Sandwichspace Day 4

 Today's creation was focaccia (toasted slightly less), ground turkey patty with add-ins, thin slices of cheddar, and, mixing it up a bit, two sunnyside up eggs. Not much new ground broken here, but the eggs were pretty nice, but super messy. The yolk was still runny, and boy did it run.

 The sunnyside eggs were better than I thought they'd be, maybe 7/10.

Appearance - 5. That little bit of yolk dribbling down really added to the visual appeal

Taste - 7, it was good and I really enjoyed it. I think it might not be a fair comparison in a way, since it was hot and fresh. I don't think the sunnyside up eggs were the magic bullet. I think they may be _slightly_ yummier than scrambled, but I basically needed a shower after eating it, so not a great option for work. A jammier yolk might work, but I'm not sure that is an improvement over scrambled at all. I guess the one thing this tells me is that even with the same components, there can be a lot of variation in the end result.

Sandwichspace Day 2 and 3

Day 2 - A bit of a disappointment today. Focaccia, grated cheddar cheese, the same ground turkey mix as yesterday. Scrambled eggs with spinach and sauteed peppers. The peppers were not too tasty, perhaps burned a bit. Same with the turkey meat. Even the bread was a touch burned. I guess that is one of the dangers of cooking it on the stovetop especially when I am distracted by getting ready for work.

I won't re-grade the bits I graded yesterday. They would probably lose a point or two because they were a bit scorched. The cheese kind of got lost in the unpleasant flavors and was much less pronounced. I think grating is a decent way to go in general. Maybe 

Scrambled egg with sauteed peppers and spinach - Not great, 2/10. I think I could have used different peppers and cooked them better and gained maybe 4 or 5 points.

Appearance - 2/10. Yikes

Taste - 2/10.

Probably worth a comment or two on my ranking scale. I'm thinking:

0 - Completely terrible

1 - Bad

2 - Mediocre

3 - Ok

4 - Better than ok, but not quite up to good.

5 - Good. I think 5 is a decent sandwich, like, I would happily eat a 5 every day for breakfast

6 - Better than just good, a standout in some way.

7 - Very good, satisfying

8 - Great, a real standout.

9 - Exceptional

10 - Best I've ever had

Day 3 - Focaccia, sliced cheddar, scrambled eggs and sauteed onion, frozen sausage patty. This one was good, but it wasn't that well executed. The onions didn't taste too good, which was surprising. You'd think it would be hard to mess up onions sauteed in butter. The egg was well-cooked, but the onions detracted from them, 4/10. The cheese melted ok. The sausage patty was a bit think and leathery, which was disappointing, 3/10.

Appearance - 3/10

Taste - 5/10

Sandwichspace Day 1

 This morning's sandwich was a bit fancier than normal. I had some leftover cooked ground turkey from last night's attempted potstickers as well as some raw potsticker filling - ground turkey, minced onion, scallion, garlic, and cabbage. I made a sausage patty out of the filling. Sauteed onion, tossed in scrambled ground turkey, and two scrambled eggs. Topped it all with some shavings of cheddar. Served on toasted focaccia.

The focaccia is really nothing special to look at, but I love the taste and the texture. The cheese did not melt all that well. The turkey patty was pretty good for a turkey patty. I usually think of turkey as a healthier but not tastier option. But the add ins really boosted it. As for the eggs, I fried them in a pan on the stove. They were cooked on low heat and turned out well, I do not enjoy scrambled eggs when they get browned at all. I do like having add ins, they help give the egg a bit more structure and I feel like it makes them fluffier. Sauteed kale is a favorite for that purpose, but I don't currently have any kale.

I guess the question is how to rank it. Maybe the way to go is rank each piece, then maybe an overall rating for the sandwich on taste and appearance.

Bread - Focaccia - Love it. 8/10 maybe. Crispy crust, soft interior, cheesy bits on the crust

Cheese - Cheddar is great, 7/10. Poor execution here

Meat - Ground turkey patty. I'd say 5/10 here, maybe 4/10 if it didn't have the extra stuff

Eggs - Scrambled is the way to go for sure. Add ins boost the yummy. 8/10 for this attempt, but I think scrambled/omelet is going to be the definite winner here.

