Journal

2017 - Week 52 Cooking Results

Smooth and Spicy Pinto Bean Stew

It clearly is warming soup weather, but I felt like a taco salad, and since I had a number of ingredients for salad from this, so it was an easy swap.  Getting kicked out of work a bit early on Friday led to an easy stop at the Cheese Shop to pick up some sparkling wine and a few extra ingrediants.

Spaghetti Squash w/ Pasta Sauce and Italian Sausage

I got home quite a bit earlier and started the process to make this.  Good stuffs.

Roasted Chicken Thighs salad on Tortas

I still plan to do these, but I was running really late from work and needed to pulls something out quick.  So I picked up some wonderful ham from the Cheese Shop a bit of cheese, and baked a those on a torta, quite good and super quick.

2017 - Week 51 Cooking Results

White Park Beef (Lucky George) burgers on pretzel buns

Heritage beef, modern cooking methods, cute little pretzel buns.  Good things.

Breakfast Torta

I have torta buns that I picked up and Costco (and froze, if you have a suggestion of a local source, I'm all ears).  I combined the ingredients and these were delicious, if a bit messy.  I love me some good food.

Brats, Unbound (skinless)

Having the lack of skin allows you to sear them a bit better on the edges, kind of like what you get with a patty (but thicker).  Served with Kraut and mustard, good stuffs.

Kung Pao Chickpeas

This was, quite good.  Though my wife said it would be better with chicken.  I really liked the sauce, it may have been a bit too spicy for her, even though I specifically trim the heat by reducing the peppers.

Lamb Stew

Converted to lamb burgers, having tonight.  Not cause of lack of interest, but just cause I don't feel like lamb stew (with ground lamb).  Maybe I'll put a shepherd's pie together in the next few weeks.

2017 - Week 50 Cooking Results

Curried Turkey-Peanut Soup

I really enjoyed this,  I had planned on using closer to two pounds of ground turkey, since I didn’t have leftover turkey, but I used one of the pounds to make turkey burgers.  This came together without much effort and tasted pretty good.  The Peanut butter added a nice peanut flavor and smoothness to the dish.

Pizza with Chicago Style Italian Sausage (Remnant Hills)

I still have quite a bit of flour that is used for bread making, generally, so I used the last of the King Arthur bread flour and combined that with, I think King Arthur High Gluten bread flour.  It was a much darker dough, with quite a bit more elasticity.  I actually had to have it rest 4 times while I was stretching it out to fill the half sheet pan (normally it's 2 times).  I used mozzarella from Lost Lake Farm, since my normal supply was out for the time being and I learned my lesson about using lesser mozzarella.  I also picked up some of their Camembert, which I'm looking forward to trying.

This was also combined with a special mix of Italian sausage.  Over all, everything really turned out well, the mozzarella was fantastic, sausage was a bit more herbed then I was expecting, but quite good. and the crust turned out fantastic.

Kung Pao Chickpeas

Delayed.

Lamb & Fennel Sausage (Lucky George) and Salad

Good Quick Done

Eggs and Maple Sausage (Lucky George)

I may have over cooked the maple sausage a bit, well to high.  We had them with bagels. 

2017 - Week 49 Cooking Results

Thai Coconut Chicken Soup (Previously done 2013 Week 1)

Came together quickly, as previously stated.  I used a surprisingly large Sweet potato.  The problem came about when I went to the storage rack and there was no more chicken stock.  Usually I buy a box of cartons of CostCo, but apparently I had ran out at some point.  I had half a carton (2 cups left) so added water for the rest.  I need to do some restocking.

Quick Tomato Chicken Curry

I started early, because we went to see Waitress at the Civic Center last night.  It came together pretty quickly and I was able to chill out quite a bit while it simmered and finished.  Not to bad, though I didn't have all the spices I needed (could've sworn I had some garam masala in my spice stash), so I did a bit of replacement here and there may not have measured everything exactly.  Even so, my house smells like curry, as it does.

Hot Dogs! (I think that's the stash, I'll have to reorganize the frozen items)

Nom nom.  I think we are done for now.

Cheese Free Sweet Potato Quesadillas (May add meat & cheese, cause I'm me and protein)

I cooked the beef chorizo, mashed the sweet potatoes and combined all the ingredients and the cheese.  Turned out pretty well.

Chorizo Taco Salad

Never the same twice, always pretty good.

2017 - Week 48 Cooking Results

Green Chile Turkey Enchiladas

I used ground turkey, as I didn’t have any leftover turkey, but these turned out pretty well.  There wasn’t anything astounding about them, but it was clear that it was well thought out and pretty good overall.

Spaghetti Squash with Red Sauce

I was a little cautious with the red pepper flakes this time around.  I have made it a bit too spicy for expectations.  This was a nice balance of flavors.

Roast Chicken Thighs over Root Vegetables (Carrots, parsnips, etc)

I really like root vegetables.  In here we had some carrots, parsnips, turnips, radishes, and potatoes.  Turned out pretty well.  Good things.

Lamb Burgers

Pretzel Buns, and Black Betty…such a good combination.

Pork Hot Dogs!

Hooray!

Egg something or other

I had leftover egg whites from making a bunch of custard.  So that, combined with a few other eggs, some ham and put on bagels.  Ta Da!  Breakfast for dinner.

2017 - Week 48 Cooking

Cooking magazines are starting to expire.  Lucky Peach was replaced by a magazine that I never really liked (seems more focused on travel and shit I'll never afford, and the food is a side note).  I stopped the auto-renewal of all of them...I guess I'll only keep my multi-website subscription to Cooks Illustrated, as the recipes are fairly handy (and they're a good organization to support).  Maybe my brain will get cleaned out or inspired, but for now, I have to follow it to where it wants to go, within reason.

  • Green Chile Turkey Enchiladas
  • Spaghetti Squash with Red Sauce
  • Roast Chicken Thighs over Root Vegetables (Carrots, parsnips, etc)
  • Lamb Burgers
  • Pork Hot Dogs!
  • Egg something or other.