Journal

2016 - Week 52 Cooking Results

So mid-week I got came down with something, my desire to cook dropped off a cliff.  As the week continued, I was less nauseous but still sick.  I'm now on a clear liquid diet...cause Happy New Years?

Tuna Melts

made cause it was an easy meal on a Tuesday after a day off.

Quinoa Pilaf With Chipotle, Queso Fresco and Peanuts

Delayed.

Quesadillas (per C's suggestion and Shannon's Approval)

Delayed (we did have a taco salad, cause it was easy), didn't spice it, cause my tummy was fine, the rest of me, not so much

Brown Butter Polenta with Sausage and Mushroom Ragu (per Nathan & Jenny)

I don't feel as if I could judge this fairly, I didn't have a chance to really eat it (got sick shortly after, I don't blame this dish)

Cholent

Delayed

2016 - Week 51 Cooking Results

Taco Salad (per request)

Light on the spice, my stomach really couldn’t take spice this week.  I couldn’t find the chorizo, like I would normally use, so I just used ground pork instead.

Tuna Melts

Delayed

Quinoa Pilaf With Chipotle, Queso Fresco and Peanuts

Delayed.

Chicken Banh Mi

So this turned into more or less a spicy chicken salad, as just something to throw together while we were preparing to take off to Cedar Rapids like we normally do.

Sloppy Sammys

Easy, less spicy then I usually make them due to the garbage of a week that was had.  But they made up quick and made for a filling meal after not eating for quite a bit.

2016 - Week 51 Cooking

After a salt laden mistake of epic proportions (120x the salt that should've been in the recipe), I'll start back with the pumpkin bread making.

Yesterday, we took a trek to Omaha with the DMFS to go to the Alamo Draft House to see Rouge One.  Alamo had way better food then our local Flix Brewhouse, but still the concept of dinner at the movie is challenging in both distractions from the movie (food delivery, etc + normal bathroom breaks) vs at a normal theater (bathroom breaks).  It's hard to hear the server, it's hard to see the food (you eat with your eyes first).  All the places that we've been to like this, we've had problems getting things.  At least this time we didn't have to get stuff off our bill.  Anyways it was still fun to trek with people that wanted to see the movie and make an event out of it.

As a side note, I saw part of the Star Wars Christmas special...it's uh...I don't even understand how it made it on TV...ever.

Today we had the fun with our furnace deciding to take a break.  Since our house isn't very well insulated (yes I have plans on fixing (paying someone to fix it, that is) that at some point), Shannon reported to me at 9:21 AM that it was 43º (after she got up to feed the cats).  We had already talked about re-lighting the water heater (it gets cold, the pilot blows out, my theory is that hot air pushes up and when you get a combo of cold air and wind, when the hot air stops pushing out, it'll kicks back and blows the pilot light out)  So in the winter we just take the task of testing the water in the morning, and if it's warm, not hot, relight.  Annoying but not a game changer.  The next time it comes up for renewal, we'll probably get a non-pilot light water heater.  So I knew to relight that, but I also saw exhaust come out of the side of the house, so I thought that was working, and felt warm air (as opposed to cold) so maybe it had restarted itself.  So I made a line.  If it fell one more degree, call someone one the weekend, if not, we'll just keep an eye on it.  As of about 3:30 the house had fully recovered to it's normal temperature.

I'm still going to call our HVAC people to make sure that it's not something that I should be concerned about (like a failure of some internal sensor or something), but it did give me a nice chance to break out my layers and my house puttering sandals (thanks Mattas!).  Anyways, that put me behind the eight ball for time, quite a bit, making me be less then a good host (Sorry 1/2 of my brothers).  Doesn't help that the selection of food is sparse since it is grocery day.

Anyways, busy morning.

2016 - Week 50 Cooking Results

Beef (local lean) & Bacon Burgers

Added fat, made it better, and being the last thing I made with the bacon?  Used up the last of the bacon I bought for Thanksgiving (that I ended up not using).

Chicken Breasts Wrapped in Bacon

Should've taken the time to wrap them in bacon then poke them with a toothpick, cause that would have held it together better.  Be that as it may, still good.

Lamb & Egg Burgers

I think I forgot to add the eggs, but it was good none the less.

