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SammyD's Rants food Archives


March 6, 2010

Since I often forget what I have in my freezer, from time to time I do an audit, just to make sure what is back there.

  • 1 pound yellow fin tuna (was on sale this week, had to buy)
  • 1 chicken thigh (pre-salted and peppered) (was for another recipe, wouldn't fit in pan)
  • 1 pound Ground Chicken
  • 1 pound ground veal
  • 2 pound ground lamb
  • 3 pounds ground Bison (bought for a recipe that I want to make)
  • 1 pound salt pork (left over from making cassoulet)
  • 1.5 Eden Farms Berkshire pork shoulders
  • 1 Eden Farms Berkshire pork ribs
  • 1 whole Eden Farms Berkshire pork black forest ham
  • Duck Gizzards

On to the menu for the next week...

Posted by SammyD at 12:37 PM | Comments (0)



Chicken Sloppy Joe's

Started off a bit too running when everything was cooked up, but the beauty of having to much liquid? Just cook it longer. Ended up just about right. Splash of spices, some diced tomatoes some tomato paste and a pound of chicken. Why on earth would I want to buy sloppy joe in a can with all the extra ingredients they might give me?

Duck Risotto (made with my own duck stock)

The only complaint I got was that there was perhaps too much finishing salt. But this turned out great. It was onion, rice and some leftover diced duck and the duck stock. I do think that since the stock was a bit more salty then the normal low-sodium broth that I would use, I probably shouldn't have added as much salt. I thought it was a bit too salty (though I a much more salt sensitive now, then I used to be). So in going back to the stock, I'll probably not add as much salt when making my next batch of stock. But even with that, it was amazingly good.

I used most of the duck stock, though I still have 3-4 cups left to put into something. Which is still pretty amazing. considering that I had started out with two of my biggest containers full of stock and reduced it down to less then half... I had a lot of fun doing it, and look forward to making more in the future.

Pulled-Pork Macaroni and Cheese with Caramelized Onions and Four Cheeses (p8 Fine Cooking February/March 2010)

So instead of following the recipe and and buying a smoked pork shoulder I headed down to Uncle Wendell's and picked up a couple of pounds of pulled pork. Other then that, it went pretty well, I probably wasn't as patient with the sauce as I should've been, but I liked it and Shannon did too.

leftovers

Since I often make recipes for many (example I had near 2 gallons of chili made) and we are just a few, I usually eat leftovers for lunch (and Shannon does this from time to time as well), but we were so far behind, that we had to take a chance to catch up again.

Red Bean and Sausage Cakes with Poached Eggs and Cilantro Salsa (p47 Bon Appétit February 2010)

Often times when I make things with vegetables and try to put them into patties or cakes, it just doesn't turn out well. However, this worked well. I didn't use breakfast sausage, but the Graziano spicy sausage. The fresh cilantro that I bought didn't look very good by Thursday, so I used some diced tomatoes, the green sauce and some (gasp) dried cilantro that I had leftover from something that actually asked for it, and made it that way. It turned out well.

This was also my first attempts at making poached eggs The first couple didn't turn out well, but the last two, started to get better. I've heard that adding vinegar to the almost boiling water works well too, but I did not do that. It does make me want to try more. One of my favorite things in the world are eggs benedict...so...it'd be nice to be able to make them.

Posted by SammyD at 11:21 AM | Comments (0)



February 28, 2010

Posted by SammyD at 10:40 AM | Comments (0)



Chicken Paillards with Avocado and Pomegranate Salsa (p51 Fine Cooking February/March 2010)

The avocados that I bought seemed ok in the store, but by the time that I got to use them...I wasn't thrilled, but it was ok. Also, the pomegranate, which according to my the app I have, goes out of season in early January...so it makes me wonder why a magazine, which says that it's for February/March, that I didn't get until late January at the earlier would tell me to try to find them? Anyways, I wasn't going to buy the pomegranate molasses anyways, because, well, I couldn't see myself using that again. So with that I called an audible, added some diced tomatoes to the sweet salsa and made it more of a guacamole then anything else and then sort of made it into a taco salad. It ended up working well.

Penne alla Puttanesca (p67 Fine Cooking February/March 2010)

This was part of their articles about cooking for your vegetarian and not vegetarian friends, but since it was just for us, and I didn't feel like buying shrimp, I stuck with the vegetarian recipe, but added anchovy paste to give it some of that savory characteristics that it imparts so well on items. It was simple and turned out pretty well.

Quinoa and Avocado Salad with Dried Fruit, Toasted Almonds, and Lemon-Cumin Vinaigrette (p47 Fine Cooking February/March 2010)

So I opened up the avocados, and instead of that lovely green color, it was a mixture of green and brown on the inside, and I just couldn't bring myself to use this. So I used the last of the Quinoa that I had in the house, and made this as it was. I figured since I had basically a whole protein (quinoa), and then the fruit and other additions, would make for a decent meal, even if it wasn't meat based. So it was simplified a bit, problem was that Shannon was a big fan of the raisins, so not a complete success there, but it kept me full until breakfast, which is a good thing.

Roast Duck with root vegetables (potatoes, carrots, parsnips...perhaps others) (movie night)

Vaguely looked at a few recipes around the internets, but ended up kind of vaguely riffing on my on. I used a combination of olive oil, honey and rosemary and the duck and the root veggies, and I stuffed the insides of the duck with a couple of cuties. I think I used too much honey, because I wanted just a lightly sweet taste on both the duck and the vegetables. It still looked good though and I've enjoyed the root veggies for lunch. I was unsatisfied with myself because by the time I got the duck meat cut off the carcass, the duck had cooled quite a bit...so.. Maybe this is something I need more practice on...like on something inexpensive, like chicken, rather then duck.

On the other side of that, I made my first stock... I used the duck neck (it was inside the cavity with the liver and other gizzards) and the carcass along with carrots, celery and onions (Mirepoix) and let it go near a simmer for 3 hours or so (finished at 11:15 or so on Thursday). After putting in two of my bigger tupperware containers and letting it refrigerate for a couple of days, I broke it out again yesterday (Saturday) and, as I stated, it did need salt. After adding salt, pepper and reducing it by more then half, I'm left with this rich, delicious stock. So that, with the bit of leftover duck, I'll be making a duck risotto.

Are whole chickens and chicken stock in my future? I'm thinking so.

Pork Chili

I used pork this time and started with dried beans, which I soaked over night. I took extensive notes, though I may have messed up the order. I started with bacon, went to the onions and then went with the pork...so I ended up with not much of a pork flavor in the slightest. Because I was also making a bigger pot then I thought, I ended up not using enough spices to get the kick that I wanted. Which was contrary to what I was thinking, because I was worried that it would be too spicy for Shannon. So while the chili is good, it is not the flavor profile that I want. But I did take notes and will adjust next time around. I have lots of left overs, considering I made near 2 gallons of chili.

Posted by SammyD at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)



February 20, 2010

Posted by SammyD at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)



Chopped Egg And Avocado Sandwich (showed up in my NPR food RSS feed)

This was quite fantastic. Basically you replace most of the mayo with avocado. Such a simple change up, yet so good.

Sicilian Corkscrews with White Beans (heard them talking about this on a repeat of her show a week or so ago)

Simple. Delicious.

Asian Beef and Noodle Soup (RC Cook's Country February/March 2010)

After giving one of my co-workers a little crap for having ramen for lunch, I picked this meal, which used the noodles (not the nasty packet) from ramen. It was pretty good and quick to make.

Chicken Pomodoro (RC Cook's Country February/March 2010)

This worked pretty well, after realizing that I needed to put it on something, I used some of the farro that I had left from the last time that I made it. It turned out pretty well.

Avocado Soup With Tortilla Crisps And Fresh Cheese (NPR RSS feed)

I was not as big of a fan of this...and the directions were a bit lacking. But the ratio of avocado to chicken stock, wasn't right, at least the way I made it, because while it had the color and a bit of heat from the jalapeno, most of the taste was from the chicken stock.

Savory Farro Tart (Proctor was kind enough to buy me some farro from Costco (2 lbs for ~$9), instead of what I had bought before (1/2 lb for ~$9)

So this turned out well...Lets see...cheese, cheese, butter, eggs, garlic and some spices...Made for a relatively quick preparation.

Posted by SammyD at 11:57 PM | Comments (0)



February 13, 2010

Posted by SammyD at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)



So because I haven't been getting to Hy-Vee until later, I've been often running into the church crowd, which, isn't really a problem I suppose, but I don't like the crowds. Plus Shannon and I are going to try to go to a movie on Sunday, so it would be better to be done earlier.

I think my final goal will to be try to be done Friday night, so when the farmer's market opens back up, I'll be able to shop based on the recipes decided for the week.

Chili

I did make a few mistakes here, I should've added the jalapeno and hatch peppers earlier, so they had time to permeate the chili, but even so it turned out well. Since I like chili so much, I'm surprised I don't make it more...

Smashed Tenderloin Sandwiches

So I used half a pork tenderloin last week and though it'd make a good sandwich...so that's what I did, I made it into sandwiches. I liked how this turned out. Very quick to make.

Long Boy Cheese Burgers (p17 Cook's Country February/March 2010)

This was actually quite good, and relatively simple to make. On to the other side of this. I used the mandolin that I got for Christmas to make fries. Now I imagine that if I were to actually fry them in oil, they would've turned out better, but baked, not so much. Oh well I plan on making a potato gratin soon, so then we'll see this in purposeful action.

Stacked Chicken Enchiladas (RC Cook's Country February/March 2010)

This was another audible call. I apparently don't have a square pan, so I kept the recipe the same, and just made enchiladas. Though it didn't turn out as well since I was out of foil to cook them first before I opened them up for the cooking. I think it turned out well though.

Posted by SammyD at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)



February 7, 2010

  • Chili
  • Smashed Tenderloin Sandwiches
  • Long Boy Cheese Burgers (p17 Cook's Country February/March 2010)
  • Stacked Chicken Enchiladas (RC Cook's Country February/March 2010)

Posted by SammyD at 10:31 AM | Comments (0)



Deviled Chicken (p14 Cook's Country February/March 2010)

These turned out well, the breading didn't want to stay on very well, but even so, it made for a good eating.

Pork Medallions with Chili-Maple Sauce

I really liked these. a little sweet, but good. It did give me an idea for sandwiches this next week.

Migas (Scrambled Eggs with Corn Tortillas) (Mother's Best: Comfort Food That Takes You Home Again from from Weeknight Kitchen with Lynne Rossetto Kasper

meh...it was ok...

Vodka And Tomato Pasta Sauce, (npr.org)

I was feeling a bit lazy, and didn't want to follow this recipe all the way though (and dirty up the blender and etc), so we made this rustic, and it was great. I didn't blend the sauce to make it smooth and I didn't cook it as long, but even so it turned out great.

Skillet Glazed Pork Chops (p20 Cook's Country February/March 2010)

After visiting the Boelman's at the hospital, we had been talking about tacos, and so we called an audible, dropped by Dahls, picked up some avocados, and a few other things for tacos and bam, had pork tacos. I flavored the pork with salt, pepper and chipotle pepper powder.

Country Captain Chicken (p13 Cook's Country February/March 2010)

I cannot explain how frustrated I was with myself when making this recipe, one stupid mistake. Turn the heat down, let simmer for a while...do I turn it down? No, do I think about it several times? No. I was able to rescue most of this, but even so, I'm a bit upset with myself. Other then the smell of burned food in my nose, which permeated the house, it tasted pretty good.

Posted by SammyD at 10:29 AM | Comments (0)



January 31, 2010

Posted by SammyD at 9:59 AM | Comments (0)



Is it possible to make to many meatball based dishes in one week? Yes, yes it is. By the time that I made the Moroccan Beef Meatball Tagine on friday, I was getting a bit tired of making meat balls. Shannon helped make the meatballs for the Spaghetti, since I was running behind and needed to start making the sauce.

This week I also used many pots pans and dishes, so I kept falling further and further behind as the week went on. On Friday, which I took off, I ended up doing 4 loads of dishes before I was caught up.

Lentil Soup with Spicy Italian Sausage (p43 Bon Appétit January 2010)

This was very simple to make, with the spicy Graziano sausage it made for a good and filling meal.

Pork Meatball Banh Mi (p60 Bon Appétit January 2010)

The first meatball dish of the week. I uh...kept eating the meatballs as I was making the rest of the dinner. They were very good. But the dinner was too.

Spiced Chicken Breasts with Poblano and Bell Pepper Rajas (p45 Bon Appétit January 2010)

Whenever I have done something with poblano peppers it always reminds me of a smell that I haven't smelled for a while. Maybe it just trigger to me, but when Sean roasts them at the Farmer's Market or I've cooked them myself, It brings up that thought in my mind. Who knows, maybe it's just me.

Anyways I ended up slicing up the chicken and we had a few fajitas.

Spaghetti and Meatballs All'Amatriciana (p60 Bon Appétit January 2010)

I made this for movie night (we watched The Wild Bunch)Shannon helped me make the meat balls, and after having the first batch of meat balls kind of fall apart as I tried to turn them (the pot I was cooking is is fairly tall and narrow), I ended up putting the rest of them in the oven, while I cooked everything else. This actually turned out fairly well.

Other then being pressed for time, this turned out pretty well. I used a bottle of wine that we had gotten on our honeymoon at a demonstration we went to, since I was almost out of white wines and the only ones left were of the sweeter variety. So pasta, plus bread, white corn, and a simple spinach salad with a rice vinegar based dressing made for quite the feast.

Because of the way I made this, I thought that perhaps the meat combination would make a good hamburger. Bacon + onion, red pepper, etc all processed and mixed into ground chuck. I will probably be making this sometime later.

Moroccan Beef Meatball Tagine (p63 Bon Appétit January 2010)

This was good and tasty, but by this point in the week, I think we were both a little meatballed out. But it still turned out

Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza (p15 Cook's Illustrated January/February 2010)

So I have kind of avoided making bread based things...There are two great bakeries within a fairly short distance from my house, so it's just never something that I have been dreadfully interested in trying. Plus there is sort of a mysticism to it, I suppose. There is so much mediocre bread out there, that you would think creating something halfway decent would be super hard...I think with my experience here, I think I can move forward a bit and expand bread making to the list of things I do from time to time.

So because I was worried about time, I starting making the dough for the pizza around 1:PM Saturday, it was probably a good thing, since we generally keep the house around 67°F, and because of the, lets say relatively poor insulation, it isn't that way from area to area. So I let the dough get extra time to rise (it didn't hurt that I spent the time playing Super Mario Bros Wii). All the parts were relatively simple and when it came down to it, this was relatively easy to do, just time consuming.

I adjusted the recipe, since it really was only a cheese pizza when I started. I layered the pizza with: dough, Pepperoni, mozzarella, pepperoni, mozzarella, pepperoni, sharp cheddar, sauce, and parmesan. It turned out quite well, and everyone seemed to enjoy it (we had invited Josh and Lindsay over). Of the two 9" pizzas we had about 1/2 of one left. I was quite happy with the way it turned out.

Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza (p15 Cook's Illustrated January/February 2010)

Posted by SammyD at 9:57 AM | Comments (0)



January 24, 2010

Posted by SammyD at 3:44 PM | Comments (0)



I made some pancakes yesterday, since we were almost out of well everything in the house. I used the last of the milk, the rest of the cream from the Cacio e Pepe to make pancakes. Saturday afternoon I made some chocolate muffins (I thought they were a bit too dry, but people liked them) and some hummus for game night.

My younger brother Joseph (Ladies, he is single), came up and brought some chocolate bread (good and fantastic with peanut butter), and before Game Night started last night, we tried to go out to Baby Boomers, which according to their website, should've been open, but was not (I seriously hate that). So we ended up going to the relatively newly opened Open Sesame Lebanese Cafe (where Baby Boomers used to be), and I'm glad we did. The food was very good, so much so I'm interested in going again...soon.

Game night went well. Many games were played. Much fun was had.

Jalapeno Burgers

Took some jalapeno, cheddar cheese and onions, put them in some ground chuck and made a couple of patties. Oh so bad for you, but oh so good.

Goat Chops

I was a bit upset when I finally unwrapped these. I bought these at the last winter's farmers market and they were no where near a consistent shape or size. It was quite frustrating to come around to open it up and see a total hack job. On the other hand, the actual taste of it was pretty good. Just simply salted, cooked in a little olive oil. It had a nice taste...certainly different from say your standard fare, but good.

Cacio e Pepe (p24 Cook's Illustrated January/February 2010)

So few ingredients, I don't see how I messed this up. I ended up with big globs of melted Romano...it was depressing to say the least. Even so, it stated good.

Thai Chicken with Basil (p13 Cook's Illustrated January/February 2010)

Spicy! With extra building spiciness. A bit to much by the end for Shannon. She went up for extra milk to cool the fire. But it was simple and good.

Cajun Red Beans and Rice (p19 Cook's Illustrated January/February 2010)

How is it that the simple food from those lacking always turn out to be so good. This turned out fantastic. I'd love to make it again...

Posted by SammyD at 3:42 PM | Comments (0)



January 17, 2010

So from last week I suppose. I desperately need a fine mesh strainer. Orzo? Quinoa? The strainers that I have are made for items that are much bigger. I may even hike down to Kitchen Collage to get one.

I am noticing something about the tools that I have, most of which are made by Oxo. They seem to have a number of wash cycles they can go through, before they are, as it seems to me, designed to fall apart. So the glue that holds the handle on the tool just kinda gives up and then water starts getting in there and it gets gross. It seems less likely to happen from the "Steel Collection" ones that I have. Others, I have gotten in the habit of separating the two pieces and washing them separately so no water gets stuck inside the tool. I really don't think I should have to do this though.

  • Thai Chicken with Basil (p13 Cook's Illustrated January/February 2010)
  • Cajun Red Beans and Rice (p19 Cook's Illustrated January/February 2010)
  • Cacio e Pepe (p24 Cook's Illustrated January/February 2010)
  • Goat Chops
  • Jalapeno Burgers

Posted by SammyD at 11:20 AM | Comments (0)



Cinnamon Oatmeal Pancakes

These were quite good, though I think the temperature they had the heat at was too high. I'd definitely make these again.

Sautéed Chicken Breasts with Cherry Tomatoes, Olives, Feta, and Mint (Light & Healthy 2010: The Year's Best Recipes Lightened Up from Weeknight Kitchen with Lynne Rossetto Kasper)

I love olives...my wife, not so much. and even though I reduce the amount of olives in this, it was still a bit to much for Shannon. I still think it was good, though.

Everyone's Favorite Potato Soup with Bacon (Dollars to Donuts: Comfort Food and Kitchen Wisdom from Route 66's Landmark Rock Cafe from Weeknight Kitchen with Lynne Rossetto Kasper)

This was surprisingly easy to make, and cheap too. I added some more spices and what not, because the recipe said I could...but it was a good baseline for a recipe. I added some red pepper, corn, peas and that seemed to bring it up to something quite hearty.

Braised Tofu and Peas in Curried Coconut Milk (How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food from News from Kitchen Collage)

Though I followed the recipe, I really questioned it right off the bat. When it called to make sauce and then add spices too it, I was curious, since I though you were supposed to bloom the spice or make a paste...and boy did it show later. While I thought it was ok, the spice kick that should have been there in a curry was not there in the slightest. It was kind of frustrating. I kept adding more and more and yet it was all swallowed up by the mixture of tomatoes and onions. Also, Shannon doesn't like tofu. So I guess I'll be having this for the next week or so for lunch (whee!).

Roasted Quinoa with Potatoes and Cheese (How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food from News from Kitchen Collage)

Over all this dish was pretty good. But I think the quinoa was undercooked. I was a bit surprised at the directions considering how long I've cooked quinoa before. Though I thought it was filling and kept me full for quite a while.

Yucatan-Style Chicken, Lime, and Orzo Soup (Bon Appétit newsletter)

I loved this soup. Warm on a cold day, spicy to clear out your sinuses and simple to make. Shannon thought it was a bit too spicy. Even though I only used 1/2 of the jalapeno peppers it called for, I suppose I could have toned it down a bit more by cutting out the seeds and ribs of the pepper I used, but to me it was just right.

Posted by SammyD at 10:17 AM | Comments (0)



January 10, 2010

Along with the magazines I get several email newsletters, so I decided to start giving credit where credit is due. All but one of these are from recent newsletters.

Posted by SammyD at 10:00 AM | Comments (0)



Swiss Steak with Tomato Gravy (p21 Cook's Country December/January 2010)

This needed more spice...it just didn't have enough. The meat was nice, but over all It was just ok.

Spicy Beef and Bean Enchiladas (p21 Cook's Country December/January 2010)

I suspect because I didn't like the Swiss steak so much, making enchiladas out of them?... I think the several other enchilada recipes that I made last year were better then this.

Chicken Paillards with Clementine Salsa (p80 Bon Appétit December 2009)

This was actually quite good...I ended up using the salsa as a topping to leftover turkey cutlets on a sandwich...so it added a nice set of flavors to the chicken and also to the turkey.

Penne with Lemon and Root Vegetables (p70 Bon Appétit December 2009)

I made this last night. Along with doing that I also prepped the rest of the celery and carrots so that they're all set up for easy eating. This was very good. A nice combination of carrots, celery and parsnips. It was relatively easy to make, though seemed much harder because of all the prep that I did, and tasted very good.

Turkey Cutlets with Brussels Sprouts and Dried Cranberries (p72 Bon Appétit December 2009)

Shannon does not like brussel sprouts. Sam does not like reheated brussel sprouts (leftovers). I'm actually a mild fan of the taste, but Shannon did not like the taste nor the smell of brussel sprouts. Which means that I'll probably not make anything with brussel sprouts in the near future. Overall this dish was pretty good, I thought, but as for leftovers, I ended up picking out the turkey to make sandwiches and not using the brussel sprouts (the smell of them wasn't appealing to my nose).

Posted by SammyD at 9:57 AM | Comments (0)



January 3, 2010

It's a new year!

I've got a few cookbooks to go through before they make it into the rotation (I bought Ad Hoc at Home for myself and my mother in law (thanks!) got me: Good Eats: The Early Years)

I also have at least one that I've about 70% through that hasn't made it into the list either...so...uh...I'd better get through the others faster I suppose.

We have talked about things that we may want to try in the new year as far as cooking goes. Buying products that are more local and what not. Our friends are members of a farmer's Co-Op, and while I have bought from them at the farmer's market, I don't know if I could use all the produce I would get from them on a regular basis, so I would feel wasteful. I have been thinking about becoming a member of the Iowa Food Cooperative which allows me to pick and choose what I want from a list of what I want and get it once a month or so (I think). The problem with that is that we don't particularly have the space, so we would have to invest in a freezer of some sort to stick in the basement. We are still talking about this, especially since it involves the purchase of a freezer.

I have also thought more about portion sizes. A lot of the meals that I make are for 6 or 8 or some other amount of people and because of this it may be the only thing that I make. When you spend 2 hours making a meal a course for a weeknight, do I really want to spend another 15-30 minutes making sides to go with it? Well this year I will try to do that more. This past week I've done well enough. I guess we'll see how we go. Try to get more green things into our life and think more about serving sizes when I dish out the food.

Posted by SammyD at 12:06 PM | Comments (0)



Cider-Braised Chicken (p23 Cook's Country December/January 2010)

This was actually pretty simple and good. A great use of apples and apple cider, I should perhaps try this again in 2010 when I get apples and cider from local producers.

Baked Four-Cheese and Pasta Casserole (p20 Entertaining Holiday 2009)

Make a roux, Add cream and then use that as a base sauce for the sauce. I was shredding cheeses and went to find the Gorgonzola and remembered that I left it in my car...in the glove box... I wasn't worried about it going bad, it hadn't gotten above freezing, but I was worried that I wouldn't be able to shred the cheese. I turned out it probably shredded better then it probably would've had it been unfrozen (it is a fairly soft cheese).

I guess that marks an end of a year. I used most of my cookbooks this year, though not all, some are just kind of impractical. I have no idea where to get some of the products to make certain things. The though had come, but was quickly vetoed because of economic reasons. If It required me to buy a new pan that I couldn't see myself using for anything else or required ingredients that I knew I couldn't find (while I may be curious about beef tongue, I'm not sure I'm gonna be able to find it).

I expanded a lot of knowledge and now don't feel so wasteful about the magazines that I subscribe to (Cook's Illustrated, Cook's Country, Cook's Illustrated Entertaining, Fine Cooking, Bon Appétit). I've also let some go this year or before. I found that I like well tested recipes (which is why I tend not to use recipe only websites) but even the venerated institutions mess up their instructions from time to time.

Posted by SammyD at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)



December 27, 2009

  • Cider-Braised Chicken (p23 Cook's Country December/January 2010)
  • Baked Four-Cheese and Pasta Casserole (p20 Entertaining Holiday 2009)

Posted by SammyD at 9:17 PM | Comments (0)



Ham and Split Pea Soup (p58 The New Best Recipe: All-New Edition)

This was quite good...but I made lots...and still have lots. I used the ham bone from the honey glazed ham.

Honey-Glazed Pork Chops with Sweet and Tangy Slaw (RC Cook's Country December/January 2010)

This turned out well. The pork chops were great and the slaw was pretty good with it. Considering neither of us like slaw too much, and we liked this, I guess that means something.

As a point here. I was just thinking about it and when we had the glazed pork chops we had pork quite often in the past week...and the pork was almost exclusively from Eden Farms (I did have to subsidize the pea soup with other ham, cause I didn't have enough meat left).

Good stuffs.

We did a whole lot of travelling this past week. The first trip to Cedar Rapids, we left early, Spent the 23rd time with my family, spent Christmas Eve morning with the Matta's, and the rest of Christmas Eve day and eve with Shannon's family. Christmas morning we spent a good chunk of it with the Matta's (the two girls were so excited) and then spend a good chunk of the rest of the day with my family (Cara and her family, Lovina and her family, Jed, Joseph, Isaac, parents and us).

We kept an eye on the Iowa road conditions map and decided to risk it, even though a good portion of central and western Iowa were "Travel not advised", we decided to head back home. Shannon had to work Saturday and all that. The trip back was normal for the most part until around Altoona, where roads went from fine to "I think I'm gonna slide off the road" in the space of a few moments. At one point we were going 30 or so on I-80.

First trip: ~297 miles and 6 hours 27 minutes of driving (google estimate + 1 hour for some awful driving)

Saturday afternoon we headed up to Ames for a meet up that normally happens around Thanksgiving to see Shannon's Uncle, cousins and her sister and parents. We ended up at Black Market Pizza. The food was quite good. I really liked that place. We had: The Reuben, Bacon Double Cheeseburger, Barbecued Iowa Chop, Mr. Meaty, and The Iowegian. All were pretty good, but the reuben was quite fantastic. We were late and left in a hurry, which I felt bad about. I'm thinking we should visit uncle Jan more often.

Then we headed back over to the Matta's to have a little get together with some old friends (Dave, Mark, Cam, Rich, Lena, Jenny, Nathan Shannon and I). We stayed up late chatted, shared some stories, remembered old times... It was a good time. We had a lazy morning at the Matta's and headed back home.

Second Trip: ~300 Miles, 6 hours 4 minutes of driving

So a grand total of nearly 600 miles and over 12 hours of driving...

Quite worth it though.

Posted by SammyD at 9:15 PM | Comments (0)



December 20, 2009

Posted by SammyD at 11:01 AM | Comments (0)



Chopped Steak Sandwiches (p109 Fine Cooking December/January 2010)

This was quite good, even though I couldn't ge the tips that it asked for, but it still turned out great. I really enjoyed this.

Oven-Baked Chicken Chimichangas (RC Cook's Country December/January 2010)

This was pretty good. I don't know about the trade off between fried and baked, but the insides were pretty good. I couldn't find cilantro, to go in them, so it didn't turn exactly right, but good none the less.

Skillet Carbonara Casserole (p17 Cook's Country December/January 2010)

This was pretty good, quick to make, but I was also baking cookies at the time, so it made for a very crowded kitchen. But it turned out well and given my recent past with hot pans in the oven, I didn't burn myself.

Honey Glazed Applewood Smoked Berkshire Pork, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sauteed Peas with Shallot and Mint (p24 Cook's Illustrated November/December 2009)

I wasn't totally satisfied with the peas, I think I used too much lemon juice and cooked them too long. I was a bit distracted through. The garlic taste of the mashed potatoes was a bit too strong, I probably should've sautéed them in the butter first, before I soaked them in the warmed milk and butter. But even so, it was still good, it was just a bit too strong. The ham turned out very well and that with two bottles of Boom Boom! Syrah, I think I had a a happy Dave, Chris and Holy, and Shannon.

Quicker Hoppin John (p19 Cook's Country December/January 2010)

I was thinking that I'd have enough ham left for another use, being that it was a decent sized ham, so lucky for me, this was right in there. This had quite the down home feel to it. Good, hearty, and relatively cheap for the amount of servings that it'll provide. Though I probably upped the average serving cost, buy using the ham I did...But I'll be eating this for a few days I think...since it made lots.

Posted by SammyD at 10:53 AM | Comments (0)



December 13, 2009

  • Ham (either Black Forest or Apple Wood Smoked Berkshire Pork (I already have both), for movie night)
    • Mashed Potatoes
    • Sauteed Peas with Shallot and Mint (p24 Cook's Illustrated November/December 2009) (Yes, Chris, I know you don't like peas)
  • Oven-Baked Chicken Chimichangas (RC Cook's Country December/January 2010)
  • Skillet Carbonara Casserole (p17 Cook's Country December/January 2010)
  • Quicker Hoppin John (p19 Cook's Country December/January 2010)
  • Chopped Steak Sandwiches (p109 Fine Cooking December/January 2010)

Posted by SammyD at 12:31 PM | Comments (0)



Cassoulet (p19 Cook's Illustrated November/December 2009)

Nom nom nom nom...I'm so making this again. And being that I still have leftover Eden Farms pork shoulder (put back in the freezer), I can make it almost the same way. I didn't find some of the ingredients, which I found a bit annoying, but over all, I think it turned out fantastic.

Leftovers!

Well We ate Cassoulet, and other leftovers, combined some things to make leftovers, used the cooked pork loin to make something out it (twice). So it was a totally lazy week for me, as far as cooking went.

But it has been quite the success, no more meat and cheese in the fridge, no more leftovers. Just a mostly empty fridge.

Posted by SammyD at 11:40 AM | Comments (0)



December 6, 2009

I've been making some pretty big meals lately. And we've fallen behind, so this week, we'll be cleaning out the fridge. I imagine I'll make tacos out of the pork (shredding it), sandwiches perhaps, eating some other things and what not.

  • Cassoulet (p19 Cook's Illustrated November/December 2009)
  • Leftovers!

Posted by SammyD at 9:46 AM | Comments (0)



Scrambled Burrito

Simple...and ok. I don't really have much else to say about it.

Pork and Elk Mini Burgers

I had a bit of pork left over from a previous recipe and some elk in the freezer...so blam! I wanted the flavors of the elk to be in front, so I didn't mix it up with a bunch of other thing, it was just elk. It tasted pretty good.

Pork Loin Sandwiches

I sliced off a couple of pieces of Eden Farms pork loin and then breaded and fried the pork as the recipe called for. Though I did find out that I really need a candy thermometer or oil one or whatever, because I had to use my instant read thermometer to find out what the temp of the oil is. I don't think that is the best thing for it. Anyways, it turned out pretty good, though I don't know if the oil was quite high enough. But they still made for good sandwiches. As one that rarely uses that much oil to fry things, I was in a bit of a quandary as what I should do with the remaining oil. I ended up pouring it into an apple juice container and tossing it. Seems pretty wasteful though.

Greek-Style Penne with Lamb, Parsnips, Tomatoes, and Cinnamon (p68 Bon Appétit November 2009)

I think we both really liked this. Plus this being, I think, the first time I've used parsnips, it tasted very good. Plus the smell of the parsnips sautéing in the pan was really truly glorious.

Roast Pork Loin in Horseradish Crust

I should've trimmed more fat of the pork loin. I also should've brined the pork loin. I have to remember that the pork that I buy from Eden Farms is not like the pork that you get in the store and needs to be treated with a bit more care. But over all this was pretty good, though I did adjust the temp at cooking for the point of getting potatoes in the oven at the same time. But it turned out pretty good. there's a lot left over though.

Cassoulet (p19 Cook's Illustrated November/December 2009)

I had forgotten about Shannon's work's Christmas Party, so, I'll be making this today.

Posted by SammyD at 9:31 AM | Comments (0)



November 29, 2009

Posted by SammyD at 12:23 PM | Comments (0)



Thanksgiving at my parents...mmm... And I got to bring home nearly two pounds of homemade lefse? How can it get better? When going out to buy cilantro for the chili, I stopped by La Mie to get some bread for turkey sandwiches (decided I didn't have enough meat to make something out of the turkey), I got feedback from Joe Logsdon on the Chocolate Chunk Tart Cherry Oatmeal cookies that I've been working on, "you should quit your day job and open a cookie shop." I responded that I only have about 4 recipes...but I could see myself doing that. So I may have to think long and hard about if I want to start collecting cookie recipes, or continue to post them.

