Journal

2020 - Week 52 Cooking (Finally) Results

Sweet Potato, Poblano, and Black Bean Tacos

A nice and filling combination of flavors and textures.

Chicken Tikka Masala

Shannon wanted something else, so we ended up getting Lua takeout. Delayed until today.

Pork Tamale Pie

Lazy Friday cooking. A day of recovery and a day to make a dish. While not particularly complicated, it took a bit of time and was nice to not really rush through to get dinner done as soon as possible.

Sloppy Bison

So the thoughts that come in my head telling me that it has been a bit and I kind of want to have these again. So here I am, making it again. An ever random combination of spices and tomatoes.

2020 - Week 52 Cooking (Finally)

This year has taken forever. While at the same time being full of the sameness of repetition. There were only a handful of things that broke up the monotony. This all being said, we still are in a pretty good place. We donated more, we supported the local economy more (admittedly a bit differently). We are starting the conversation about going out to eat again (probably still at least a couple of months away). To close out the year, I’ve got 3 more days of work, while Shannon has 4. I’ve grown vaguely comfortable working form home, but I do miss having the ability to leave work. As it stands, it’s always there.

2020 - Week 51 Cooking Results

Pancakes

Normally, I would add a bit of buttermilk or something like that to do the pancakes, but we were just going for what was on hand, rather than adding a bit more. Came off well, made some larger 8” pancakes. Came out well, almost no leftovers.

Roasted Potatoes and Chicken (Today)

The chicken needed to be used, I tossed the potatoes and chicken together with spices and olive oil and then baked them off until the chicken was done. Not a lot of effort, but a bit of enjoyment.

Pasta

Elbow macaroni, simple sauce, Italian sausage. The herb and spice mixture is the variable. I ordered and got delivered in a timely fashion from AllSpice, which helped out, as I have been running low on a number of things.

Cheese-Free Sweet Potato Quesadillas (start baking the potatoes during work)

I did end up added a bit of cheese to the sweet potato mixture. I started baking them near the end of the work day, to get a start on dinner, this was a good choice. The quesadillas turned out pretty well.

Garlic-Parmesan Mashed Potatoes (for Cheese Bar dinner, requested)

A good pairing to the ham from the Cheese Bar, which was fantastic. I thought my potatoes were doing good, but next to ham, they were a bit more bland then I wanted. But the did seem to hit the spot. The French silk pie is truly a wonder.

Pimento-Cheese Featherbed Eggs (start eve, bake morning)

Normally, when we spend Christmas morning with the Matta’s, they’ll have a breakfast planned, and we thought we would continue this tradition, even though we were not there, This seems like a choice they might have made, though probably with a fruit side dish and something more healthy to go along with it. It was pretty good, though I’m low on hot sauce, which is something it wanted to be served with. (not pictured, the part where I poured in the egg mixture)

2020 - Week 51 Cooking

There will be a number of repeats this week, because…last week. We will be doing our best to soft of re-create the food events. So we’ll be getting Pizza for eve, and doing a baked egg casserole for the morning.

2020 - Week 50 Cooking Results

Actually seeing the Mattas (outside), last night, reminds me how much I miss being to occasionally see people. No dance recital, no Thanksgiving, and no Yule celebrations. I suspect I will need some practice again to be social in the manner, when time comes again where we can safely physically close again, but I do miss it.

Pancakes

Delayed! First I didn’t have the syrup (came from the food coop), then I didn’t have time.

Roasted Potatoes and Chicken

Delayed! My late working didn’t allow this.

White Bean and Chicken Soup

I had time on Saturday, so I there I was spending a couple of hours making dinner. Nothing overly complicated. I did make some adjustments. The Chili powder blend was the last of Aji Amarillo, that I bought for some reason, and I swapped the cayenne for dried jalapeño. It came out pretty good, warming on a cold near winter day. Add a some crushed chips and some sour cream. Good things.

Egg, Kimchi, and Avocado Sandwiches

While this was to make them en masse, I ended up frying the eggs instead. I thought about baking less eggs, but as I was, again, working late, the time was a factor, so fried eggs it was. I did turn them over a bit to solidify the yolks, but not too much. Other then that it was pretty much the same, though Shannon skipped the Kimchi.

Cheese-Free Sweet Potato Quesadillas

Delayed!

Snickerdoodles

The balls of dough got bigger as I was making them, so I ended up with 18 of the 24 cookies predicted. This made some of the cookies a bit too wide. Taste, overall, was pretty good. I specifically used one with out vegetable shortening, because I didn’t want to buy vegetable shortening. There may be something missing because of that.

2020 - Week 49 Cooking Results

Creamed Corn with Naan, Coriander and Toasted Spices

I ended up using the corn in the noodles. So I’m just going to pass on this.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese with peas and tuna

I do like this baked Macaroni, and even though I’ve been filling up meals with more vegetable forward dishes, again, as I should’ve been doing all along, I brought this out for another time. This in the making comforting food, I added peas and tuna.

I was in a rush, because the last wheel on the dishwasher gave up the ghost, so I started the search for replacement wheels, which are, sold individually, and $10-15, and the tray has 8 wheels. So I have to gently balance the rack on the stubs, that the wheels expand a bit. I ordered 4 of them.

After searching and being shocked at the prices, I quickly got the dish going again. I cut some time off the prep time, and it still came out very well. In fact, when I added the tuna, the cats didn’t even notice, because it went from adding the peas, tuna, stirring and in the pan in about 2 minutes.

Good dinner, and I do think the cats noticed the tuna smell after, but they were not quite sure of where it was from.

Pan-Fried Ginger Noodles

I proper messed this one up. Normally I have some trial and errors in the amount of translating a normal ingredient into a dried version of it. For an inch of ginger I use about a teaspoon of dried ginger, for some reason my brain translated it to tablespoons, so this became just to gingery to eat for the most part. More or less unrecoverable. I forced myself to finish most of my dish, but then swapped out for pretzels at some point.

Sausages and Mashed Potatoes

Some bangers, baked in the oven, and I was expecting something more home made about the mashed potatoes, but it really turned out to be more of pomme puree type of dish., which I wasn’t quite expecting. Though the added savory flavor was a bit different, enjoyable, but not the cream butter salt pepper potato that I would have expected and always ties well with a banger.

Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

I have made this a few time before. It is simple to do, warming and filling.

2020 - Week 48 Cooking Results

Creamed Corn with Naan, Coriander and Toasted Spices

Shannon had a rough day and wanted something more comforting, so we ordered out. So Delayed!

Roasted Fennel Tomato Sauce

I liked the way this was done. Combine a bunch of veggies in oil, roast them, then make ‘em into a sauce. It’s pretty easy to do and tastes pretty good.

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili

I think I let this simmer a bit too long, as it became dryer than I really wanted. In reading the recipe, I through it’d be a little bland, so I doubled the chipotle chili. I used a combination of jalapeño powder and another chili powder. I bought these sweet potatoes and figured I needed to use them.

Taco Salad

Good as always.

Turkey Burgers

I put a little bit of mayo and spices in the ground turkey (bought through my coop, processed in Minnesota). I think perhaps I added a bit to much mayo as they were a little loose, but not to bad. I made 3 burgers and the third one, I had in the roasted fennel tomato pasta the next day.