Eggs & Bacon

Good as always.

The Godfather Part II

I had doubts about sweet potato on a sandwich, but with the combination, it was fantastic.  To be truthful, it was minus Thai Basil and added mayo, but they were really fantastic.  Though I did use some really truly excellent ingredients, so it'd take a tough thing to make it go bad.  This was clearly the winner for the week (even saved it for the expected guest).

2016 - Week 50 Cooking

Tonight, Beautiful at the Civic Center.  Saturday, heading to Omaha to see Rouge One with the DMFS.  At some point I need to start making pumpkin bread, though I have all the spices now, I need both baking soda and powder.  I also need if I'm going to skip winter market, or not work on Friday.

  • Beef (local lean) & Bacon Burgers
  • Chicken Breasts Wrapped in Bacon
  • Lamb & Egg Burgers
  • Eggs & Bacon
  • The Godfather Part II

2016 - Week 49 Cooking Results

Kapusniak (leftover bacon, potatoes)

Lots of meat, good stuffs.  Relatively easy to make and a good use of cabbage (and sauerkraut when you have a lot of it).  I'm now through my first jar of kraut.

Italian Sausage with Lentils and Kale

This turned out to be more delicious then I thought it would be.  While a bit too carby, it was a good meal.

Chicken v Steak

I had some leftover chicken the next day that I cut fairly thinly and made it into a sandwich.

Baked Quinoa with Roasted Butternut Squash & Gruyere

Vegetarian, kind of like a pasta bake, but with more quinoa.  You forget how filling quinoa can be, when you don't have it for a while.

Buttermilk Pancakes

good as always, certainly a good way to use up the buttermilk.

2016 - Week 49 Cooking

I was sitting on the floor sorting through meat from the freezer, I noticed that my brother had spent some time reorganizing it, but I probably messed it up again.  But since there are missing shelves, it makes it problematic to organize, so I'm going to start looking for shelves to help with this.

I've also decided that I need to go through and use stuff that's in there.  I've got some rabbit, a bag of bones (for stock), and some previously made stock (I'm pretty sure it's duck stock), or toss it.  I need to be more aggressive on tracking and labeling.  I did that for my cellared beer. because I'd forget what was what, plus it has the added benefit of being tied to untappd, so when I drink something in untappd, it can remind me to check to see if I took it out of my cellar.  Anyways, More tracking, which means auditing.  Maybe I make something or find a list app.

So if you have a suggestion for managing stuff in multiple locations in a house, I'd appreciate the recommendation (iOS)

It's pumpkin bread time!  Or at least time to start to think about it.

2016 - Week 48 Cooking Results

 

Sweet Potato Stuffing hash with eggs (leftovers)

I still have problems getting the crust to form on potatoes with hash.  I may just be to impatient, or using to low of a temp, or any number of other reason.  But these turned out pretty well, though some of the crust left in the pan, but still pretty tasty.

Turkey Soup with dumplings (dumplings per request, leftovers)

I forgot to make the dumplings...for some reason, so I just ended up making turkey soup.  Even so, it came out pretty well.  Cold it's fairly gelatinous, and warmed up, it's nice an silky (and reduces chapped lips). 

Kapusniak (leftover bacon, potatoes)

Still have turkey soup, left, didn't want another leftover soup in the fridge, delayed!

Chorizo Taco Salad

I need to have a method to organize the meats in my fridge, but even so, I had recently bought some chorizo and so this!  Hooray!

Butternut Squash sausage w/ salad

From Lucky George farm, pretty good stuffs.  Maybe the squash could've been smaller as it went in, because some parts the squash was done, others it was a bit too dense.  Even so, another pretty good sausage mix from Lucky George & Story City Locker.

2016 - Week 48 Cooking

The use of the leftovers continues.

Oh the Pumpkin bread with brown butter and bourbon?  I don't like as much as my chocolate chunk bread...it also has a lot more steps, which would make the mass production of it a lot harder.

  • Sweet Potato Stuffing hash with eggs (leftovers)
  • Turkey Soup with dumplings (dumplings per request, leftovers)
  • Kapusniak (leftover bacon, potatoes)
  • Chorizo Taco Salad
  • Butternut Squash sausage w/ salad