Journal

2023 - Week 52 Cooking Results

Sausage

Brats! FTW!

Eggs

Skipped.

Skillet Kielbasa Macaroni and Cheese

I used some 2 year Shelburne cheddar, and some store bought Monterey Jack. I pulled out some Kielbasa from Crooked Gap out of the freezer and moved forward with that. I may have added more bread crumbs, and they weren’t fresh (as I had baked them off before, or not (depends on the batch) and stuffed them in the freezer). It worked out pretty well. I suppose by adding an extra 5 minutes you could’ve toasted the bread crumbs. Anyway, quite nice.

Maple-Glazed Pork Roast with Smoked Paprika

In thinking about maple syrup, I was like meh…so I added paprika to a mixture of dijon, honey and yellow mustard, and run this about the same way. I think that the pork loin they use is thinner than the one I had from the CostCo purchase, so it took quite a bit longer to cook. But I took the whole thing and broke it down into meal type sizes to use over the next while here and put most of it back in the freezer. I served it with mashed potatoes and it was a pretty nice last meal, made by me, for the year.

The boost to the anti-depressant seems to have helped, I’m also going to get a light lamp, as a sort of mini-booster. I’m debating on where to put it. On next to where I do my exercise or where I work. Who knows. I felt good, generally, socializing with family and friends. Other then being uncomfortably warm in one situation, Yule was relatively nice. I got to see my newest niece again, which is nice.

2023 - Week 51 Cooking Results

Sausage

All pork hot dogs. All Good.

Egg n Sausage English muffins

Little pork morning sausage patties that combine with eggs so well. Good Meal.

Burger

Pork, used a bit of the pork seasoning that I bought for the pork loin for Thanksgiving. Combined with some chips with sea salt, locally made butter buns out of the freezer and a good dinner.

Snickerdoodles

These were a bit bigger then they should be and spread out a bit more, each cookie needed to loose about a third of the total volume that I gave them. I was also unsure as to how much sugar and cinnamon should’ve gone on there so some got some deep coatings and others a lighter touch. The method itself was nice, and made sense for what they were doing. Made for Shannon’s work party. They were ok, but a bit thin and wide.

Chicken and Corn Chowder with Sweet Potatoes

Other than the yellow corn muffin mix, which I really wish would be replaced with something else, this is quite a nice soup and easy to make. I ate the last of the leftovers for Saturday lunch.

Cheesy Bean and Tomato Bake

It’s fine. Clearly a recipe written for a youngster. I adjusted the herbs and spices up, quite a bit.

Spicy Chili Coconut Shrimp Noodles

Not my first time making this, won’t be my last. I was forced to swap out the spicy chili noodles with soy and scallion, since that’s what I have (I suppose I could have done sweet and spicy), but it still worked well. Made for a good dinner.

Earlier in the week, I had a discussion w/my mental health provider and we discussed SAD or MDD with a Seasonal Pattern on the most recent Depresh Mode. And we talked about how I noticed a pattern between thanksgiving and usually the first snow, where I do have an extra dose of sadness during that time. I’m often brought to the picture of me about to brulee and how much I remember feeling dead inside during that period of time. I had my dosage upped a bit and may go back down after winter is over. This is the first change in quite a while (almost exactly 5 years). Things I learned. First, many people up their dose in the winter, second I don’t have to live with it.

2023 - Week 50 Cooking Results

Sausage

All pork hot dogs, cause that’s what I grabbed. All Good.

Taco Salad

Yep, good.

Hearty Beef Stew

I just felt like making a good beef stew. I started off fairly early in the afternoon to allow for the long simmering times and not having to eat to late. I even asked Shannon if it was ok if I make it, as she is not generally a fan of big hunks of meat. It’s the kind of slow cooking that feels good right now. I get to take a bit of time here and there and menu plan while things are cooking.

While I had doubts about the liquid level, it did work out and have enough to add the potatoes and carrots after the first simmer period in the oven. I added a bit more stock cause I had a bit more beef (hunks were under or over what I wanted). After adding some peas and corn, I brought the flavor profile up by added quite a bit of pepper and a bit of salt. Good meal, good use of a Saturday.

Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

So I was looking at what to make for the coming week and this one came to mind again, cause of the sweet potatoes. Here I am thinking I’ve had this recently, but little did I know. Quite good, good as leftovers too.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

While normally I would use elbow, I had an open bag of Ditalini, so I used that instead. I added a bit more mustard and smoked paprika, and it came out very well like it always does.

Buttermilk Pancakes

Always good. After taking a fairly long nap, as I have been doing this, recently, I got up and got going on this. Quite good.

I have been taking a lot of naps in the afternoon, even after getting, what counts for me, as a good night of sleep, I thought that perhaps I was anemic again. After a quick blood test (thanks doc!), this was proved to be not the case. I may have misread some of the early results. I’ve reached out to my mental health nurse practitioner, and am hoping for a bit of a bump here shortly.

2023 - Week 49 Cooking Results

Sausage

Good as always.

Mortadella Grilled Cheese

I was listening to Make Me Smart and they were talking about trends and they talked about mortadella, and this reminded me that I haven’t had a mortadella sandwich in a bit, so I added this for this week. I picked up from my favorite provisioning shop and combined with some wonderful cheese and had a nice grilled cheese. As a note they were talking about this being a Millennial thing, but as someone who is solidly (but on the young side) of Gen X, I may not necessarily fit the norm as food is really important in my life. It was quite good.

Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

Delayed!

Chile Relleno Casserole

I noticed the other day that I had some papers in the bottom of the freezer. Now these were probably a bit old, as I’m pretty sure it was one of the last times that Sean was at the farmers market. So I dug those, already roasted, out of the freezer and added them to this for a nice combination. I also added some of the leftover pork, for an added touch. This worked out pretty well.

2023 - Week 48 Cooking Results

Sausage

Good as always.

Pork Fried Rice

Lots of leftover pork, so I cooked up some rice before I went to the grocery store, and then prepared several leftover items to put into the stir fry. I had some onions that came with my thanksgiving bundle. I had some prepared carrots and celery that I chopped up. And some pork. Using egg and etc I made a quick stir fry. It turned out pretty good.

Pork scramble

Bit of onion, bit of leftover pork, lots of eggs. Good things.

Burgers

Pork was the first package I saw, so this was planned to be pork burgers, but since I didn’t pull this out until much later than I should have, I ended up being sloppy joes. It worked out.

Penne with Butternut Squash and Brown Butter Sauce

The squash was also in the thanksgiving bundle and ended up in here. I did add more leftover pork and skipped the hazelnuts and probably extra parmesan. It was pretty good and other then having to peel the smaller squash, it was pretty easy to do.

Cranberry Apple Shrub

Well, poo. Apparently it’s time for things the break. the electric motor in my blender started smoking, so I’m thinking that’s dead now. To be fair, I’ve had that blender longer then I’ve been married (moving into current home).