Journal

2024 - Week 43 Cooking Results

Sausage

We had a smoked pork sausage from The Good Butcher, and it was quite nice.

Smoked Chorizo Tacos

I wasn’t exactly sure what to do with smoked chorizo, which was one of the other sausages that I got from The Good Butcher, but this seemed fitting. The Smoked chorizo infused the beans and onions that I combined them with a nice mildly smoky flavor. This was a pretty simple thing to put together.

Chicken Jambalaya

I made this last night, which was pretty easy to do. The combination of the water and the rice makes me think that they wanted to get a lot of starch out of the rice but I’m not totally sure, I should probably read the article. Boiling the 3 quarts of water took the longest. Even though I had Andouille Sausage in the freezer, I used the one I picked up at The Good Butcher, rather then the chicken one they had called for. I had everything else before the rice finished cooking. That being said, it still turned out quite good. I added a bit of Lola’s to it and was quite happy.

Macaroni and Beef

I used mass market ground beef, for this, rather than defrosting some beef. Since I planned on making it Sunday after seeing back to the future and I wouldn’t have time to defrost beef (I don’t like doing a forced defrost, just a nice gentle slow defrost in the fridge). I used the whole pound of noodles and adjusted as I saw fit, which made something probably a bit different. Still good though.

On the home front, we had to escalate some home repairs from yeah we should do this, to this must be done ASAP. The one segment of the electrical panel melted and created a bit of a fire. This was related to the split breaker that powered both the bathroom upstairs and the family room in the basement, where I work from. After getting electricians out to check on things, they moved the wires from the fried breaker to the garage breaker and stated that they were not sure how long this would last.

We put in temporary rules to make sure that we don’t overload that breaker, and so far, so good. There is a heavy duty cord, that I had used for the window unit air conditioner, in the past, and Shannon runs that from something on the main circuit through our bedroom and into the bathroom to use here high energy devices. We’ve shut down most non-essential things in the living room (extra work laptop)

to prepare for replacing our electrical panel, our exhaust flue for the water heater was moved to be further away from the panel. The fine electricians did a double check after my photos to make sure that everything was ok, and now we are ready when our energy company is ready. This should be quite the update, and I’m looking forward to having something that is labeled correctly, and not having a panel that has been stated by multiple electricians as “those are untrustworthy”.

2024 - Week 34 Cooking Results

Sausage

Back to Crooked Gap skinless brats. Excellent.

Ham & Egg Muffins

Broke out a ham from the freezer decided it up to start eating it, some back in the freezer, and some into the fridge. I made this while my temporarily third internet provider was pulling fiber around the house. I brought dinner down to Shannon and Wait upstairs to be needed.

Spam & Egg Ramen

Night quite what I had in my head, and I fudge the eggs a bit, but over all still a good meal.

The Devil’s Ham

Home from the trek to pickup from Blue Gate, I pulled this together. I swapped sweet pickle relish with sweet and spicy (only one of the shelf with real sugar), cayenne with chipotle powder, sweet paprika for smoked hot and the rest remained about the same. I then ran off to get buns and a side and while I was really craving some sea salt kettle chips, I didn’t want them in the store brand they had and especially the size of the store brand that they had.

After resting in the fridge for quite a number of hours, we had this on pretzel buns with hickory smoked cheddar. I had some pickles on mine. Quite good.

Baked Ziti with Sausage and Peppers

I used the Crooked Gap version of their Italian Sausage, not to sweet, not to hot, but nice. And ti worked out pretty well. I used a bit more mozzarella than called for, because I used the whole ball that I bought.

Chopped Cheese Sandwiches

This worked out well. The combo of the Lawry's and other seasoning made for a nice flavor. I might do this to a sloppy Sammy’s mix. I didn’t have tomatoes, due to my refusal to buy tomatoes not directly from a farmer. In theory I could do it this next week, but probably won’t.

This week, I added a third internet provider for a short amount of time. I’ve had fiber for 5 years and 5.5 months about. And generally, everything has been fine. Recently, with a catastrophic outage, I added a backup provider (fiber) and then pondered how they were basically coming from the same power pole, the same above ground area.

So after quite a bit of internal debate, I decided to replace the provider I’ve had, with a new one, since they come in from a separate pathway and are underground.

So for about 30 hours I had two from the phone pole and one from the ground and a total of 2.04 gigabit. Now I’m back to an over performing 1 gig (usually 1.1-1.2 gig) and a much slower backup connection. Once we have the money to replace the wires in the house, I suspect I add ethernet through out, but as it stands, I am unwilling to upgrade to wifi 7, until the prices come down quite a bit.

I did a bit of kitchen reorganization this weekend, and cleaned quite a bit. I put into use some magnetic shelves that I had bought previously for water bottles. I have two more and used them for spices. I moved most of the non-food items to one wire rack and mostly food items to another wire rack. Part of me has already had to adjust some automatic tasks (while the trash bags are further away from the trash cans, it’s fine (based on usage). Food should be a bit more visible to me, cause things will slip out of my head if I don’t see them.

