Journal

2013 - Week 53 Cooking / 2014 - Week 1 Cooking Results

Lazy Man's Chili (using frozen leftover braised pork shoulder)

It worked out.  Made it a bit milder than previous chilis due to some complaints.  But it still worked out.  Pretty good overall, but not my best effort.

Spicy Pork and Mustard Green Soup (p70 Bon Appetit January 2014)

This was nice!  I had to swap out kale for mustard greens (since the mustard green options looked withered).  Good on a cold night.  Would be nice to save it for tomorrow or Monday.

Pan-Roasted Chicken with Harissa Chickpeas (p30 Bon Appetit January 2014)

Of the stores I tried (3) nobody had Harissa paste.  So I shelved it and we had some burgers instead.

Low-Fat Meaty Lasagna

First use of the Lasagna Pan I got for Christmas from Shannon's Mom (Thanks again, Linda!).  Highly rated by Cook's Illustrated, I've been wanting it for a while since sometimes a metal pan doesn't make a ton of sense.  While the picture looks a bit of a mess (I did overcook the white sauce on top a bit (started to early)) it turned out great.

This was quite the task, I started around 5:PM and finished around 8:PM.  Making two sauces.  Turned out pretty good.  Maybe a bit more spice, but yeah you miss the fat a bit, but the mushrooms help to get it back to the savoriness.  

Quick Cheesesteak subs

Quick, easy, pretty tasty.

2013 - Week 52 Cooking Results

Ham and Egg sandwiches

nom, and the ham was almost gone by this time, but still had enough for a couple more for sandwiches.

Green Onion Sausage (Crooked Gap) Pizza

Good as always.

Farfalle with Sausage and Fennel

So I doubled the amount of sausage and pasta, and onion, but kept the amount of garlic the same.  Now it could be the garlic that I'm using or it could be the size, but 3 cloves was just way too much, you could barely taste anything else over the garlic.  The fennel was surely lost.  Maybe if the garlic was chilled out a bit it would've been better.

Lazy Man's Chili (using frozen leftover braised pork shoulder)

Delayed until today.

2013 - Week 51 Cooking Results

Pork Chops (Crooked Gap) & Mashed Potatoes

Used up the rest of the potatoes some nice pork.  Dinner for two.

Pork Burgers (Crooked Gap)

Oh Crooked Gap, I have missed you.  Nom nom nom.

Ham Salad

Simple, and I even simplified it further and had the food processor do all the work, rather than processing the ham then mixing the rest of the ingredients, I did it all together.  Good quick meal.

Split-Pea Soup with Ham

This was very good.  Easy to make, maybe a little time consuming (but split-peas are like that), the only drawback here is because of timing we weren't able to Join my mom and my brother Isaac to go to HoQ where my brother Joseph works for dinner.  While it is unlike me to turn down a free meal at a fine dining establishment, it had to be done.

Anyways, good stuff.

Green Onion Sausage (Crooked Gap) Pizza

Delayed until today (ended up going to Zombie Burger to get the Crab Rangoul).

Ham and Cheese Frittata

Little onion, little ham, some shredded cheese and eggs.  Easy enough, and a good meal.

Pork Sloppy Sammys (using up the rest of the soup)

This worked out, sort of, I had to cook it longer than I would've liked because even though the soup was thick, it still needed a bit more time to cook off the extra liquid to make this into an acceptable sloppy sammy.  Even then, it still lacked the taste profile that I normally have.  Even though there are a lot of variations between what I use to make this, there are two primary notes, heat and mustard.  This didn't have enough of either.  Even so, they were pretty good.

2013 - Week 51 Cooking

I declare this the week of pork!  I went to the Winter Market, and spent the vast majority of the money at Crooked Gap (it was still less than I wanted to spend, but that's how things work out).  Got some pork, some lamb and I got a coupon from work for a free (all be it one I wouldn't buy) ham.  So we'll have it go the way it goes.  Porky Porky pork pork!  YAY!

Also we're going to keep it relatively easy because I've been working late, so I don't have the time to be very extravagant.

2013 - Week 50 Cooking Results - Cookie Time

Skillet Goulash

I was at AllSpice, saw some paprika and thought to myself, hey, I could make some goulash, so I bought some paprika and I did.

This was pretty good, I think I've made it before, and it turned out well then too.  So I mixed about half and half with hot and sweet paprika, added a bit of heat, but remained creamy and good, but amped it up a bit.