Grandma's Enchiladas (p27 Cook's Country October/November 2009)

These were quite good, good spice, they took a while to make (which is why I saved them for a weekend). But the combination of all the spices the slow braised beef just let for quite a delicious experience.

Ginger-Shallot Chicken Breasts

I got this from the Splendid Table Weeknight Kitchen Newsletter. I found it to be quite good, I especially like the sauce...I suspect Shannon would've liked the sauce had I actually seeded the peppers like the recipe called for, but since I left the seeds in, it was a bit too spicy for her. I did also like the way that they cooked the chicken breast too.

Twice Baked Potatoes with Ham, Peas and Gruyere (p36 Entertaining Fall 2009)

I vaguely followed the recipe...it seemed like a lot of work to get a similar result, so I just kind of simplified it earlier. I ended up cooking the potatoes with the stuff in them in the omelette pan that I had been using, and in continuing with my recent history, to get the potato out, I had forgotten that the pan had been in the oven for a good 20 or 30 minutes, grabbed the handle with my left hand and got a nice burn on my palm, and most of my joints. Though I realized my mistake pretty quick, so it wasn't too serious. No blisters.

Slow-Cooker White Chicken Chili (p5 Cook's Country October/November 2009)

This turned out pretty well. Though how can you call it chili, if it didn't have chili powder in it...but perhaps that's just me. Anyways, I actually had to grind up some coriander, because I had run out, so I was happy, once again, that I bought a coffee grinder not too long ago. I also didn't really want to use the slow cooker (mine is bigger then I think what they are calling for), so I ended up using my beloved Chantal stock pot and the oven. I looked on the internet and found that the low setting was 200F and the high setting was 300F and ended up using a hybrid of the two and went around 250 for most of the cooking. When I pulled the chicken thighs out of the pan, I had trouble because they were falling off the bone tender...

Earlier in the cooking, while putting the onions, in the pot, there was a little chicken fat and oil splatter and I got quite the blisters on my right arm.

Lasagna Bolognese (p26 Entertaining Fall 2009)

This was quite a bit of work to make. Make two sauces, put everything together. But it turned out very well. We both enjoyed it...and we have a whole lot of leftovers too...

So to sum up, right now I have a burn on my right ring finger, that is almost healed, a splattering of burns on my right arm, still look pretty ugly, and some fairly minor burns on my left hand, which feel like dry skin for the most part now...

Posted by SammyD at 12:19 PM | Comments (0)



November 22, 2009

So Friday night we went to Le Jardine and had a wonderful dinner with Sean and Becki Sullivan of Juan O'Sullivan's Salsa. They joked quite a bit about the age difference. We talked about a range of topics and I think we both had a good time. They invited us out to their house for the next night (there was a party already planned), but we already had made plans to go to dinner and a movie with Chris and Holly. Dinner at Le Jardine was fantastic.

  • Grandma's Enchiladas (p27 Cook's Country October/November 2009)
  • Ginger-Shallot Chicken Breasts
  • Twice Baked Potatoes with Ham, Peas and Gruyere (p36 Entertaining Fall 2009)
  • Slow-Cooker White Chicken Chili (p5 Cook's Country October/November 2009)
  • Lasagna Bolognese (p26 Entertaining Fall 2009)

Posted by SammyD at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)



Cinnamon Swirl Brioche French Toast and Eden Farms Bacon

Mmm...bacon. The cinnamon Swirl Brioche was from Gateway Market. It turned out pretty good, I was happy. Especially since I re-toasted some in the toaster the next morning and had it for breakfast.

Chicken Paprikash (p23 Cook's Country October/November 2009)

I should've really called this an excuse to get rid of leftover chicken in my freezer. And now it's all gone! woo! This was good, I though I had nice mixture of the hot and sweet paprika (1/3, 2/3 of total).

Beef Stroganoff (p12 Entertaining Fall 2009)

I should've chopped the mushrooms smaller. Shannon wasn't a big fan of how many and how much the mushrooms were in there. So that was a draw back. I supposed if i diced them it could've been better. I still liked it though.

Quick Croque Monsieur (RC Cook's Country October/November 2009)

I had forgotten that we wer going out to eat with the makers of Juan O'Sullivan's, I had over planned for the week, so I thought this was going to be pushed until the next week, however movie night got cancelled (Chris and Holly not feeling so well), I ended up making this. It was quick and easy and tasty.

Grandma's Enchiladas (p27 Cook's Country October/November 2009)

Since we ended up going out to eat with Chris, Holly and etc I ended up not being able to make this, though I still have all the ingredients, so I'll be making this today.

Posted by SammyD at 10:04 AM | Comments (0)



November 15, 2009

Even though I made Chicken Paprikas on week six, being that it was 40 weeks ago, and a recipe from another company, I figure it is find to duplicate it a bit... With movie night being this week (I don't have to cook) and me going to see P.O.S., it'll be a shorter cooking list.

As a note to myself, I also want to make Turkey Tetrazzini Pasta (RC Cook's Country October/November 2009) and will do so when I have some leftover turkey from thanksgiving. I also plan on making Slow-Cooker White Chicken Chili (p5 Cook's Country October/November 2009), but need a Weekend day, or day off to prepare it. Since I'm trying to save up a bit of PTO for the holidays so I don't go much below my desired bank size (400 hours), I couldn't do it this week, since I want to do the french toast today, and the enchiladas (another long prepare time) on Saturday.

  • Cinnamon Swirl Brioche French Toast and Eden Farms Bacon
  • Quick Croque Monsieur (RC Cook's Country October/November 2009)
  • Chicken Paprikash (p23 Cook's Country October/November 2009)
  • Beef Stroganoff (p12 Entertaining Fall 2009)
  • Grandma's Enchiladas (p27 Cook's Country October/November 2009)

Posted by SammyD at 10:46 AM | Comments (0)



Aunt Nina's Breadballs (p24 Cook's Country October/November 2009)

This was kinda fun to make. Though I did make a bit of a mistake that made for quite the...spicy sauce. When adding the Red pepper flakes, I opened it, and being used to the holed lid on the normal one that I buy being there, I go to sprinkle maybe a bit more then the recipe calls for (I tend to like the extra spice), and there are no holes to struggle through and I proceeded to dump a large portion of the container of red pepper flakes into the mixture. I picked out as much as I could, but still what remained was a quite spicy sauce. It was still good though. The fried breadballs? Some of them I didn't pack together well enough so they kind of fell apart while I was cooking them. Though I used that as an excuse to eat fried bread... Good meal, took a while to make, but not absurdly so and relatively cheap over all.

Reduced Fat Sloppy Joes (p4 Cook's Country October/November 2009)

Putting in mushrooms to reduce the amount of meat and fat in the meat that you use, is a pretty good idea and this turned out well. Though after I put some of the Prairie Breeze cheese on them, I probably went over any reductions in calories or fat that was there. One thing that I thought this was missing was mustard. I love the taste of yellow mustard in a Sloppy Joe, so much so that I tend to add more after it's done. Perhaps, that's just me though.

Steak with Crispy Spiced Potatoes (RC Cook's Country October/November 2009)

This was pretty simple to make. I really liked the spice mixture (the recipe calls for: oregano, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, though ended up not using the cayenne pepper because I used hot paprika (couldn't find cayenne pepper at the store)). on the potatoes. Gave them quite a bit of spice and taste. With the process of pre cooking the potatoes, in the microwave, and then sauteing them to give them a nice crust. That way they get cooked (while cooking the steak) and then get finished in the pan.

Granny's Tamale Pie (p25 Cook's Country October/November 2009)

Holy crap this took a long time. I started cooking around 5:15, 5:30 or so, and we at around 9:15. I also got a 2nd degree burn on my ring finger on my right hand (blistered skin)... Even so I would make this again, on a sunday...staring at 3. Though in my mind this recipe was a bit lacking. Me, I'd add a diced jalapeno pepper or two to the mixture. The recipe seems a bit lacking too. It seems to me that somewhere between step 3 and 5 there is a missing step or two. Even so, It turned out well.

Savory Baked Mac & Cheese (using some combination of: Huntsman, quality swiss, Prairie Breeze, cotswold, smoked gouda)

I was a bit lazy, didn't take the time to actually form a sauce, so it was really turned out to be noodles and cheese. I used the last of the huntsman, all of the smoked gouda, and all (except for a few tasters) of the swiss. So it ended up, to me, tasting like it had ham in it and I think this was because of the smokey taste from the gouda. Even being lazy, it's kinda hard to mess up cheese + noodles.

Baked Manicotti with Meat Sauce (p18 Cook's Country October/November 2009)

There is a mixture of ground beef, onions and pepperoni. The recipe told me to to set aside a cup the filling for the noodles, but I missed it (twice, cause I went back to look saying where is that cup supposed to go)...so I ended up putting it on top with the cheese (used more cheese then the recipe called for since, well, it was there). It still turned out great. Though I was very hungry by the time and most of my way through a bottle of red from Southeast Australia, so that may have tempered my judgment. Shannon seemed to enjoy it as well, though.

Posted by SammyD at 10:44 AM | Comments (0)



November 8, 2009

  • Baked Manicotti with Meat Sauce (p18 Cook's Country October/November 2009)
  • Reduced Fat Sloppy Joes (p4 Cook's Country October/November 2009)
  • Granny's Tamale Pie (p25 Cook's Country October/November 2009)
  • Steak with Crispy Spiced Potatoes (RC Cook's Country October/November 2009)
  • Aunt Nina's Breadballs (p24 Cook's Country October/November 2009)
  • Savory Baked Mac & Cheese (using some combination of: Huntsman, quality swiss, Prarie Breeze, cotswold, smoked ghouda)

Posted by SammyD at 11:18 AM | Comments (0)



So for game night last night I bought quite a number of cheese, including Huntsman. Now we had Huntsman at our wedding and I remember it being very good. This was truly fantastic of a cheese. Such a nice combination of flavors between the two cheeses in it and the Roasted Garlic crackers...fantastic.

Also we went through the vast majority of a round of Elk Sausage called "Ring of Fire". While it was spicy, it wasn't smoking hot. I bought it from the "elk guy" (Deo Gloria Elk Products, I think) at the downtown farmers market. I bought some other ones, we didn't end up opening them though.

I made some Chocolate Chunk and Tart Cherry Oatmeal cookies that I was finally satisfied with the way they look. I think have have to adjust the chocolate level down a bit, or take a bit more time and cut them into smaller chunks. But I think I have the right ratios, finally, I'll make 'em again for thanksgiving.

Shannon and I went to see Anthony Bourdain at the Civic Center. He started off by telling several stories and then went into a Q&A section. I think we both really enjoyed it. He seemed to have good things to say about Bistro Montage and about Reichert's Dairy's Robiola. When I emailed Lois, she stated back "I brought some special, aged a bit longer, robiola in specifically for him". So that's pretty cool to have a sort of connection, even if it's a few times removed.

Last night, We had a light attendance at game night (me, Shannon, Will, Jen and Jen's friend from Kentucky, who's name escapes me), but it was still fun. We played Sorry (I won), Simpson's Clue (Shannon won), Killer Bunnies (that was a strange and confusing game, Jen won), and then Scene It (original, Will and I won, even though by the end, I was falling in and out of sleep).

Panko-Crusted Chicken with Mustard-Maple Pan Sauce (p54 Bon Appétit October 2009)

So because the chicken in here was bought in a 3 pack, and I only needed two, I used one of the others, pounded it out, breaded it with whole wheat flour mixed with the Emeril's Spice mixture from the Black Bean cakes. I ended up putting them and making sandwiches. This was pretty good.

The dish itself actually turned out fantastic, even though I had to improvise a bit with the pan sauce (I ran out of Dijon mustard). Quite easy too. Though, because the recipie told me so, I did buy Panko bread crumbs, which broke my new rule about...well not buying bread crumbs because it's such a waste of money.

Cannellini Beans with Garlic and Sage (p101 Bon Appétit October 2009)

Wow...just wow. The combination of the all this stuff, cooked...the beans, the water, and etc just made for a fantastic flavor profile. It was really a shame that we couldn't wait for this to get done (it took a really long time).

Sausages with White Beans in Tomato Sauce(p101 Bon Appétit October 2009)

So the combination of the beans before, made this meal easy (by easy, I guess that excludes the 3 or so hours it took to make the beans from before), but I really liked this, such a built of flavor profile.

Ultra-Juicy, Skillet Grassfed Goat-burgers

The spice mixture used for this, onion, rosemary, thyme, cilantro, cumin, Dijon mustard, and Worcestershire sauce, I think over powered the goat flavor, but was still quite good. I think it would be good with something mild like ground turkey.

Posted by SammyD at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)



November 1, 2009

Oh and one more thing, when I was putting away the meat from the Farmer's market, I had to reorganize my freezer and I noticed that more then half of what I had in there was pork...probably something like 60%. And I have (excluding pork, in order from most to least by weight): Beef, Duck, Chicken, Elk and Goat. Just thought that was a bit odd...

Posted by SammyD at 10:05 AM | Comments (0)



Last downtown farmer's market this weekend. I added $20 to what I normally budget for being down there, and still ended up going over by $25 or so. I didn't get eggs like I intended (Foxhollow Farms was out), but I did end up getting a whole duck from them. I also got ground goat meat, a Ham from Eden Farms, and some of my normal fare. It was the ham that pushed me over my budget...but hey, I love ham, so how could it be bad.

On my way home from farmer's market, I stopped at Mars Cafe, like I normally do, I chatted a bit with someone who was headed down to the market. She said that she didn't want to eat anything that could be smarter then her (I was talking about the duck and goat that I had bought), and I almost, but held myself back, from stating that either she had a low opinion of herself, or a high opinion of animals. It's like the lady at Josh and Lindsay's rehearsal dinner, who didn't eat veal, because she likes to think that the meat that she was eating had died of old age, even though that wouldn't be cost effective, or probably taste that good. Anyways, good week.

I also saw Matisyahu this week. and that was fun, wich reduced the amount of "real" cooking I did. I don't know if I like the venue though, it just got too hot in there...(must. resist. bad. pop. culture. reference.)

Broiled Chicken Thighs with Chipotle Sauce (p88 Fine Cooking October/November 2009)

Though I had to have the people at the meat counter at Hy-Vee de-bone the chicken theighs (they really vary at their skill at doing it), this actually turned out really well. It was simple to make, the sauce was great, spicy but not over powering, and it was super quick.

Emeril's Black Bean Cakes (Splendid Table Weeknight Kitchen Newsletter)

Fail...total and utter fail. The cakes would not stay together at all. Luckily I had tortillas left over and it became a black bean burritos...to some extent, which were pretty good.

Danish Meatloaf

Pumpernickel bread in meat loaf? What a good idea. It certainly gave it a distinctive flavor. Though I think the bread that I had was much softer then the bread they were talking about because they were just too soft to actually soak in water. But it turned out pretty well. I had a nice meatloaf sandwich for lunch a day or two after, and it was good that way too.

Lynne's Nearly New Mexican Chili

This took quite a while to make...The Meat was good, but it just seemed like it didn't have enough stuff in it...maybe that's just the way they do chili down there. But really 4 pounds of chuck vs 2 onions some garlic and some tomatoes? The broth was just kinda week. I admit that it had a nice smokey back taste, but it was just too watery for me. Though combined with a bit of cheddar and some sour cream, it was pretty nice over all. I'm kinda looking forward to how it melds better over the next day or so.

Posted by SammyD at 10:00 AM | Comments (0)



October 31, 2009

Our trip from Dubuque, Iowa to Spring Green, Wisconsin was fairly uneventful. We first went to our hotel..er lodge that we were staying at The Round Barn Lodge first, though on thew as we saw the Spring Green Fire Department / EMS building, which just struck me as very pretty.

Spring Green, Wisconsin Fire Department and EMS building

Up close you can kind of tell that it's not super special construction or anything, but it still looks very good, and fitting for the area, I suppose.

The Round Barn Lodge was chosen because we were on the off peak rates, which are quite a bit less expensive then the regular rates. It was clean, the staff was helpful and quiet. Though we did have a bit of a problem in Dave and JoAnne's room with one of their neighbors being a bit loud, though they did quiet down, not too late. Apparently during the night, there was a firetruck that came near by our hotel...That's what Dave and JoAnne said, I never woke up...so I had no clue.

For dinner that night, we headed over to The Bank Restaurant and Wine Bar. As the name suggests, it is a converted bank. We sat in the vault room, so we had a little bit of privacy (I think perhaps it was the Brother Ali t-shirt I was wearing that got us separated from the other guests). I have to say that dinner was pretty good. Certainly a surprising experience in a small town. Though I don't think it was really worth what was paid. Maybe 10-15% less would've been more fair. I had a glass of Boom Boom Syrah (which is one of my favorite wine grapes) from Washington, which was really quite good (I have since bought a bottle). I guess my biggest complaint had to do with my dessert.

Cupcakes from the Bank Restaurant and Wine Bar in Spring Green Wisconsin

First, all three of the cupcakes were surprisingly dense. I don't know if this was on purpose, or not, but I guess I'm used to light and fluffy in my cupcakes. My biggest problem was with the rightmost cupcake, which was gingerbread with crystallized ginger on top. The problem I had is ginngerbread does not have the same flavor as the crystallized ginger, so the crystallized ginger just dominated over the pretty good taste of the gingerbread. So if there was a lot less and a lot smaller pieces or no crystallized ginger at all, it would've been better.

For breakfast, we headed over to the Spring Green General Store Cafe, which was quite good and inexpensive (Shannon and I ate for under $20, if I remember right). A good hearty breakfast before a day of hiking.

We stopped by the fire department (see above) on our way out of town to take a few pictures. We headed over to the Taliesin Visitor Center. This building used to be a restaurant, and is (partially) again. But it is very nice and has a great view of the Wisconsin River (I think that's what the river is), across the road.

Taliesin Visitor Center near Spring Green Wisconsin

I love the geometric shapes that are inspired by Wright. My brain just loves them...I can't really explain it. I believe that's me in the background there...

Taliesin Visitor Center sign near Spring Green Wisconsin

We wandered around the store for a bit... If we had the money, we could have spent a whole lot (there were these chairs, about $1k each, and a table, near $6k and a ton of other things). So when the time came, we gathered up and headed out on the ~4 hour estate tour.

We got on the mini-bus and started off at the Unity Chapel (the private chapel of the family of the Lloyd-Jones, including Wright). We saw the grave marker of Frank Lloyd Wright (he's not actually buried there).

Frank Lloyd Wright grave marker near Spring Green Wisconsin

There were other markers there of the family since the building was dedicated in 1886. Apparently it is tradition in the family to get married and etc in the building. We then headed to the Hillside Home School.

Hillside Home School near Spring Green, Wisconsin

Apparently people still live and learn here in the school. We actually heard a few. I was really quite sad that we couldn't take pictures inside the building. There were great shots that I could have gotten, were I able to...but I can understand why, to some extent. The building was certainly showing it's age, or the inability to maintain and upkeep it at the level that it probably should be. There were certainly areas where I was shocked as to how much age was showing. Kind of detracts from the whole mystical ideal that I believe is tried to be put forward with Wright.

We went through various areas of the building, the drawing studio, around the building, the theater and then headed up to the Romeo and Juliet Windmill.

Romeo and Juliet Windmill near Spring Green, Wisconsin

The windmill has been rebuilt and restored, and the area provides a great view of the surrounding area. The concept is that the taller building, Romeo, protects and breaks the wind for the shorter building, Juliet, who supports Romeo. Certainly a nice story.

View from the hill that the Romeo and Juliet Windmill near Spring Green, Wisconsin

We passed several other buildings on the estate, which had been used for other things, but are now occupied by the Fellowship members, including Tan-Y-Deri. We also passed the more then appropriately named Midway Farms building. as we headed on towards the home and personal studio of Frank Lloyd Wright, Taliesin.

Taliesin near Spring Green, Wisconsin

We met Sherpa, the cat, and headed up to the terrace to have tea, coffee, water, and a rest before we continued on. The terrace had a wonderful view, which just seems natural of the area...

View from Taliesin terrace near Spring Green, Wisconsin

Even Sherpa enjoyed the view.

Sherpa the cat on the Taliesin terrace near Spring Green, Wisconsin

After the break, and my fat ass needed a bit of one, we headed in and saw courtyards, indoors, and several buildings. The inside itself, in certain areas, I found pretty frustrating (again with me being taller then the "human scale"). When I look back through the pictures that we took (they got less, because the camera that Shannon was using was running out of battery power (didn't bring the spare battery), I noticed that many different views of the building could be homes in and of themselves.

To me, the use of space, indoors, often seemed to be highly experimental, which I also got the impression that things would often get remodeled based on who was coming or etc. So something that weren't so annoying at say, Cedar Rock, were more troubling at Taliesin. The designs were still good, and provided great views, and again, I would've loved to be able to take pictures.

So in this last picture here, we have a shot through the grate, where you can see the burned out timbers of Taliesin II and III (the original burned all the way down, I believe).

Burned out timbers of Taliesin II combined with newer ones from III near Spring Green, Wisconsin

While I can understand the emotional reason for rebuilding, to me, I often find myself complaining that I am not given the time to do things right the first time... I suppose if he had planned a bit, that end of the building wouldn't be having the problems that it is (it's basically built on the ashes of Taliesin II). That really kind of bugged me. Then again, it was his own house, and I suppose he can do what he wants with it.

After our tour ended, we bought some things at the store. We got some coasters, a Christmas ornament (continuing the tradition of getting at least one ornament a year), magnet and a few other things (maybe a Christmas present or two?). Then headed over to Mineral Point and had lunch at Brewery Creek Inn. I had a pint (I wasn't driving), and it was pretty good. The food was pretty good, though they did mess up Dave's order.

We did do a little, not much, searching for some Wisconsin cheese, and Dave bought some cheese curds, and then headed home. At one point, I think everyone but Dave was napping in the car.

It was a good weekend trip, and even though I'm a bit disenchanted with some of the stuff surrounding Frank Lloyd Wright, I think we'll be taking more trips to see stuff. Perhaps to Mason City (day trip), Chicago, and maybe more, depending on how things go. I also appreciated having Dave and JoAnne on the trip, because they've traveled to way north east Iowa more then we have, so they knew of good views to stop and see.

I also liked that other then the trip home, we basically took our time, had many stops, didn't have everything planned out (a nice combo of planned and seat of our pants).

I would suggest visiting Cedar Rock...and soon, because apparently the Trust for the house and grounds, which is not funded by the state, will run out in ~2 years. And after the trust runs out, it is unknown as to what will happen.

Posted by SammyD at 1:11 PM | Comments (0)



So a week ago (10/24/2009), Shannon, Dave, JoAnne, and I headed out to see a few Frank Lloyd Wright buildings. This all started with a documentary that we saw on IPTV. While the documentary wasn't the best (kind of rambling), it got us talking and thinking that hey, that's it's not to far to Spring Green, WI (under 300 miles) to see Taliesin (east). After doing a bit more research we found that there was an Iowa state park called Cedar Rock, which is a Frank Lloyd Wright signature house. Which means that he designed the house, furniture and etc. Which is something that he insisted would be for the best.

The signature tile for Cedar Rock:

Frank Lloyd Wright Signature Tile for Cedar Rock house in Iowa

The house itself on the outside is absolutely beautiful. Clean lines. Though with the flat roof and Iowa and winter and rain, I could see out it could create problems. The roof is actually kind of a bowl, so not only does it collect rain and snow, it keeps it. Still looks good though.

Outside shots of the house:

Frank Lloyd Wright's Cedar Rock house in Iowa

Frank Lloyd Wright's Cedar Rock house in Iowa

Frank Lloyd Wright's Cedar Rock house in Iowa

Frank Lloyd Wright's Cedar Rock house in Iowa

The house overlooks the Wapsipinicon River and has a boat house which is also impressive. I especially like the long narrow windows on the side of the building.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Cedar Rock house's boat house in Iowa

Frank Lloyd Wright's Cedar Rock house's boat house in Iowa

According to our DNR guide, the Walter's were actually looking for something like the boat house, to have as a summer home. Simple, practical and etc. If I remember right, the original budget for the house was $18,000 ($~174,324.75 in 2009 dollars) and ended up costing $~150,000 ($~1,344,205.39 in 2009 dollars). So it went a tad over budget. Though according to the DNR guide and our guide at Taliesin, was kind of common with his houses.

While he designed the house to the scale of the owners of the house, it made problems for those of us who are above his so called "human scale". I did like, to some extent, how the areas where people are not meant to congregate (entryways etc) and I could see how it really opened up the areas of the house where people are to meet and congregate. Because of the differential, it made those areas just feel more spacious. Shannon already posted a whole bunch of pictures on her facebook page, so I'll keep my selection of indoor pictures to a minimum to the things I really like about it.

So the living room has a great look, with near floor to ceiling windows, so it makes for a great place to sit in the sunshine or have a great view at night of the surrounding areas.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Cedar Rock house's Living Room

Nothing says love like a heart shaped ashtray.... I know I already made that comment, but still, I find it funny, but it's still a great looking ashtray, though it probably wouldn't look as good if it had actual butts in it...

Frank Lloyd Wright's Cedar Rock house's Living Room, heart shaped ashtray

Great wood color, mirror and just gorgeous serving things.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Cedar Rock house's Living Room, wood bar, serving glass

If I remember right, this was the "poor man's stained glass". Though placed lighted pieces of glass really accentuated the room and added color. According to the DNR guide, when placing the glass, they never put it back in the same location after cleaning it, because it was meant to be moved around.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Cedar Rock house's Living Room, lighted glass

It's not really the bedroom, but the wood color...I love the wood color.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Cedar Rock house's bedroom and great wood color

While the kitchen was small, it seem very practical and easy to use. Though I would still want a bigger one...but that's just me. I have kitchen envy (not necessarily of this house, but of many houses).

After our tour was complete, we talked with the DNR guide for a bit and she told us about a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Cedar Rapids (who knew?) and Johnston (really?), but they're not open to the public.

After our tour, we headed back to Independence, Iowa and ate at Bill's Pizza and Smokehouse, which was...well...mediocre at best. After lunch, we headed over to the park and mill museum across the street and wandered around a bit. Took some pictures, had a little fun.

We got back into the car and headed to Dubuque. We took a break and spent some time with the views from Eagle Point Park. I admit that I do give my co-workers a bit of crap from time to time for coming from this area, however, it really was beautiful up there. Though the city itself...

Afterwards we headed up to Spring Green, Wisconsin.

Posted by SammyD at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)



October 26, 2009

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Latin Skillet Scrambled Eggs, (The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper: Recipes, Stories, and Opinions from Public Radio's Award-Winning Food Show)

I don't know what I did to mess this up, but the curds would just never form, it was still ok, I suppose.

Patatas Bravas (NPR)

This was more a side dish then a main, but it was still filling. Shannon thought it was a bit too spicy...but I may have added some extra spiciness. It cooled a bit when topped with a bit of sour cream. Pretty easy to make

Chicken Curry in a Hurry (p47 Bon Appétit September 2009)

I guess by hurry, it means that it wasn't as time consuming as regular curry, even so, it was pretty good, though I doubt their serving size. It ended up being chicken and pork curry, since I used pork to augment the weight. Still was pretty good, though I didn't really follow the recipe exactly.

Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Prune and Ancho Chile Sauce (p97 Bon Appétit September 2009)

This took a while. The prunes from the sauce really stood out with the wine that I was drinking, but this was pretty good. I cut them into thing slices and so far have used the leftovers for sandwiches, and another meal...and still have more leftovers

Gourmet's Thai-Spiced Tomato Soup (The Wednesday Chef)

I made this (simple) and then brought it over to Chris and Holly's and made Grilled Cheese sandwiches using the La Mie Multigrain bread and Prairie Breeze Cheese. A bit spicy, tomatoey, and over all pretty good...

Posted by SammyD at 9:44 AM | Comments (0)



October 18, 2009

Posted by SammyD at 10:11 AM | Comments (0)



Lighter Chicken and Dumplings (p13 Cook's Illustrated September/October 2009)

This took a long time to make...but since I made it on Monday and I took the day off, I suppose it wasn't that big of a deal. This certainly wouldn't be the type of thing that you'd want to make on a weekday. Beyond that, I guess the best thing I could say about this was Shannon said, "This kind of tastes like what my grandmother used to make.". So that speaks pretty highly when you can bring back some taste memories. This was the first time this week I used my Chantal pot. Love that pot

Cheese Omelet (p24 Fine Cooking August/September 2009)

2/2 successes! For filling I use some leftover Parmesan cheese and some torn up turkey lunch meat. So now with the success under my belt, I feel like I can move on.

Thai Pork Lettuce Wraps (p15 Cook's Illustrated September/October 2009)

So for this, I kind of figured out that the app, Grocery IQ I use on my iPod Touch was crashing on exit (occasionally) and not recording some of the items in my grocery list for the week. Specifically everything for this recipe. I ended up making another trip to Dahl's to finish my grocery shopping, but unlike before, I clearly remembered adding these items to the list...before, I just thought I might have been forgetful. Now don't get me wrong, I still like the app, it's just that it was kind of frustrating.

This actually ended up tasting pretty good. With the food processored pork tenderloin and mix of various things made for a nice dish. Filling, simple, though it still took a bit to make

Summer Corn Soup with Crisp Prosciutto and Basil (p40 Fine Cooking August/September 2009)

Another reason to take an extra trip (and in talking to Sean of O'Sullivan's salsa this weekend, maybe this is on purpose) but Hy-Vee fails to carry the Prosciutto, made in Iowa, and probably some of the best stuff in the world. Why oh why would I want something less? I gotta say, that being broiled just for a bit, really brings out some more flavors in it.

Anyways, this night of cooking proved how much I can still be a total dumb ass in the kitchen. First thing I did, was when I was peeling the potatoes, I slightly sliced my left index finger. No big deal, nicks and wounds happen from time to time when you are using sharp knives or etc, so I just shrugged, washed it off and put a bandage on it and went on. The nick, less than a day later, is hardly noticeable.

Next up, while getting ready to blend the soup up, I decided to goof off a little with the base of the blender (not the blades or the container with the blades, I'm not that stupid). I know that the food processor has protections against turning it on w/o the thing being sealed up, and wondered if this was the same. It wasn't. So what popped in my head, and I admit, as soon as I told Shannon about it, I knew how stupid this actually sounded, is that I needed to slow the gear down, so I choose to do that with my right index finger. It was going so fast that it tore off a chunk of skin and left a bit of a bruise on my finger. This actually bled more then cutting my left index finger...

So here I am, two index fingers down, but determined to finish dinner. So I put the soup in the blender (to create a nice base and add a bit more corn later), and for 2/3 batches it goes pretty well. With blending hot soup, which I have done before, you always have to be careful, since, it's hot, and the blender could totally open up and and explode. When starting to blend, it seems that hot air expands and all ways presses up on the lid of the blender, so you hold it down, and haven't filled it up too much, then you are generally good. 2/3 of the batches when fine. A little push up on the lid, settles down, and it became this creamy liquid. No problem. Last one, was a bit more then the other two, though with less onions and potato chunks. This one...yeah it didn't totally blow out the top, but it did release the seal and splattered my food processor and some other things.

While warming up the rest of the corn, in the now creamy soup, I took some of the La Mie multi-grain bread put some cheddar on it and made some grilled cheese sandwiches.

The soup was pretty good, though probably not worth the injury. But really the grilled cheese sandwiches were the true highlight of the whole thing. I imagine if I put a much sharper cheddar on that bread, it'd be about the best thing ever...

Posted by SammyD at 9:19 AM | Comments (0)



October 11, 2009

Posted by SammyD at 7:32 AM | Comments (0)



Green Chicken Enchiladas (RC Cooks Country August/September 2009)

These were easy, I did like shredding the chicken (which gives me ideas for other things I could do), but I thought the green enchilada sauce itself seemed a bit salty...but that could just be me and my now overly sensitive to salt tongue (thank you low sodium diet).

PLT Salad (p21 Fine Cooking August/September 2009)

Olive oil fried La Quercia Prosciutto Americano? Yes please! Other stuff? Does it really matter? I did think I added a bit too much lemon juice, but besides that it was quite the salad, though it didn't hang around too long (around the time I was ready to fall asleep, I felt a bit hungry, and the next day when I had leftovers, I was very hungry by dinner time).

Cheese Omelet (p24 Fine Cooking August/September 2009)

There are somethings that I think that I should just know how to do...but apparently they still take practice. Shannon had something that resembled an omelet, I had something that more resembling scrambled eggs (mine was made first). I did use an 3 eggs and my 10 inch non-stick pan (1 of the 2 I own). I think I may make this again, just so I can practice more.

Risotto with Corn, Spicy Sausage, and Wilted Arugula (p27 Fine Cooking August/September 2009)

I'll jsut start bay saying I didn't use corn on the cob (which means I didn't pre-cook it), and the grated corn the recipe calls for, was food processored corn. I think I used more corn then the recipe called for and I know I used more sausage (the recipe calls for 1/4 pound, it was closer to a pound). Other then that I followed it pretty closely and it was really truly fantastic. I do love risotto, and it's time consuming to make, but generally it's worth it.

