Spiced Pork with Caribbean Salsa

It has been awhile since I participated in the Eat the Alphabet Challenge that is hosted by Brenda at Meal Planning Magic.  This is a great challenge to eat more produce and legumes.  Head over to Brenda's blog to view the challenge details.  She also hosts a 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats challenge that is about to start in September.

It seems like by the time I get the reminder for the challenge each month, I'm already drowning in other things.  However, this month I planned ahead and found this recipe with mangoes for the 'M, N, O' letter challenge.  I love mangoes, but the huge pit often leaves me frustrated.  I have decided only to use them if a recipe sounds really amazing.

I love Skinnytaste.com because her recipes are ones that my husband requests.  I can make Weight Watcher food without it being boring and seeming like healthy food.  She had this recipe that I've been meaning to make for awhile, and seemed perfect to tie in with this challenge.


Spiced Pork with Caribbean Salsa
slightly adapted from Skinnytaste.com
Ingredients
Pork
2 pound boneless pork loin
6 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons canola oil 

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 lime, squeezed
1/2 cup fresh orange juice

Caribbean salsa
1 haas avocado, diced
1 jalapeno, seeded and diced
2 large ripe mangos, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped red onion
1-2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2-3 tablespoon fresh lime juice 
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions
1) Using a sharp knife, cut slits into the pork and stuff holes with half of the crushed garlic. Combine the remaining garlic, seasonings, and salt, rub all over pork. Place in a large container, pour the lime and orange juice over the pork; cover and refrigerate 5 hours or overnight, turning pork occasionally so the marinade covers all of pork.
2) The next morning, put everything in the crock pot and cook on LOW for 9 hours.  After 9 hours, shred the pork.
3) Remove liquid from crock pot and reserve. Add shredded pork back to the slow cooker. Add about 1 cup of the liquid back into the crock pot and taste for salt and pepper. Let it cook an additional 15 minutes.

4) Meanwhile make the  Caribbean salsa. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, season to taste with salt and pepper. Refrigerate salsa until ready to serve 

 

 

The original version of this is for Jerk Pork, but I can't eat red pepper flakes or spicy seasonings.  I found a home-made recipe for Jerk Seasonings and left out the spices I couldn't have.  In return, I bumped up the heat in the salsa by using a jalapeno that had the seeds left in.  I thought it was very spicy but the avocado and the sweetness from the sugar in the pork counterbalanced it really well.  The meat in this recipe turned out so tender and delicious.  In my opinion this dish wouldn't be the same without the salsa though.  I love the brightness and the flavor that this brings to the dish.

 

Please check out all the other blog posts and stop by to see the dessert that I have planned for next month's Eating the Alphabet challenge!

 



Buttermilk Cheddar Biscuits and Gravy

A lot of the time while I'm making dinner, I'll have Food Network on in the background.  Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives is on about 90 percent of the time, but it is good background noise.  One day, while I was cooking, I heard Guy Fieri mention Cheddar Biscuits and Gravy.  I thought they sounded delicious so I wrote Cheddar Biscuits and Gravy on my fridge calendar to remind myself to look it up.

I couldn't find the recipe from the episode, but I found plenty of other recipes on blogs that sounded equally delicious.  I love this age where we can get a meal idea and use the internet to find something that sounds similar in under ten minutes.

Buttermilk Cheddar Biscuits and Gravy
barely adapted from Tiny Test Kitchen
Ingredients
Biscuits
2 cups flour, plus more for rolling out the dough
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1/2 cup cold buttermilk, shaken
1 cold large egg
1 cup grated Cheddar
1 egg beaten with a splash of water

Sausage Gravy1/2 teaspoon canola oil
1/2 lb sweet Italian sausage
1/2 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cups whole milk