Cowgirl Creamery's Mac & Cheese

So I couldn't leave well enough alone, and added some leftover prosciutto, and a bit more topping.  I gotta say, the topping was awesome.  It left these near cracker like crusts that had the savoriness of parmesan and the Prairie Breeze, nom nom.  Now I suppose Cowgirl Creamery would've wanted me to use their cheeses, but it didn't work out that way (and it would've made this silly expensive).  The rest of it?  Really good to.  You would think that people that work with cheese a lot would know how to make a good mac & cheese, and they do.

Easy Cream of Tomato Soup with Grilled cheese of an alpine cheese that I tasted on Saturday that I hope I can dig up in my head by Monday or Tuesday.

I'm pretty sure that the Spicherhalde Alpkase was the cheese that I was looking for.  But to figure it out, I tasted a bunch of cheeses (rats! (sarcasm)), So I broke out some Country Italian bread from Gateway and toasted it up nice and simply.  The grilled cheese turned out fantastic.

For the tomato soup I added a bit more cream than the recipe called for and the rest of the defrosted pumpkin puree that I made (I had made some pumpkin bread loaves).  The soup turned out well.  Even with the addition of the pumpkin, I was able to balance it and keep the extra creaminess, while keeping the soup nice and consistent.

The two together?  It was a warm embrace of food.  Like you remember from being a kid, except it clearly tastes better.  It's the nod to remembrance, but not using those ingredients.  Cause really, Campbell's tomato soup would probably taste like a salt like to me, these days.  Honestly I don't know, cause I haven't bought it in years, but just looking at the sodium content...

Anyways.  Good stuff, go get some Spicherhalde Alpkase.

Rotisserie Chicken Tacos with Refried Beans

So this was weird.  I forgot to take out the salted pork...yes...me...forgetting the pork!  I am shamed deeply.  So I replaced it with some extra vegetable oil.  It still tasted good, but I'm sure it would've been better with pork fat in it.  I'll have to make the beans again.  The tacos as a whole turned out well, I was pretty happy.

Buttermilk Pancakes

Had some buttermilk, used the buttermilk, nom nom nom.

Cookie Time!

So most of the get togethers I do are more geared towards adults, they're still generally kid friendly, but not so much.  And it is not because I don't do well with kids, because I generally do, but once in a while you have to do something for my friends and all the things that come with them.  So we missed out last year, because the timing just didn't work out, but this year it worked out a lot better (though I still wish I wish I could've gotten the timing right to work for the Jerry & Nay and their youngins, but for events you have to balance what is good for you and what is good for the most people, it can always be a bummer). The age started at -1 week (due date in the next week) and when up from there (he counts, right?).  And fun was had by all.  A few bumps and cries from the youngsters, but mostly without incident.  Though by the end, most of the kids were truly amped up (I wouldn't expect any less from kids filled with sugar).  It was nice to see everyone (some who I haven't seen for a long time).

After cookie time, the clean up was pretty easy, though I did feel mildly wasteful.  we used disposable everything, and I just pulled up the tablecloth (plenty of colored stains on it) and took everything else out to the trash.  Easy.

2013 - Week 50 Cooking

Back to Planning!  So I have years and years of Cook's Country, Cook's Illustrated and about a year of a bunch of other cooking magazines, much to the lament of my wife.  So in order to rectify this issue and due to a change in the way that Cook's Illustrated manages it's website enrollment (the fact that one would have to have 3 seperate accounts and 3 seperate payments to maintain membership across their properties was just ridiculous) I've subscribed to the website (more money from me to them).  Since I still like thumbing through magazines at breakfast, I'll still subscribe to the magazines, but when I'm done, I'll pass them over to Joseph, so he can thumb through these.  This would apply to Cook's Illustrated, Cook's Country, Entertaining, Fine Cooking, Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, but not, for clear reasons, Lucky Peach (though he still can read those).

Damn, I subscribe to a lot of magazines...

2013 - Week 49 Cooking Results

No plan, lots of leftovers, turkey stock to use.

With no plan, it led to a bit of laziness on my part, but a little creativity to.  I came up with a few things.  After making risotto last week, I just had the thought, what if you had a turkey risotto.  I've got the stock to infuse the rice with the flavor of turkey.  Leftover turkey and cranberry sauce.  So the idea came together, but there was no indication that it would actually taste good at the end.