Posted by SammyD at 7:28 AM | Comments (0)



October 4, 2009

Posted by SammyD at 9:21 AM | Comments (0)



Easy Chicken Tacos (p15 Cooks Country August/September 2009)

These were easy.... Though for me I would have preferred more of a kick in the chicken, but over all, easy to make, easy to prep and ended up being pretty good.

Grilled Turkey Burgers with Cheddar and Smoky Aioli (p36 Bon Appétit August 2009)

Around here, finding dark meat ground, would be surprising. I've actually tried to keep an eye out at the farmer's market, to no luck. So I put in some leftover ground beef to add some more fat and taste to it. It turned out pretty good, I liked using the smoked paprika (now making 3 kinds of paprika in my house). Personally, I suppose, I would've added just the paprika to the meat mixture and gone from there, but it still worked.

Spicy Spaghetti Pie (RC Cooks Country August/September 2009)

This, uh...created quite the mess. And I guess I didn't wait for it to set up either. It still tasted good. Juices from the pasta and cheese over flowed from the pie pan and created a smokey inside to the oven...then the kitchen...then the main level. So I opened a couple of windows, put in a fan, and cleared it out. But even so, it tasted good after that...it ended up more like a bake pasta, I suppose.

Black Bean Burrito Bake (Juan O'Sullivans)

The recipie here was not documented very well. There were inconsistencies between what the ingrediants said, and what the directions said. I did tell Becki and Sean on Saturday, but even so, by guessing they turned out pretty well.

Summer Tomato Pie (p22 Cooks Country August/September 2009)

I haven't tried this cold yet (we had it warm, cause I didn't read at the end of the directions where it said it needed to cool for 3 hours), but warm it was pretty good. My thoughts on, perhaps updating this, would be to used canned diced tomatoes, more cheese in the mixture and then mix it all together, so you get tomato, mayo, cheese and maybe diced bacon in every bite.

Posted by SammyD at 9:19 AM | Comments (0)



September 27, 2009

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Roast Beef Sandwiches with Whole Grain Mustard and Cranberries (Bon Appétit August 2009)

This reminded me of the turnberry sandwich at Palmer's Deli, except with roast beef. I liked it, It made for easy cooking after a rough day.

Chicken, Green Bean, Corn, and Farro Salad with Goat Cheese (Bon Appétit August 2009)

This was simple, delicious and full of veggies, which even though I have made efforts (not that hard I suppose), we still don't get enough of, in my opinion. Using the feta from Reichert's just added abit of deliciousness. I guess the only thing I'd really add was something to add a bit more heat, I suppose...maybe a diced fresh jalapeno.

Coffee-Rubbed Cheeseburgers with Texas Barbecue Sauce (Bon Appétit July 2009)

I put a lot of effort in to cooking on Friday, before I even started to make this (made oatmeal chocolate chunk cookies). The important part here was timing. I wanted to have the oven baked fries, burgers and etc to be done right after the Matta's arrived from their trip from Cedar Rapids to visit us. It did work out very well. While waiting for the cookies to bake, I did a lot of the prep work (made spice mix, bbq sauce, etc). And then based on the information they were just passing Newton, I used that information to time the fries...roll up the burgers (bigger ones for the adults, smaller ones for the kids). And within about 5-10 minutes of them getting here, a piping hot dinner was on the table! I did like the burgers, though by that time, only the strong flavors were getting though, since my sore throat was starting to set in.

The next morning, after taking my shower, I fed the girls (Taylor and Cali) breakfast (while everyone else got ready), made up some coffee for the older Matta's (and me) in my new coffee press and spice/coffee grinder. I got the Mars Blend beans from Mars Cafe. This is far more convenient then having to run out in the morning, plus from time to time (thinking of later this week when I'll need to be in Cedar Rapids by 8:30 AM), it'd be nice to be able to get that kind of caffeine kick in the morning. Afterward we all set off to the Downtown Des Moines Farmer's Market. After many samples some buying of various things we headed home and had a mid-morning snack of goats cheese (not from Reichert's, but a place in eastern Iowa, that the Matta's had brought), some elk jerky and olive spread on some slices of a La Mie baguette (yes the girls (5 and 3?) ate this too). Afterwards, they headed off to Adventureland and we cleaned up a bit, and did a whole lot of laundry.

Posted by SammyD at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)



September 20, 2009

This week, on Wednesday, is Shannon and my 3rd wedding anniversary. The plan is to go to Miyabi 9 (her pick), sometime during the week, so it'll be a light cooking week.

Posted by SammyD at 9:12 AM | Comments (0)



Last night, for Sheighleigh's birthday, we met up with Shannon's Sister's family at the Pizza Hut near adventureland, where they spent their day. Shannon and I both had their over-advertised New Tuscani Pastas. Their advertisements generally go that they have a nice restaurant, and then surprise! it's really Pizza Hut. Though I suspect they may have taken a bit more time on each of those pastas, the ones they served us, suffer the same problems that most chain restaurants suffer from (and places like Spaggetti Works, here in Des Moines), far over cooked pasta. Beyond that, the food wasn't offensive, but it wasn't exactly something I'd go out of my way for. I could certainly tell the difference between that and what I would be served at Lucca, Centro, or Proof (and if eating lunch at proof, the bill probably would've been smaller, which, in my mind, is pretty pathetic, Pizza Hut).

Spanish Tortilla with Roasted Red Peppers and Peas (p9 Cook's Illustrated July/August 2009)

Fairly easy, but time consuming to make, but ended up really good. Thought the garlic mayo that I made with it, I think did not set up properly, though the mixture still tasted good.

Best Buttermilk Pancakes (p23 Cook's Illustrated July/August 2009)

They weren't kidding, these pancakes were down right, stick to your ribs, please your senses fantastic. I think I may have found a new standard pancake recipe...though I do like the cinnamon infused pancakes that I make from time to time.

Spicy Chicken Peperonata with Lime and Mint Dressing (p36 Bon Appétit July 2009)

This wasn't that spicy. Chicken done on a non-stick pan kinda makes me want to shrug... I think it would've been better to create a proper chicken crust in a regular pan, rather then non-stick. Though it made clean up easier I suppose. I served it over basmati rice. Though we had some leftovers and because of that, I put some hot sauce over it, and that, actually made it pop the next day...

Manchego Cheese and Garlic Dogs (p77 Bon Appétit July 2009)

mmm...roasted garlic. I started out with a Hebrew National hot dogs (hot dogs are now officially off my life time ban, though I guess that depends on the quality) and went from there. The combination of the cheese, roasted garlic relish and other deliciousness it made for a very good dinner. Though I need to remember more often that Shannon's not a huge fan of the olive, so I need to avoid the pasta salad that has a whole lot of olives in it...

Posted by SammyD at 9:08 AM | Comments (0)



September 13, 2009

Posted by SammyD at 3:44 PM | Comments (0)



Stuffed Burgers (p5 Entertaining Summer 2009) (Yes, again, slightly different recipe)

Burgers with bacon and cheddar in them? How could it be bad? It wasn't, it was fantastic.

Pulled Pork Chili (Joseph's Pork, my thinking, first attempt, and for movie night)

I took lots of notes, and the chili had a building heat (the more you ate, the hotter it got) which was kind of the goal. Not to make it too hot, but to make it tasty. So I should have added more chili powder after the onions and replaced one of the cans of diced tomatoes with tomato puree. I also don't know if the chili had enough of a fat base. After using 4 slices of bacon, the onions really soaked that up pretty quickly, so perhaps more bacon greese extracted from the fat? The only sad thing, is that I don't have enough pulled pork to try again. Overall I was generally happy with the results, but with a few tweaks it could be better.

Pasta with Tomato and Almond Pesto (p15 Cook's Illustrated July/August 2009)

This was fairly quick to make and tasty... Thought it wasn't as good as some other pasta type toppings...but it still worked.

Spanish Tortilla with Roasted Red Peppers and Peas (p9 Cook's Illustrated July/August 2009)

Because we ended up in Cedar Rapids on Saturday, I didn't get a chance to make this.

Posted by SammyD at 3:21 PM | Comments (0)



September 6, 2009

I will be going for my 3rd attempt at salsa. In a much smaller batch then either the 1st or the 2nd. I bought whole bag of roasted peppers from Juan O'Sullivan's, a bag of Honey Crisps, a bag of Ginger Gold, and some apple cidar (all Iowan grown) at the market this weekend. Unlike last week, where I doubled my normal farmers market budget, I stuck to it this week, and it went real fast. With more crops coming in, I think this might become more and more of a problem.

  • Stuffed Burgers (p5 Entertaining Summer 2009) (Yes, again, slightly different recipe)
  • Spanish Tortilla with Roasted Red Peppers and Peas (p9 Cook's Illustrated July/August 2009)
  • Pasta with Tomato and Almond Pesto (p15 Cook's Illustrated July/August 2009)
  • Pulled Pork Chili (Joseph's Pork, my thinking, first attempt, and for movie night)

Posted by SammyD at 8:56 AM | Comments (0)



This week was quite random, and proceeded of emptying out the fridge, for the most part. We pared down the types of cheese from around 6 or 7 down to 3. Used lots of leftover pulled pork (sandwiches).

Last night I used La Quercia Apple Wood Smoked Bacon to make Mostacholi alla Carbonara. I thought I had spaghetti or linguine in the cupboard, but when I looked...eh not so much. The bacon was very good, quite quite tasty, but at, if I remember right around $17 a pound, I'd rather use Vande Rose Farms Dry Cured Bacon. It did turn out very well and was quite taste, but seriously, anything with that much bacon fat is going to taste good.

An odd note here, both Shannon (who rarely remembers them) and I had strange dreams last night, mine actually woke me up.

The Eden Farms pork burgers were good, but I would've preferred ground pork. So perhaps I could have mixed something or another into it...but it was very good by itself.

The fridge is still more full then I would like it at the end of the week, but it's getting better.

Posted by SammyD at 8:48 AM | Comments (0)



August 30, 2009

So the refrigerator is so full, that even if I felt like going grocery shopping, I couldn't cause I wouldn't be able to fit more food into it. So for the week we're going to do a leftovers/etc week. There is a whole bunch of Joseph's pulled pork left, some baked beans, and buns and etc...

I also got some bacon that I've been kind of building up a stash of meats...so perhaps I'll make Spaghetti alla Carbonara, pork burgers (bought some from Eden Farms yesterday) and other things...but the point here is that there is no real plan for the week, other then to use stuff we already have.

Posted by SammyD at 9:32 AM | Comments (0)



Greek Style Lamb Pita Sandwiches with Tzatziki Sauce (p21 Entertaining Summer 2009)

I think this turned out pretty well...Tastely lamb, cooling dill...over all just a wonder...thought it did take a while to prepare. But I did it on Friday, and took friday off, so I had plenty of time.

Posted by SammyD at 9:29 AM | Comments (0)



August 23, 2009

So with game night this week, wanting to maybe do something from restaurant week, leftover stuffed burgers, and movie night (not here), it'll be a short cooking week.

  • Greek Style Lamb Pita Sandwiches with Tzatziki Sauce (p21 Entertaining Summer 2009)

Posted by SammyD at 9:10 AM | Comments (0)



Why so early? Well I'm just kind of waiting for a call back perhaps, so...I might as well do something...or never mind...he didn't even bother to call me, just fixed it

So I really liked the fresh mozzarella from Lucca and used it for some mozzarella on toast with the fresh tomato sauce night. I also used it on egg and flank steak sandwiches that I made late, because of Shannon's hair appointment. I bought some more yesterday morning from the market. The eggs from Fox Hollow were good and of similar quality to the ones that I normally buy (from another family farm). The Golden Fire Pepper Jam from Blue Gate Farm with the Reichert's Dairy's Robiola on the La Mie wheat bread actually worked quite well. Not to spicy, a little creamy...and tasty.

Fresh Tomato Sauce with Rosemary and Bacon (p24 Entertaining Summer 2009)

This was good, I thought long and hard about using the bacon that I got from La Quercia, but instead went with the regular old bacon that I bought. Though I did add a bit more red pepper flakes then I intended, I thought it was good. On the reheating, though, the fresh parsley added at the end lost some of its character, but was still ok.

Pita Bread Salad (Fattoush) (p44 Entertaining Summer 2009)

This was easy, though did take a bit of preparation. I made it the same night that I made the tuna steaks, and didn't really go outside of the window of my normal dinner making time. Fresh mint just has these magical qualities in certain types of salads. I suppose I did make something similar to this around week 9, though I think this was simpler and the dressing was more then just a bit of olive oil.

Pan-Seared Sesame-Crusted Tuna Steaks (p18 Entertaining Summer 2009)

I used Hy-Vee's "sashimi grade" frozen and rethawed yellowfin tuna. The quality of this tuna was quite a bit better then the tuna that I had before, though still...at the cost...It was quite a bit more then I like to pay for a meat portion of the meal (though not way out there, I've certainly spent more, it was about $10 for the both of us). Fish cooks veery quickly. I turned around to do something else, and by the time I got back, it was a bit more done then I wanted it. But it was still good and easy to prepare.

Tex-Mex Stuffed Burgers (p5 Entertaining Summer 2009)

Where do you find the point at where you can put stuff in a burger (and what type), before the burger starts falling apart? Why does it seem like I always put in too much, but when I follow a recipe, it ends up being fine. It had a nice flavor and with the double helping of Monterey Jack, it was not terribly good for you, but was tasty. And I have a lot of leftover meat to make up burgers again.

And now, I try to get a bit more sleep...

Posted by SammyD at 3:49 AM | Comments (0)



August 17, 2009

I bought some fresh made mozzarella at the farmer's market from the fine people from Lucca. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm looking forward to it. I also got some eggs from Fox Hollow (rather then the ones I normally get), some Golden Fire Pepper Jam from Blue Gate Farm (which is supposed to work very well with the Reichert's Dairy's Robiola).

  • Fresh Tomato Sauce with Rosemary and Bacon (p24 Entertaining Summer 2009)
  • Tex-Mex Stuffed Burgers (p5 Entertaining Summer 2009)
  • Pita Bread Salad (Fattoush) (p44 Entertaining Summer 2009)
  • Pan-Seared Sesame-Crusted Tuna Steaks (p18 Entertaining Summer 2009)

Lets hope I can find some decent tuna.

Posted by SammyD at 12:03 PM | Comments (0)



So this week, my schedule got put off a bit by a a little grill out. But I ended up getting pre-made burgers from Gateway, one being of George's blend, the other being George's blend with some tomatoes, peppers and etc. Both were tasty.

Flank Steak Salad with Chimichurri Dressing (p105 Bon Appétit June 2009)

Made this for movie night. I think it turned out well. I did have to go to 3 stores to get flank steak...which I found silly...but on 2nd trips around over the past week, I did see at more then one place...but it wasn't there before. I thought this was tasty, though I wished I could have sliced the steak a bit more consistently thinner.

Onion, Spinach, and Ricotta Frittata (p49 Bon Appétit June 2009)

Ok, so this turned into a Onion, Ricotta and La Quercia Prosciutto Frittata...but it was easy, quick and fantastic. I also topped it with a vague attempt at the salsa below.

Juan O'Sullivans Garden Salsa Verde (PDF)

Oh food processor, how I love you. I vaguely followed the recipe above. Though I added way more tomatoes and lacked other things... Though I thought the salsa was good tasting, had the right amount of heat (for me), generally it was too wet (and I added too much cilantro). In talking to Sean Sullivan at the farmer's market this past week, he talked about getting a lot of the juice out of the tomatoes. I also watched a video they did about flash sauteing the tomatillos in olive oil before using. I also read in Cook's Illustrated about baking or broiling produce in the oven. So I'll call this attempt one, and move forward.

Spicy Orange Chicken Stir-Fry (p104 Bon Appétit June 2009)

This was good, and easy to make. I have starting added more water to the rice when I cook it because Shannon likes it better (about an extra 33% water). But this turned out very well, and was easy. Maybe not exactly like the orange chicken you'd get at your standard Chinese food, but maybe that's not a bad thing.

Fresh Tomato Sauce with Rosemary and Bacon (p24 Entertaining Summer 2009)

I did not make this, it will be made over the coming week.

Posted by SammyD at 11:44 AM | Comments (0)



August 9, 2009

Posted by SammyD at 8:02 AM | Comments (0)



Smoky Black Bean & Cheddar Burrito with Baby Spinach

Mash up some beans, add some spices, cook for a bit, blammo. I do often wonder where they get the cans that they claim. Almost every can of beans that I see at the store is in 15oz quantities, however this calls for 20oz...so...I'm guessing it was a bit under spiced, but it was still good. Especially after reheating it. I had this 3 meals in a row (dinner, breakfast, and lunch).

Bulgur Salad with Grilled Chicken and Parsley Pesto (p47 Bon Appétit June 2009)

This was pretty good, though I was generally upset with the quality of the apricots from Hy-Vee, I knew I should've just ignored the "fresh" and gone for the canned. Cause the fresh were quite a bit past their prime.

Chile and Cheese Tart (p104 Bon Appétit June 2009)

Took a while to cook, but it was pretty easy to do...

Hoisin Pork Tenderloin with Asian Carrot Salad (p104 Bon Appétit June 2009)

It told me to buy an asian salad dressing, but since I've pretty much made the decision that buying salad dressing is silly, I made my own...based on a recipe I found. It turned out ok, The Pork was great, but the salad...dunno...

Orecchiette with Caramelized Onions, Sugar Snap Peas, and Ricotta Cheese (p49 Bon Appétit June 2009)

This was super simple and good too. This has made me wonder about who buys the pasta styles at the local stores here (Dahl's, Hy-Vee, Gateway Market). Several recipes that I have used have called for orecchiette, which I don't think I've ever seen stocked, but they had Campanelle..and I said really? Oh well. There was a call for leftover products from this meal to make a frittata, but I'll be doing it anyways (even though I didn't really have leftovers from this).

Posted by SammyD at 7:34 AM | Comments (0)



August 2, 2009

Posted by SammyD at 8:49 AM | Comments (0)



As always, the Eden Farms Hot Dogs were quite good. I think this is their finalized recipe, but over all, I've liked each version that they have produced.

Fusilli with Green Beans, Pancetta, and Parmigiano (p44 Fine Cooking June/July 2009)

So after the la Quercia pancetta cooked in the pan, the recipe told me to drain out all but 1 tablespoon of the fat in the pan...and I thought, why would I want to do that? Though when the leftovers were cooled down, it did lead to have some fatty deposits on the noodles and etc, but after heating it back up, it mixed in well.

Juan O'Sullivan's Enchiladas (pdf)

Recommended by Sean and Becky down at the farmers market. I did add quite a bit more cilantro then asked, in both the meat and on top...cause that is just how I roll. But this was so easy I had wondered why I had never made enchiladas before...or at least in this style. I may come back to this and fancy it up a bit (shredded chicken or pork, maybe put some bacon in it). Nice, simple...though with $9+ of their products in/on it, maybe the recommendation is a bit in their self interest, but no matter, friendly people, great products.

Mexican Black Bean Burgers

Even though this told me to refrigerate this for a few hours before cooking, I really didn't have the time to do that...I wonder if it would've helped them stay together better...but I think every time I've made something resembling a veggie burger, it just doesn't stay together that well. I did add more spice then the recipe called for, but it was quite good.

Almond-Crusted Chicken and Nectarine Salad with Buttermilk-Chive Dressing (p76 Fine Cooking June/July 2009)

The debate on if I was going to modify this recipe or not... I was thinking that perhaps Shannon wouldn't appreciate the nectarines, but it turned out that she was ok with that. It's always a fun when you get to pound out a piece of chicken and let a little aggression out. This was tasty, though it did take a while to make.

Pork Chops with Sweet-and-Sour Onions (p86 Fine Cooking June/July 2009)

I should learn my lesson and stop making flavored onions. Seems like no matter how they are altered, they're not that popular with the wife. But the Eden Farms pork chops were nice and I liked it...and ended up eating pretty much the entire onion.

Posted by SammyD at 8:42 AM | Comments (0)



July 26, 2009

Wow! It's been 30 weeks?...

Bought some of the Eden Farms Hot Dogs, bacon and pork chops yesterday. So we'll be having some of that during the week.

Posted by SammyD at 9:08 AM | Comments (0)



Italian Grilled Cheese Sandwich (RC, Cook's Country June/July 2009)

This was very simple...well for me it was basically an excuse to eat pepperoni. One thing in the recipe stood out and often does stand out. A quick trip in the microwave to render out some of fat of thin meats. The pepperoni that was bought (at the deli counter) was a lot better then the normal stuff you get in the great big hormel package...but I guess you get what you pay for. The one problem I had was the bottom of the pan I was using to squish down the sandwiches, when it got hot, the bread started to stick to it...so next time, maybe a bit of oil or spray on the weight pan.

Portuguese-Style Grilled Pork Cutlets (RC, Cook's Country June/July 2009)

This created a spicy tart sauce. Fun too, cause you get to pound out the meat...which can be fun. It was made extra cheap since the pork was leftover (and I still have more leftover pork loin).

Tex-Mex Chicken with Chiles and Cheese (p86 Fine Cooking June/July 2009)

I used a jalapeño pepper that was given to me from a co-workers garden. It had a decent, but not over powering heat and a nice veggie flavor to it. Given my recent transactions with hot pans from the oven, I'm surprised that I didn't end up burning myself... Anyways, taste...probably would've been better over a bit of spanish rice...or something like that, but was still quite good.

Posted by SammyD at 9:04 AM | Comments (0)



July 19, 2009

For the next week, I'm using some leftovers and some pork leftover from the pork loin (though it's nice and frozen solid now).

  • Italian Grilled Cheese Sandwich (RC, Cook's Country June/July 2009)
  • Portuguese-Style Grilled Pork Cutlets (RC, Cook's Country June/July 2009)
  • Tex-Mex Chicken with Chiles and Cheese (p86 Fine Cooking June/July 2009)

Posted by SammyD at 7:29 AM | Comments (0)



Cheese Course (some of my favorite Iowa Cheeses, optional)

Feta was the most popular with the kids, since it had the gentlest flavor. But I had out the Feta, two kinds of Frisian Farms Gouda (cumin and smoked), some Maytag Blue and some Maytag Havarti.

Chive and Onion Stuffed Pork Loin

I over stuffed it. And the stuffing was a bit too loose. But beyond that it tasted good. But it was hard to serve. I'd do it again though. Especially now that I have butcher's twine and have done it before. It also couldn't hurt to get extra practice opening up the pork loin...since it was a bit hacked in some places.

Olive Oil, Parmesan, Chive, covered roasted new potatoes (Yukon and red, Iowa Grown)

I think I over stuffed the pan here. But they still turned out well, but I don't think they dried enough.

Salad of Iowa grown fresh greens and feta, with a balsamic dijon mustard vinaigrette

I layered the salad with greens, feta, tomatoes, and it worked for me. The vinaigrette turned out well

Duroc Pork Italian Sausage w/ tomatoes and Parmesan over pasta

This was from Vande Rose Farms...I forgot the parmesan though...but even so it turned out well. The sausage was tasty, but doesn't supplant my favorite (Graziano's).

Pasta with Chicken Tomatoes and Feta (RC, Cook's Country June/July 2009)

This was simple. I found it funny last night, that It took longer to boil the water and cook the pasta, then it did for the rest of the meal, including cooking the chicken. But this was simple and tasty. Very fresh.

Green Chile Cheeseburgers (p23 Cook's Country June/July 2009)

Shannon didn't want the topping (too spicy), but over all this was pretty good. I've used some of the leftovers to make Green Chile Cheesburgers Pizza on Friday. I still have leftovers, so we'll be having this again this next week.

2.5 Chocolate Cookies

This was based on a triple chocolate cookie, but I used white chocolate (had it in the cupboard), so...that doesn't really count as a full chocolate count. They turned out well. And one of the things I liked the most, is that unlike the cookies I normally make, these ones have a much shorter cook time, so instead of spending the entire evening baking, I was done in about 2 hours.

Posted by SammyD at 7:22 AM | Comments (0)



July 12, 2009

Well this will be another of the books week for the most part. I'm going to vaguley follow ideas from Grilled Rosemary Garlic Pork Roast (p18 Cook's Country June/July 2009)...but not really. Tonight Isaac will be back, along with my sister, a couple of her kids, and my parents, for dinner. I had a couple of ideas for doing this pork roast. One being using the chives out in the garden, some chives, onions and some other stuff. And doing a similar sort of treatment to the roasted potatoes. And make a salad as well. My other idea was to do a similar treatment, but replace the chives with chipotle peppers and adobo sauce...but I think maybe I'll do that for a movie night some night...since that might crank of the spice a bit to much.

So for tonight I'm planning:

  • Cheese Course (some of my favorite Iowa Cheeses, optional)
  • Chive and Onion Stuffed Pork Loin
  • Olive Oil, Parmesan, Chive, covered roasted new potatoes (Yukon and red, Iowa Grown)
  • Salad of Iowa grown fresh greens and feta, with a balsamic dijon mustard vinegrette
  • German Chocolate Cake (from Let Them Eat Cake) and Vanilla Ice Cream

Whew...

For the rest of the week:

  • Duroc Pork Italian Sausage w/ tomatoes and Parmesan over pasta
  • Pasta with Chicken Tomatoes and Feta (RC, Cook's Country June/July 2009)
  • Green Chile Cheeseburgers (p23 Cook's Country June/July 2009)

Oh and Thanks Proof for refilling my desire to cook, I was kinda just going through the motions, but proof kind of set me off in a new direction.

If anyone knows where to get fresh figs around here, let me know.

Posted by SammyD at 8:16 AM | Comments (0)



Leftovers!

Fish Tacos were good, though some of the indgrediants had already turned and couldn't be used (cilantro). I don't think I'll ever buy tuna like that again...it just wasn't that good...but...they were cheap, so really, what do I expect, being here in the middle of the country, you have to spend a lot of money getting fresh, or just kind of forget it.

I got the fridge mostly empty by the end of the week, then threw things that were either turning, or about to turn. I kind of made up a recipe for new potatoes that we had with left over chicken thighs. We had Berkshire pork and made sandwiches out of it... So nothing too spectacular (the roasted new potatoes, were very good and I will be making them again tonight).

Friday night we went to Proof. We had several things that were quite delicious (including probably the best strawberry ice cream I've tasted). Proctor, Chad and Mikaela (sp?) showed up to see what desert was and wished me a happy birthday.

Saturday was game night. Attendance was fairly light, but still fun. Two of my brothers came up from Cedar Rapids to join in the party. Joseph actually smoked a couple of Berkshire pork shoulders for me, and pulled them, so we served pulled pork for dinner. It was really really good. I also bought a cake from Let Them Eat Cake. It is German Chocolate cake and it was really fantastic... I have cake creation envy... Honestly I couldn't believe the price, it was so reasonable. I'm glad that people joined me and am looking to the next one in September...or maybe late August to see if maybe I can get my brothers to come again, before Isaac heads off to college.

Posted by SammyD at 6:36 AM | Comments (0)



July 11, 2009

The cake is not a lie...

Let them Eat Cake's delicious cake.

Posted by SammyD at 11:43 AM | Comments (0)



July 5, 2009

Leftover Week! I've got some leftover pork, chicken, the Fish Tacos...to clean out the fridge before Game Night, where I imagine I will have lots of leftovers (pork and etc).

Posted by SammyD at 8:53 AM | Comments (0)



Scrambled Eggs with Arugula, Sun-Dried Tomatoes, and Goat Cheese (p 37 Entertaining Spring 2009)

This was fairly quick and simple...though I halved the recipe...

Tuna Sandwiches Provencal

The way this was crafted, while good, didn't strike me as the way it should be (so I combined the mayo mix and tuna mix, to make it more normal). After that it was good...not as good as the other one I made, but good.

Fish Tacos

I uh...didn't so much make this, so uh...I'll be making it this next week.

I didn't end up making the french toast either...we got home later then I thought we would from Cedar Rapids, so we ate a late lunch/dinner.

Posted by SammyD at 8:42 AM | Comments (0)



June 27, 2009

Short week (80-35 on Friday, 4th on Saturday), plus making some french toast with some apple cinnamon bread from Uncle Wendell's.

Posted by SammyD at 9:57 PM | Comments (0)



As a bonus this week I started with a Gateway Market cheese pizza, added some of the meat left from the sun-dried tomato burgers, some Eden Farms Berkshire Pork bacon, some onions, sautéed in bacon fat (mmm...bacon fat...). crumbled up, dried up, and put on top and blammo...fatty Bacon Cheese Burger pizza.

Tuscan Tuna-and-Bean Sandwiches

I don't know if it was because I didn't use the tuna that it called for (gotta go with the low sodium, for me), or what, but it just wasn't my style of tuna salad...maybe I missed the Mayo. After I added that (eating it for lunch), it was fine, but nothing to write home about

Sun-Dried-Tomato Burgers with Balsamic-Glazed Onions

This was actually quite good. Leftovers went well on the pizza.

Mahi-Mahi in Tomato-Olive Sauce (p 46 Bon Appétit May 2009)

This is pretty good, though the Mahi-Mahi that I used wasn't the top of the line...probably would've been better with better tuna. The sauce on it's own could easily go over pasta.

Moroccan Chicken with Green Olives and Lemon (p 44 Bon Appétit May 2009)

I thought I added to much lemon juice, Shannon didn't like the amount of olives, but even so, it was still pretty good.

Posted by SammyD at 9:53 PM | Comments (0)



June 21, 2009

What a struggle...I don't know if I'm just being lazy, worrying about cost, but for the May 2009 Bon Appétit looked good, but just didn't seem remotely practical for the most part. I don't know if I'm just feeling blah, or what, but getting enough recipes to make anything remotely looking like a menu was a struggle. Plus for some reason I am just have tuna on the brain (I was looking for a tuna casserole without condensed soup, but decided it wasn't season appropriate).

Posted by SammyD at 9:05 AM | Comments (0)



Best Quick Tomato Sauce (p 13 Cook's Illustrated May/June 2009)

This was really good. Simple. Easy to do. Makes you wonder why people would buy out of a jar? I do it this way, and I know exactly what goes in. Though I do like my sauce to have a bit more of a kick, but it's a good base for a future riffing on the sauce.

Chicken Adobo (Splendid Table Cheap Eats)

I grew impatient, and didn't finish this properly, but even without doing it, it has a nice taste to it. I don't know if I dissected whole chicken right, but it turned out well. Shannon and I ended up with the thighs, and the breasts and wings are still leftover. Took a while, but was good.

Pasta with Instant Fresh Pesto and Balsamic Vinegar (Splendid Table email)

This was very easy and very simple. Tasty. I'm really growing to like the Balsamic Vinegar taste.

Pork Steaks with Chile Orange Sauce (Splendid Table Cheap Eats)

After marinading overnight, I cooked these up. It does make for a longer night before hand, but the actual cooking time is pretty quick. Anyways, this was pretty good, I don't know if the sauce turned out right, but it was tasty.

Posted by SammyD at 7:59 AM | Comments (0)



June 14, 2009

Running a bit late this weekend due to the time we spent in Cedar Rapids this weekend to go see a Dance Recital (Taylor (not really our niece, but might as well be) and Shaeliegh).

  • Pasta with Instant Fresh Pesto and Balsamic Vinegar (Splendid Table email)
  • Best Quick Tomato Sauce (p 13 Cook's Illustrated May/June 2009)
  • Pork Steaks with Chile Orange Sauce (Splendid Table Cheap Eats)
  • Chicken Adobo (Splendid Table Cheap Eats)

Posted by SammyD at 3:37 PM | Comments (0)



White Bean Salad with Mint and Red Onion (p47 Fine Cooking April/May 2009)

Fairly good, we had it with some brats.

Toasted Israeli Couscous Salad with mint, cucumber and feta (p44 Fine Cooking April/May 2009)

Maybe I didn't cut the cucumbers small enough or make it quite right...but neither of us particularly liked this...

Rigatoni with Sun-Dried Tomato and Fennel Sauce (p21 Fine Cooking April/May 2009)

Served this for movie night with a nice greens salad (with Chive Feta) and some good La Mie Bread. It went over well

Mozzarella and Spinach BLTs (p64 Fine Cooking April/May 2009)

I uh...didn't so much follow recipe or instructions really...just made a sandwich with mozzarella, spinach and bacon on wheat. They were very good though.

Posted by SammyD at 3:33 PM | Comments (0)



June 7, 2009

Posted by SammyD at 7:12 AM | Comments (0)



Dijon Cilantro Tuna Salad on Whole Grain Bread (p55 Bon Appétit April 2009)

I have to say, that this was probably the best tuna salad I've ever had. After having some lousy tuna salad the week before, it makes up for that and then some.

Tuscan Garlic Chicken Pasta (RC Cooks Illustrated April/May 2009)

This was very garlicky...Though it did give me an idea on how to make some flavored oil... I liked it, and so did Shannon.

Mashed Potato Casserole with Smoked Gouda and Bacon (p73 Bon Appétit March 2009)

This was quite good, as I already stated. Though not really a main course, even if I treated it as one...