Directions
Biscuits
1)  Heat oven to 425ºF. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat or parchment paper and set aside.
2)  Add the egg to the buttermilk in a measuring jug and beat to combine, set aside.
3) Take a tablespoon of the flour and add it the grated cheese. Toss to coat the cheese with the flour, set aside.
4) Place the remaining flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl of an stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Combine the ingredients with the mixer on low. Add the butter and mix until the butter is the size of peas. You may need to shut the mixer off and manually rub the butter into the flour to get the butter pieces all the same size.
5) Turn the mixer back to low and add the buttermilk mixture to the flour in one addition. Mix until just combined. Add the cheese mixture to the dough and mix until just combined. Stop the mixer.
6) Using clean counter space, flour a 12×12″ area well. Form a ball with the dough in the mixer bowl and place it on the flour. With lightly floured hands, knead the dough gently. Using your hands again, form a 5×10″ rectangle with the dough.
7) Using a 2 3/4″ biscuit cutter ( or a small cup), cut out 8 biscuits from the dough. Reform squares of the same thickness to get the last biscuits.
8) Place biscuits on the prepared baking sheet.
9) Brush the tops of the biscuits with the egg wash and pop in the oven for 20 minutes, until golden grown.

Gravy
1) Heat the oil in a 9″ saute pan over medium high heat. Add sausage and break up any large pieces with a wooden spoon. Cook until the sausage is browned.
2) Remove the sausage with a slotted spoon, trying to keep as much of the oil and fat in the pan as possible. Add the butter (less if you have a lot of oil) and allow to melt. Add flour and begin to whisk continuously for 2 minutes until the flour and butter have formed a smooth paste and the flour is cooked.
4) Begin to add the milk in a thin stream, whisking all the time to prevent lumps.
5) When all the milk is added, let the gravy simmer gently for 2-3 minutes to make sure the milk is heated through.
7) Re-add the sausage and cook on medium low heat for 2-3 minutes.

I love biscuits and gravy.  I loved the biscuits by themselves.  I just used regular packaged cheese in our biscuits and I do think to achieve the full cheddar flavor from the biscuits you do have to use something sharper and more pronounced.  While the recipe looks labor intensive, it isn't difficult.  It definitely isn't a weeknight recipe, but made for a delicious Saturday breakfast at home watching our recorded shows from the week. 

Chili Blanco

It is time for another recipe swap, hosted by Sarah at A Taste of Home Cooking.  The theme this time was Blogger's Choice and I received Dawn's blog: Simple Gourmet Cooking.

 

While looking through Dawn's blog, I discovered an old favorite: Mexican Stuffed Shells, so I made that one night.  Then, I was looking around her blog and came across this chili.  I have been looking for a good chile recipe that isn't a red-base chili, so I thought I'd try this one as my swap recipe. 

Chili Blanco
slightly adapted from Simple Gourmet Cooking
Ingredients
1 pound ground chicken or ground turkey
1 pound lean ground pork
1 1/2 cups chopped onions
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 Knorrs Concentrated Chicken Broth tubs
1 can Green Chile Enchilada Sauce
2 15-oz cans Great Northern Beans, undrained
1 15-oz can golden hominy,  undrained
1 4-oz cans diced green chile peppers, undrained
4 large fresh jalapeno chile peppers, seeded and chopped
3 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
Directions
1) In a 4-quart Dutch oven cook chicken, pork, onions and garlic over medium heat until pork is brown and onion is tender. Drain off fat.
2) Stir in concentrated broth, enchilada sauce, beans, hominy, green chile peppers, jalapeno peppers, lime juice, cumin, and white pepper. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 40 min, stirring occasionally. Stir in cilantro.

When going through my cupboard for ingredients, I realized that I only had one can of green chiles, but I had an extra can of green chile enchilada sauce.  So, I added that in addition to everything.  Apparently the commissary on base doesn't like stocking different types of peppers, so they only had jalapeno peppers instead of poblano, so I just grabbed more of those instead. 

While it isn't as white as Dawn's, due to the enchilada sauce, I decided to keep the name.  I thought this chili was fantastic.  Jacob said that it was different enough and good enough to enter into a chili competition, which in my mind is a huge stamp of approval from him.  I served this with an herbed cheddar bread that has the texture of cornbread.  It was great for some of the dreary weather we've faced the past couple of weeks.  Definitely put this on your menu if you're looking for a non-red chili.

Please check out the other great dishes from the Blogger's Swap below.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

The Crazy Cooking Challenge group gets a theme every month and everyone makes the same item, just different variations of it. Last month, there were over seventy submissions for chocolate cake. If you're interested in the Crazy Cooking Challenge, visit Mom's Crazy Cooking to get more information. Tina, the author of Mom's Crazy Cooking, was voted as having the best looking chocolate cake, so visit her blog to see fantastic chocolate cakes as well.