I started with an onion, then added rice and then I took the stock (still reducing on the stove, since I had no place or containers to put it in the fridge) and started making the risotto.  After a bit of time on the stove, I added some chopped up turkey pieces and some of the leftover cranberry sauce.  It actually turned out pretty well, with the flavors of the roasted turkey coming through, topped with a bit of cranberry sauce.  I was pretty happy with the way that it turned out.

The other big item of the week was Turkey soup.  I didn't take as much time to develop as much flavor as I wanted before adding the stock (got home later then I intended), but even so It turned out great.  It was more like a Turkey and Rice soup.  I thought about adding potatoes, but because I was already running late, it didn't seem like it would be a timely addition.  It turned out really good, but when you have your own stock, it usually does.

We also ate a lot of leftovers.  This was good, if lazy and unplanned week.

 

2013 - Week 48 Cooking Results

Pizza (recovery from failure)

Success! other then that I overloaded the pizza, but it was still delicious.  I was a bit disheartened, because I didn't get the chance to have the time to pull the mozzarella and make little mozzarella balls.  I did do the research and it ended up being easier then I thought it would be.

Butternut Squash Risotto

This turned out well.  For a 3rd meal off of one large squash, it was really good.  A bit time consuming, but you have to expect that, to some extent, from risotto.

Turkey Sloppy Joes with Hoisin and Cilantro (cause turkey twice in the week isn't enough)

I vaguely followed the recipe, used it as a guideline, but I always need a bit of that mustard taste in there.  Turned out well.

Open-Face Sausage and Peppers Sandwiches

Again, a total modification of the dinner, but a vague following.  Straight forward and simple.

So for the first thanksgiving for us of 2013 we spent some time with my family and I didn't have to do much at all.  This was kind of nice.  It kind of reminds me what it is like to do with all of that stuff.  I did, however, pick up some cheese, meats and etc for the appetizers (something that I think my family is still unused to).  I think it makes total sense though, people get the chance to eat on a few things and not bug the people in the kitchen sneaking a hunk of this or that.  But there were plenty of things to eat there which made it kind of nice and we could stay out of the way of the people (I volunteered to help and wasn't called upon).  I also made some pumpkin bread and some dark molasses gingerbread cake.  Pumpkin bread, was popular as always, but I loved the hell out of the dark molasses gingerbread cake (in bread pans).  It was also popular with my family.  So much so, I want to make it again, and use blackstrap molasses, as it states you should (but I couldn't find).

So I love me some smoked turkey (was smoked here where Joseph's smoker is, and taken there), and Joseph's stuffing was good, and everything turned out pretty well.  I think the big disappointment to me was the statement of key lime pie, and just getting lime pie.  The Lime pie was still good, but not what I wanted, so it was disappointing.  After a bit of a rest, we headed back home to have a lazy night (me grocery planning) and thinking of the general plan of the prep for Thanksgiving II.  I think the highlight of the travel was this Honda Element that got pulled over after crazy passing (zoomed up behind me, switched lanes, zoomed to the next car, switched back, and then snuck through a just barely wide enough space to continue on).  I don't so much care if people speed, I can neither confirm nor deny that I may participate in that activity, but it's unsafe behavior that bugs me more.  Seeing him get pulled over was one of those just desserts type of situation.

Thanksgiving II (2013)

So with planning and the like that's how you prepare for so much food being ready at the same time.  But with people bringing appetizers and some side dishes and desserts, it makes it quite a bit easier to execute.  So I made some stuff in advance, and then executed the things that have to be prepared the day off.  It was easy enough where I had to work on one or two things at a time, and then get prepped to do a bunch of things all together for the last part.  Everything turned out well.  I was worried how somethings may go over with the palettes of my family (in-law side).  The cranberry sauce could've been to tart, or this might be to much, etc etc.  Anyways, it ended up working out and I was pretty happy.  I wasn't to far off the estimated start time (about 30 minutes behind).  We had good conversations and it's nice to see everyone, including Shannon's aunt, who usually works holidays (but if I remember right, is now retired).  I did miss chatting with Nancy's children, who are certainly welcome.  Maybe next year it'll work out for them to come.  Though we are pushing the limits of the practical guest count of a home (that includes a formalish sit down dinner).  The frustrating part here was that I visited 4 or 5 stores before I gave up on fresh Thyme, only to have Shannon find it at the store she visited.

Anyways, things went better then previous years, I'm still unsatisfied with my carving skills, Pies still scare me and I messed up the pumpkin cheese cake (didn't extract enough water), but on the other hand, I really liked the gravy this year, so that's a positive.