Posted by SammyD at 7:06 AM | Comments (0)



June 4, 2009

We both really enjoyed this:

Mashed Potato Casserole with Smoked Gouda and Bacon with a spicy greens mix with red onions, tomatoes, chive flower feta and a Dijon mustard dressing

Mashed Potato Casserole with Smoked Gouda and Bacon with a spicy greens mix with red onions, tomatoes, chive flower feta and a Dijon mustard dressing.

The Gouda was from Frisian Farms. The Greens were grown locally and the Chive Flower Feta was from Reichert's Dairy Air (which was quite delicious). And I made the dressing (equal parts Dijon mustard, extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar).

Posted by SammyD at 9:09 PM | Comments (0)



May 31, 2009

More brats from Lewright this week, plus probably a left overs night...since well..10-12 servings of leftovers from the meals from last week..

Posted by SammyD at 10:18 AM | Comments (0)



This week we ate some brats from Lewright Meats and they were very good. There are more to go... I also went to the Iowa Cubs Club for two meals. One before a team building exercises and one while watching the Iowa Cubs from a sky box as a team activity later that same day. I had a tuna salad sandwich on a croissant and a bowl of fresh fruit. Most of the fruit was under ripe and tasteless. The tuna was bland, the salad around it was unimpressive and the croissant. Maybe I've been spoiled...but there are a number of other places in town that have decent croissants, and some excellent (la mie), but the sandwich was awful. For dinner, the brats they served were ok...nothing special...but nothing bad either.

Oven-Roasted Chicken Thighs with Carrots and Yukon Gold Potatoes (p53 Bon Appétit March 2009)

This took a while to make, other then peeling the carrots, most of the time was actually waiting for things to roast in the oven. First the chicken, then the vegetables, then together...It was good though...the Chicken was very tender and tasty and the veggies ended up to be the same as well.

Chicken and Cheese Quesadilla Pie (p13 Cooks Country April/May 2009)

This was very easy and quick to make...especially since you started with a roasted chicken. I bought a chipotle spiced rotisserie chicken from Gateway. Combined with the other ingredients it ended up being pretty good, although I think more spices could have gone into it...Though it did say to serve it with salsa and sour creme, which probably would've added the spice I needed.

Baked Penne with Farmhouse Cheddar and Leeks (p68 Bon Appétit March 2009)

Leeks...I could have done this with onions and saved myself a good chunk of change. But this was still very good. It may make me rethink the way I generally make mac and cheese. Since I normally use the roux and go from there, but this made more of a custard as the sauce...a nice difference in the texture.

Posted by SammyD at 9:44 AM | Comments (0)



May 24, 2009

This week, being short with the Memorial Day weekend and a evening event with my co-workers (going to my first baseball game since I was...well..before I was a teenager). So the list this week is pretty short. There were a few things in the March 2009 issue of Bon Appétit that made me wish I had known before I went to the farmers market yesterday, so I could have picked up some smoked Gouda up yesterday...but I think it'll make a good movie night meal...so I guess we'll have to go that route.

Posted by SammyD at 8:22 AM | Comments (0)



Drunken Beans (Splendid Table's Cheap Eats)

This was good, but I could see why people might not like it. Considering it had beer in it, I suspected that Shannon might not like it, but I use a fairly light pale ale and it just kind of blended it very well. Or it could have been that Shannon has had a cold, and hasn't been able to taste much at all. We had these on tortillas with some cheese and sour cream.

Siracusa Market Pasta (Splendid Table's Cheap Eats)

Simple, good, quick (and cheap too).

Quiche Lorraine (p13 Cooks Country April/May 2009)

My first attempt at a quiche. This was quite good...though I think I kinda messed up the crust, because I really didn't get it spread evenly. The texture was a not quite what I was used to. Not as dense, but certainly creamy and fluffy...but not as good as the quiche that I can easily get from La Mie...though it was still good...I'd make it again.

Southwest Enchilada Casserole (p19 Cooks Country April/May 2009)

Took a while to make (though it is for an army, and not really for two people), but I believe my quote was, "I can't wait to eat these leftovers". I did add some an extra Serrano pepper that I had leftover from the Drunken Beans I made earlier in the week. Anyways, this was really truly fantastic and worth the time investment it took.

Posted by SammyD at 8:19 AM | Comments (0)



May 17, 2009

Tonight I'll be making baked shells and cheese, to try to put a sizable dent in the 4.5 pounds of cheese in the fridge.

Posted by SammyD at 9:43 AM | Comments (0)



Reichert's Dairy's new cheese called Robiola di mia Nonna is very good. Shannon and I actually bought more yesterday at the farmers market. I would call it something like cream cheese, except tarter...but it's good. I would pick Robiola over cream cheese any day.

Eden Farms Berkshire Pork hot dogs, were very very good. I'm a big big fan. Normally I avoid hot dogs like the plague, since most of them just taste like...well...that their taste testers don't actually care about their jobs or their product, but these were fantastic.

So far the farmers market for me, has been meat, cheeses...and well more cheese. For the most part the fresh things at the market include asparagus (neither of us really like), rhubarb (Shannon doesn't like) and other things I don't generally use in my cooking. I have really enjoyed my mornings there...

After game night last night I discovered I had 12 kinds of cheese in my fridge (Dave had brought over some parmesan) and between all of them, including their packaging, it weighed 4.5 pounds. About half of the cheese, both by weight and number are Iowan made.

In picking up some things for game night, there were a few more items from Lewright Meats at the Dahls, plus some duroc pork sausage from Vande Rose Farms. More Iowa pork...num num num

This week I also made Chipotle and tomato paste Turkey burger with feta, red onions and wickles spicy relish, which was very good and also included some leftover beef from the Moroccan Meatballs.

Moroccan Meatballs in Tomato Sauce (Splendid Table's Cheap Eats)

A little spice, a nice sauce and some meat. Easy to make and quite good, what can be better?

Baked Ziti (Cook's Illustrated March/April 2009)

This was down right delicious...though I guess I have to call it Baked Penne, since well apparently nobody carries ziti noodles

Brown Rice with Black Beans and Cilantro (Cook's Illustrated March/April 2009)

When I made this I realized that a lot of the things this week were vegetarian. The Ziti and the Soffritto were also veggie... This was decent. It was more of a side dish, then a main, but well, I made it as a main and it was filling.

Soffritto of Tomatoes and Fresh Herbs with Penne (Splendid Table's Cheap Eats)

Veggies veggies and more veggies! But it was still quite tasty. Tomatoes do add quite a bit to taste.

Posted by SammyD at 9:19 AM | Comments (0)



May 10, 2009

Continuing with the magazine theme, using the recent Cook's Illustrated, and some other sources around the internet...I'll also be using ground turkey bought last week (Hy-Vee didn't have ground chicken, but Shannon got it later when she made a Target run), to make burgers and hot dogs...yes hot dogs. Though they are Eden Farms Berkshire Pork hot dogs...so...uh.. (Curiosity got me)

Posted by SammyD at 7:14 AM | Comments (0)



May 9, 2009

A good week for cooking...I took a little break in the middle of the week and we had some smoked brats from Lewright Meats. Very good. In other food notes, I'm glad the farmers market is back...there are vendors and favorites that I've missed over the long winter. I've also found a few new good things. The smoked Gouda from Frisian Farms was fantastic. It went over very well at my Dad's 60th birthday party last weekend. I also found out that my dad is a huge fan of Gouda from the days when he went on a mission to Norway, but now a days his thriftiness gets in the way of his desire to buy it. Not exactly the cheapest thing in the world, but it's very good.

Reichert's Dairy has made a new cheese called Robiola di mia Nonna. I'm looking forward to trying it.

Beef Picadillo (Fine Cooking Feb/Mar 2009)

While I couldn't find the kind of lettuce that it called for, it went in very well with what we had. Though it would've gone well in a tortilla or a taco shell too. I would've liked it to be a bit spicier...but that's just me. I had it with tortilla chips yesterday, and it was quite good that way as well. I did add some Juan O'Sullivans Salsa de Mesa. I wish it was a bit hotter though...but that's just me.

Chicken-And-Corn Fried Rice With Lemon Spinach (Chef Ming Tsai on NPR's How Low can you go)

This was good...and cheap as all get up to prepare. Though I did have to make rice the day before to do this, but even so, it wasn't that time consuming to prepare. I had the last of it for lunch today and it was still good.

Fresh Pasta with Sausage and Mushrooms (Fine Cooking Feb/Mar 2009)

Relatively simple, and in this context one of the ways where mushrooms seems to be ok in this house. Though I didn't use any sort of mushroom that was that flavorful, it still seems to be a way to introduce the flavors into the house, for both of us.

Chicken Sauté with Lemon, Cumin, and Parsley (Fine Cooking Feb/Mar 2009)

Hy-Vee (in Windsor Heights) finally started stocking decent chicken thighs (ie not sodium solution injected)...and in this case they were already de-boned and skinless. This turned out good. So simple. I have so noticed how often zest of both lemons and limes to just bring out the flavor for the lemons. I've never really been a big user of it in the past, but I'm seeing it more and more how it can be very useful in bringing out that flavor in a dish. I made a salad using some greens, bought at the farmers market, and a recipe (garlic mustard balsamic vinaigrette) also gotten at the farmers market.

Spicy Jerk Pork Chops (Fine Cooking Feb/Mar 2009)

This was good...broiled..I don't think I got the crust intended because I used the sauce meant for 4 pork chops, but I only used it on two...but even so quite good. Served with a small mix of greens and some peas, it was a good meal.

I'm going to try harder to bring more vegetables to our table. Neither of us a huge veggie fans, so it's kind of easy to please without even having to worry about it, but I should be...so...even simple sides will be better then nothing.

Posted by SammyD at 8:13 PM | Comments (0)



May 3, 2009

Cooking from the magazines continues...I'm almost caught up to magazines that are at least dated in a recent month...

Posted by SammyD at 7:14 AM | Comments (0)



Spicy Pork Empanadas (Cooks Country Feb/March 2009)

These are really good I was so glad I made the Carne Adovada the previous week. It was pretty easy to do after all the labor had gone into the chili before. Good stuff. We actually ended up having this twice (Sunday and Friday).

Lowcountry Red Rice (Cooks Country Feb/March 2009)

I liked this...but when it comes down to it, I've made this many times before, just had no idea what to call it....

Roast Pork Loin (p 219 The Best Light Recipe) with Cognac and Mustard Sauce (p 213 The Best Light Recipe)

The Cognac and mustard sauce was meant to go on beef, but it tasted great on the leftover pork loin from the accidental buying of to much in the previous week. This ended up tasting pretty good.

Cheesy Broccoli and Rice Casserole (Cooks Country Feb/March 2009)

I was getting pressed for time, and so I left the rice be a bit too firm. If I would've used quick rice, it would've taken shorter, I guess...but my desire to use the Basmati that I have in my kitchen made this a little crunchier then it should have been. Beyond that It wasn't my favorite thing. I'm not a huge fan of broccoli, but it was still good.

Greek-Style Chickpea Salad (p 57 The Best Light Recipe)

I served this on movie night with bread and it turned out pretty good. Relatively light and fresh and good. I just hoped it was filling enough for people, which It held for me...so...I guess it was.

Posted by SammyD at 7:02 AM | Comments (0)



April 26, 2009

  • Spicy Pork Empanadas (Cooks Country Feb/March 2009)
  • Lowcountry Red Rice (Cooks Country Feb/March 2009)
  • Cheesy Broccoli and Rice Casserole (Cooks Country Feb/March 2009)
  • Greek-Style Chickpea Salad (p 57 The Best Light Recipe)
  • Roast Pork Loin (p 219 The Best Light Recipe) with Cognac and Mustard Sauce (p 213 The Best Light Recipe)

Posted by SammyD at 9:26 AM | Comments (0)



Bison Burgers with Cabernet Onion and Wisconsin Cheddar (Bon Appetit 02/2009)

Ok So I didn't use wisconsin cheddar...or bison (Hy-vee usually has some, they didn't, it was on order, ended up using ground beef). But I think this turned out pretty well. Shannon didn't like the onions...she said they were too much like the cabernet that they were cooked with. I thought it tasted really good though...made for a wonderful sandwich. The ciabatta rolls that they were on didn't hurt the flavor in the slightest.

Caribbean Pork Tenderloin (Cooks Country Feb/March 2009)

I uh, accidently, bought an extra few pounds of pork tenderloin...and have lots of leftovers...I thought it was the meat for the Carne Adovada...but instead I have about 3 pounds of it left over. Anyways, this was also very good. Sweet, tart, a bit spicy.

Skillet BBQ Steak Tips (Cooks Country Feb/March 2009)

This was a nice rich dinner after a long day. I didn't really agree with their assumption that all BBQ sauces are too sickly sweet. I almost exclusively use Russ and Frank's BBQ sauces and they are head and shoulders above most BBQ sauces.

Baked Pork Chops with Parmesan-Sage Crust (Cooks Country Feb/March 2009)

It was this recipe that finally broke my back. I have been putting off buying new baking pans for a while, and this would've been extra outstanding if I was able to bake it on a rack on top of a baking pan, so the air would've circulated under it. I went out on Friday and bought these (along with tongs and an electric tea kettle). These turned out very well. The parmesan, fresh sage, and melba toast made for a great crust.

Carne Adovada (New Mexico Pork Chili) (Cooks Country Feb/March 2009)

I'm glad that movie night was cancelled this week...I don't think I could've made this in time. Even if I left work way early. Preparing the meat, and all the ingredients took quite a while and since I used my Chantal pot it took even longer... It's not that the pot was really the issue, its that it's fairly narrow and tall, so when I cooked the pork, instead of in the two batches liked the recipe said, it took five. So at 10 minutes per, it took an extra 30 minutes just to start, before the rest of the recipe went down. It was so worth it though. Getting to around 8:PM it was finally done, we dished it out mixed in a bit of sour cream and called it good. I'm curious about adding a bit more of the chipotle pepper and adobo...

As suggested, I'll be making the Spicy Pork Empanadas with the leftovers....tonight probably.

Posted by SammyD at 8:47 AM | Comments (0)



April 19, 2009

Cooking out of magazines again this week..so Here we go:

  • Bison Burgers with Cabernet Onion and Wisconsin Cheddar (Bon Appetit 02/2009)
  • Carne Adovada (New Mexico Pork Chili) (Cooks Country Feb/March 2009) (movie night)
  • Caribbean Pork Tenderloin (Cooks Country Feb/March 2009)
  • Baked Pork Chops with Parmesan-Sage Crust (Cooks Country Feb/March 2009)
  • Skillet BBQ Steak Tips (Cooks Country Feb/March 2009)

Posted by SammyD at 9:15 AM | Comments (0)



Curried Carrot Salad with Nonfat Yogurt (May 2009 Bon Appetit)

I've had carrot raisan salad before...in fact its one of my favorite things...however...this was not that good. I think the curry spices were just too strong...and not really balanced out by anything...so I dunno. I don't think I'd make this again.

Skillet Goulash (December / January 2008-9 Cooks Country)

I liked this. and it made for good leftovers. Creamy, beefy and some steak to eat. Filling.

Southern Style Green Beans (December / January 2008-9 Cooks Country)

These were ok...but I wasn't too thrilled by it

Crispy Black Bean Tacos with Feta and Cabbage Slaw (February 2009 Bon Appetit)

I really liked these. These were so quick and easy to make that I could see making them on any night of the week, even after a crappy day.

Posted by SammyD at 8:56 AM | Comments (0)



April 12, 2009

So in continuing the cooking out of the magazines I'm currently reading, I have picked the following items. Some of them are just sides, but then intention for me is to use them with some Gateway Market made brats that I want to try...so I'll make the side with them.

Posted by SammyD at 8:46 AM | Comments (0)



French Toast

It has been a while since I made some french toast, but it all came back...mmm...french toast...so good. Add a little vanilla, add a little cinnamon...and mmm...good stuffs.

Fish Cakes with Coleslaw and Horseradish-Dill Sauce

This was actually quite good...and easy to make. Though the tuna probably wasn't the best of quality...though it was individually portioned and then frozen...but it still worked out. I didn't go with the coleslaw because neither of us are big fans of coleslaw. So we had pasta salad instead. The Horseradish Dill sauce was good too.

Vegetarian Black Bean Chili with Orange and Cumin

I had an extra 3/4 pound of ground beef...so to beef it up a bit, I added that tot the chili...though I don't think it really needed it. It was bright flavored where you could certainly smell and taste the cumin and oranges. So it was very chili like up front, but the finishing taste was very orange. Certainly and interesting way to make a chili.

New England Clam and Corn Chowder with Herbs

Mmmm....chowder. This was pretty easy to make and delicious. I've never used can clam before, but it turned out good...though the saltiness makes it something that I cannot have on a regular basis.

Beef and Bacon Meatloaf

I wish this recipe would've said 4 slice of white bread or a bout X cups of bread crumbs. We ran out of bread, but I had some leftover breadcrumbs from various things...so I used them instead. It ended up a bit more loafy then I intended...thought still good. Usually, though, when I make meat loaf, I don't use bread when I make meat loaf.... It still tasted good, but it was more like eating a meatloaf sandwich, then just meatloaf.

Beer and Onion-Braised Chicken Carbonnade

So I used Goose Island Oatmeal Stout...this is fairly strong flavored. And while I liked the way it turned out, it had too much, though only slightly, of the beer flavor for Shannon. It wasn't like the Irish beer I made a while back that had so much beer that Shannon just couldn't take it. It made for a good dinner.

Posted by SammyD at 8:39 AM | Comments (0)



April 5, 2009

So out of the same issue (January 2009) of Bon Appétit that I made the Pâté de Campagne (Country Pâté) for the March 2009 Game Night, in their fast easy and fresh, they have a Value issue in the Fast Easy and Fresh section. Shannon also requested French toast...so I bought a loaf of challah yesterday to make that. I won't be making all the recipes out of the list and probably not in the order they suggest, but it'll be a few things at least.

Posted by SammyD at 7:30 AM | Comments (0)



So it was a weird week of cooking...With the stated goal of getting rid of things.

I made a garbage pasta...It had the last jar of pasta sauce in the house, some leftover tomato products (puree, paste, etc) from various recent recipes. Plus leftover sour cream, a bunch of ricotta and some "hot" Italian sausage, from Dahls. I also used two types of pasta...because they've been in the cupboard for a while. I turned out pretty well, sort of a creamy tomato sauce.

I had every intention of making tuna salad, but when I looked there was no tuna, so I made egg salad instead. I used some roasted red peppers that I had bought for something else, to get them out of the fridge.

I tried the Vande Rose Farms Artisan Dry Cured Bacon when we had scrambled eggs and bacon. The bacon was very good.

But now the fridge is mostly empty, I was able to clean it yesterday morning, and all of the meat that was frozen in the freezer, is now used and gone.

So now, I can build back up again.

Posted by SammyD at 7:10 AM | Comments (0)



March 29, 2009

I did not get through all the items in the freezer that I wanted to.

So I picked up a few things yesterday (milk, juice, etc) and I'm not even doing a full shopping trip this week. This week will probably include getting rid of that last of the jarred pasta sauces that I will probably buy.

I guess we'll see how it turns out.

Posted by SammyD at 9:37 AM | Comments (0)



So during leftover week here, we went through a number of things in the freezer and emptied out a good chunk of the fridge as well.

I used some of the leftover meat that I couldn't put into the loaf pan, mad them into patties and we had Pork Burgers with Pineapple. It turned out very well...though Shannon didn't have any of the pineapple on hers. They had just put some pineapple out at Hy-Vee so I bought a whole one. The price difference between cut pineapple and whole pineapple is amazing. I was left with a large amount of pineapple leftover that I ate throughout the week. This would've been the first time I've chopped up a whole pineapple as well...

I also used the pork again and the leftover hummus put it on the pitas I bought for game night. It was simple to make and delicious. And then the pork was gone!

The country pate that was leftover, I then sliced, pan seared it, and made sandwiches out of it...Yes...this is the week of a whole lotta pork...

For movie night, I made Roasted rack of lamb with parsleyed breadcrumbs (p 319) out of The Bon Appetit Cookbook. I had told Shannon the night before, that I had planned on leaving work as early as possible so I would have plenty of time to make dinner. I didn't get home until 5:30 (obviously not leaving early)...so I was rushed to say the least. What was interesting about the rack of lamb is that there was only 2 bones coming out of the main section of the meat...which was weird. I think maybe I'm not really ready to clean up lamb like that...though it really wasn't that I hard I guess, it was just not something I've done before. It wasn't near as pretty as the Frenched racks I've bought before. I cooked them on the same pan with a bunch of quartered red potatoes (Shannon washed, cut them up, and coated them in olive oil).

Oh baked potatoes...so easy to make...

Last night I used some leftover beef from a while ago (frozen then rethawed). Cut it off the big hunk, sauteed them, and then cut them into small pieces. Used some purchased horseraddish sauce, some of the baby greens and the pitas again. It turned out very well.

Posted by SammyD at 8:47 AM | Comments (0)



March 22, 2009

My fridge is mostly full, already, and there are many leftovers to go through. I also want to get the meat that has been in the freezer used, before it spends too long in there.

For movie night, I'll be making Roasted rack of lamb with parsleyed breadcrumbs (p 319) out of The Bon Appetit Cookbook.

We'll see how the week goes.

Posted by SammyD at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)



It went pretty well out of The New Best Recipe: All-New Edition. Simple, clear, and concise directions that make the whole thing pretty easy to do..

Curried Egg Salad (p 122)

This was really good, simple and easy to make, we had them on the South Union ciabatta buns for quite a bit of combined flavors. I bought a new curry powder, that is quite fragrant and spicier then the curry powder/paste that I made last week.

Quick Turkey Burgers (p 381)

These didn't turn out as well as I thought it would. The problem was that It wanted me to use 1.25 pounds of ground turkey, and I didn't reduce the rest of the recipe to match the only a pound of ground turkey that I used...so it was fairly crumbly. The taste was good though.

Creamy Sweet Pea Soup (p 47)

This was very simple and bright in flavors and a very bright green in color. It really accentuated the peas with slight back flavor of cream.

Orecchiette with Broccoli, Sausage and Roasted Peppers (p 266)

I used less broccoli and more sausage and cheese then this asked for. I liked it. The one thing about it, that I had never really seen before, since I really hadn't paid much attention to the cooking of broccoli before is how it magically changes color. I watched it, through the lid, steam. And it just hit this magically point where it went from the dull green color to this magical bright color...that signifies it's done. It was interesting to watch.

Broiled Chicken Thighs with Spicy Jamaican Jerk Dipping Sauce (p 327)

This was good, and simple. cover pan, put chicken thighs on pan, cook, turn over, cook more, move up closer to the broiler, get a nice crust on the skin side (left it a bit to long, some got a bit of a char). Done! I did modify the sauce and added tomato paste and pureed it as well. It came out as a sort of spicy ketchup.

Hummus (p 13) (For game night)

Again...going to the point that this is easy as hell to make. Rinse, rinse, add, add, processor to a creamy goodness. Spice it up...taste...spice it up...taste. The thing I learned here is that with the cayenne pepper...and probably the other spices, when it sits together it kind of grows in spice. So instead of the forward taste of chickpeas, followed by the bright taste of the lemon juice and then a bit of a kick with the cayenne pepper, it was more of a smack in the face with the cayenne pepper and the more that you ate, the more the cayenne pepper took over and just dominated the whole flavor profile.

So...less cayenne pepper.

Pâté de Campagne (Country Pâté)

I'm running a bit behind in my magazines (Just started with February issues), so I read this article about pâté and the description buy the author, Molly Wizenberg, in the January issue of Bon Appetit, made me really want to try it. The way that she described is kind of like the way that I heard wine described. Once you find one that you like, you can expand your tastes from there. Getting over that sort of wtf is this, to the holy bajesus this was good. I was worried though. It's not something I've ever made, it seems extra snooty, a the thought of it was just kind of wierd. But the list of ingredients, pork, bacon, ham, how could it be bad? So I put out feelers to see if people would at least try it....Proctor sounded very enthusiastic others said they would try it...so I moved forward.

I understand that this is the country version, so it's not like smooth paste type of pâté that I had read about in the December issue of Bon Appetit, but this was really good.

When I got home from work on Friday I made the hummus, and started on the pâté. I sealed it up, put away, quickly made dinner and came back to it later. And because I did this I messed a few things up...so I had it all layered and packed together in the loaf pan and thought, "Crap...I forgot the eggs" So I unpacked everything, added the eggs to the meat and then repacked and layered everything.

It cooked a long time (2.25 hours) and I pulled it out of the oven around midnight, and put it in the fridge....A bit before the party started, I took it out...warmed it up a bit in hot water, and then got it out of the pan. It came out with this load of congealed combined pork and bacon fat. Which I proceeded to wipe off and I ended up with this beautiful loaf lined with bacon. Presentation alone it was very appealing.. With the bacon alternated colors...just a thing to behold.

I cut off a few slices and stuck them with my other GF stash for Courtney and tried a slice for myself. It was quite good, no weird odd flavors, just a wonderful combination...and on bread with the Dijon mustard...freaking fantastic.

It went over really well at game night too...I was very happy.

Posted by SammyD at 7:55 AM | Comments (0)



March 15, 2009

I'll be cooking out of The New Best Recipe: All-New Edition this week. In no particular order:

  • Creamy Sweet Pea Soup (p 47)
  • Curried Egg Salad (p 122)
  • Orecchiette with Broccoli, Sausage and Roasted Peppers (p 266)
  • Broiled Chicken Thighs with Spicy Jamaican Jerk Dipping Sauce (p 327)
  • Quick Turkey Burgers (p 381)

For game night, I will make some Hummus (p 13) from this cookbook as well...I may also make something else...but at least this.

Posted by SammyD at 9:19 AM | Comments (0)



Another week of cooking out of The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper: Recipes, Stories, and Opinions from Public Radio's Award-Winning Food Show turned out pretty well...I'm still fairly impressed with this cookbook. It's quite the collection.

Chicken Curry with Gentle Spices (p 205)

This was light, delicate and flavorful. I wasn't so strong that it left the lingering curry smell in the house. I did make my own paste, which was interesting...I may experiment with this further in the future. It talked about breaking the paste, which is to have the oils separate out. I think I accomplished this but seeing a picture of it would be kind of handy. I also could make my own mix of curry powered...hmmm...The only problems with thinking about this experiments is that you often have to test things one after another after another, so when it comes down to it, you may be eating the same thing over and over...it would be kind of obnoxious. I also am starting to enjoy the chicken thigh. Cheaper and more flavorful then the breasts. However my problem with it is that at Hy-Vee they don't have chicken thighs in the lower sodium, organic chicken.

Scilian Corkscrews with White Beans (p 159)

This is like many of the white beans + pasta that I've made this year. Who knew something so simple could be good? I do tend to add things on top of this, but it's good buy itself.

Filipino-Style Chicken Adobo (Chicken in tart Garlic sauce) (p 208)

I marinated the chicken for about 24 hours. This again used the marinade to reduce down and make a sauce. It was quite good, tasty and definitely tart. Holy smokes. The only issue that I had with this is when I reduced the sauce (by half or so) I had a lot of that smell just sort of permeate the kitchen... The kitchen still vaguely smells of this.

Black Pepper-Honey Steak (p 252)

This was good, simple and quick. I did cook steak at a medium, rather then the medium rare that I was going for, but even with that it created a nice crust and a flavorful taste to it. I served it with fries.

Tamarind-Glazed Pork Chops (p 239)

On this, I couldn't find the Tamarind paste...I found nectar (juice) and bought it, but beyond that I was unable to find this at Dahls, Hy-Vee, or Gateway Market. I know there is an asian market around here somewhere, but I'm not sure where. So I ended up not making this.

Posted by SammyD at 8:00 AM | Comments (0)



March 8, 2009

For Shannon's birthday week, I will once again, be cooking out of The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper: Recipes, Stories, and Opinions from Public Radio's Award-Winning Food Show.

In no particular order:

  • Scilian Corkscrews with White Beans (p 159)
  • Chicken Curry with Gentle Spices (p 205)
  • Filipino-Style Chicken Adobo (Chicken in tart Garlic sauce) (p 208)
  • Tamarind-Glazed Pork Chops (p 239)
  • Black Pepper-Honey Steak (p 252)

Posted by SammyD at 8:57 AM | Comments (0)



March 7, 2009

After a relatively short list from The No-Salt, Lowest-Sodium Cookbook, it turned out to be not to bad. Though most things needed a little more salt. It was a good use lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. The recipes were simple, and easy, but mostly spiced pretty tamely. Though I suppose it's a general cookbook for older folks with bland tastes.

Hummus (p 142) with Whole Wheat or Pita Bread (p 275)

The hummus was easy to make and pretty good. Though I added a bit more stuff then the recipe asked for, including some Franks Red Hot and Chipotle Tabasco. It was so easy that I was shocked that I actually have paid for this before. I guess you live and you learn. But it made a nice pita wrap and I actually used it a couple of days this week as a sandwich filling (with pepper jack and yellow mustard, pretty good) for my lunch.

Scrambled Eggs with Peppers and Mushrooms (p 127)

No milk, but lots of veggies...funny enough I think it was actually more veggies then eggs and I added an extra egg. But this actually still worked. And there was actual garlic in there too...I remember when I had a garlic egg combo catastrophe (what I did, no recipe, was gross). But it was ok...especially after I added a dash of salt on the top.

Leon's Pita Salad (p 192)

This was pretty good too. Adding a small amount of oil and lemon to it created a good dressing and made a good salad...though it doesn't stick with you very long. Both Thursday night and for me after eating it for lunch on Friday it was followed by some pita chips and the hummus.

Cajun Season Chicken with Mustard and Lemon (p 96)

I uh...didn't buy enough lemon at the beginning of the week. So I vaguely followed this recipe. The Cajun seasoning and then adding mustard after the first pass, actually enhanced the flavor. I served it with corn.

Posted by SammyD at 7:34 AM | Comments (0)



March 1, 2009

I bought The No-Salt, Lowest-Sodium Cookbook right after I was diagnosed with hypertension.

I never actually used the cookbook, but instead opted to make more things from scratch, read more labels and select things based on their sodium content.

So in no particular order:

  • Cajun Season Chicken with Mustard and Lemon (p 96)
  • Scrambled Eggs with Peppers and Mushrooms (p 127)
  • Leon's Pita Salad (p 192)
  • Hummus (p 142) with Whole Wheat or Pita Bread (p 275)

Posted by SammyD at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)



Alba Restaurant
524 E 6th St
Des Moines, IA 50309
(515) 244-0261
Dinner: 5:00 PM - Close (Tuesday - Saturday)
Lunch: 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM (Wednesday - Friday)

We were a bit confused as to where to enter, though I am glad we went into the bar, because we were able to see how neat it was, along with the open kitchen. It was pretty impressive to see the cooks at work in the kitchen. Certainly a nice touch. Holly's dad suggested that we should sit at the table right in front of the kitchen, but we didn't. We ended up in the main dining room. I have to say that I like the decor. Holly told us that they guy that was redoing parts of her dad's house also did this restaurant. I liked the doors on the ceiling, the walls, the tile...The concrete trough for the sink in the restroom (though I like the faucets) was a bit...well...underwhelming. I know concrete can look a lot better.

After being seated at a table, we had a good view of the the entire restaurant or a great view out the window. The menu was a little odd. Broken up into appetizers and salads on one side and mains on the other, except the gnocchi, which, according to our waiter Greg, should've been on both.

I ordered the Chorizo Fries and the Pork Burger. Shannon ordered the Warm Goat Cheese and Seafood Linguine. Chris and holly ordered the gnocchi and the Salmon or some fish, poached in red wine.

While I like the chorizo fries, it reminded me a lot of the cheesy fries that you can get any number of places, except better, though no cheese. The fries were good and had a nice spice added to them. Though the fries were covered in chorizo, I thought it might be something more...I liked it, but was it really fine dining fare?

Shannon's warm goat cheese was some goat cheese wrapped in, I believe, prosciutto. It was pretty good. Certainly a good presentation.

The Chris and Holly's gnocchi was probably the highlight, at least in my mind, of the appetizers that we had. I think I've had better, but it was still pretty good.

For the mains they came out together, except for Chris's which came out a little afterward. Then then brought out a small plate with 4 slices out of what appeared to be a ciabatta loaf.

My pork burger was topped with pineapple, jalapeno peppers...it was good...though the pork didn't really stand up to the pineapple and peppers. It should have been spiced with something more. Though I did like the sandwich over all, the drawback on the pork was something that would've made it into a great sandwich. More fries, these were not spiced like the others, but were still good...

Shannon's Seafood Linguine tasted more like spinach then seafood. If you would've said Spinich Linguine then it would've been right on, but for me, it tasted too much like spinach and not enough like seafood. Shannon liked it though.

For dessert I got an apple crisp, Shannon got the chocolate molten cake, and Chris and Holly split the banana foster. All were pretty good, but nothing was really outstanding.

Over the course of the dinner I had two glasses of the Los Vascos Cabernet Sauvignon, which I liked, and it was fairly inexpensive. I may have to see if I can find it.