We’ll see how this turns out, fiber and kitchen-wise.

2024 - Week 15 Cooking Results

Sausage

As always, good things.

Lasagna

So while I shopped at another hy-vee I was able to pick up a Beecher’s Lasagna. So I picked it up, and baked it this week. As a sister company to where my brother works, I’ll always give anything I see of theirs a try. It was pretty good. Though I generally like the ones I make better.

Taco Salad

Back to regular chorizo, and beans. Good things.

Tangy Chili Pork Noodles

I had a craving for this and because of that made it. A good and easy choice.

As note, I bought a new mower, which will retire my almost 20 year old mower, or at least, will give a new life to someone else (will leave it as free on my lawn here in a bit). I bought an electric mower after debating it back and forth for a good long while on the sale (mower w/ battery and extra battery). I gave it the first go through today. After getting the hang of starting it, and that I should have mowed earlier (it was perhaps a bit long for how short I wanted the grass). Right now I have it on recycling, but I suppose I can swap to the other modes, but frankly, I like keeping the chopped up dead grass on the lawn. The mower does have a moter to move the mower which is nice, and my heart rate doesn’t get as high as when I’m pushing around the other one, so that’s probably better to. I guess we’ll see how it goes, but first mow, I’m pretty happy with it so far.

Organized closet

So I have been looking for my camera stands, not that hard, but a bit. so I ended up cleaning the front hall closet. I separated each of our gloves and winter hats in boxes, and there is a box of scarves. A separate box of non winter hats (ball caps that I can’t remember the last time I wore, and other sun protections). I demoted some coats to the back.

2023 - Week 14 Cooking Results

Sausage

Again with the bacon and cheddar, good things.

Sloppy Sammys

It’s been a bit or at least seems that way, since this was at some point on the semi-regular basis. I used mustard powder, tomato sauce, some leftover tomato paste, and some herbs and spices. I topped mine with some jalapeño peppers and cheese. So the cheese I bought on a whim, was a whiskey touched Irish cheddar (not at the place where I buy cheese normally). I don’t remember the exact phrase and it was, muddled. No real whiskey flavor, no real cheddar flavor, just a mess. I was disappointed.

Ham Loaf

Delayed until Sunday.

Kimchi Fried Rice

I planned to make this on Friday, but when the Cheese Bar posted about “Tuna & Anchovy Deviled Eggs” I was like I want those. So this got delayed until Saturday.

I made the rice earlier in the week and was using the rest of some spicy momofuku season, which was just to much (my bad). It made it to spicy for my wife, which was not my intention. I used spam instead of ham, and I prepped the items while the Bryan from Riftworks was working on the stairs. I got everything prepped and so when it was actually time to make dinner it went pretty quickly.

Overall, I liked it, it was a bit more spicy then even I expected. I guess I’ll be having fried rice this week for lunches, cause I got a lot more rice to go through.

Gochujang Chicken and Tortellini

Unlike the Sloppy Sammys, I felt like I had to check to make this again. It is so good, and so easy. I knew Shannon would take the leftovers so I let her take them. Again, so good.

Grilled Ham and Cheese

I used the leftover deli turkey, and some 3 year Shelburne cheddar, which was actually good. I got some ok bread and it worked out.

The stairs.

So a bit ago, coming down the stairs, I had step through the third stair from the bottom. A thing that did make me feel better, was that someone pointed out that it had three nails on one side, and one on the other. After many calls, searching for advice, failure through a popular find help for your home site, A no call no show after scheduling, I got a few people to come in. For Bryan, at Riftworks, it was a quick turn around from the form to scheduling. After an injury delay, he got to work, and completed the stair repair and reinforcement of all the stairs. It barely creaks now, I’m very happy with his work.

I did embarrass myself, as I (cough) messed up the check (number of amount didn’t match written out amount). So He’ll be picking up a real check today.

Between the time that it was broken and by the time it got fixed, I saw my therapist and coincidentally my nurse practitioner and one of the things that I am generally proud of is this is they type of thing that would’ve have sent me into a spiraling depression, meaning I’m in a decent place.

I took Friday off, over a couple of large projects go live dates this week where things were a bit busy and exhausting.

2023 - Week 8 Cooking

While the temperature just waggles about all over the place, with no design or pattern, we’ve had a few issues show up around the house. First, I stepped through the 3rd from the bottom step. It was not built to modern standards, and while the board is thicker then normal, it’s just barely supported on the sides and one side just came off. We are trying to get a general idea of costs, and had a few people think about it, but no bids yet (at least one no show, cause yay!).

Also, about half of the TVs backlight went out…or got dimmer. We debated and chatted and did some research and ended up going with an OLED model, which is quite an upgrade and much crisper then the old one, even though they are both 4k. It was a few hundred dollars off due to a sale, which was convenient.