I haven't had spaghetti since I was a little girl. I developed a food allergy when I was in sixth grade that made me really sick when I ate canned tomato products. Since then, I have pretty much steered clear of spaghetti. When this month's Crazy Cooking Challenge was announced: Spaghetti with Red Sauce, I went on the hunt for a recipe that didn't use any sauces, but used just tomatoes. I ran into No Recipes, which is written by Marc, who describes himself as loving food since he could see over the kitchen counter. I loved looking over the recipes in his blog and have pinned recipes such as his Crispy Zucchini Fritters and Strawberry Lemon Bars to make in the future. But I loved that his spaghetti recipe didn't call for any canned tomato ingredients.

Spaghetti and Meatballs
slightly adapted from No Recipes
Ingredients
for meatballs
1/2 medium onion, minced
3 medium cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup peeled, seeded and minced tomatoes (about 1 medium tomato)
12 ounces ground beef
6 ounces ground pork
4 ounces ricotta cheese
1 egg
1/3 cup unseasoned bread crumbs
1 ounce parmesan cheese, grated
3 sprigs fresh thyme, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

for sauce
5 cloves of garlic minced
1 large onion minced
4 cups peeled, seeded and chopped tomatoes (about 8 medium tomatoes)
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon dried Italian spices
parsley, minced for garnish
whole wheat spaghetti (measured per individual)

Directions
Meatballs
1) Fry the onions and garlic in olive oil until tender and starting to brown. Add the tomatoes then continue frying until there is no liquid left in the pan. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool.
2) In a large bowl, add the beef, pork, ricotta, egg, bread crumbs, parmesan, thyme, parsley, soy sauce, salt and pepper along with the tomato and onion mixture. Put some gloves on and use your hands to knead the mixture together until all the ingredients are evenly distributed.
3) Use your hands to roll the meat into 1 1/2″ balls. The mixture will be pretty loose, so if you have trouble forming it into balls, put it in the fridge for a bit to stiffen up.
4) Heat a frying pan up over medium high heat, then add 2 tablespoons of oil. Fry the meatballs in batches, gently rolling them around to maintain their shape until browned on all sides.
5) Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of oil and set aside for the sauce.
Sauce
1) Sauté the garlic and onions until translucent in the oil that was set aside from the meatballs.
2) Add the tomatoes, bay leaf and salt then bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
3) Add the meatballs into the tomato sauce along with any collected juices. Turn the heat down to low and gently simmer for 1 hour. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of dried Italian spices.
Noodles
1) Boil some spaghetti al dente according to the package directions. Drain the pasta, then toss the pasta together with the sauce. Plate the spaghetti, then top each serving with meatballs, minced parsley and parmesan cheese.

I liked this spaghetti a lot.  We had plenty for leftovers, and I believe that the leftovers were much better than the original meal.  The flavors developed deeper as they sat in my fridge.  In the initial meal, you couldn't really taste the garlic, so I've changed the amount in the recipe to reflect what I believe would be a better amount.  The meatballs were great.  I thought that there were maybe too many ingredients and the flavors would be overpowering, but they all worked together.  I'll definitely make this recipe again, especially when tomatoes are in season.

Check out the links below to see additional Spaghetti with Red Sauce recipes:

Garlic Balsamic Pork Chops

I didn't eat a lot of pork chops before I got married.  It was one of those meats that I didn't really know what to do with, so I tried to avoid them in the grocery store.  However, my husband loves them, so I've tried to make an effort to throw them on the menu when I find a recipe for them.  When I found this recipe, I thought it was perfect because I love recipes with vinegar in them and he loves pork chops.  Win-win situation at it's finest.

Garlic Balsamic Pork Chops
slightly adapted from Joyful Abode
Ingredients
4 pork chops
2 tablespoons Rosemary
Salt, to taste
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup Balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup Mustard
1/4 cup Honey

Directions
1) Place pork chops in a ziploc bag and combine other ingredients to coat the pork chops.  Let mixture marinade for 2-3 hours.
2) Preheat grill and grill until done.  Or Cook meat in oil in a large pan over medium heat until done.
3) While pork chops are cooking, boil the marinade in a saucepan.  If it seems like not enough sauce, add more honey, mustard, and balsamic vinegar in the same ratio as the recipe (it should have the consistency of a salad dressing)
4) Once the sauce boils and the pork chops are done, pour the sauce over the meat.