Our service was attentive with a few flubs. Greg accidentally split water on to Holly's purse. I was missing silverware (Holly went and stole me some from a vacant table), but he was very quick on returning our checks after we put our credit cards in the folder. Overall service was pretty good.

With two glasses of wine, appetizers, mains and desserts our bill came to a total of $78.44 with tax. With tip, under $100. I believe Chris and Holly's was fairly similar.

Overall I wasn't astounded, but it was good, I'd go back to try more things.

Posted by SammyD at 8:36 AM | Comments (0)



February 26, 2009

So after probably the worst day that I've had in 6 months, I went with Brandon down to get a little mini cake at Let Them Eat Cake.

Suddenly it's a good day.

It doesn't hurt that I'm taking tomorrow off.

Posted by SammyD at 3:48 PM | Comments (0)



February 22, 2009

In continuing with the short easy meal, I'll be cooking out of How to Cook Everything : Quick Cooking...which is basically a subset of How To Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food, but with all the quick stuff put together. I'm finding this is not uncommon, though it does make for some easy reference. For movie night, however, I'll be using a recipe from La Quercia for movie night. In no particular order:

  • Pasta with Sausage (p 26)
  • Crunchy Curried Chicken Breasts (p 55)
  • Chicken Satay (p 57)
  • Sauteed Pork Chops (p 72)
  • Lamburgers with Smoked Mozzarella (p 80)
  • La Quercia Prosciutto Americano Lasagne (movie night)

Posted by SammyD at 9:51 AM | Comments (0)



February 21, 2009

Over all, I wasn't generally impressed with the recipes in the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. They were all generally fairly bland. It seemed very disjointed, some placed calling for dried spices (like garlic) and others calling for fresh. They often didn't specify at what level things should cook at on the stove top, which can change the recipe a lot. Other then that, it was fairly simple to cook out of, though I guess I did go out of my way for the easy cooking route.

Huevos Rancheros (p 227)

This was actually pretty easy, though I could have made it a lot fresher. I don't mind canned tomatoes, but if I can use fresh spicy peppers, I would prefer to. You basically soft boil the eggs in tomato mixture. I think it could have done better w/ a fresh jalapeno pepper, and some more spices. Though I did basically learn how to make a fairly simple chip...

Garlic Chicken (p 395)

This would've been a lot better if I had pounded out the chicken and then rolled it. The two piece that I had were of differing sizes, so while the thickest part of the breast was still needing cooking the smallest part was done...or getting over done. It did taste good though. That was a lot of garlic...and I mean a lot. Though it didn't taste bad.

Scalloped Mac and Ham (p 355)

This was pretty good, I added some cheese too it at the end.

Spicy Black Beans and Rice (p 61)

Spicy, my left foot. Even after adding more spices then it called for it was still on a fairly mild part of the spicy scale

Chili Mac Skillet (p 331)

This was easy to make...and if I would've thought about it, I could have made it in one pan. It was no where near as good as the chili that I made last year. It was basically a very simple chili with noodles added and cheese on top.

In conclusion for a end all be all cookbook, I prefer How To Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food over the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book,

Posted by SammyD at 5:06 PM | Comments (0)



February 16, 2009

Shannon wanted to go to Proof for Valentines, and since they had a dinner on the 13th. The Menu consisted of:

  1. vegetable and goat cheese terrine/herb coulis
  2. seafood cocktail/cornet
  3. prime rib wellington/beet zabaglione
  4. chocolate pot de creme/<3

We both had the entire menu and everything was very good. I also had the wine pairings with dinner (Shannon sampled out of mine). I think the wine pairings were pretty good, though It hink the best was probably with the beef wellington, which I think was my favorite part of the meal. Not that the other courses were anything to be upset by, but I don't fix myself beets too often (one of those ingredients I'm not terribly comfortable with, because of a lack of experience), and I have such fond memories of them. I also found out that Shannon isn't a huge fan of beets, but beet enhanced sour cream is ok. I may try to sneak them into things though...though that I'm saying it here, pretty much means that she'll know...but I'll try again.

When I was a child I remember eating my mom's pickled beets...lots of them...so much so that when they came back out, I thought I was bleeding. Oh the red dyes of beets.

We both loved the chocolate pot de creme with the almond heart shaped cookie (the <3). And it wasn't such a big serving, like they have at Django, where it's just too much.

Anyways, another great meal at Proof. For actual valentines day, I cooked, but nothing too special (Chicken Paprikas). The next day we headed up to Ames to go to the Legends for Bob's surprise 30th birthday party. It was all right (food, meh, they had Guinness on tap though). He was truly surprised. Over the entire night, though, I think we knew 5 out of the 30 or so guests...so...

Posted by SammyD at 12:09 PM | Comments (0)



February 15, 2009

This week I'll be cooking out of the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. Though, it is not the 2006 version that I have linked to, but the 2000 edition. right off the bat, looking through this cookbook and the soup recipes just struck me as not as good as I've been growing used to. Bullion? yeah I don't think so. Anyways, this is one of Shannon's cookbooks, not one I picked out. I really tried to go out of the Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook, but between not being sure I could get the ingredients and some of them I know not being in season or even available, I went with this one. I think this will be a good break though, most of these recipes are fairly simple...and after spending 2+ hours on some of the recipes in the past...It'll be nice to be a bit more simple

  • Spicy Black Beans and Rice (p 61)
  • Huevos Rancheros (p 227)
  • Garlic Chicken (p 395)
  • Scalloped Mac and Ham (p 355)
  • Chili Mac Skillet (p 331)

Posted by SammyD at 5:30 PM | Comments (0)



Rigatoni with Tomatoes and Vodka (p 193)

This was so good...and just shockingly better then a vodka sauce that comes in a jar. Considering how easy it was to make, I doubt very much I'll ever buy a jarred vodka sauce again. Of course I'm finding that about most sauces. They sound complicated, but when it comes down to it, they really aren't. In checking my cupboard, there really is only one jarred sauce left. I was thinking about using it (along with a few of the tomato based leftovers from this week) just to clear out the fridge and open a bit of space in the cupboard.

Polenta with Sausage and Asiago (p 240)

This tasted very good. I'm still uncomfortable with polenta, because I don't know if I am getting the texture right. I almost thought it might be better just to make it like a cornbread with all the stuff in there in it. Any time you have big chunks of Asiago in something, it can't be too bad.

Jamaican Jerk Burgers with Orange-Chipotle Mayonnaise (p 182)

Josh and Lindsay came over to have this. It said to make it on the grill, but since my grill is basically falling apart that didn't happen. Probably would've been better though. With the marinade that went on the burgers (it had brown sugar in it) it quickly gave off a quite a bit of smoke (window had to be opened) and quickly blackened the outer layer of beef on the burgers. It tasted pretty good. though. The may was really simple to make, just a bit of chipotle a small bit of orange juice and some mayo...how simple is that? And it tasted really good.

Falafel with Cilantro Yogurt in Pita Bread (p 259-260)

Movie night ended up not happening, however, I still made the falafel. I don't know if I made these right. It said I was supposed to be able to form patties of sorts out of the mixture...it was far too liquidy to do that. Though I was able to get a flour side down, brown, warm solidify the falafel a bit more. It turned out really good though. Spicy, tasty and I'm guessing good for you (no bad fats, not a lot of salt).

Chicken Paprikas (p 333-4)

I made this last night. It used a lot of paprika (5 teaspoons of sweet and 1/2 teaspoon of hot), which is how, I understand, paprika is used. It turned out very well, good tender flavorful chicken with a thick spicy sauce of onions, peppers, and garlic. The only draw back here, is that it said to slice the red peppers, which I know Shannon doesn't like large pieces of bell peppers. So I cut them down a bit. It worked well.

Posted by SammyD at 8:17 AM | Comments (0)



February 8, 2009

This week I'll be cooking out of The Bon Appetit Cookbook. I read their magazine (along with a few others), and cook out of it from time to time.

This week it'll be, in no particular order:

  • Jamaican Jerk Burgers with Orange-Chipotle Mayonnaise (p 182)
  • Rigatoni with Tomatoes and Vodka (p 193)
  • Polenta with Sausage and Asiago (p 240)
  • Falafel with Cilantro Yogurt in Pita Bread (p 259-260) (Movie Night)
  • Chicken Paprikas (p 333-4)

Posted by SammyD at 10:44 AM | Comments (0)



February 7, 2009

So this week, I was cooking out of The Irish Spirit: Recipes Inspired by the Legendary Drinks of Ireland. I gotta say that I've never cooked with so much alcohol i my life. Sometimes I use it here or there, but never to this extent. The week started off very good, but then went down hill...as far as Shannon was concerned. The last two she didn't like so much.

Oh I did like the Irish Mist...It was like a decent whiskey combined with honey and some spices, dangerously easy to drink.

Gaelic Steak (p 17)

The sauce that went over the steak had a bit of whiskey in it...it called for Irish...but I used some Scotch whiskey instead (since I have many bottles). I actually purposely used mushrooms...which, is, shall we say, quite uncommon for me. Since neither Shannon nor I are big fans. But this turned out quite well.

Chicken Cashel Blue (p 24)

I made bread crumbs (basically took an entire La Mie ciabatta, food processored it, toasted them and put the leftovers in the freezer), and it had a wonderful crust on it when I was done. I didn't use Cashel Blue, but Maytag blue (not near as expensive). I do think I could have made it better, but it turned out well.

Beef in Ale with Cheese Cobbler (p 54)

I liked this quite a bit. Though when it was cold and I warned up some leftovers for lunch, the ale undertones were overbearing...but when warmed up again. It was quite good again. I quite understand whey Shannon didn't like it. if it was less ale and more beef broth, I think it would've gone over better. I used Boulevard Irish Red Ale. We both, however, really loved the cheese cobbler. These were fairly similar to the muffin things that Holly makes from time to time. I think the cobbler with the stew was quite good.

Tulach Mhor Lamb Casserole (p 112)

This one I didn't get at all. It said slice, I did, it said combine chicken broth and Irish Mist, I did. It said cover, I covered, it said bake for a long time. It said uncover and bake some more, I did.

I think if I made cubes of potates, diced the unions and mixed it all together...added less liquid (like lamb isn't gonna give off a lot of juices anyways) and then pretty much do it the same way...but maybe some cheese and bread crumbs on top to finish with, it'd be a lot better.

Posted by SammyD at 10:34 AM | Comments (0)



February 1, 2009

This week I'll be cooking out of The Irish Spirit: Recipes Inspired by the Legendary Drinks of Ireland. One of the things I really wanted to make, Medieval Stew with Stout (p 51), was very time consuming...so I'll have to do it some other time when I have lots of time to cook...or for a movie night. There are quite a number of desserts that I'd like to make out of there too.

So in no particular order:

  • Gaelic Steak (p 17)
  • Chicken Cashel Blue (p 24)
  • Beef in Ale with Cheese Cobbler (p 54)
  • Tulach Mhor Lamb Casserole (p 112)

Posted by SammyD at 6:48 PM | Comments (0)



So in cooking this week using The Best Light Recipe cookbook...there was quite a bit of prep, but it generally went pretty well.

Corn Chowder (p 84)

Since I didn't have fresh corn (being that it's the middle of winter), I used frozen, thawed corn. Then food processored about half of it (like the recipe called for). But it went well...tasted good.

Quinoa Pilaf with Corn and Jalapenos (p 149)

The cooking class I went to last week, they told me they used it in their cooking and being that it is a pseudocereal and high nutritive value, I figured I'd make this. Since it is a side, I made simple pork chops with them. This took longer then I expected. But it turned out well, and quite tasty. I do believe I'll be doing more this type of thing later.

Barley Risotto (p 138)

This was quite good. Creamy, a bit of a chew and some fresh herbal flavors. I combined it with a a cut up sauted chicken breast. It was nice...I even had it on it's own as a lunch. It took a lot longer then I expected however, so much so that I actually served the last of our good cheeses and some crackers to myself and Shannon before I was done.

Pasta with Beans and Greens (p 170)

Now this was a struggle. Just over an hour of prep. The fresh kale was annoying as all get out (I've never used it before). Cut out the rib of the leaf, over and over and over, cut it into small segments. Ugh. Anyways after I was finally done with prep, I started cooking and had about another hour under my belt before I was finally done. I think it was good. The kale, which had entirely filled my big Chantal pot to over flowing, reduced down fairly well.

I think maybe it would have been better with fresh tender leaves of spinach combined at the end.

Over all this week was a week of new things. I've never really worked with barley, quinoa or kale before....so it was interesting to say the least.

In the future I may have to change when I plan dinners. I know I want to include going to the farmers market in my shopping for foods (it's on Saturday mornings). Plus there are times, like this weekend, where I cannot keep the schedule. so maybe I'll have to plan during the week, get ready and then do the shopping broken up between the farmers market and regular shopping. This week, I've still not planned what we're eating for the week and plan on going shopping tomorrow after work.

Posted by SammyD at 4:33 PM | Comments (0)



January 25, 2009

This week I'll be cooking from The Best Light Recipe. I was going to use Cover & Bake (Best Recipe), but...well...I don't think of week of those recipes would work out too well.

So this week, in no particular order:

  • Corn Chowder (p 84)
  • Barley Risotto (p 138)
  • Quinoa Pilaf with Corn and Jalapenos (p 149)
  • Pasta with Beans and Greens (p 170)

Posted by SammyD at 11:51 AM | Comments (0)



Last night, after saying my farewells to Shannon, I headed down to Proof to go to their first cooking class. I left a bit early, so I ended up driving around the block before parking. I didn't want to show up too early.

I don't know what it was, but my anti-social anxiety had popped up pretty bad in the hours building up to the class. I don't often go to places on my own. There is something about going to a new place with someone, that makes it more comforting, then being alone. This is where the idea of something over takes why I'm normally used to doing.

I went in was greeted and quickly given a Sparkling Rosé (Cava Rosé, Gran Sarao Brut, Cava NV). Carly Groben (owner) was there and I was put a bit at ease...I've met her on a few occasions and Proctor is her friend...so I think It helped to settle me down a bit. The Rosé couldn't have hurt either. More of the group came in the door, and the chef came out and we were fed el Majoun. This was a combination of dried fruits, nuts and a whole lot of spices covered in sesame seeds. It was like a delicious spice bomb in the mouth. Chewy, spicy and a little bit of crunch. I so want to make these things.

After the last of the group arrived, we headed back into the kitchen. While the dining room of the restaurant is warm and inviting, The kitchen is far more practical and utilitarian. We sat in seats to watch the chef make a few things.

Chef Chris Place went through how to make flatbread, ras-el-hanout (spice blend, kind of like curry, in that there are thousands of variations), harissa (a spicy paste), cous cous, a tangent on preserved lemons (which are much easier to make then I would've thought), lamb roulade, spiced eggplant (the vegetarian main course option), and two types of tagine (veggie and seafood). I took many notes in my packet on things I didn't know about, how to do some other things... But here was the point of a few drawbacks. First, while the ingredients are listed, processes, amounts and etc were not. And while he didn't look like the Chef was measuring things, exactly, I wouldn't be comfortable doing that right off the bat. Second, the kitchen was loud. Even without the exhaust fan above the stove on (it was on and off and points during the demonstration), it was still tough to hear. And Third, it was often tough to see what was being done. Not that cooking lends well to see what I'm doing in this bowl well. Even with all that, it was still quite a bit of fun. Just kind of to demystify the whole area. It's not that complicated...its just a bunch of ingredients that you may not use every day.

Afterward, we headed back into the dining room to do a wine tasting. The wines were pretty god, though nothing really stood out as a huge favorite in my mine. I think it was huge the example of how wine changes with food, and without. I think my favorite of the batch was the Monastrel/Cabernet Sauvignon, Castano "Solanera" Yecla 2005. Which was really good with the seafood tagine.

The dinner was great. It consisted of the things the Chef demonstrated plus some almond pastry and a fortune cookie. Mine said, "I'm not a glutton, I'm an explorer of food". Which is pretty good. I still like the "I don't have a big waistline, I have a large happiness curve." better.

I spent a while chatting with Carly about food, desire to cook, and showed her some pictures of things I've made. I think it came to a point of what the kitchen reminded you of. I have many fond memories of smells and sights of both my mothers and grandmothers (dad's side) kitchen, and it kind of makes me want to share that with others. Food has always been a way for me to show my love for other people.

When I got home, I settled down a bit and was told that Shannon got some rear claws to the face...Apparently George scared Gracie, and Gracie kind of used Shannon's face as a launching point to get away. She didn't bleed, so it sounds like it should heal up well.

Posted by SammyD at 9:27 AM | Comments (0)



How To Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food (Original 1998 edition) proved to be as good as I thought it would be. In the past, I have often used it as a starting point for recipes, and this week was no change to that...though with half of the recipes from the book that I used with this week just modified them flat out.

Black Beans with Niman Ranch Chorizo & Rice (card)

This card turned out to be very good. It was a nice combination of meat rice, and vegtable matter. Maybe it could have been a bit spicier...if that's what you are looking for I suppose

Chicken Soup with Rice (p. 73)

This one wasn't really meant to be a main course. So I added peas, corn, carrots and more chicken to make it more of a stew, then a soup. I suppose the soup would turn out to be pretty good, though, if you were sickly and just wanted something nice, simple and warming.

Spaghetti alla Carbonara (p. 141)

Anything that uses bacon fat in the recipe can't be that bad. I really enjoyed how simple this was to make and how good it tasted. though I doubt very much I'd ever order this in a restaurant again...cause it was seriously super easy.

Bean and Tomato Casserole (p 512)

I started out with the idea to remain true to this recipe, but when I was in the store, I thought more about making into a sort of Mexican type lasagna. So I layered it not only with the tomatoes, but also with tortillas. I added diced tomatoes and left over turkey that I cooked up to the beans, and lessened the amount of beans that I used to get around the total of 6 cups of filling that it called for. I also added two jalapeno peppers.

Spicy Tofu with Ground Pork (p 526)

I've used tofu before, but not very often...so something with so much tofu was a bit daunting at first. But it turned out OK. I think that if I was able to flavor the tofu before hand, it might have been better. Also, I was a bit surprised by what it called for right of the bat. The recipe said that it'd take about half an hour, but the first instruction was to firm up the firm tofu by letting it get dryer for about an hour. I think an hour is a bit hard to fit into 30 minutes, though this is not the first recipe to do this...and I guess that's what I get for not reading the whole thing before making it.

Posted by SammyD at 8:59 AM | Comments (0)



January 18, 2009

I don't think I can express enough how much I liked the recipes out of How to Eat Supper for the past week. Everything was really really good. From the stew to the pasta (I wasn't sure about the cinnamon and pasta, but it was fantastic), it was fantastic. The eggs...oh my...even though I may have messed them up a little (cut the recipe in half, though I didn't do it for everything I think which lead to a bit runny stuffing for the eggs). So good. In that I made my first dressing from scratch, which wasn't hard at all. I'm pretty much making everything from the past week again, sometime. Also, last week I went through almost two bulbs of garlic...

This past week, I added a 12" lid and spatter shield to my collection. Which is a necessity...though with both of them, it makes it tough, since the 12" items don't fit well into my dishwasher... I used my Chantal Copper Fusion Stock pot for the soup...oh yes I love that pot...other then that I have to wash it by hand...(doesn't fit in dishwasher).

This week I'll be cooking out of both How To Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food (Original 1998 edition) and a recipe card that I got when I bought some Niman Ranch Chorizo. in no particular order:

  • Black Beans with Niman Ranch Chorizo & Rice (card)
  • Chicken Soup with Rice (p. 73)
  • Spaghetti alla Carbonara (p. 141)
  • Bean and Tomato Casserole (p 512)
  • Spicy Tofu with Ground Pork (p 526)

Posted by SammyD at 10:24 AM | Comments (0)



January 11, 2009

So over the last week of cooking, I've reminded myself why I need to get my mise en place, found out that I needed a lid for my 12 inch skillet. It is kind of hard to cover and simmer when you do not have a lid that comes close to the size of the pan (boo). I plan to rectify that this week. Though I had, at the beginning of the week, close to 3 pounds of rice, two of those pounds not instant rice (Arborio and Basmati made up the majority of it). And when you aren't cooking for an hour, then the use of instant rice is a must (I ran out). Everything turned out pretty well. I was hoping for a more Worcestershire sauce taste to the Shepherd's Pie. I also need to at least prep before Shannon gets home. Sometimes it would take longer then I would expect, and we're eating dinner at 8. The worst was with the Curried Chicken and Rice, which was, my fault, because I ran out of instant rice, so in adding basmati, I had to cook it a whole lot longer then what the recipe called for. Which also led to overcooked chicken (still good tasting, but a little tougher then my normal chicken.

So...frustrating.

We also had too many leftovers. Most of the recipes are for 4 people. So lots of leftovers left. Now for me, this provides quite the variety in my lunches. But even so, we had a leftover night and still have left overs. Now that I think about it, it may be more to the point that the lasagna is servings for 8, instead of 4...so that kind of moved everything back...

This week I'll be doing 4 dinners. (the rest being leftovers or quick meals (easily made standards)). I'll be cooking from How to Eat Supper in no particular order:

  • Cuban Black Bean Stew (p 79)
  • Pan Crisped Deviled Eggs on French Lettuces (p 93)
  • Hollow Pasta with Greek Cinnamon-Tomato Sauce (p 166) (for movie night if we're hosting)
  • Tomato Cheddar Packed Turkey Burgers (p 210)

Posted by SammyD at 10:08 AM | Comments (0)



January 4, 2009

This year we have a shared goal of not using the credit card for anything other then replacing the furnace and air conditioner (this will depend on if I use the tax refund(s) for this or to pay off my car, which will be paid off by September).

My goal for this year, is to use my cookbooks more and plan and make dinners according to the plan. Too often I'll depend on the old standbys because I feel tired or just can't think of what I want to make.

So for the week of Sunday January 4th through Saturday January 10th, I'll be cooking from The Best 30-Minute Recipe mostly.

Tonight it'll be Lasagna (not from the book, or any book for that matter) and then in no particular order:

  • Skillet Tamale Pie (pages 119-120)
  • Skillet Shepherd's Pie (pages 118-119)
  • Curried Chicken and Rice (page 110)
  • 30 Minute Pork Vindaloo (Page 83)

Posted by SammyD at 11:28 AM | Comments (0)



January 1, 2009

For new years, we took our third trip in two weeks to Cedar Rapids.

The drive there was a bit silly. Roads were clear and clean, but covered in state troopers. I slowed down a bit, because I didn't want to push my luck.

At the Matta's we showed up, settled in, had a nice simple dinner, before the girls were packed up to spend the New years with Grandma and Grandpa Matta. We waited till around 8:00 PM before we started to dig into the prepared snacks. From Nathan's roasted nuts (many jokes ensued) to goat cheese pizza drizzled in a herb infused olive oil, they put on quite a selection of delicious things to eat.

The theme drink of the night was cocktails made with sparkling white wine. The base being a wonderfully fruity Asti (very similar to what was served at Josh and Lindsay's Wedding). So we had everything form your standard mimosas, Poinsettias to the odder Black Velvet (surprisingly good), Nelson's Blood (not really good or bad), and others. I brought quite a good bottle of port (Trevor Jones Tawny Port Jonesy), which I really enjoyed...and I'll be replacing.

Along with Shannon and I, Jenny and Nathan, Clif, Scott, Jane and her husband (and even though I've met him a couple of times now, I can't bring up his name), and then another couple Scott and someone...that I had not met before. Enough to like you aren't forced to do things together, but not so much that it's hard to do anything.

So as the night wore on and several of us got into the spirit. We played games on the Wii (Boom Blox is awesome). And then ended up watching CNN's coverage of the New Years.

CNN's coverage was awful...and I mean bad. Crappy bands and I love the 3 second before midnight cut over for those of us in the central time zone.

Anyways...people started to clear off, and some chatting continued well into the night. Eventually around 2:30 or 3:AM we called it a night and slept.

In the morning, I was up first (I never sleep long). Read a bit, played with my iPod Touch, drank all Shannon's water...and then got up to search for more water.

Colby (the dog) followed me downstairs, wanted to go out, so I let him...remembered that Diego (the dog) was in the crate, so I let him out and into the backyard too. I drank water, read some more and eventually others joined me. Waffles for breakfast, got cleaned up and headed over to Shannon's sister's.

Sean seems like he's becoming a bit more anti-social...but it could just be the day. Shannon's parents joined us and Mike's friend.

We had some cake and ice cream chatted with the family, watched Sean get a bunch more from Dr Who.

We eventually left and headed over to Culver's to eat before we drove home. However, it was closed. So we ended up at Ruby Tuesday's. I don't know why we keep going there. The food is never that good, and apparently nobody there wanted to be there and the service was lousy too.

Being that I was still a bit tired, we headed over to Starbucks (I'm not sure where the non-starbucks places are in CR), went through the drive through, ordered (Peppermint Mocha Twist for me, water for Shannon) and drove up to the window. We were behind two cars, waited for the first. and the a Caddy CTS and finally got to the window.

The barista said that the people ahead of us had paid for our drinks and wished us a Happy New Year. By this time they were already gone so no way for us to give our thanks, so we thanked them, and headed back to Des Moines.

Certainly was an unexpected surprise.

I've been told that I need to pay it forward...so I guess I'll see what I can do.

Posted by SammyD at 10:14 PM | Comments (0)



December 22, 2008

Shannon, being on her week of vacation, wanted to go out and try Proof for lunch. We headed down a little bit after noon.

We went up, I ordered the Duck Lasagna, Shannon had the Chicken and Cous Cous. Both were fantastic. The lasagna had duck, crispy pancetta, a rich sauce and noodles. It was so good.

I'm pretty certain that Proof now has taken the places as my favorite restaurant in Des Moines, and I don't state that lightly.

Posted by SammyD at 6:23 PM | Comments (0)



December 21, 2008

Jenny made some cookies. Rosemary cookies...they were fragrant and quite good.

Posted by SammyD at 8:55 PM | Comments (0)



On Friday, we had our team holiday dinner. We headed down to Centro to have a lunch, and quite the lunch it was. Keith, instead of joining us, headed home to lay down, since it was feeling a bit sickly.

We started off with a small Margherita pizza. I had pesto steak sandwich and many others had their own. It was quite good. After lunch we walked down the street a bit, after the drivers plugged the parking meters, and headed to Django for dessert. Between the six that we present, we had an Baked Apple Galette, Lemon curd, and this other dessert that Proctor had been there three times that week to eat. All three were quite delicious.

Saturday, we headed over to Cedar Rapids to the Matta's. We waited for the storm to pass, and then got on the road. The interstate wasn't too bad, though it seemed that whenever there was a car, truck or trailer in the ditch, traffic seemed to slow dramatically. Or around the snow plows and what not. So it took us quite a bit longer to get from Des Moines to Cedar Rapids then it normally does. We did catch up to the storm and got hit by it again as we headed north to Cedar Rapids.

We came in from the wind and the cold.

We settled for a bit (and played some hide and go seek) and packed up in the minivan and dropped off the girls with Jenny's mom and headed over to Winifred's.

We were there early, and seated down and started chatting. Eventually we were joined by Scott (living in CR), Cameron (in from Japan), and Dave (in from Michigan). It was nice to see and chat with everyone. We finally got around to ordering and we split a full order of their onion rings, which were pretty good. Shannon had Chicken Angelo, and I had the beef tips with cognac sauce. I started with a lobster bisque, which was...well...just ok. And they brought out the beef tips. Presentation wise, they were very lacking. It honestly looked like dog food...I was kind of turned off. However, once I tasted they were quite good. The beef was tender, the sauce was round and robust. I tasted Shannon's chicken, with what they called prosciutto....it was way to thick...It tasted good, though...but the texture seemed wrong.

The detractions, from Winifred's were small, but annoying. I admit that we started off slow, however, the service was, generally attentive, but slow. Water was refilled a lot, but the speed that the food came was just a bit too slow. The bathroom was more or less hidden, and the vinyl walls, made to look like the tile, just looked cheezy in comparison with the rest of the restaurant. The wine list was large, but not that I'm a huge wine aficionado, but between Scott and I and the Mattas, other then one brand which could range quite a bit in quality, most everything else we didn't recognize. And with no wine steward to help...it's kind of hard to get through.

The conversation for the night ranged all over the place, from the economic crisis, to just silly inane things.

We skipped dessert, since most of us were full and the Matta's were a bit late in picking up their children.

After we got them, we head back to their home and met up with the whole crew and drank mulled wine, some beers that I had brought. We were later joined up by Richard, who had drove in earlier that day with his wife and child from New Jersey.

Conversation went into the night...very late, where eventually quite a few of us were having trouble staying awake. So the party broke up and people went on their way home.

Sunday morning, we were slow in getting up...though once the light started hitting my face, I had trouble keeping my eyes closed. The Matta's eventually headed over to their first Christmas with Nathan's parents. We got cleaned up, and headed over to the American Skillet. Found online that day, and not too out of our way out of town.

I don't really have much nice to say about the place. I didn't like the orange juice (not even remotely tasting fresh), I didn't like the bacon (to dry?...it was just wrong). The Dallas skillet was ok. Shannon said that she and been spoiled by omelets at La Mie.

However, not all is wrong with the American Skillet. The Fruit & Fiber Cakes, which I had read were good, were actually quite good. It's basically a pancake, set up on one side, adding granola, cinnamon to the other, and then finishing the cooking with the granola. A bit of crunch, some pancake, some blueberries and some butter and syrup. It's like a dream imagined in pot smoker's haze.

The drive back to Des Moines was much much easier, though with the head wind drove down the miles per gallon. It took about 1/3rd of a tank to get to Cedar Rapids, and a little less then half on the way back.

It's nice to catch up with long time friends.

Posted by SammyD at 7:30 PM | Comments (0)



November 30, 2008

Nuclear Brownie Ingredients:

  • 1/2 lb butter
  • 3 oz unsweetened chocolate
  • 18 oz 60% cacao chocolate chips
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/2 Tablespoon vanilla
  • 1 1/4 cup sugar (8.8 oz)
  • 1/2 cup flour (2.5 oz)
  • 1/2 Tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Nuclear Brownie Directions:
  • Pre-heat oven to 350F
  • Liberally butter a 9x13 banking pan
  • Melt butter, 9 oz (1/2) of the chips, and the unsweetened chocolate over a double boiler, when melted, let it cool.
  • Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla together.
  • Slowly add the chocolate mixture to the eggs, while whisking the egg mixture (tempering)
  • Mix in flour and baking powder and salt.
  • Stir in remaining chocolate chips
  • Pour into pan and bake for 30 minutes
  • Let cool and refrigerate overnight.

Cookie Ingredients:
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour (10 oz)
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 tablespoon Cinnamon (less if you feel so inclined)

  • 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 cup packed dark brown sugar (~8 oz)
  • 1/2 cup white sugar (3.5 oz)
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 egg
  • 1 egg yolk
  • ~2 Cups of refrigerated Nuclear Brownies (8.5 oz) cut into 1/4" square, keeping the full height of the brownie. Cut off the edges and use the center for the bits.

Cookie Directions:
  • Preheat oven to 325 F, Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
  • Sift or whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, set aside
  • In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, dark brown sugar and white sugar until well blended.
  • Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy.
  • Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended.
  • Stir in the brownie bits by hand using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula
  • Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
  • Bake for 18 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a 4 minutes on the stove before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Reviews were good, I got an email from Taylor (Nathan and Jenny's daughter):

your cookies were good daddy and i liked them

Posted by SammyD at 3:22 PM | Comments (0)



November 28, 2008

Thursday morning I headed out, tried to see if I put a Netflix at the central post office, if it would go any faster (it didn't), topped of the tank, headed back home, filled up the car with nuclear brownie cookies and leftover nuclear brownies, and then we headed over to La Mie to pick up some bread.

I had Joe (owner and proprietor of La Mie) try out one of the nuclear brownies (he liked them, said they were very fudgy) and we bought some coffee, hot chocolate, and a cranberry and walnut challah, some rolls (kind of in the form of muffins), and this wonderful bread with gouda in the middle that I can't remember the name of. It really was fantastic. Afterwards we headed to my parents.

Now I will admit that traffic on I-80 was lighter then other Thanksgivings, but like I told Nathan later, it seemed like all the pleasant people stayed home and just left the rest of the jerks on the road. Seriously, why do you call it a passing lane, when..well...the majority of cars are in that lane? It was tried by a BMW x3 and some gigantic of an locally grown SUV to basically kill me...the running up in the regular lane, thinking they can cut in front of me as I'm right behind someone else...I hate that.

Anyways, we were the first guests to arrive. Joseph got home from a hour something run (he had a bit of a unibomber type look to him (Beard + crazy hair)). I saw the senior pictures that we went back to CR to take with my brother. And saw the preparations of the massive feast that was about to take place.

People started to arrive. As with most of the recent events, it usually ends up being the parents, the boys in the family and their families, and a few other random people. In attendance were: Hyrum and Diane and their kids (5), myself and Shannon (2), Jed and Stephanie (2), Joseph (1), Isaac (1), Parents (2) and then Rod & Shanna (2) and a couple of their brood (2), a couple of missionaries (2), and to top it off, the family that Stephanie nannies for (lets just say 4); for a grand total of 23 people at my parents.