2023 - Week 6 Cooking Results

It has been a bit of a strange week. After being convinced that the previous week was when the new dishwasher it turned out it was this week. After getting it installed on Tuesday, we noticed that that about half (right side) of the TV was darker, so we started plannong on getting a new TV. However, I then stepped through, yes through, the 3rd to the last step. It appears as if the support, on the right side, had lost its grip. Instead of being built like normal steps, it only had supports on the side, not through the wood or in the center like it should. So the TV replacement is on hold, because it’s annoying but not desperate. I’ve made some calls out, used some apps and etc, but here I am waiting on a quote, had one guy stand me up, and have another person coming in a few days.

Meatloaf and Smoked Gouda and Scallion Mashed potatoes

I really love this meatloaf. While I swapped out the meat with ground beef, ground pork and a bit of bacon ends blitzed together to make a nice meatloaf. If I’m honest, I was looking forward more to the sandwiches I’d have for lunch than the meatloaf itself.

The Scallion Mashed potatoes, a bit under seasoned. Maybe I’m used to more of mine. Anyways, I added more cheese, more butter, and it was eventually pretty good.

Sausage

Hot Dogs, cause that’s what the top of the pile was. I am making good progress on cleaning out that freezer, not so much on the big one. Anyways, All Pork, Crooked Gap, deliciousness.

Buttermilk Pancakes

I didn’t get to give it the full ten minutes to rest as I was delayed a bit by work and needed to get dinner on the table so we could participate in Action Movie Saturday (not actually on Saturday). The pancakes were a bit less fluffy than they should have been, but still quite good.

Chicken Karahi

So I made this as a way to use the Kashmiri chile powder that I bought for the other dish. This came together pretty well. It used quite a bit of spice. I added a bit of extra time as I used diced tomatoes, , so it need a bit more time reducing. The spice added at the end added a bit of a kick of cinnamon. Quite good. I went to get flat bread earlier in the day, when the food coop didn’t receive the delivery from the bakery. Still happy to have it.

Penne alla Vodka

Quick to make, a bit of vodka, a nice meal. I’m pretty sure I’ve made this before, but it’s been a bit.

Burger (veggie)

I think it was an impossible burger. It was fine.

2022 - Week 36 Cooking

While I was dong yard work on Friday, a gentleman from a few blocks away stopped to talk to me. We discussed construction and the impacts and water drainage. He mentioned that the last time he talked with the site supervisor they were hoping to be done by the end of this month, and that the underground work took two months longer then expected (sub-contractor?). I mentioned that I really didn’t want to place any mental limitations on when they would be done, as I don’t really want to get my hopes up. So it may be coming to an end? I’ll believe it when I see it. That being said, I prepped for another water outage on this past Friday, and it failed to show up. Which was perfectly fine.

2022 - Week 32 Cooking Results

This week has been a bit of a challenge. The construction on the stormwater drain pipe, seemed to have increased in activity, often making it very challenge to get in or out. Generally we’d wait until after they stopped for the day or before they starting in the morning. It was planned for this past Friday that they would have 8 hours to change some water main items. Thursday morning I started with a small hole in my yard, and then by the middle of the day, the entire part of our property that touches Franklin, ended up being hole.

At some point around 7 or 8 PM or so, they apparently broke something they were not, and they had to stay very late to to get the water main fixed. I sat outside for a while watching them work in the night, their precision with the construction equipment was kind of amazing. I ended up going to bed and when I got up around 1 AM, the street was quiet and the water was back on.

With that work, we didn’t loose water on the Friday, which was nice.

While sitting outside, I apparently obtained a skin infection (diagnosed Saturday). I await the pleasure of my local grocery chain pharmacy of filling the antibiotics prescription, which, as I write, has been 18 hours since prescribed (nice job). All being said, it feels odd, the skin seems tight on my leg, that segment is clearly warm to the touch, and it’s got a patchy red look to it. It’s mildly uncomfortable when I move it, but as one who has been dealing with bone spurs, it’s not anywhere near that annoying. Hopefully the antibiotics will smack it upside the head and kick it out of my body.

Brats

Once again, jalapeño and cheddar, good things.

Taco Salad

Good as always.

Teriyaki Chicken Burger with Chili Crunch White Sauce

Made the Teriyaki sauce, then he Chili Crunch White sauce. I skipped the cabbage, cause I didn’t feel up to it, and didn’t feel like hearing the smoke alarm, so cooked it at a slower pace. Still came out good tasting with a mildly caramelized crust on the top and bottom. Good dinner.

Skillet Corn with Mexican Chorizo

So this would work better as part of a taco salad, or part of burrito or over rice or something. I ended up using it in the taco salads I was having for lunch.

Kung Pao Shrimp

A lot of bowls, and making rice, but over all pretty easy to make. I had the ingredients I needed or the listed alternatives I used the leftover sauce (Teriyaki) from the chicken burger in place of the hoisin sauce. I had to do some adjustments cause I had two 12 ounce packages of shrimp, so, that all worked out too. Good meal for a Saturday.

2022 - Week 28 Cooking

So unlike last time around when they were playing with poles, at least this time it was MidAmerican directly, rather then a sub or sub-sub contractor. It is still a bit unnerving to see playing with the pole before the pole that provides power to your house. So this is the new challenge of getting out of our street that our driveway is on.