere.

2012 - Week 51 Cooking Results

Cheese Latkes

Also good the second time around.

Smoked Turkey Brats

I am guessing that Foxhollow had a couple of extra leftover turkeys, and decided to do a bit with it.  So the smoked brats were pretty good, even if they were turkey.  It has a nice smokey flavor, they should have these more regularly.

Smoked Turkey breast Sandwiches

Good taste, nice sandwiches, I still have some left, and it was good.

Grandma B's World Famous Enchiladas

I added more to this then the recipe called for.  I added some onion, garlic, a bit of dried jalapeno pepper.  It turned out well, though I should've heated up the tortillas a bit to make them, say, not break while I was rolling them up.  It still worked out well and tasted pretty good.  It was a great use of the Enchilada sauce.

Spicy Carrot Sandwiches

nom nom nom.  I used Grinnell Heritage Farms carrots, which have had the best carrots I have ever eaten (2 seasons ago, I think, so good I remember and still talk about then :) ).  It worked well with the sandwiches, I still wish there was a better sourdough bread around.  I really should look for one.

Bucatini all'Amatriciana (p115 Food & Wine September 2012) (cook pancetta first, take out and let rest and put in at the end)

Ok, so you change the order, and it goes from meh, to splendid.  So you cook the pancetta first until crisp, set it aside on paper towels, augment the rendered fat with some olive oil and continue the recipe as planned (minus the parts about Pancetta.

I used Pancetta Tesa from La Quercia and Pecorino Reserva.  I also got bucatini (thick long noodle with a whole in the middle).  The way this ended up working I got nice crisp salty pancetta, good cheese flavor and the tomato covered noodles.  Good stuffs, this way.

2012 - Week 50 Cooking Results

Bucatini all'Amatriciana (p115 Food & Wine September 2012) (cook pancetta first, take out and let rest and put in at the end)

delayed until next week.

Cheese Latkes

Simple and very good.  After the utter failure of another recipe from PBS's food blog, this was a very good recovery.  They were good plain, good with honey and good with strawberry rhubarb jam.  While looking for jam / jelly to put on this, we realized we had 9 different kinds of jam (two of strawberry rhubarb).  As Shannon was looking for strawberry jam, we came to the realization that we didn't have any.  So I bought 3 jars of strawberry today (and 2 more Drunken Fig, and chocolate cherry) at winter market.  I'll make this again, so Shannon can have it the way she wanted.

Marja's Mac & Cheese

This was ok.  It was an interesting and easy way to make it (mix ingredients and put it in the oven), it sure as shoot looks pretty.  But it didn't have that creamy texture that you get when you actually make a sauce.  It also goes to a pet peeve of mine with recipes   Pasta comes in a pound, and when you ask me to use 3/4ths of a pound, what, pray tell, am I going to do with 1/4th a pound of elbow macaroni?  I wouldn't make this again.

Thai Chicken with Basil

The fresh basil went gross, so I used dried basil, even so it was pretty good.  Not enough sauce for my taste, and I wish I would have made more rice, cause then I could've actually made a lunch out of it the next day.  It wasn't too spicy (I've been crossing the boundary again with Shannon).  And I added a bit of Sriracha to it, and was just about perfect on the heat.

Huevos Rancheros

I really liked the way this turned out, I got the eggs to be just the right amount of softness (which I am getting better at), but also found that a part of my 10" non-stick pan isn't so non-stick anymore.  So this adds to the list of things that I need to replace (cookie sheets, half sheet pans, 9x13 baking dish, etc).  I ate the egg I broke, Shannon and Joseph had the better ones.  Pretty good, fairly simple.

Sloppy Joes

It was interesting, and gave me thoughts.  The beans were an interesting addition, certainly added more nutrients to the mixture then the standard mix.  The texture was a bit different, but it was still pretty good.  I admit, though, I tend to like mine a bit spicier, but over all, I'd call it ok. On Fine Cooking's site, it seems either a love or hate (1 or 5 stars), but I think beans are a decent idea for an addition and will probably be incorporated in the future, though I probably won't follow the recipe (who wants their sloppy joes to be the same way twice?), but I may incorporate molasses, beans and vinegar as ingredients may rotate in and out.

2012 - Week 49 Cooking Results

Spaghettini with Garlic and Dried Chili (p101 Bon Appetit September 2012)

So I found dried ground chiles de árbol, but no whole ones.  I had no idea how much should go in, and clearly I guessed wrong.  Way to spicy.  Oh well.  It was simple enough.  Perhaps I should've looked up to see how tiny the chilies were.

Chicken Sausage Lettuce Wraps (p40 Bon Appetit September 2012)

This is where I'm going to whine a bit about missing farm fresh lettuce.  It makes me sad that I can't get something closer, but it is Iowa and in "winter".  So unless I want local greenhouse greens, I don't have much choice.  

This recipe reminded me I need to organize my cupboards again.  As I was making the sauce for this, a bag of raw sugar fell out and flipped the bowl of dipping sauce on the counter.  I was not pleased.  It can be expected, though, when you have a couple of bags of brown sugar, raw sugar, some powdered sugar all precariously positioned inside the cupboard.  I recovered as best I could, but had to remake the sauce.

Even with the splatter effect in the middle, the wraps turned out pretty well.  Nice flavor the sauce was, even remade, pretty good too.

Skillet Chicken Fajitas (p9 Cook's Illustrated September & October 2012)

This was a long process, because of what it wanted to do to.  I roasted some peppers in the oven with the broiler (note to self, when handling peppers, wash your hand before and after using the bathroom).  All these steps were pretty simple and most could be done at the same time, and I have to say, was worth it.  The chicken was excellent (I'm guessing it didn't hurt that I pulled out some of the Foxhollow chicken breasts out of the freezer to make it).  It was a nice meal.

Bucatini all'Amatriciana (p115 Food & Wine September 2012)

After having the mistake of a pasta the night before, this was a nice recovery.  Simple, and good.  though I think it could be better.  If you change the order of things, you can have crisp pancetta and use the pancetta fat in replacement of a good chunk of the olive oil.  In fact I think I'm going to do so.  I used Pecorino Riserva, instead of Romano.

Lamb Burgers with Green Harissa (p91 Food & Wine September 2012)

Made this with the additional guest of Joseph (over doing laundry).  I was shocked (and I mean shocked) that I found naan at Hy-Vee.  I guess I was lucky that I couldn't find pitas (they've been reorganizing) and found these in the organic freezer section.  The green harissa was fantastic and the mixture of everything was also very good.  Quite the good meal.

Non-Cow Milk Pizza try 2 (try 1 )

Ok, so I messed this up a middle.  I don't know where my brain was.  I got the dough all stretched out and started sprinkling cheese on it...before I put the sauce on there.  Anyways, this is about the right combination.  I topped it with some La Quercia prosciutto (last of the stuff from thanksgiving) and it was good.  I think the mixture is good enough for the pizza for the Jerry and Renee & family pizza night.