Before dinner there was a bit of foosball palying, some Stratego (played my nephew), lots of goofing off, catching up and etc.

Lots of food...and I mean lots. A couple of homemade pies, cookies (mine included), tons of side dishes, including several sweet potato dishes, cranberry sauces, breads (banana, Jed made, La Mie, etc), 4 or 5 jello dishes, and turkey. This is probably the juiciest turkey I've had of my mothers. So kudos to her for that.

There were 4 tables. One tiny table (for the little kids), a card table (for bigger kids, but ones that may still be messy) and the two bigger tables.

The hits of most of the night wast the gouda filled bread that I got at La Mie, my cookies, and Shanna's homemade Lefse. The La Mie bread didn't make it much past the prayer (people started eating it before hand). I also really liked Shanna's low fat, low cal stuffing, which was nicely spiced...I was actually surprised it was low cal and low fat...

After the dinner settled and desserts started making the rounds, we hung out for a bit longer before we headed over to the Mattas.

At the Mattas were Jenny & Nathan, Taylor and Cali, Nathan's parents Pat and Terry, CJ and Emily (I think that's what her name was). Eventually we were joined by Nathan's older sister Cherokee and her family (Cherokee used to babysit both Nathan and I).

Jenny and Nathan were mostly busy in the kitchen putting the final touches on their meal. We chatted, played with Taylor and Cali (which for the most part involved playing catch with Taylor and her Horton stuffed animal).

So when they were about to eat, we exited stage right, but before we did so, we tried little piece of the turkey they made (holy bajesus it was good. butter and bacon fat under the skin, so you had turkey + spices with a nice bacon finish), and got a thermos full of mulled cider (alcohol free) and headed home.

Traffic on the way home was much lighter.

My older sister Emily had a child on Thanksgiving morning...I am waiting for more details.

Shannon worked a bit today, and I left shortly after her to brave the mall crowds.

Now normally I avoid black friday like the plague. I mean I plan on staying in the house, my car not leaving the driveway, not participating in any sort of commerce on that day.

I don't like malls, I don't like crowds, and the combination of both makes it extra annoying. However Apple was having a sale, and my iPod recently lost it's life, and being that the iPod Touch was on sale, I figure if I can get the 10% iPod recycling discount, then I'd get it...it's not like i'll be able to get it much cheaper. I was able to, and did so. I got an iPod touch, so that way when the drive strikes me, I can listen to almost anything out of my music collection rather then a mere 10% of the total music collection...

So since I was already there, I figured I'd check out Williams Sonoma and Barnes and Noble. I ended up getting a good (comparatively) deal on some non-stick cookware, so that I can have a pan to do omelets and etc in. 2 pans for ~$60, when one of them costs $125 normally...which makes me think that they just have a great big profit margin...but...anyways...

By the time I got out of the mall, I was about ready to die... People wearing too much perfume, strong smells that hurt my nose. and just the mass of people.

I got out and after avoiding people who don't know how to drive, I got home...and proceeded to disconnect from people and play with my new toy.

Shannon got home, and we spent the rest of the day safe from crowds.

Posted by SammyD at 10:54 PM | Comments (0)



November 26, 2008

Nuclear Brownie Cookie

Posted by SammyD at 10:09 PM | Comments (0)



November 24, 2008

In thinking about the nuclear brownie cookies, I think what I forgot was to add more brownie bits for the doubled recipe... So instead of having the bursting cookies, they were just a few (2 cups for 3 dozen cookies vs the 4 cups as it should be).

I'll be making brownies again tonight, and then draw back the cinnamon just a little bit to get the balance that I was looking for (hopefully).

I'll be baking the cookies Wednesday night and taking them to my parents (and the Matta's) for Thanksgiving.

Posted by SammyD at 1:28 PM | Comments (0)



November 20, 2008

Genoa salami, spicy salmi, horseraddish cheddar, provolone, dijon mustard, mayo on onion cheddar bread

num num num num!

belly full.

Posted by SammyD at 7:16 PM | Comments (0)



November 10, 2008

So the idea was to take Nuclear Brownies and put them into the chocoalte chip cookie base...

While the reviews were pretty much exclusively positive, it wasn't really what I intended to do. I used far too much cinnamon for the flavor profile that I was looking for. Though it was stated that the heavy chocolate taste from the brownies and the heavy cinnamon from the cookies kind of acted as a sort of dual palate cleanser. So it was a burst of chocolate, followed by a burst of cinnamon, or the other way around. And while this is a good thing, I suppose, I think it would've been better if I would've added more semi-frozen brownies bits, since 2 cups per batter recipe wasn't quite enough. Or if I would've just highlighted the brownies, by moving back the cinnamon. I'll have to try again with smaller batches this time.

Also, I need to get the timing right...the first 6 cookies out of the oven ended up being a bit raw in the middle, thought I did adjust the time up to around 19 minutes per batch, which seemed to get it to about the right consistency from my oven. though I suspect if I add more brownies, it'll change that time too.

I also think I mixed the cookie batter for too long, since they didn't rise as much as they have in the past with other of the multi-chocoalte chip cookies.

Also as an adjustment to speed up the time to make the Nuclear Brownies, by tempering the egg and sugar mixture, I was able to add the warm chocolate and butter in much sooner, which allowed me to finished the brownies in one segment, rather then start, wait for chocolate and butter mixture to cool, then finish.

Anyways, this may end up being two separate recipes...one with the cinnamon drawn back just a little with the brownies cranked up just a bit. And then another where the brownies are the stars, and the cookies are a backdrop.

Posted by SammyD at 3:48 PM | Comments (0)



I was listening to the Splendid Table today and heard about this book:

BakeWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking with Over 200 Magnificent Recipes by Shirley O. Corriher

And decided to amend my christmas wish list.

Posted by SammyD at 3:20 PM | Comments (0)



November 7, 2008

proof restaurant
1301 Locust St
Des Moines, IA 50309
Open Monday - Friday for lunch and Fridays for Dinner.

So pretty much our whole work group headed over to proof restaurant for lunch. It was busy when we went.

We ordered our meals, put some tables together and chatted about work things.

The owner/chef stopped by and actually thanked me for my post before. It was both nice to hear that someone related to one of the places I've written about actually had read it, and yet a little weird for me too...often times I have to think for a while to come up with the right things to say...so I'm not so necessarily so eloquent in person. Plus I guess I was a bit embarrassed, too...I suppose. I was also interested to find out that she comes from the family that is responsible for Jasper Winery...which produces the Chancellor which I think I've said before was one of my favorites...probably my favorite in the state, excluding the Port from Cedar Ridge Winery.

Anyways on to it.

I had Moroccan Chicken Flatbread and Curried Carrot Soup with a soda. It was kind of funny because Andrea and I ordered the exact same thing and Michelle ordered the same main with a salad side... Brandon had the Roast Pork flatbread, Keith had the braised lamb flatbread and Proctor had vegetable falafel.

The the chicken was tasty, spicy and and fragrant. I was nicely cooked, tender and just yummy. The soup was quite tasty...maybe made a bit extra so being so warming on such a cold day (first snow + me with no coat). What is it about soup that is so good? I also tried a bit of the braised lamb (delious) and the falafel, which was really quite good...yes...me...and vegges...I know, I know.

Anyways for $9 + drink and tip...how can you not go?

Also, I did promise Shannon that when she wanted to go to lunch, we could go...so I guess I won't get in too much trouble...

Posted by SammyD at 8:55 PM | Comments (0)



October 31, 2008

proof restaurant
1301 Locust St
Des Moines, IA 50309
Open Monday - Friday for lunch and Fridays for Dinner.

Wow...just wow.

From the simple menu listing of:

first/5
nacho chips/dip
second/10
duck pizza
third/15
hot dogs/apple fries
fourth/7
snickers/ice cream

Comes one of the best dinners of my life.

Nacho Chips and Dip was really these fried wheat chips and a goat cheese sauce. With these thinly sliced slightly salted tiny red potatoes (I think). The sauce was spicy, but not so much so that it turned away...but still spicy enough to keep me happy. It was smooth, slightly salty and wonderful.

The duck pizza had a small, slightly oiled salad that was good, and the pizza itself was fantastic. Duck, lots of cheese on and a white sauce that just topped everything off. How could it get anything better?

And then it does.

The hot dogs/apple fries...how could something that I normally avoid like the plague (hot dogs, most are awful) be good? You take a freshly baked roll, make your own catchup, mustard, and put those around a pureed scallop formed into a hot dog. It was astoundingly good. I don't say that lightly either. That was the only course I was really worried. That combined with the granny smith apple fries (which were just small perfectly cut apples) just came out as probably one of the favorite food items. I was thinking of food shows that I've seen and how this would be something they would do on a show like that, and then Shannon mentioned the same thing.

The snickers/ice cream was a peanut butter ice cream, beside nougat enrobed in chocolate. Combined together it tasted like a snickers bar. It was a great finish to a fantastic dinner.

Service was quick and attentive but not over bearing.

I'm quite impressed. My boss knows the owner/chef in a round about sense (I think he said her mother and his mother were friends), but they're both from the same hometown.

Anyways... I'm looking forward to eating lunch there (hopefully soon) and I'm gonna have to keep an eye on their site to find out what their themed Friday night dinner is.

So dinner for both of us, with a glass of wine and some port with dessert for me came out to be just over $90, excluding tip.

The only drawback I had, was the music...but that just me...boring and bland smooth jazz never seems to be ok for me...

Posted by SammyD at 7:35 PM | Comments (0)



October 7, 2008

After putting it off for a long long long time (trying to spend only cash we actually have and fit it into the budget and actually avoiding doing it when it's hot out), we have finally double coat primer painted the dining room. So now, instead of having to look at a mostly red wall, where the wall paper border used to be, and then the dingy white, it is now all a bright super clean white.

Now all we have to do is paint it red again.

We decided that we'd have someone else paint the ceilings, front hall, staircase and landing, because...well...painting ceilings sucks.

Monday I went to Cedar Rapids, on the invite of my youngest brother Isaac, to recreate, to some extent, the senior picture that I had taken. In that picture I was laying to my side and baby Isaac was sitting in front with lederhosen. While we weren't able to find lederhosen (well we didn't try too hard), we did take pictures. Shannon came along too, since she had the afternoon off. We were fed white chili, cornbread, melon and apple crisp and played some hearts before dinner.

On the way there, a magic bug went splat against my windshield and even though I used wiper fluid several times (4 or 5), it had little affect against the smear of it. However on the way back, it rained...quite a bit. While driving, we semi-hydroplaned a few times and had the wipers on high, to no noticeable results. After slowing down to well under the limit, it finally got viewable again.

Tomorrow we're going to go see Religulous. I'm looking forward to it.

Posted by SammyD at 5:51 PM | Comments (0)



September 28, 2008

Woody's Smoke Shack
2511 Cottage Grove Ave
Des Moines, IA 50311

At the former location of Sammie Jack's, a new BBQ place has grown in it's place. Driving up to it you get a wonderful woody smoke smell. Being that it is in the corner of a bunch of homes, I don't know how their neighbors can live there without constantly thinking about BBQ. The building is tiny, the walls are covered in wood and the staff is happy and helpful. Ordering is easy, prices are reasonable (around 16$ for both Shannon and I, with no drinks).

I've tried the pulled pork before, so I went after the smoked ham. Shannon tried for the pulled chicken, but they were just out (they were in the process of smoking some more) and went for the brisket instead. We got sides of cheesy potatoes, mac & cheese and I had before gotten their potato salad. I wrapped up some of their free cornbread (sweet) to take home.

The cornbread is sweet and covered with a light sugar dusting. It's good, but I've had better (Uncle Wendell's is better). The mac & cheese was generally dry and not very cheesy. The cheesy potatoes were actually really quite good. They obviously use a lot of butter and cheese in it to create this wonderful side dish. The potato salad is nothing special...a little too runny and bland for my taste.

The meats are generally good. The pork is pretty good. Generally smokey yet still retains moisture. The brisket and ham are well...not that special. I'm still looking forward to trying the chicken and ribs.

Sometimes I wonder if the process is the same for cooking for the restaurant as it is for cooking at a competition.

I would go again, but it doesn't really stand itself out from the other good BBQ places in Des Moines.

Posted by SammyD at 9:19 AM | Comments (0)



September 22, 2008

Friday, after going to lunch with most of my work crew at Woody's Smoke Shack (meat was good, potato salad was meh, corn bread not as good as Wendell's, I heard good things about the cheesy potatoes), we headed down to Gong Fu Tea. Proctor suggested this tea, which I can't remember what it was called, but it honestly tasted like a peat smoked scotch. It was bizarre to have that taste without having the same warmth of alcohol...but only the warmth of the tea. Weird.

Friday night, Shannon and I headed down to Django to have the first of our two nights out celebrating our two year anniversary (second is on Tuesday, on our actual anniversary). We had lots of great food, and I had quite a bit of wine and I gotta say that I love cassoulet and must make it.

Saturday morning, we woke up...eventually... and watched the Beaverdale Fall Festival parade go by our house. I think it was longer this year, then it has been in the past. I wish they would've spaced out the marching bands more...since they are always fun to watch. Lots of political candidates...Obama was well represented, but there was not a McCain entry in the parade....which both Shannon and I found odd.

Then after the parade cleared our house we quickly finished getting ready and headed over to Adventureland for my work's day at the park. With the discounted tickets (free for us), we also had it so that the cheaper tickets were available for Shannon's Sister's family for our niece's birthday celebration. We had a lot of fun...but by the end of the day, I was worn out...Since the only thing that was new was the water park that I wasn't about to go to, it's just not something that you can spend all day at...Anyways we eventually left, and gave Sheilagh her present and headed back to the heart of Des Moines.

We were going to try to go to Woody's Smoke Shack, but it was closed, so we headed over to Uncle Wendell's. They were, technically, closed...but their open sign was still on, so they served us. I'm glad I did, we left there with a half pound of pulled pork, a few sides and cookies, and some Smoked Prime Rib. Now they told me that normally that they would grill it a bit, but I told them not to, since I did catch them as they were closing, I'd just heat it up at home.

I took it home, seared it a bit on both sides in a pan, and holy cow was it good. Smokey, beefy and deliciously tender.

Sunday, I mowed the lawn, for what I hope is the last time of the year (though if the weather holds out, I somehow doubt it) and then we were fairly lazy for the rest of the day.

Centro has a La Quercia acorn raised pork special for a week, starting last Friday....so I am very much looking forward to going to get to try these tomorrow night.

Posted by SammyD at 10:30 AM | Comments (0)



September 5, 2008

So apparently in March, I mentioned that I loved the pot and would make Chili soon. I think my definition of soon is out of whack.

Had a lemon pastry from La Mie around lunchtime. My boss had been raving about it...it was like a Danish (only a fluffier, flakier crust) with a lemon and creme cheese mixture...very good.

I'm not so much looking forward to going back to work on Monday, or going back on call on tomorrow. But I guess it is a necessary thing...

I went to the Franklin Avenue Branch of the Des Moines Public Library and got myself a library card. I spent so much time in the library as a child, I think it was time again to get a library...I didn't actually check anything out...cause I had a couple of ideas on what to get...but I had forgotten. Anyways, it was nice to walk around a library again.

Posted by SammyD at 7:16 PM | Comments (0)



So yesterday, during the day, I made chili for the first time...

After making it, my first thought was, why in the holy hell have I not done this before?

Bacon then some onions and veggies, spices, 2 pounds of grass fed ground beef, lots of tomatoes and what not.

Relatively easy. I think it went off really well...good comments from Chris, Holly and Shannon seemed pleased.

I think it was a good start, and I'll go from there on to future versions. And then work on a white chili (chicken) and a soupier chili or using seared chunks of meat...rather then ground beef.

Oh and I love my Chantal Copper Fusion Pot...

I also made a Jalapeno Smoked Cheddar cornbread...this also turned out fairly well and cornbread is fairly easy to make too. I think maybe next time a little bit more cheese (recipe called for 4 oz) and maybe another quarter to half of a pepper. (and Joseph, if you are reading, I used a nice pairing knife to de-seed and de-rib the peppers and cut them into 2 or 3mm square pieces. You can see the flecks, but they're not so huge they stand out).

Posted by SammyD at 6:52 PM | Comments (0)



August 31, 2008

So I chopped up some onions that I picked up at the Des Moines farmers market on Saturday, put them on some new potatoes. Ground on some salt and pepper, and drizzled over some olive oil as a base.

Then I scored the fat of the Berkshire Pork Loin (from Eden Farms), covered both sides with salt and pepper and then rubbed in a mixture of Maille Dijon Mustard, some Iowa Honey, and some Olive Oil. The Pork loin had a lovely layer of pork fat on it.

So after 15 minutes at 450F and another ~60 minutes at 350F the meat looks like this:

Berkshire Pork Loin with Honey Dijon Sauce

On the plate with the potatoes, onions and some wonderful Smoked Garlic and Chives bread from Uncle Wendell's.

Berkshire Pork Loin with Honey Dijon Sauce with New Potatoes, Onions and Smoked Garlic Bread

I think it turned out very well...and the pork...oh the delicious pork. It was so good.

Posted by SammyD at 10:12 PM | Comments (0)



August 14, 2008

Mexico Viejo
1760 Beaver Ave
Des Moines, IA 50310

I've been here twice in less then a week. Last Friday, Shannon and I walked down there and I went again on Tuesday with Brandon and Keith from work.

Both meals were good and inexpensive. Shannon and I shared a Quesadilla with Chorizo, and then I had a Chimichanga (chicken) while Shannon had a Burrito Sonora (chicken). Both where quite good. the chorizo was red, a bit spicy and quite good. Service was quick and polite. The salsa was nice, and it seems to me like they fry their own chips (which I like). The cost was just over $30, including tip. My only complaint is that our food did not come out at the same time...If I was spending a few more dollars, I would complain more about that...but

On Tuesday, I had the Burrito Deluxe, which was pretty good. Brandon ended up buying, which is extra good.

Simple, quick, and delicious. I believe my inexpensive Mexican place has been replaced. It seems a bit fresher, cleaner, and tastier then El Aguila Real...and it's within walking distance.

Posted by SammyD at 8:23 PM | Comments (0)



July 17, 2008

So after one of the worst days of my working life (I'd like to say...but work policies prevent me from doing so...but I'll just say that the SAN admin that setup my drives deserves a swift kick in the butt....but he doesn't work here anymore), I headed over to the Gateway Market to find something for dinner...and in walking around I started thinking about what to make for Adam's Birthday Party (for us, not to share). So lamb burgers it is! Found a wonderfully smelling cheese that I think will fit with the lamb well...I'll do the prep before we go there and then cook 'em up on the grill.

I think I'll make some cookies to share..or something...haven't decided yet

Anyways, knowing that I don't have to go back to work until Monday (took Friday off)...has helped relax me quite a bit.

Posted by SammyD at 7:15 PM | Comments (0)



July 10, 2008

Le Jardin
841 42nd St.
Des Moines, IA 50312

So for my late birthday celebration, last night we went to Le Jardin. We would've gone Monday night, but they are only open Wednesday through Saturday. So when we went it, the biggest change since the last time that I had been at La Mie was that they were building a bigger kitchen on the other side of the restaurant. The restaurant is now sharing the space. La Mie gets breakfast and lunch and Le Jardin gets dinner. Probably a good business decision.

We were immediately seated in a booth, and went over the menu. We decided to split a cheese plate, get an appertizer, entree and dessert. We both shared a small plate of apples, a french cheddar cheese, and walnuts. I had a potato gnocchi in a spicy duck broth, seared duck breast and pound cake with strawberry rhubarb sauce and whipped cream, and Shannon had polenta fries, seared sea scallops, and a coffee infused pot du creme. I also had a nice bottle of gewurztraminer wine from the Alsace region of France (it was imported by a place in Wes Des Moines, which I found odd, since I've never heard of an importer from Iowa).

The cheese combined with the apples and walnuts made for a wonderful combination of flavors in the mouth. Even without the walnuts (since Shannon is not a fan of nuts in general), the two flavors together really complement each other. The cheddar wasn't the best I've had...but it was certainly up there...

The funny thing about the polenta fries is that I tried to make them just the week before...but I didn't think the polenta wasn't getting thick enough to actually cut into pieces to fry... I'll have to try it again. But it was very good. The duck broth in the gnocchi was fantastic. Along with the rest of it it made for wonderful dish. My boss did tell me that it's probably some of the best gnocchi that he's had (which means a lot).

Shannon's sea scallops were wonderfully done. tasting good. My duck was quite something. Seared with a nice edge to it, while remaining tender on the inside. It had this honey based glaze on it which was very nice. I've never really had duck with something that sweet before, but it was a really wonderful combination.

For dessert, Shannon had the coffee infused pot du creme. This was very good...the coffee flavor wasn't overpowering, which is good, since Shannon is not a fan of coffee (bitter). My pound cake...I gotta say that the strawberry rhubarb sauce was...as good...maybe even better then my grandmother's. I don't say this lightly..but my grandmother is the best non-professional cook that I've ever had the pleasure of eating their food, and in all honesty, she is better then a lot of professionally cooked food that I've had. So of the best memories of my childhood involve eating things that she had prepared. This stawberry rhubarb was thicker and certainly tart, but it was wonderful. With the whipped cream and pound cake...wonderful. It was so good that I actually tried to call my dad to tell him about it (he wasn't actually home).

I made a point to complement Tag Grandgeorge on the way out.

I left there, felling full (but not stuffed), pleasantly intoxicated and very happy.

Posted by SammyD at 8:40 AM | Comments (0)



July 7, 2008

Django
210 10th Street
Des Moines, IA 50309

I think I'm in a food coma...

So we went there for my birthday for lunch (today) and I got to say that it's been one of the better food experiences that I've had in a long time. I had Steak Roquefort with fries. First their fries. They're very narrow straight cut fries and turn out very well, crispy and sometimes crunchy which is a different feeling, but good none the less. Great by themselves, since they are lightly salted. The steak was a medium rare goodness covered in a Roquefort sauce and crispy onions. Eating it was pure pleasure. The sharpness of the blue Roquefort the onions and the steak combined together to make a whole body relaxing experience.

So let me tell you about the dessert. I had the Pot du Creme, which Keith also had, and Brandon had a Hazelnut cake (which I forget the name of). So the first taste I had of the Pot du Creme was...well...it sent shivers down my spine. It was just divine. Deb, asked me if I was about to go have children (orgasmic would be a good description of it). It was just so delicious. But it is just so rich as well...even though the serving wasn't that big (compared to the cake), I was unable to finish it. At the end, I just could not continue.

The hazelnut cake that Brandon got was also very good. One of the layers of the cake, I swear to god, had to have been ground hazelnuts whipped into butter. So you get hazelnuts first and then just butter on the finish. How good is that?

I gotta say that I am looking forward to going there again and trying more. Everyone else seemed to really enjoy their meal as well.

I swear if I wasn't at work, I'd be taking a nap right now...even as it stands, I may still take a nap...

Posted by SammyD at 12:56 PM | Comments (0)



June 29, 2008

Triple Chocolate Chunk Ice cream.

Use a milk, dark and unsweetened chocolate...Melted most, made chunks out of part of it to make the 2nd ice cream. It is finishing off in the freezer right now.

Posted by SammyD at 7:53 PM | Comments (0)



June 27, 2008

Of my co-workers who tried it, yesterday, 7 "Odd, but I like it" and 1 "I don't like it".

So that speaks well. I found another recipe for it, which calls for basically soaking the bacon in the cream mixture to infuse the flavor in there, without having bacon bits in it. I will try that sometime.

I think I will make a chocolate ice cream this weekend (got the cream, chocolate and eggs).

Posted by SammyD at 9:42 AM | Comments (0)



June 22, 2008

So it's officially summer...even though it's not that hot. Since it is that time of year, welcome to ice cream making season. So after seeing bacon ice cream on Top Chef and seeing a comic on one of the many web comics I read, I decided that yes...it was time to make Bacon Ice Cream.

That's right... Bacon Ice Cream. I started with the Pecan-Brown Sugar And Bacon Ice Cream recipe and just took out the pecans (Shannon doesn't like nuts).

So it just finished, and I would say that it's very good. It has a creamy brown sugar start to the taste and then a salty bacon finish. I say it's wonderful. Shannon's not so sure. I'm looking forward to other people's opinions.

Posted by SammyD at 7:54 PM | Comments (0)



June 6, 2008

Jimmy's 30th Birthday Party

Last Saturday, we headed up to Boone, to help celebrate Jimmy's 30th. On the drive up we passed through lakes...well...they looked like lakes, but really it was flooded out farm fields and what not. One of the gas stations near the I35 - Highway 30 exchange almost had the floodwaters up to their back door. It was quite crazy. We got to Boone, I handed Jimmy the dozen and a half or so oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, which he proceeded to go hide. It was a nice meet up with many salt of the earth people, kids, parents, grand parents, friends, neighbors. Quite the gathering.

A few things I noticed, quite a few smokers...but I rarely saw any name brands...or at least not that I recognize. Lotta love (even though there was a lot of jokes thrown around). Worry and tension about the economy and jobs.

A few interesting things. Both Bob and Jackie (who were dating when I was in college) got married on the same day (to different people). Their receptions...were well...right across the parking lot from each other. It sounds as if Bob had checked on where Jackie's was, but it was already booked. It was a strange to hear the stories. Jackie's got a beautiful child.

As night grew on, many got quite a bit on the drunker side of life. Eventually we headed home.

Just a s a side note, we did drive Shannon's car to save a few bucks...though driving with no cruise control...kinda sucks....my car is more comfortable anyways...at least for me.

Ahnaka's 2nd Birthday Party

Last Sunday we went to Backyard Adventures to celebrate 2 years of life in Jerry and Nay's oldest, Ahnaka's. It was actually quite fun, because the equipment is apparently built well enough that even my fat self can play. Shannon slid down a few slides, I did some swinging and even made a silly attempt to shoot some baskets (I suck).

It was fun, got lots of pictures of silliness. They put out some cupcakes, ice cream treats and we fun...

There was a like a old peoples swings and I gotta say i'd like that by it's self...put it in the back yard, and just sit out there and ready while swinging.

Ground Chicken?

So we used a coupon to buy some ground chicken on our last shopping trip. I combined it with some leftover ground pork and made mini burgers for movie night. Spiced it a little (I didn't think enough), used some of the Gateway market dinner rolls, some arugula, some Bubbies pickles, a sliced up tomato, several types of mustard, catsup and mayo. Quite good. That with some over baked fries...mmm...pretty good...and simple too.

Cleaning!

We both had the day off today, so I spent the day doing some outside work, while Shannon got some parts done on the inside. I mowed the lawn, and after a bit got to cleaning the garage. I threw a way a bunch of stuff (some left behind by the previous owner...yeah yeah I know I've lived here for over four years). And then decided to leave more for next week (since the garbage can was filling up quick). I also filled up the divot in the side yard with a bag of dirt that Brandon gave me. Then covered it in grass seed, fertilizer and some water. Shannon got quite a bit of the walls in the dining room cleaned off, from the remaining paste and what not left from peeling off the wall paper.

Medical

My foot is feeling better, walking is no longer a challenge. Though rotating it to the left and the right, still feels wierd and a little painful. I went for a blood draw today, to find out how my liver is doing after being on the Tricor for 3 months. I'm gonna try to restart exercising on Monday, and see how it goes.

Posted by SammyD at 8:04 PM | Comments (0)



May 26, 2008

I took Friday off, to make it into a four day weekend, and Friday was my lazy day, for the most part, I did make it out of the house to run an errand or three, but beyond that, I mostly stayed at home and goofed off.

Saturday we met the Mattas at Blank Park Zoo and wandered around the zoo with them and their girls and Jenny's mom. We got to see the elephant and it's baby and doing the tricks. Saw some more, including the jellyfish. It was pretty fun. We split up, they headed off to the mall (to wander and play for a bit and go to target) and we went and got dinner. We picked up quite a bit of food from Uncle Wendell's. Out of a Nathan, his pulled pork got a "pretty good" and the beef brisket got an "Excellent". I noticed a difference in the pulled pork, thought it might just be me. thought I think it was better then previous times I've been there. A little spicier...maybe.

Jenny and Nathan put the girls to bed, and we proceeded to chat and goof off in the basement (Nathan being impressed and now desireing a PS3). He did mention that he'd like a Wii, to get the girls to play (wife and kids) but he wasn't even sure that would work.

Sunday morning I made a big breakfast (Nathan cut fruit for me) of bacon, sausage, french toast, pineapple, strawberries and blueberries. Got everyone all full and sent the Mattas off on their day at Adventureland. I needed to make cookies, so it didn't make much sense for us to go. The weather got all warm, the oven made the kitchen hotter and after making about a dozen and a half oatmeal raisin cookies and the same of oatmeal chocolate chip (60% Ghirardelli). It wouldn't have been too bad, if the cookies weren't so big and had to bake for ~23 minutes per 6 cookie batch. The kitchen got into the 90s...warm weather and warm oven equals hot kitchen.

Monday we packed up the cookies, some water and headed up north to Pine Lakes State Park. After we got there we had trouble finding the supposed beach there, so we called Hyrum and ended up going to the boat ramp area. So Hyrum and his family showed up 10 or 15 minutes after we had been told to meet (11:30). Then Jed and Stephanie. Then nearly an hour and a half after or so, Mom and Dad showed up (they had gotten lost) and then since they were going back and forth too much, Lovina had refused to follow them until they knew where they were going. So after dropping of my mom, and Isaac, Dad went back to get Lovina, her two girls and Joseph.

After that, food started to get prepared, but people were already digging into the cookies, since it was a bit late. People started eating. Pea and Pasta salad and a strawberry jello salad from Diane, fresh baked buns from Jed, cheese and bacon stuffed burgers from Joseph, some chips, salsa, turkey hot dogs, condiments and a pumpkin cake from my mom.

After lunch, people wandered down by the boat ramp (not much of one) and watched the lake. It wasn't too much longer after that, that Shannon and I decided to head home. We headed back up to Steamboat Rock and stopped at their (I assume) only gas station, the Rock Stop....that's right the Rock Stop. We then headed out of town and tried to stop by the Eagle City Winery and Vineyard...but they are apparently closed on Mondays...so, we didn't go down the gravel road, to even see if it was open. Which is too bad I guess. I have been thinking about trying to visit as many producers in Iowa as I could and since we were already up there...but oh well.

The trip back home was farily unevently.

Posted by SammyD at 5:24 PM | Comments (0)



May 19, 2008

For as much crap as I've taken over the years from being from the backwaters of Iowa (even if the smallest place I've lived was Ames at around 50,000 people), all I can say is that at least I'm not from West Virgina...The interviews they had from people there are just shockingly misinformed. From what I've read, it didn't take much for the reporters to find those people.

Yesterday, my dad, youngest sister, Lovina, and her two girls drove through and I fed them dinner. It was nice, but the children were obviously a bit restless, considering they have driven from California (Lovina's staying with my parents while her hubby finishes up the last parts of his military training).

Saturday, I missed out on Django's preview (My boss used the tickets in my name, said the food was great), but I had the opportunity to go see Shannon's niece and nephew in the Cherie's Dance Studio Recital. It was...well...long. Obviously parts of it was cute (the parts with them in it) and parts were interesting (the elite dancers are pretty good), but over all, by the end of the night I was anxious to go home (2.5+ hours is a long time to sit). As a note to my siblings who wonder why I don't go to their children's activities. If we can drive to it, and you give us enough notice and we're not already doing something, then we'll consider it. But if you call me the week before and ask me to attend, don't be surprised if we can't make it.

Our upcoming camping trip with friends, got it's location changed from the Decorah area, to much closer to home, and with the price of gas, I'm quite happy about that.

My foot/ankle is betterish, though there is still some residual pain...I thinking about seeing the doctor again this week...

Posted by SammyD at 9:30 AM | Comments (0)



May 18, 2008

So in Shannon and my visit to Jethro's BBQ, we were almost completely dissatisfied with our experience. I find it odd the Des Moines Register's take on it.

It makes me wonder if we went to the same restaurant.

I guess it wasn't the full review...but who knows.

Posted by SammyD at 11:47 AM | Comments (0)



May 10, 2008

Jethro's BBQ, which is actually fairly close to where we live. We went there on Thursday. The sides, we had Jalapeno Cream Corn (not really cream corn, corn w/ milk and peppers in it), Mach and Cheese (meh), potato salad (meh, mustardy, needed to cut the green onions smaller) and corn bread muffins (which are not as good as Famous Dave's, which are in turn not as good as Uncle Wendell's). Shannon had Garlic Mashed potatoes...which...well didn't taste like garlic. They tasted like thyme. So...if they called them mashed potatoes with thyme, I would've thought hey, these aren't bad...but no.

Shannon had Chicken Fried steak ($12.95). She said this morning that she's had better at Applebee's...or even in a microwave dinner. The meat was dry, the crust was just awful.

