sammyd42

So I don't remember the plot line exactly, but the dream was very vivid and strange. Anyways, general points:

1. Aliens were trying to take over the world and were possessing humans through the base of the spine.
2. The possessed humans could be hurt by punching them in the right side Where they resided.
3. The possessed humans would say 3 words, pause look around, and then continue. It was a very jerky way of speaking.
4. The aliens didn't know the differentiations between males and females and often times the females and males would be thing that would be out of character for them. Example being a woman standing at a urinal and then leaving.
5. There were small groups of people that figured out the patterns and were able to blend in for the most part.
6. The main alien possessed John Lithgow (yes he had a starring role in my dream). Lithgow's character had cancer of something on his right side, and so the punching in the right side didn't work so well...
7. It was semi-serious and yet a parody at the same time...

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.

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.

The cake is not a lie...

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).

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.

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

• Scrambled Eggs with Arugula, Sun-Dried Tomatoes, and Goat Cheese (p 37 Entertaining Spring 2009)
• Fish Tacos
• Tuna Sandwiches Provencal

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.

I read this, laughed, so I had to share:

To Sam and Shannon-
Thanks for coming to my party and staying to talk and thanks for your graduation present. I thought about saving it so I could buy a Playstation and play Final Fantasy games at BYU, but I was worried that Shannon wouldn't approve. Then I thought about saving it so I could pay for the upkeep of having a cat, but I was worried that Sam would wonder why I wasn't buying a Playstation and how I planed to keep a cat when pets are prohibited in the dorms. So I decided it would be best to save it and not tell anyone exactly how I end up using it to pay for college expenses. Maybe it'll buy a keg of root beer and I can throw one of those wild parties BYU students are always prone to having.

Thanks,

Isaac

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).

• Moroccan Chicken with Green Olives and Lemon (p 44 Bon Appétit May 2009)
• Mahi-Mahi in Tomato-Olive Sauce (p 46 Bon Appétit May 2009)
• Tuscan Tuna-and-Bean Sandwiches
• Sun-Dried-Tomato Burgers with Balsamic-Glazed Onions

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.

I was just outside Mars Cafe, after getting some coffee, when I sat down in my car, thought I heard my pants rip, but on closer inspection felt nothing to be amiss. I then went to my fairly consistent Thursday morning meetings. Only to be told by a co-worker, that yes indeed, my pants had torn. The apparently tore around the back pocket, which I find a bit weird. After getting through the meeting, I headed home, and changed my pants.

After having 3 trips to Cedar Rapids, in the past 4 weeks, we finally get a couple of weekends off in a row, though, I will need to head back down there to drop off some pork shoulders for Joseph to smoke.

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)

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.

• White Bean Salad with Mint and Red Onion (p47 Fine Cooking April/May 2009)
• Toasted Israeli Couscous Salad with mint, cucumber and feta (p44 Fine Cooking April/May 2009)
• Rigatoni with Sun-Dried Tomato and Fennel Sauce (p21 Fine Cooking April/May 2009)
• Mozzarella and Spinach BLTs (p64 Fine Cooking April/May 2009)

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...

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.

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).

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..

• Mashed Potato Casserole with Smoked Gouda and Bacon (p73 Bon Appétit March 2009)
• Tuscan Garlic Chicken Pasta (RC Cooks Illustrated April/May 2009)
• Dijon Cilantro Tuna Salad on Whole Grain Bread (p55 Bon Appétit April 2009)

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.

Isaac is now officially an Eagle Scout. I would have a picture, but, well, I forgot to bring my camera.

He is also officially a valedictorian of his 2009 class at Kennedy High School. He graduates this Thursday.