No sauce or toppings

Appearance, maybe 4/10. Not too pretty.

Taste 7/10. Very good, but turkey meat and cheese failures brought it down a smidge.

More focaccia tomorrow, I've got 3 more pieces to get through before I maybe try some other bread.

Breakfast Sandwiches

 Now for some subject change whiplash. Been enjoying breakfast sandwiches this year. But haven't experimented too much with them. So I thought it might be fun to wash the bad taste of a rough garden year out of my mouth with a fun little project. I'm thinking explore "sandwichspace" by trying as many combinations of meat/egg/bread/toppings as possible and rating them until I uncover the ideal sandwich to be my daily workhorse breakfast.

Bread

1. Focaccia - https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2023/03/02/small-batch-focaccia
2. Ciabatta - https://www.karenskitchenstories.com/2015/03/no-knead-ciabatta.html
3. Rolls - https://imgur.com/pull-apart-cheesy-pesto-bread-EbsZQd2
4. White Sandwich Loaf - https://www.abreaducation.com/content/lesson1-first-loaf
5. Tortilla
6. Pizza Dough to make like a breakfast calzone?
7. French bread - http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/easy-crusty-baguettes-recipe
8. Brioche

Meat

1. Bologna
2. Bacon - thick cut/thin
3. Ham
4. Sausage Patty - frozen/homemade
5. Italian Sausage/Bratwurst
6. Scrapple
7. Pork Roll
8. Pastrami
9. Mortadella
10. Spam
11. Pepperoni

Eggs

1. Scrambled
2. Over Easy
3. Poached
4. Sous vide
5. Omelet with add ins like spinach, kale, sliced lunchmeat, Chicken chunks

Cheese

1. Provolone
2. Cheddar
3. American
4. Cooper
5. Moz
6. Gorgonzola

Other stuff

1. Sliced Avocado
2. Hollandaise
3. Marinara
4. Ketchup
5. Mayo

Just tossing out some ideas to get started. I baked some focaccia today, so that will be the base for tomorrow's effort.

Just Terrible

 I planted like 30 tomato plants. Surely I should be awash in tomatoes, right? Nope. I've gotten tomatoes from like 2 plants. What went wrong? I think the problems are deer and chipmunks. Chipmunks chewed through the stems of three plants. Deer completely violated the plants out in the rock garden. But even with that issue, I should have gotten some tomatoes since they can't quite get at the whole plant thanks for the concrete reinforcing wire cages. But I have not see a red tomato. I think the culprits are chipmunks. I've definitely seen them scurrying away from the tomatoes. In the end, tomatoes were an utter disappointment. If I want to have some sort of tomato harvest next year I am going to need to come up with anti-deer/anti-chipmunk measures. I think I could put up some posts and wire to keep the deer at bay. But the chipmunks are going to be a bit tougher. Maybe some chicken wire around the cages?

Zucchini did pretty poorly this year as well. I got a few, but < 10. Out of like 7 plants. Only a couple of the plants did well getting started, and they're all completely gone now.

Cucumbers did poorly as well. I got basically one small harvest. They seemed to suffer from the heat and dried out way too fast even with religious daily watering.

Hot peppers did ok, I've picked a lot of them. Made some powder, froze some green chile and long hots. Probably the star of the garden this year.

Plans for next year:

• Deer proofing absolutely required 

•  Chipmunk proofing methods needed 

•  The peppers need bigger pots. Need to find a source of decent pots, maybe get a yard of compost or something to fill them. 

•  Better soil and mulching for everything in pots, especially cukes. Maybe a better location for cucumbers. 

•  A berry planter. The strawberries were good, though only got a few, and likely chipmunks ate a few. Maybe a shelter of some sort for them.

I didn't do anything with the planters out front along the driveway this year. Might plant some kale out there this weekend. 

Thinking a lot about maybe a hydroponic setup in the basement. I can afford decent lights and would be cool to get some basil, maybe strawberries or something.

As always, my battle cry is NEXT YEAR!