I had a 2 meat BBQ dinner ($9.95). I had the brisket and pulled pork. Both were not that smokey and just too wet. One might want to say juicy, but the meat has obviously been soaked in a steam bath...and well...I just don't like that. It made it taste rather bland and washed out.

The only saving grace was the hot sauce, which was actually pretty good. Though being in a honey bear bottle it was hard to get out.

So...I wouldn't recommend going. I don't think we'll ever go back, even if it is just over a mile from where we live.

Posted by SammyD at 11:10 AM | Comments (0)



May 1, 2008

So since Cam was coming to visit from Japan and Dave (Middle School through College friend) drove down from Madison. So last Saturday (4/26/2008) we got together. So we chatted, topics ranging from food to politics to whatever. Jenny and Nathan were there, along with Shannon and I and Clif. Good time all around.

So the previous week, I dropped off lamb from Iowa for Joesph to smoke. and that was the main course of this snaky meal. Popular. Very good...the smoke, I think accentuates the lambyness of it, so if you don't like lamb...it might be a bit much for you. Jenny made a corn and soybean salad...I can't remember what she called it...but that was good too.

So I went all over the metro to find items from around the state of Iowa. So lets start with food. First we had Feta (which was award winning, but I can't remember where in Iowa it was from). We had some Chevre from Northern Prairie Chevre and Reichart's Dairy Air (seriously get a website people). We got two other cheeses called Prairie Breeze from Milton Creamery (I saw their pamphlet at Gateway Market, but no website). And last, but certainly not least, were the red pepper cheese curds from Picket Fence Creamery (This is where we generally get our milk and they have pretty good ice cream too). I was hoping to get some of the swiss and white cheddar from Maytag Dairy Farms, but apparently they don't sell anything but their blue in stores...which I find kind of annoying. I know I've bought some of the cheddar and swiss last year at the farmers market...

To go with the cheese or by itself, we got some of the extraordinary La Quercia Prosciutto Americano...though to save a few bucks we got the crumble...Which goes great on pizza, crackers, with cheese and just by it's divine self. Who couldn't love pork?

We had two kinds of salsa from Juan O'Sullivans. We could've gotten some from Mad Butcher's, while I'm thinking about it...but I had forgotten...the Juan's was more of a thought that I might not have enough salty food (outside of the cheeses)...

For the desert side of things, we brought a box of cheesecake bites from Flarah's and a box of truffles from Chocolate Storybook and to top that off, a bag of gourmet marshmallows from Beaverdale Confections. Now for the marshmallows, we've gotten them before, and we had trouble finishing them (too sweet was Shannon's comment), though I liked them. They were on a stick. And this back were just cubes of marshmallows...and they were a bit gritty, like the sugar hadn't been fully incorporated. I think I said something about it like chewing on sugar. Not to say they're bad...but the experience so far as been fairly varied. The cheesecake and chocolate were both big hits (especially with the ladies).

On the alcohol side, we had a wide selection of wines (reds and whites, though we never got into any of the whites), beers and a couple of bottles of the harder stuff. We had a varied selection pack from Millstream Brewing, which I had some varieties that were pretty good, though it was later in the evening, so by that time, my tastes were getting pretty liquid impaired. We started off on the Snus Hill Winery's Sven Red. Which was the one that fairly well balanced and a bit sweet. Next up, was the Jasper Winery 2005 Chancellor...which was...really good (so good that when Cam came through on Monday, he ended up buying the last two bottles from the Gateway Market, one for the wedding he's going to in Canada and another for taking back to Japan). Then we opened the Madison County Winery's Frontenac, which was a dry red wine....and being that, it wasn't as popular. For the hard stuff, we sampled the Cedar Ridge Vineyards Winery & DistilleryClearHeartâ„¢ Vodka (we had a couple of bottles of their wine, which I've had before, but they didn't get opened). The vodka was...well vodka. It was better then many I've had, but not the top of my list. Though when I brought it home, the bottle was so tall, I'm not sure where to put it... Also from them (late addition), we had their port which is fantastic. And for one of my favorite things to come out of Iowa, we opened up my 2nd bottle of the Templeton Rye. When I was at the liquor store, he said that they sell 3-4 bottles a day of it.

People starting clearing out and going to bed...good party...if I had come up with the idea earlier, I could've perhaps taken some trips to get some of the things I couldn't get in Des Moines. Though I think I may try to do a party like this again, since it was very good. The only drawback here is that all the crackers, chips and etc were from outside the state.

I had a lot of fun searching and finding and then eating all these things.

Posted by SammyD at 9:59 AM | Comments (0)



April 24, 2008

Woot! It's the weekend...(taking off tomorrow to slow down the growth of my PTO bank)

Tomorrow I go pick up some more Iowa things for the "Remind Cam of Iowa" party over in Cedar Rapids for a friend who's in to visit from Japan. An apparently another that's taking a break from his school (gotta be grad school by now) studies to come down from Madison.

So my brother's got some Iowa Lamb, he's gonna smoke it on Saturday. Gotta get some more goats cheese (I ate some like the over eater that I am). And some pretzels. I've got some jam I'm gonna take over and I'll get some bread on Saturday (so It's nice a fresh). I got a bottle from Snus Hill winery (Holly this was the blush I was talking about that Shannon liked, it was the Sven Red). And Maybe I'll get some more...pick up some millstream (Iowa beer). Get some more Iowa things...

So...uh woo! I'm looking forward to it.

Posted by SammyD at 8:21 PM | Comments (0)



April 19, 2008

Bratwurst, opened, filled with cheddar and pepperoni, wrapped in bacon, and smoked...

I'm not sure what he used for pepperoni, but I didn't think it stood out from the other flavors, though I don't know the type of pepperoni he used...

But it was pretty good...messy...but good. I think I felt it coagulating in my arteries...

Posted by SammyD at 7:30 AM | Comments (0)



So, from time to time, I make something mixed in with rice as an excuse to feed lots of vegetables to us...while this doesn't have the normal amount of vege that I put in, it turned out really well

1/2 package (2 sausages) of Niman Ranch Andouille Sausage, chopped into 1/4" rounds
1/2 package (2 sausages) of Niman Ranch Chorizo Sausage, chopped into 1/4" rounds
2 Tablespoons Olive oil.
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 or 3 stalks of celery chopped
1 cup of chopped carrots
1 14.5 oz can of Muir Glen Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes

Heat up the olive oil over medium heat. Add the sausages. Cook until browning on the side, turning from time to time. Add onion and saute for a few minutes and then add salt to the onions. After the onions are starting to brown a bit, add the garlic and celery and saute for another minute, until the garlic is fragrant. Add the carrots and dump the entire can of tomatoes into the pan and get up the little brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Mix them together and cook of the majority of the juice from the can. Salt an pepper to taste.

Now mix in, or serve over rice (I used basmati rice and mixed in). Depending on the rice, this will need to start cooking anywhere from before you start cooking the sausage all the way up to until you are almost done (based on how fast the rice will cook).

Posted by SammyD at 7:05 AM | Comments (0)



April 9, 2008

I made a sausage, bean and tomato soup on Monday for movie night. It turned out very well...good recipe from Cook's Country. It was interesting to take about half the beans with some stock and blend it up to make a general base for the soup...I've been having a lot of less recipe thoughts in my head and more formulas. So instead of spicy Italian sausage and white beans, switch it over to say some ground chuck or cut beef and kidney beans and you got a thickener for chili (which I still haven't made).

I bought a big leg of lamb (from Iowa), I'm going to have my brother smoke it and use it for a party to celebrate a friend visiting Iowa (from Japan). It has to be the most I've spent on a single piece of meat...I've had steaks in restaurants that cost more, but I didn't pay for them...

I got a new chair at work yesterday. It was nice, adjusted a bunch of things, but in sitting on it today, I'm not sure that I like it. I just don't think it has enough give or cushion on the seat or the back. I think...all the adjustable things were nice, but for long term sitting, I nead a bit more padding. As Shannon tells me, I have no butt, so more padding is nice.

George was making slight movements with his paws and mouth. I wonder if cats dream, and if they do dream if there has been any studies on what they might dream of. I know I heard a story...on NPR I think about mice dreaming...and they dreamed about running mazes (the brain patterns on the mice running the maze were the same when they were sleeping and then they also adjusted to apparently run made up mazes)...So it was just an interesting thought.

We've been collecting roof and gutter bids...they weren't as much as we thought...which is nice. So if you know any roofers or gutters...let me know.

Posted by SammyD at 6:23 PM | Comments (0)



March 25, 2008

So in my shopping to buy some easter gifts for Shannon's niece and nephew and a few food stuffs for my dad and brother, I saw the pickings of the leftover ham stuffs including a few Niman Ranch Ham Steak...so I made it for dinner tonight.

A little pepper on both sides, some olive oil in a hot pan, a few minutes on each side...tasting it reminded me of every good thought that I've ever had about ham, ever... It was just wonderful.

From their bacon, to the meats and hams that I've head, it's just been such a pleasurable experience.

We've also had their deli meats from Gateway Market. We had a selection of meats (smoked turkey, which actually tasted smoked, buffalo chicken, a bit spicy, and black forest ham) with various cheeses on dinner rolls (fantastic) and then this past weekend we had roast beef and cheddar on rye (well I had it on rye, Shannon had it on wheat). The roast beef was a beautiful pink in the center... oh it was good. So good, I took half of the pound I bought, along with a loaf of rye to my dad, cause I wanted him to try it.

Posted by SammyD at 8:05 PM | Comments (0)



March 24, 2008

So we headed over to Cedar Rapids for easter. The drive over wasn't too bad, though there seemed to be a plethora of drivers who were in such a hurry that they had to drive like extreme jackholes...

We stopped first and Shannon's parents and chatted while they ate dinner. Sean was feeling under the weather (ear infection) but Sheighliegh (sp?) seemed to be as chipper as normal.

It was pretty fun...good to catch up

We headed over to my parents around 3 to have a late lunch/early dinner. At my house the attendance was fairly light, comparatively, with only my parents, us, Jed and Stephanie, Joseph and Isaac for a total of 8. Josephy made a smoked a leg of lamb and we had quite the setting of sides. For dessert we had pie, pumpkin (mom still has lots and lots of pumpkin) and basically a chocolate nut fudge pie...both in my grandma's crust recipe (made with lard!). Dinner was great, the lamb was smokey, lamby, and juicey. Big fan. I also got to try Joesph's attempt at BBQ sauces. One he wanted to have a root beer undertone, but wasn't able to achieve it, although it was still a pretty good sweet sauce. The second was a mustard based sauce w/ bacon...it was very good. In fact at a recent church potluck, he was asked many times for the recipe....

After dinner, we chatted a while, and then we headed home. Traffic was much worse coming on, including an incident with a douche on the south side of CR, in a crappy looking red Hyundai Elantra, got on I380 on the Highway 30 on ramp, proceeded to cut me off, accelerate, and then exit at the VERY NEXT EXIT...

There were numerous people that were in such a hurry, that they had to drive like total jack holes, to gain a mere car length. When I think about the tickets that I have received over the years, which I've received many, I get a little miffed, that my speeding is ticketed, but these guys driving relatively recklessly is not. I don't generally drive in such a future fashion, and yet I'll get dinged for 12 over...oh well.

Posted by SammyD at 11:32 AM | Comments (0)



March 9, 2008

So we went shopping today, used a bunch of coupons (so many that they actually had to have a manager approve the amount that got deducted. We saved around 8% of the total bill.

I also made a nice chicken breast salad today. I'm getting very good at getting a nice sear on the outside of the chicken, while having the inside really moist. But making my own bacon bits, chopping up the greens (much cheaper then the bagged lettuce), celery, carrots and small amount of bleu cheese...nice simple salad. Came out really good. I'll see if I can get more greens into our eating habits.

Posted by SammyD at 9:17 PM | Comments (0)



March 6, 2008

Tomato Soup w/ mini grilled cheese

Tomato Soup with Goats Milk Cheddar (really good, but pricey), bleu, and cheddar. Making the soup was pretty easy, and it tasted so bright and vibrant. The only thing that I'd change would be to use less thyme...

But my new pot (Chantal 8 quart copper fusion stock pot) (yay for bonus from work) worked really well...I think I'm gonna make some chili soon.

Posted by SammyD at 10:50 PM | Comments (0)



February 23, 2008

Is in an effort to feed chocolate to Courtney, I have made Gluten Free Nuclear Brownies.

On the side of the bag of almond flour is suggests using quite a bit less of the almond flour then actual flour (like 1/3rd or 1/2). Since this recipe calls for just a minimal amount of flour, I traded it straight up. It came out to be about the same consistency. I was a bit worried at first, since the batter seemed to be a bit gritty. So take the Nuclear Brownies recipe and replace the 1/2 cup of flour with 1/2 cup of almond flour.

They come out to about the same consistency (since this is basically an excuse to eat chocolate, sugar and butter together).

Posted by SammyD at 12:20 PM | Comments (0)



February 20, 2008

So in our continuing interest in the restaurants in Des Moines, we went to Lucca over in the East Village.

Lucca is owned by Steve Logsdon, who is the brother of Joe Logsdon who owns La Mie (who needs a website), which is one of our favorites (bakery and restaurant). Steve also does Basil Prosperi breads, which are also fantastic.

So the had a 3 course menu, which consists of a appetizer, main and usually a cheese course, from the cheese cave. Since I am writing this way late, I'll provide just general details, rather then specific ones, since I didn't take notes, and I'm forgetting the terms.

Shannon had Gnocchi and a Duck Pasta, and I had a pork based appetizer and Beef and Mashed potatoes (which ended up being pasta, since they had run out of mashed potatoes). So everything we had was very good. The duck was probably the best I've had (in my limited, but growing experience). My beef was very tender and delicious.

For dessert, which was special, since they normally do the fromage (cheese), they had a vanilla bean custard type of a thing with hand made chocolate truffles. Both being very very good.

Service started off a bit slow, but being that we were at the tail end of the people going to the show at the Civic Center. After they cleared out, the speed picked up dramatically.

I had a couple of glasses of wine, and Shannon had none. With all that we were just a bit under 100$ for the two of us without tip. I'm looking forward to going again...and so is Shannon.

Posted by SammyD at 8:13 PM | Comments (0)



February 15, 2008

Lamb Chops on a bed of rice w/ pancetta, white onion, garlic and shallots with a salad of baby spinach with blue cheese crumbles with a pear and roasted red pepper vinaigrette (no pictures, forgot to take).

Went pretty well, cooked the lamb a little longer then I wanted to (they were still a little pink in the middle but not enough for my taste.

For dessert we had a piece of chocolate mouse cake and chocolate cake (from Gateway Market). I had plans of making some cookies on Wednesday night (then taking to my work and sending to Shannon's), but when I got home I didn't feel very good, so I didn't so much bake anything

Posted by SammyD at 6:29 AM | Comments (0)



February 7, 2008

Work continues, deadline nears, I'll probably be working this weekend. Whee...

The other day, it snowed...a lot. In the morning I was shoveling snow, cleaned off the walks and driveway. Got some of the snow out into the street. I started to work on the intersection, to get rid of some of the snow. While I was working on it, one of my neighbor's nurses (she's under 24 hour nursing care) tried to drive down 43rd...with not much luck at all. In fact she compacted the snow down that her tires were barely touching the snow...meaning she wasn't going anywhere. A man, who I suspect was from the church down the street, who had snow blown the sidewalks from at least 42nd all the way up to 44th, came back and he helped me push, remove snow around the car and finally to use the shovels to get the snow out from under the car. With a few more pushes she was able to get down the street. The phantom snow blower, continued down the street...

Early this morning, the snow plow finally made our street, so with a bit of clean up, we're setup for the next storm...if there is one.

I haven't felt much like cooking lately...so the meals have generally been repetitive for the most part, a few highlights here and there...I've been practicing some knife skills and cooking things and paying close attention...but I'm generally really tired.

I've been staying up a bit later, and getting up a lot earlier. I've been working around 8 until 6, and I've pushed the start time back to 7 to 7:30. I've been on a total caffeine binge...coffee, tea and soda...though still no mountain dew (I have a bad history).

My 401k is moving, generally, back up to where it was before...though it is still off 13%...at least I'm hoping it's it's going up.

I got our taxes done. We, once again, used TaxAct (my dad works there). Did it all on the web this time...since they don't have an OS X client. It worked pretty much the same, I was fairly impressed. Anyways, big fan, support my pops, get your taxes done.

Obama is holding his own. I still feel very connected to him being the next president. I've watched election results...even stayed up late to watch them...it's like I care. I must say that he's a powerful speaker. Even his words put to music are impressive. The victory speech in South Carolina was amazing.

A while ago, Shannon bought a kitchen cart with money she inherited. I got it put together...but here's the rub. I had to stop the first time, because we were missing a couple of back pieces. Got those sent to us, got back to work on it. Only to finish it but using extra pieces... The cabinet doors had a few problems. On one side it was missing the door hinge thing...which I used a metal piece to replace, so I could get the door on, and on the other it had mis-drilled holes. So the handle went on, but it is not totally connected. I could drill another hole so it could fit...but then I'd have an extra hole... The customer services has been ok...not to bad on the hold times to talk to a person... I got the door parts ordered...so we'll see if we can call it done.

Due to the new places ot put things, I've been able to reorder the kitchen...it's been nice...the spices all in one place, in alpha order (save for a few that didn't fit in the drawer). All the hard alcohol in the cupboards...places to put some storage containers... and able to put the cat food out of sight...except the stuff in the bowls...but it's better then nothing...I still have some space to figure out what to do with...but in doing this latest reorganization I was able to finally get the massive amount of cookie cutters (most from the wedding) put away.

I think I really need glasses...I was looking for the spelling of one of the managers name on his placard...and I had to move my chair to see...it wasn't that far away. I did put money into our flexable spending account for this...so all I really need to do is go out and do it...but...I don't have the time right now to do so. I'm curious if the headaches I've been having are related to the caffeine, the long work hours, or the need for new glasses. I guess it could be a combination of all of them.

My car went in for service the other day. After sitting out all weekend, I went out to warm up Shannon's car and my own, and get set to go to work. After a rough start with my car, the engine light came on, so I turned it off...read the manual, called in and they told me to drive in...which I did. After resetting the light, they said they couldn't reproduces, I ended up with a new battery (was reporting poorly, prorated), tires (really needed, driving on snow has been like driving a sled), wheel alignment and an oil change. It's been driving really nice (especially over the snow, at least by comparison).

Working more hours, and bringing in my iPod charger into work, have really drained my primary listening list (4 or 5 star that hasn't been played in 3 weeks). A bit over half has been played in the last 3 weeks...it's kinda crazy since there's about 7.5 days of music...

I've been wanting to journal, but haven't been feeling up to it lately...so apparently it all comes out at the same time. I think I should probably stop now...

Posted by SammyD at 8:56 PM | Comments (0)



January 27, 2008

So the installer came, saw, and kicked some ass...

Well he called and said his first job was running long and that he'd be a little late, and I said that was fine. When he got here, he looked around, I explained why the last installer had said that he didn't have the ladder to get up on the roof. The installer said that was silly and that it would be fine. He ended up deciding to put it on the deck. Am I one to question his installation, no, however, it does seem to me that when the leaves come in, it may be problematic...but...who knows. I guess we'll have to see. Getting the signal into the house proved to be the most difficult problem.

My house is brick. The base of the house is concrete block. Neither are very easy to get through. So he decided to follow the same path that the cable gets into the house (which is fine by me, since I really didn't want to have a hole drilled through my wall). He ended up having to fish the wire through the wall. I helped...this was not an easy thing to do, because of the corners and all that, but eventually it came through and he was able to finish up the job.

Joseph was also up and he helped as well. He cleaned snow off the deck for the installer.

I helped hook up the DVR and got it all wired and hooked up.

So, after using another DVR so long it just seems a bit odd how things are organized. So it has been an adjustment. Not that it is overly complicated, but not knowing what things do, or trying to figure out what channels are this and that.

Things for the most part are labeled well. Usually with the company logo. Some of the HD channels do not have logos yet, so they have their little code + HD and it doesn't always make sense as to what they all are. There are also new channels, that we didn't get with Mediacom, that have proved to be interesting.

All said and done, we have around 50 channels of HD content that we will actually watch (ESPN and etc are not included in this number). Some of which I was very excited, until I figured out that the HD content channel didn't match the regular channel (food network). I suppose this will change over time.

The drawbacks.

The Guide is still getting up to date, and where it goes out a ways for some channels (I think it actually does it programs at a time and it says X program with X description with show and A,B,C,D,E,F times). So it's still filling things in. You would think it could do this faster since it is hooked up to the internet.

Our local content is not in HD. It is a good thing the writers strike is on, because it would kinda tick me off if I had to watch the shows on ABC, CBS, NBC in standard definition. There are HD feeds, but apparently you have to get a waiver from the local channels to see them (which I applied for). I may end up getting an HD antenna, but the drawback on that is that it's not on the DVR so no recording them...

We do not have on Demand...yet. Brandon has the HR20 model of the HD DVR, I (and my co-worker Keith) have the HR21 (my exact model is HR21-200). While there is a menu for it, it does not let us access the content yet... Brandon read something that it would be coming in February...or at least I think i heard him say that.

The Qwest DSL is noticeably slower then Mediacom cable internet...only at certain times. When I update the podcasts and the downloads happen...sometimes it can take a while...it can be quite a bit of content though. Especially the HD video ones...Hopefully we'll be able get the 8 megabit DSL soon.

After the installer finished, Shannon, Joseph and I headed down to Uncle Wendell's to get dinner....mmm...bbq....

Posted by SammyD at 10:34 AM | Comments (0)



January 23, 2008

This past weekend we headed down to Cedar Rapids. Scott and Jessica hosted a wine tasting party for a "January is Boring" party. It was quite fun. They had quite the spread of both foods and wines. Some brought and some for tasting. They had bottles that we all tasted, and were given clues as to what type of grape it was and where it came from. It was certainly a way to think of it. They also had an extra bottle of each wine that was the prize for the best written statement. I was a bit tipsy, so I got a bit silly....but I did win 1 of the 2 wines that I was very enamored with (the Matta's got the other). It was kind of funny, that after a bit the crew from Go Daddy (Jessica's Co-workers) who were apparently part of the marketing team, wasn't even trying to win...I asked about it, and it seemed to be related more to the insane hours that they've been working preparing for the Super Bowl. When we left their house, it was dreadfully cold, even through the alcohol haze....but after we got back to the Matta's I slept well. I had a lot of fun, I didn't make to much of an ass out of myself and I hope to go again. Certainly a good idea and fun too.

Monday we had a movie night. It was a bit off because Holly was taking a class on Thursday nights. I made a new recipie of bake make and cheese. I did some early prep work (grated cheese and made bread crumbs) on Sunday, which made monday go a bit smoother. I also used some La Quercia pancetta in the baked mac. It was quite good. I also cut off the pork skin from it and fried that up in a pan to become a wonderful crispy goodness.

After a good recharging weekend, I went back to the drudgery of work. I've by making my new hours 8-6 (about 35% more then my normal day). Quite a bit longer then my normal work day, but I am getting a lot done. Progress is being made. Am I going to make the dead line? I have my doubts, but I'm ok with that. It's still affecting my sleep, but when I actually get down, I tend to sleep all night.

I went to my sleep and lung doctor yesterday. My pressure level on my CPAP has been upped to 10 (of some measure of pressure).

I finally broke down and brought my iPod charger to work. It had stopped making it through the day (even the shorter one). Being that it's on it's second battery, it's not that surprising, but it's still a bit annoying. But it has been nice to be able to get all the way through the day with my iPod...

Posted by SammyD at 10:36 PM | Comments (0)



January 13, 2008

Sometimes, I'm tired...and sometimes I come up with things randomly...

Pork Loin Chop on Red Pepper and Pea Risotto

Pork Loin Chop on Red Pepper and Pea Risotto

Posted by SammyD at 12:38 AM | Comments (0)



January 2, 2008

Today is the last day of my just shy of two weeks of vacation. While I'm glad to be on vacation, I'm happy to go back to work. The structure will do me some good. I've been staying up later and later and later. Even last night when I got in bed at around 10:30, I still ended up reading till 1 or so in the morning.

For New Years, we took a trip down to to Cedar Rapids for the second time over this break. We spent the evening with the Matta's, which has become kind of our tradition. We went to the Sushi House, which was...ok. It's good for Cedar Rapids, which doesn't have a lot of choices, especially in this area, but after such a short time since a trip for pretty good sushi, by comparison, Sushi House was...pretty lackluster.

We headed back to the Matta's, and them being childless for the evening (Taylor and Cali staying with Jenny's mom), Nathan and I dug right into the booze. We started off with some sweeter wines, I was hoping that Shannon would actually like, which I think she did. For both of us, though, our tastings were at a bare minimum, since we were both impaired by colds. I had trouble smelling (only strong odors came through), while Shannon had trouble with both taste and smell. But the highlight of the evening was the Cedar Ridge Vinyards Port. The port was reccomended by one of the find staffers at the Gateway Market. While both Nathan and I thought the Cedar Ridge Vinyards Port was a bit too sweet, and should be aged a bit longer in wood, it was better then the other bottle of port that we had, which name slips my head. This Port was something that you could sit down and have glass, just for fun...and at the price, it wouldn't be such an expense.

Nathan also broke out the last of his Absinthe, which he had gotten through a mistake made by someone close to them (they didn't know it was illegal to import at the time). Even though the cold, it had a strong odor...and tasted vile...and I mean vile. Even after I added a whole lot of sugar, it was still just nasty.

We eventually played Pop Culture Trivial Pursuit, to ring in the new year...and by the end of it was Was having trouble rolling dice, reading questions and giving answers... I often gave answers for other people...since...well...my internal filter was pretty much gone.

We headed to bed, and got up the next day had some lunch and headed over to Kim and Mike's (Shannon's sister and brother in law) for Sean's birthday. Luckily, it was not going to be at Chucky Cheese this year. For me, especially this year, this was a good thing, since the noise of the place, the kids, and the vile food would have not gone well with the way my body felt. It was nice and simple, Sean got a nice pile of loot and we had cake and chatted with people for a few hours. And headed home. Unlike most times we take a trip to CR, we actually had to fill up on the way home.

Good weekend! Second visit to the Matta's and good times.

Oh and I just noticed this...I know that not all of the time that I've taken off is on this pay stub, but I'm still at 90% full PTO bank...though I guess another 10% will get taken off...on the next one...I guess less..since I'll earn a bit less...more like another 8%...but still..silly.

Posted by SammyD at 8:18 AM | Comments (0)



December 29, 2007

So Shannon and I went out on a date, and on the recommendation of my boss, we headed down to Dos Rios. Afterwards, we saw Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, which was really good.

Dos Rios
316 Court Avenue
Des Moines, IA 50309

We went in early, hoping to beat any sort of rush and to make the 7 something showing of Sweeney Todd. The restaurant is down on Court, which can make parking kind of annoying, but after a bit of a search we found a place to park. The first thing that I noticed was that the sign indicating the place, was covered up by the snow that was on over hang. Probably not the best of ideas, but snow can also be a pain in the bum.

Being early, we were seated right away. Quickly and efficiently by a pleasant woman. The decor of the place was fairy modern, with what appeared to be metal Aztecish ladies at the back of main area with star lights hanging from the ceiling. There was a mix of techno with general Mexican themes in the background...maybe a little louder then I liked, but it went well with the modern chic theme they were going for. One of the songs that we heard during the night was an odd take on a Rolling Stones song. After dinner, Shannon noticed the sinks in the restroom were narrow and rectangular. She said it was kind of odd, considering with the pressure of the water, it seemed to splatter at the end of the sink a bit...I think she also mentioned that they were touchless...

We were seated near the end of the restaurant, providing us a nice view of Court, so that we could both people watch, if we were so inclined. And we were handed menus (menu, drink menu, tequila menu) and were told about the basic theory behind the place (Authentic food using as many fresh and locally sourced food as they can). Niman ranch pork (based in California with some Iowan farms) and Sheeder Farms chicken were prominently displayed on the menu. We weren't given much time, but quickly ordered a few drinks. I had a 9$ Mojito...yeah...a bit much, but they were pretty good. I just noticed that there is a discrepancy on the bill. A minor one, but one none the less. Shannon was originally told that they had all the Mexican soda flavors available, but when she ordered the Limon one, she was brought Pineapple, and told that contrary to what our waitress was originally told, they were out of Limon. So she'd cover this one...which...well...she didn't. I can understand hey, come back and say we don't have X so you'll need to order something else, but if you say you are gonna cover the cost of something, you probably should...

Anyways...we ordered (from their menu):

Guacamole – Mashed Table side, Tomato, roasted poblanos, red onion, cilantro & lime served with Dos Rios spiced tortilla chips. (we had it medium spiced)
Empanadas de Pato y Hongos – Flaky Home Made Duck Chorizo Turnovers
Pollo Rostizado – Mojo Marinated All Natural Sheeder Farms Half Chicken (Shannon)
Niman Ranch Pork Burrito (Description not on website)
Tres Leche de Chocolate – Chocolate Tres Leche Cake - Three milk soaked chocolate sponge cake with dulce de leche icing
Tamal de Manzana – Roasted Apple Crepe Tamale - Cinnamon roasted apples & raisins folded into a Mexican vanilla crepe

When they say mashed table side on the Guacamole, they really mean it. When we ordered it, a young man came over to our table, picked up our molcajete (basically a big stone bowl like a mortar and pestle) and proceeded to split open a couple of avocados, scooping them out, using some fresh ingredients, including the juice from part of a lime, he mixed and mashed us up some spicy, but not too Guacamole. Certainly interesting to watch. After he was finished, he brought us over some of the spiced tortilla chips. They were also very good and went very well together. I actually kind like a few chips to try and figure out the spices that were on the chips (I have guesses, but nothing firm).

Near the end of our Guacamole, we were brought out the Empanadas de Pato y Hongos (Duck Empanadas). Now these...these I could've spent the rest of the night eating. They were really good. Flaky crust, nice spicing and duck...how can you go wrong? It makes me think that the next time we go there, we should stick to the first's menu and just have a wide range of sampling of things.

I ordered a second Mojito. Did I mention that it had fresh mint in it? Along with what I think was raw sugar cane in it...pretty good...though still not worth the 9$...well I guess it might be, considering I had two...

A little bit later, we were served our mains. Good and simple presentation (not overly fancy, but purposefully placed). Shannon's chicken was excellent. and I mean excellent. Tender, not too spicy and juicy. I wanted to steal more. The rice was good, and the black beans that she was served were also good. My burrito...well I think the only drawback for me was the spice that they used. I couldn't decide if I liked it or not. Even though all of the individual parts were done very well. Tender pork, good beans and rice, the spicing really distracted me. And it's not that it was overly spicy...I was just...I don't know...unfamiliar with it, so, I wasn't sure. Now I'm not one who really wants spicing to be made milder just because we're in Iowa (well...ok maybe a little less spicy on the Thai food...but that's not what we're talking about here). I've been seen with a red face and a sheen of sweat from the spicy food...and that's not what it was....it was just...well...odd to me. It makes me curious as to what it was.

Even though I had mixed feelings on the burrito, it was still finished. Shannon boxed up about half of her half a chicken, along with a good portion of the beans and rice.

Dessert was pretty good. The cinnamon ice cream on the Tamal de Manzana was quite good and Shannon's Tres Leche de Chocolate was also very tasty. They were also not out of a box, which a lot of restaurants end up doing (which I find annoying). Afterwards, we got our check and headed off to the movie.

So, Overall, other then the extra 3$ charge that was said wouldn't be on there (not that big of a deal, since Shannon did have a Mexican soda), and my mixed feelings over the spicing of the burrito (the ingredients were great), it was a very good experience, and I'm looking forward to going again. And maybe trying some of the tequila (they said there are a few where they're the only restaurant in Iowa serving them).

Posted by SammyD at 11:38 PM | Comments (0)



December 26, 2007

Crappy CR Roads...it's like they didn't even plow...We dropped off our things at the Matta's and headed up to my parents....or at least tried to. Going up the normal way, we kept losing momentum until I decided it was best to just park and walk the rest of the way. I dropped off the Double Chocolate Banana Bread and the gift for my parents, and then we headed over to Shannon's parents.

We chatted for a bit before Kim and her family arrived. We feasted on the many things that Shannon's mom prepared. From cookies to cheese. The highlight of the night was the chicken soup she made from scratch which was very good.

I think through my vague whining in this here blog, Shannon's family tried to be a bit more organized this year. The effort is very appreciated. It is easier to pay attention to what is going on, when it is only about one thing at a time....After the opening of the presents, we watched the DVD of the 8mm films that we had transferred. It was nice to see the positive reaction of Shannon's family. A lot of work went into those film clips...and even if it wasn't hard, it was time consuming...After quite a bit of chatting, Kim's family took off, and then we did too.

We headed back to the Matta's and chatted with them well into the night, while they put the final touches on breakfast and Christmas for Taylor and Cali. Eventually we headed up to bed. The next morning, I heard Cali wake up...and then thought I hear Taylor, but I was mistaken...Eventually we had Christmas morning with the Mattas. After a very good breakfast, we headed over to my parents...

It was quite the day. My older brother's family was there...so it made for a rambunctious time. We had a late lunch, which was very good. Joseph made smoked pork and turkey (the pork was better, the turkey was dry, but was still pretty good. I tried to get more pictures, but I forgot the change the battery in my camera, so I was stuck at a few pictures into the holiday...

We eventually headed back to the Mattas, for dinner, though we ended up not eating. And Jenny baked a cake for a Mom's Club even the next day. Dan Knoff came over and Scott and Jessica and we had a nice little Scotch tasting. It was pretty nice. a couple I've had before, most I had not.

We goofed off most of Wednesday, and said our good byes to meet Clif for lunch downtown (since he's working). I made an absolute mess of myself, spilled salsa on myself twice or so, a few times down the front of my shirt...quite silly...but afterwards, we said good bye, wished him good luck on his trip to Africa (heading that way in a few days) for a wedding.

The drive home was pretty easy, though at the end it got very foggy and started to snow a bit. We made it home safe and sound. It's nice to be home, it's nice to see the kitties. We did have some meaningful conversation about our future as parents over this trip...and though I don't think it is 100% for certain, yet...but I think we are leaning one way over the other...

Posted by SammyD at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)



December 24, 2007

So I headed out this morning, while Shannon is doing a half day at work, to run a couple of errands. I first started off going to the Beaverdale Post Office...went in...and saw a sign posted that it would be closed today. Then I headed over to the Forest Avenue Post Office, right next to Drake....and this one was also closed. I was thinking hey, they've got self service, maybe I can get the DVDs we made all priority mail enveloped and sent. So...I labeled, packaged...and...no priority mail stamps. So at this point I was pretty frustrated. So I head to the main Des Moines post office. This one was open! You know, like it says it will be on their damn website. I wouldn't be so miffed if I hadn't checked the website and found that they were open, only to go and find they were not. Anyways, a few other people in line were mumbling about the Beaverdale office being closed. But, with all that, I got it setup and mailed to Shannon's uncle.

I headed back to our neighborhood and dropped by La Mie to pick up these sugar cookies with a lemon frosting (or lemon sugar cookies, either way, very delicious) that I brought home yesterday...since they were so good. I asked for two dozen...but they only gave me one dozen...but that's ok...so I came home, wrapped up the banana breads and put them into gift sacks for the families we're visiting.

Anyways...less grumpy now...

Woo Christmas!

Posted by SammyD at 12:11 PM | Comments (0)



December 23, 2007

Double Chocolate Banana Bread

Posted by SammyD at 8:10 PM | Comments (0)



Last Saturday we headed up to Ames to visit the Tomson's. This has been the first time in a long long time that we've seen them. It makes me sad that we don't get to see them more often. Seth and Bri decided to have a Sake party and we decided to go. We joined Chris and Holly in the drive up north. We did have a bit of a spat over driving, since I wanted to drink, and Shannon didn't want to drive, but with Chris and Holly driving, the problem was solved.

We saw their house, which seemed very 70sish in the decor, though very pretty. I've always thought that Bri had a very good eye and did lots with very little. I missed out on a lot of the house, since they had it mostly closed off, but I think they did that for the party, and since they had guests over and what not.

We drank 6 or 7 kinds of Sake, between the 8 or 9 people drinking. There were a few that I didn't like too much...they just didn't taste that good, but over all it was a pretty good experience... Bri had also made sushi (pretty good) and this little pork rolls (a pork mixture inside a roll, they were fantastic). We ate many of the pork rolls.

After we were intoxicated to some extent, we drove back down to Des Moines.

Monday I started to feel sick. So I went home earlier then I have been, and kinda camped down in front of the TV. I then proceeded to go through chills, being so cold that even wrapped up in a blanket, I was shivering. It was quite the ride. Around midnight or so, I think my fever broke. I thought I could go to work the next day...but after being there for a couple of hours, I thought better of it and came home and was lazy for the rest of the day.

Thursday afternoon my younger brother Joseph, now free of his military obligations, came up to investigate possible job opportunities here in Des Moines. We ate at Uncle Wendell's BBQ and Joseph decided that he wanted to work there. So Friday morning, we headed out to catch Wendell at the store to pick up an application. We all headed there for lunch and Joseph got a quick little interview and it seemed to go well, but besides being overqualified (5 years of Fast Food experience including 4 of that being in a managerial role), he had apparently just hired someone and it appears to be working out.

That night we went to Appare Japanese Steakhouse. We tried to go to Miyabi 9 first, but they were so busy, that we decided to head elsewhere. Being Joseph's first experience with sushi we tried out a few different kinds of sushi. We had:

  • Seacoast roll
  • AJS roll
  • King Lobster roll
  • California Roll
  • Spider Roll
  • Dynamite Roll
  • Dragon Roll
  • Monster

I really liked the AJS and the Dynamite rolls, but all were very good. Joseph, after having a difficult time with chopsticks, began to get the hang of it and at the end showed quite the interest in having sushi again. He also wanted to do the teppanyaki part of the steakhouse and will probably come back to do so, eventually.

It was nice to hang out with him for a while. We headed back to the house and he headed back home.

Saturday, we finished up the setup of the DVDs of the home movies of Shannon's mom's family. And proceeded to burn the DVDs for the family. I also did a pork roast again (since I bought two for the previous movie night) I did it fairly similar to the previous time, though I didn't follow the recipe...since I lent the magazine to Holly...but it turned out great. The pork was much juicier (not that i was dry before...just not as juicy as I wanted). I was very happy. Since there were only two of us, there were lots of left overs...for sandwiches...mmm...pork...

Today we cleaned up the 4 or so inches of snow, and then I got to baking and made some double chocolate banana bread. In listening to the Sound Opinions Christmas Spectacular and baking the banana bread, I was really starting to catch the holiday spirit (for the first time this month) and I'm looking forward to seeing our families and the Mattas over Christmas and new years.

Mmm...time to make pork sandwiches....mmmm...pork... *drool*

Posted by SammyD at 6:25 PM | Comments (0)



December 15, 2007

Last Saturday we trucked out through the slickness to go to the Jordan Creek Animal Hospital Christmas Party. It was fun. They held it at Joseph's Steakhouse and Lounge this year. This is our first trip there and everything was pretty good. Staff was attentive (relative to the size of the party), the appetizers and food were pretty good. I really enjoyed my steak (it is not often that I have such large pieces of meat). They gave out iPod Nanos to the staff at the party, which is pretty cool. So now Shannon has her own, and I've been helping her learn how to rate things and get all her music setup... I'm starting to feel more comfortable with the JCAH people, and it's nothing against them, It's really me, I don't have a lot in common with them, other then...well...Shannon. But they are a friendly bunch and I'm glad Shannon works there....

So over the last week we've had quite a bit of ice and snow and though most of the main streets are clear (well until it snowed again this morning), 43rd, 44th and Thornton (basically two and from work for me) are still covered in ice and/or very bumpy with ice mounds. 44th being the bumpiest and 43rd being the slickest...On Tuesday, we had quite a bit of ice come down and I ended up working from home, but Shannon still had to go in. It was a tough drive, but I've been in worse. Since not to many people were on the road, it made it much easier. I stopped at Hy-Vee on my way home and while I was in there, the power flickered twice...

Thursday I made a nice spread for movie night. Roasted Pork Loin with Maple-Mustard Crust, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Corn and bread from La Mie. The garlic mashed potatoes I made in the normal fashion, but I sautéed the garlic first, then let the garlic integrate with the cream (who needs milk?) and the butter. So it integrated with then potatoes very well. I did use about 3 cloves of garlic for about 8 servings...and I think I could ratchet it up a bit...maybe add another clove or two. The pork loin went pretty well, even though I cooked it at a higher temp then I intended for much much longer then I should've. It did ruin the apple and fennel bed that the pork was on, though some of it turned out ok... I was pretty happy over all though.

Friday I spent an extra long time outside finishing chipping off the ice from the sidewalks (around 2 hours), and I come in to find my phone overflowing with text messages. So I spent a good chunk of Friday figuring out that the problems that people were experiencing were entirely related to a push for an upgrade for another product that some how corrupted internet explorer...so..it was frustrating morning followed by a long frustrating afternoon (apparently I have two versions of the same software, and one would not install at all on Windows 2003 and the other would...course I didn't figure that out until around 4:30).

Posted by SammyD at 11:57 AM | Comments (0)



December 14, 2007

Roasted Pork Loin with Maple-Mustard Crust

Roasted Pork Loin with Maple-Mustard Crust

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Table Settings

Posted by SammyD at 2:16 PM | Comments (0)



December 3, 2007

Saturday, we had a plumber out, since the laundry room floor seemed to be a bit damp...Apparently the pressure relief valve took a crap, and he replaced it.

In turning off the water, however, some of the sediment loosened and then proceeded to settle back in the aerators of 3 of our faucets. In figuring this out, I found that the way that the water works in this house is kind of silly. Anyways, I ended up taking off the aerator parts of the faucets, cleaned them out, and put them back on. It felt really good to do some work myself, and have it work right.

I made a another cheesecake on Friday night, with the intention of taking it over to the Boelman's. They didn't get any of the last one I made. So I made one just for them. Since Saturday turned out to be such a crappy day (weather wise), we went over on Sunday and had some cheesecake and watched Dexter. The cheesecake turned out much better then last time. I think water got in last time...making a bit wetter then it should be. I bought 18 inch wide aluminum foil to wrap my 9 inch springform pan in. It works a lot better. I was able to to cut out nice perfect slices, rather then the sloppy mess (yet very tasty) that happened at the Halloween party. I was out of bourbon, so I ended up using Single Barrel Jack Daniels...so I guess it was a Pumpkin Single Barrel Jack Daniels Cheesecake.

I've been working silly hours. many nights until 6, some even till 7...I'm tired...but am trying to get as much as I can, done, before I present on Friday. I've also decided that I hate the "API" that they have in there the software. On the one hand, it's made some things easy, on the other, their code is slower then ox snot, so even generating simple forms is a lot slower then it would be if I just did them myself. If I had time, I would rewrite the application generator...but I don't...so it'll have to wait until the next step release.

Posted by SammyD at 7:59 PM | Comments (0)



November 27, 2007

So after making cheese puffs, preparing carrots, celery, broccoli and cauliflower, setting out 8 cheeses, 4 kinds of crackers, two kinds of salsa, and two flavors of sun chips, Shannon's Parents and Sister's family showed up, followed shortly by her Uncle and Aunt.

We all chatted...ate some food...chatted some more...

After a bit, Shannon reminded me that we were planning on going to dinner. So we quick cleaned a few things up and put food away and got everyone gathered up to head out to Drake Diner.

The late lunch/early dinner was very nice. Though it was kind of funny, since both Shannon's Dad and Uncle spilled their malts, but nobody else did...Can't take the kids anywhere...

Afterwards, we came back here, Showed everyone the Wii and then people started taking off.

I think I prepared to much...or expected more people or something, I don't know...it was fun preparing for it...

Posted by SammyD at 9:02 PM | Comments (0)



November 24, 2007

Last year, we started, what I hopes turns into a tradition, with Shannon's Mom's Family (Shannon's uncle and his family). This year, we are hosting the group. I've spent a large chunk of the day prepping for the gathering before going out to eat.

I went out and bought some food, wine, and etc.

And then proceeded to to prepare it. I took a lot of things that I would normally get all cut up, and did it myself. Broccoli, cauliflower, celery, honeydew melon. After I chopped it all up. I was left with a sink full of the unusable parts.

I then proceeded to make some Gruyère cheese puffs. It ended up being around 6 or so before I actually made dinner. Making the puffs for later is really hard...cause I tend to eat them. I think I had at least one from each batch.

I like where I am when I am preparing food. Music or podcasts playing and I'm right there in the moment. Not thinking about our finances, or work or any of the stressors in my life.

Tomorrow I have a bit of cleanup and setup to do before I'm done, but it shouldn't take to long. I can warm up the puffs in the oven when people are around. And I'll setup the various plates and what not. Vegetable, fruit, cheeses and bread..all good appetizers...

I had originally planned to make reservations at Christopher's, but due to a recent fire, they are currently out of commission. The other choices we had were not the route I wanted to go, or too expensive. We'll take our chances going to the Drake Diner...

I guess we'll see how it goes. Shannon's uncle works for the DOT Railroad, and when I was working up in Ames, we put a bid to redo their website... I never actually did it, since...well...the company I worked for, closed.

Posted by SammyD at 8:28 PM | Comments (0)



November 16, 2007

It was once again movie night. Being our turn to host, I decided to make a Shepherd's Pie.

I followed a basic recipe from Cook's Illustrated, but modified it with a few ideas. Basically it came down to making mashed potatoes, cooking the meat, resting it, using the same pan to make the sauce (garlic, onions, then flour and tomato paste), juicing up the sauce (chicken stock, Worcestershire sauce). Reducing it a bit, adding the meat back, adding the veggies (carrots, peas and corn). Taking the mixture and put it in a baking pan, cover it with the mashed potatoes. Bake it for a while (350). Take it out, cover it with cheese and broil it for a few minutes.

It turned out pretty good, though I should've cooked the onions for less time and added less tomato paste (gave it too much of a tomato flavor). The Hettinger's seemed to enjoy it too.

We watched Sullivan's Travels. It was...pretty funny. There were times where I thought that it was a very stereotypical portrayal of people, and then others, it seemed very real. It ended up having a fairly cheesy ending, but it was good over all.

Posted by SammyD at 10:57 PM | Comments (0)



November 11, 2007

Last night we headed up to Boone to visit Jimmy and Gina at their house. They were having a little get together with their neighbors and some other friends. Jimmy made some of his chili and other people brought over several things. It was quite the setup. Jimmy made chili...a hotter one and a mild one. Both meaty and good. The hotter one and a building heat, where it didn't scortch at first, but the more you ate, the more residual heat you felt.

It was quite the crew. A few from the past, but mostly just neighbors and former neighbors. It was nice. We talked about lots of things over the course of the night and lots of good food. We talked about things ranging from marriage laws to immigration to computers. It was interesting.

We had a good time. Left around one in the morning.

I did make Nuclear Brownies and they were fairly popular.

Posted by SammyD at 8:26 AM | Comments (0)



November 5, 2007

So Friday, early in the day, Brandon got a call from Val and headed home. After hours of no news, I got a call from Brandon around 3 or so, that they were heading to the hospital. They didn't know what, for certain, was happening, but they'd let me know.

So time passed, we got ready to go to Chris and Holly's Halloween Shindig. We dressed up as relatively lame versions of Piglet and Pooh...

The party was very fun. I made a pumpkin bourbon cheesecake. It turned out very well, and people seemed to enjoy the cheesecake. Not bad for a first time. They really went all out with the party, lots of food, lots of fun and quite a bit of silly costumes.

A bit later, Brandon called to announce the birth of his son. Woo!

The party eventually died down, Shannon headed home, since she had to work in the morning. Then the Lan Party began.

Quite a few of us played Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. It started off being fun, and then kind of was not. Dusty and Ryan, who play it quite a bit, were one the same team, and it went from a balanced game, to a not at all balanced. Honestly it wasn't fun at all. It's not that I don't like loosing, I don't like being dominated...especially when the teams are 2 (Dusty and Ryan) vs the rest of us. Sounds fair...but it still wasn't, since 2 of us, for certain, hadn't played before that day. It's kind of hard to figure stuff out and be in competition with good people. Anyways, they broke apart the team, and it started to be fun again. Some of the controls of Quake Wars were kind of awkward, I thought, but maybe I just need to get used to it.

Around 3:30 AM or so, Dave drove me home, and I went to bed.

Around 7:AM, I got up, showered and got ready for Jimmy to show up to fix the roof. He showed up a little bit after 8 and got to work. I spent a good chunk of the day catching up on TV and occasionally napping. Eventually Shannon came home, and we got ready to head down to Lutheran Hospital to visit the Boelmans. Broderick slept in my arms for a good two hours, before it was time for his feeding and for us to go. It was nice to see them and they seemed to be very happy.

We headed home, and I pretty quickly fell asleep...3 hours of sleep will do that.

Sunday we headed out to the Des Moines Community Orchestra to see Holly play. They had a movie program. I did wonder why they didn't have any Danny Elfman, but it was still a really good program and fun to listen too. Afterwards we headed over to Macaroni Grill with the Hettingers and Holly's mom.

Busy busy weekend.

Today...good lord I didn't understand how much work that Brandon does...Not having him and not being able to tell people to wait for him to get back has been very stressful. I didn't get an ounce of project work done. I switched from answering questions, to supporting benefits, to answering more questions, to supporting the intranet, back to benefits. It is kind of silly. Anyways, I hope I don't need his help too much, the 3 weeks that he's taking off should be his own...

Posted by SammyD at 10:33 PM | Comments (0)



November 1, 2007

I am in the process of making my first cheesecake....It is time consuming, but it smells like it will turn out well. It has the flavor of pumpkin and burbon and I hope turns out well. Long cooktime, long cool time, even before I can stick it in the fridge.

Yesterday, Iowa Health Home Care called and told me that my CPAP was back in working order, and because I left work late last night, I headed out this morning to pick it up. I still think their new building is buried in the depths of a maze. It is kind of annoying. But I got a new water chamber that has a one way valve, to help prevent any water getting into the chamber...kinda neat.

This past Sunday, we stripped off the wallpaper divider in the dining room...our first try didn't lead to much in the way of results, but after consulting the intertubes, we made much better progress. We do have some clean up work to do with little bits of whatever the heck is left, but it should be easier.

This past Saturday we trimmed bushes and picked some weeds.

Shannon did have to nag me to do both...but I guess it was good to do. Painting is next. Starting off with ceilings, priming the dining room walls and then moving on to the colors that Shannon picked and I didn't veto.

This weekend is gonna be busy. Friday night, Chris and Holly are hosting the Halloween party, should be a good time. Afterwards, Chris is having a mini-LAN party, which, as I understand, goes through Saturday. Sunday, is the Des Moines Community Orchestra's Fall Concert, which Holly is in. Should be a good time.

Posted by SammyD at 8:00 PM | Comments (0)



October 21, 2007

So yesterday afternoon, we headed over to Cedar Rapids to go to the CR Symphony's presentation Masterworks II: Asia Minor. It featured the Crown of India Suite (Elgar), Flute Concerto (Chesky), and Scheherazade, Op. 35 (Rimsky-Korsakov).

We met up with the Mattas, and left Jenny's mom with Taylor and Cali, while we headed to downtown Cedar Rapids. Both Shannon and I noticed that there has quite a bit of revitalization going on to the downtown area. Many new (to us) shops stores and what not, including Blend.

So Blend is a fairly modern looking restaurant. including a waterfall wall...which, when I first entered the restaurant had the faint smell of chlorine, but I may have been imagining things, cause nobody else did. We arrived shortly before six, and even though the restaurant was mostly empty, we had to wait. Nathan did notice that they had a lot of reservations at 6 and beyond that, so I guess it did explain that, but I'm just a fan where people just reserve a table or two for walk up custom...sometimes you don't know where you'll be going (we sure didn't). We were seated in a relatively short amount of time.

The tables were very angular in their appearance. They were setup in a fashion where the corners of the tables were uncovered, but the rest were with a white table cloths, to create right angles. The napkins were also folded in right angled triangles too. It was very pleasing to my eye...since I'm a fan of things like that (it makes my brain feel comfortable). The only thing that distracted me, was that my place setting was a little off (the spoon placement didn't work for me). I think it only stood out, because the rest of the placement of things seemed relatively perfect.

Service was relatively quick and she seemed nice.

I ordered the only appetizer, which they describe as: Pork confit and ginger spiced carrots in crispy wonton with caramelized cabbage, and sweet Chinese mustard aioli. This was interesting, the pork wontons were spicy and to the left, there was a salad mix in middle that was sweet, and to the right it was vinegary. Separately, the pork wontons were good, but the rest was ok. but in concert, and concept I think it was pretty good.

For our main course, Shannon ordered the Seared Sea Scallops with celeriac and Yukon gold potato pave, brown butter roasted Acorn squash, watercress-pecan slaw, pickled red pepper, and a creamy apple-fennel puree. Jenny had the Pan seared Pork Medallions with red wine-Amerena cherry risotto, roasted garlic-lemon zest green beans, local field greens with hot mustard vinaigrette, and a porcini pan sauce. Nathan had Belgium ale brined Airline Chicken breast with bacon-cider sweet potato hash, tarragon creamed Brussels sprouts, caramelized parsnips, and a dark roasted sweet onion puree. I had White truffle and Panko crusted Veal Scalloppine with pancetta and Taleggio cheese smashed new potatoes, juniper and caraway roasted root vegetables, and roma tomato potage. The ladies ordered a mixed greens salad and the fellas ordered Roasted Pheasant soup.

The fennel in the soup made it. The broth was very good, a nice mixed of flavors. Nathan said the roast pheasant wasn't a very good example, and it could've been turkey or any other roasted bird. I don't have much experience with pheasant, so I couldn't state one way or the other.

So the tastes and the flavors ranged. I thought my veal and the potatoes beneath it was pretty good, though the Panko crust on the bottom of the veal was kinda soggy because of the potatoes. Shannon's Scallops were good and the potatoe pave was also very nice. Nathan thought his meal was pretty good, except for the chicken, which was pretty bland. Jenny's pork was...well..it had no taste at all. She said the rest of the meal around the pork was pretty good.

For dessert, Shannon and Jenny both had a warm chocolate thing (I forget), I had a carrot cake and Nathan had Creme Brulée. The chocolate thing was very good, along with the Creme Brulée. The carrot cake...was...not but not really carrot like. It had orange zest in it...and..well...that was pretty much the only thing you could taste in the cake. The frosting was nice though.

Overall it was pretty good. Though I think a little overpriced. We got out of there (including two glasses of wine) for just under 100$, excluding tip.

We walked over to the Paramount Theatre and up to our seats. The music was pretty good. The Flute Concerto was a bit odd, but apparently it was the second time it had been performed. I was interesting and often times went with threads of music that were very odd together and then joined and then got very odd again. I did bring up Christian Tiemeyer, and I am still curious what happened to him. Their site said he retired... My older sister was friends with his daughter and I went to many many concerts under his 20 year stint as the music director.

Afterwards, we headed back to the Mattas and started to watch the the Boston Red Sox whoop on the Cleveland Indians (Jenny's a big BoSox fan). Shannon went up to bed and the rest of us finished the game. I started to fall asleep around the 7th inning...but it finished up pretty quickly...

We woke up the next morning, had some freshly made biscuits. Nathan then got ready to take the girls to a Halloween thing at Usher's Ferry. Both had homemade costumes. Taylor was Snow White and Cali was Cinderella. Very cute.

We left for home as they left for Usher's Ferry.

We stopped at the Williamsburg Tanger Factory Outlet, ate lunch, and wandered around a bit...didn't buy anything. We looked at some cooking stuff...meh.

And then we finished our trip home. Fun weekend.

Posted by SammyD at 8:18 PM | Comments (0)



October 19, 2007

Movie night was last night. Holly made some wonderful things. Encrusted Chicken with a spicy sauce, some drop biscuits with cheese in them and some noodles. The chicken was tender and the sauce was good, though it may have been a little too spicy for Holly...though Shannon seemed to like it too. The biscuts..well..they were too salty, but I could tell that they would be very good, beyond the salt. We watched Psycho, I was reminded of how good a movie it is. We then watched a documentary on the movie, and I swear, it was as long, or longer then the actual movie. Needless to say, we didn't finish the documentary.

I actually wrote a letter the other day. And dropped it in the mail...I don't know how much good it'll be, but I hope it helps to lift my brother's spirits, though I don't know if he'll make it through.

I was very disgusted with myself the other day. Sitting at home, just kinda waiting and I was hungry. Instead of eating many of the healthy things that are around the house (apples, carrots, bananas, etc), I open up the bag of marshmallows. I'm such a binge eater...I have been since I can remember. From cheese and crackers to banana bread to whatever. I try to control it, but from time to time, I feel like I am watching myself do these things. It's dreadful. Yet, I wouldn't get on drugs for it. I ended up throwing them away...

Speaking of drugs, the Prevacid seems to be going well for the most part. I have had painful gas/bloating from time to time, but over all I'm tolerating it well (only that one time has it woke me up out of a sleep). Carrots go down well. The other two seem to be going well and my blood pressure is in line too. So, it's all settling out. I'm not looking forward to the bill for the esophageal dilation, but it should come sometime...I'm actually kinda surprised it hasn't....

So we're going to go see the Cedar Rapids Symphony tomorrow. I have many fond memories of going to this when I was a child. I think the company my dad worked for donated money or something and they always had tickets (that apparently nobody else wanted), so I went a lot. It'll be also be nice to see the Mattas too.

Tomorrow is a big day for Brandon. He turns the big 30. Shortly he'll be a father. The changes he's made in his life in the past year or so, makes me happy. I used to worry about him quite a bit, but now, it is much better.

Happy Birthday Brandon!

Posted by SammyD at 9:59 PM | Comments (0)



October 14, 2007

Well, Last weekend we went down to the Wells Fargo World Food Festival (associated with the World Food Prize)...not just one night, but two. It much much bigger then the year before and because of the warm weather, quite a few people made it down to it as well. We hit Africa, Ecuador, Russia, China and India. Everything was very good, and it was fun to go down and have such a variety of foods. The only problem, I think, was that I think the vendors weren't expecting so many people, so there were a few food shortages.

Good event, if it grows like it has been, it'll soon be quite huge.

I took this past Friday and coming Monday and Tuesday off and decided to use the time to do some work around the house that I've been slacking off with....however the weather has decided to not cooperate, so I haven't gotten most of the things outside that I planned on doing. I did start repatching the crack between the driveway and the house, but after dropping quite a chunk of change on concrete crack filler, I decided to go a cheaper, but because of the weather, I have not been able to finish. Hopefully I'll be able to get it in there soon enough. Friday night, I headed over to the Boelman's to get a few ladders, and then proceeded to spend a few hours shooting the breeze with Brandon. It reminded me as to how much I miss "outside work" Brandon.

Yesterday, we went up to the Hoffman's to celebrate their daughter's, Savannah, first birthday. It was a fun time, though, chilly, but good. We had fun going shopping for a baby girl (almost bought her Iowa State clothes too), and ended up spending a bit more then we planned on, but that's cool. I'm sure they'll get used, and passed on. We came home and caught up on our DVR recordings (almost).

This morning I got up quite early, and goofed off until Shannon got up. After she ate lunch, we started peeling the paint of the ceiling. We got most of the problematic places, and we'll sand down some areas, to make the transfer over. Then the fun began. I noticed that an area in the living room, was a bit damp, and in a bit of checking, found a china bowl, placed beneath the tub drain to catch leaks...

Yeah, I can't believe this crap either. I plan on calling our regular plumber to get an estimate...or at the very least finding out how much water actually collects in that (now empty) bowl...

Then while going downstairs to get something, I noticed that the floor drain in the basement was a bit backed up, so I quickly stopped the washing machine and then closed the door, just to wait for it to go down a bit. Wanting to use some drain cleaner, I decided to use a bucket to get the water up off the floor, and after making several trips up the stairs to dump excess water in the sink, and then figuring out that the water was staying exactly where it was at...and even form the drain upstairs was coming back form the upstairs. So we ended up dumping the water out into the yard, to get it down to the level where we could use the drain cleaner.

Not that there was any point to using the drain cleaner, since it ended up not working...even after using an entire bottle.

So after waiting quite a while, I called Roto-Rooter's local number...and...well...got nothing. It rang and rang and then hung up on me. I called the national number, ended up in the same place, but this time I left a message...after waiting a bit, I decided to call somewhere else, and in looking found Mr. Rooter and called them. Turned out they have a newly minted franchise over in Waukee. And because they picked up the phone and answered my call, the proceeded to get my business.

He came in the time frame that he stated, he wore little protective coverings on his shoes. He had a uniform, and a well placed badge with his picture and name on it, all stating a level of professionalism that I tend to like. He even had wheel coverings for his electric snake thing. He came with a list of flat prices for things. So if he's there for 5 minutes or 5 hours, doing X costs this much...so no overtime, which is nice. He was also very personable too.

So on further inspection, he decided what to do and went to work. After unsealing the main drain, he quick called me over to show how much build up was inside the pipe, which probably explains why it was clogged.... He went to work, and in about an hour or so, water was flowing freely from our basement sink into the floor drain and out into the sewer system. We paid for it and they left (I thought the price was quite reasonable for a Sunday night). I made sure he knew that his good customer service left a good impression on me.

Over the course of the day, we talked about our options with the house. It got especially bad today, with all the things breaking, we even discussed the possibility of moving into a much smaller/cheaper place, or even an apartment, until we can get rid of some of our larger debts (wedding, school, my car, and whatever would be left from selling the house). Anyways, I think, we, once again, decided to tough it out for another few years (3 probably) before we try to find a place that we both can live with.

Posted by SammyD at 9:40 PM | Comments (0)



October 4, 2007

Chicken Tikka Masala

Chicken Tikka Masala

Some of the herbs from Norway, Iowa. The cream from Woodward, Iowa. Locally grown and produced cilantro, onion, yogurt and Serrano chili.

From leaving work, to plating the food, just about 3.5 hours (including shopping)...Totally worth it.

Oh...and I've gotta say that the Muir Glen Fire Roasted Crushed Tomatoes and Tomato Paste were really good. I tasted them before I put them in the sauce, and I don't normally say this, but wow...it was good. I don't know what tomatoes they use, but I found something to use for the good times.

Posted by SammyD at 7:38 PM | Comments (0)



September 30, 2007

So inspired by the food at the gateway market, I came up with an idea for an appetizer (which ended up being our dinner, tonight).

So I started off with George Formaro's Soft Cheese and Herb Polenta:

2 c chicken stock
1 c heavy cream
2 T butter
1 T chopped fresh herbs of your choice (I used red pepper flakes)
salt to taste
1/8 t cracked black pepper
1 t chopped fresh garlic

Bring the above to a boil

1 c polenta or stone ground corn grits
1/2 c Parmesan cheese

Slowly add polenta with a whisk, stirring constantly.
Turn heat to very low and cook about 20 minutes
Add Parmesan.
(They suggest to serve as aside or main dish topped with a rich meat ragu.)

While this is slowly cooking on low, Slice up the prosciutto in about 1/4" strips and seperate into their thin layers, and toss into a pan with a little olive oil and pan fry on just below medium, until the prosciutto is starting to get crispy. this won't take very long, since they slices are so thin.

Slice up a fine bread, and toast it (in the oven or a toaster).

On the toasted bread, spread the chevre, cover that in a portion of the polenta and then top it with a few pieces of the prosciutto.

It'll look something like this:

Prosciutto Americano, Soft Cheese And Herb Polenta, chipotle chevre on la mie ciabatta toast

Crunchy, creamy, salty, meaty, spicy and cheesy....how good is that?

Posted by SammyD at 5:48 PM | Comments (0)



September 29, 2007

Gateway Market has pizza. I bought one. They are excellent. As a consumer of many many many pizzas you bake or eat at home, I have eaten a lot of them.

Forget Papa Johns, Forget Digiorno, Forget Freschetta, Forget Papa Murphy's.

Less ingredients then the fingers on my two hands. Fresh fairly thin crust (non sweet, non cracker), fresh, great tasting mozzarella, tasty sauce.

And for a mere $8, it's totally worth it.

Oh...and not that I know him or anything, but apparently today is George Formaro's 40th birthday...so...uh...Happy Birthday. I wish you continued success. I'm looking forward to 43's rebirth.

Posted by SammyD at 6:46 PM | Comments (0)



So I headed down to the Gateway Market to wander around and see what they had for displays and what not.

So I started from the parking lot to be greeted by Juan O'Sullivan's and a green chile paste type thing. It was warm, but not too spicy, but good. It'd be good with chips or...thin crackers...toast points...that sort of thing.

In the store wandering around they fine people from Niman Ranch. They were giving out free samples of their bacon...oh and it was wonderfully delicious bacon too. I'm glad I already have a package in the fridge.

La Quercia was there as well, giving out samples of their Prosciutto Americano and Prosciutto Piccante. I bought some of the Prosciutto Americano, though both are very good, but the Americano seemed like it would be the best in what I was planning for dinner tomorrow.

Reichert's Dairy Air (no real website) was there presenting their range of goat cheeses. I tried several and bought some roasted red pepper chevre and...I think chipotle chevre. I'll eventually try them all I guess. The small samples were very good. I'm actually going to use this on some La Mie bread, topped with some of the Prosciutto Americano.

George Formaro, did a food presentation, making some Soft Cheese and Herb Polenta and Chicken Saltimbocca with Porcini Mushrooms. It was interesting to watch him work. Certainly shows that he's spent long hours in the kitchen. The Polenta and Saltimbocca was very good, even the smalls smaple that we got. I made up the mind what I wanted to do for dinner...and picked up a Gateway Market pizza.

Posted by SammyD at 5:25 PM | Comments (0)



September 26, 2007

Much to my surprise, shortly be