My husband loved this sauce.  I served the pork chops over tortellini and he said the sauce would be great just on pasta.  I thought the pork chops were very flavorful and moist.  The garlic and balsamic vinegar made these pork chops amazing.  We'll definitely have to make these again this summer.

Pork and Potato Hash

February is Potato Lovers Month.  I didn't know that until the next theme for the Recipe Swap was announced: potatoes.  When I searched through my blog to find a potato recipe to swap,  I decided that I should make something new and then swap that.  So, I set out on a hunt to find a potato recipe. 

The first thing that came to mind was hash, so I typed in hash, and this amazing picture popped up.  The picture looked so good that I thought I could actually smell the hash through my computer, so onto the menu plan it went.

Pork and Potato Hash

adapted from MyRecipes

Ingredients

12 ounces pork shoulder or butt

1 carton (32 ounces) reduced sodium chicken broth

1 tablespoon rosemary

1 tablespoon Italian Seasoning

1 1/4 teaspoons salt, divided

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

6 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tablespoon olive oil
4 cups (1/2-inch) cubed red potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1 cup chopped onion

3 tablespoons thinly diagonally sliced green onions

Directions

1) Place pork in the crockpot and pour chicken broth over the pork.  Season with rosemary, Italian seasoning, and 1/2 teaspoon salt and black pepper.  Place the crushed garlic into the broth mixture and let cook in the crockpot about six hours on low.

2) In a skillet, place a tablespoon of oil and place on medium-high heat.  Add the potato and chopped onion and cook until both potatoes and onions are tender.

3) Shred pork with kitchen utensils.

4) Plate potatoes and top with pork and green onions.  (The original recipe had an over easy egg on top, but we didn't include those).

The pork tasted amazing when it came out of the crockpot.  It was one of those foods that you want to just keep eating, but you hold yourself back because you know you're about to eat dinner.  The pork tasted great with the potatoes and the onions added some great flavor.  This is a fast, low calorie meal that was great.  This dish would not have been the same without the red potatoes, so I'm going to say that this is a great dish for Potato Lovers Month. 

Parmesan Honey Pork

I love meals that you can't wait to eat.  You smell them cooking, and it takes everything in your body not to go and taste it all the time while it is cooking.  This is one of those recipes.   Someone wrote as a commentary to the Six Sisters' Stuff recipe that their kids said this recipe smelled like feet while it was cooking, and I couldn't disagree more.  I thought the smell of this recipe was intoxicating. 

Parmesan Honey Pork Shoulder
slightly modified from Six Sisters' Stuff
Ingredients
1 (2-3 pound) boneless pork shoulder/roast
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup honey
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons dried basil
3 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions
1) Spray slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray. Place roast in slow cooker.
2) In a small bowl, combine the cheese, honey, soy sauce, basil, garlic, oil and salt; pour over pork.  
3) Cover and cook on low for 6-7 hours or until a meat thermometer reads 160°.

On the Six Sisters' Stuff Blog, they continue the recipe on and take the juices out of the crock pot and combine it with cornstarch and water.  I didn't do this, because our sauce was already thick enough in the crock pot.

I loved this recipe, especially with the broccoli cheddar rice we had in it.  The pork was very moist and flavorful.  You can't really taste the cheese, so for all the cheese lovers out there, it doesn't really matter if you increase the amount of cheese, it hides behind the other strong flavors in the dish.  The leftovers were snatched up and eaten the next day, and I think the leftovers tasted even better.  Such an easy meal for such great flavors!

Ham and Swiss Sliders

Knowing that we would have a lot of leftover ham from Christmas dinner, I searched for some recipes that would let us use up the ham without getting bored.  One of the first recipes that I ran across was this recipe for ham sliders.  This recipe used up two of our leftovers: rolls and ham.  We also at leftovers sides with it, so it was a good meal to clean out some of the extras.

Ham and Cheese Sliders
slightly adapted from The Girl Who Ate Everything

Sliders

4 Hawaiian Sweet Rolls

6 slices honey ham, halved

2 slices baby swiss cheese, quartered
1/3 cup mayonnaise

Poppy seed sauce (you probably could half this...I had plenty extra)
1 Tablespoon poppyseeds
1 1/2 Tablespoons yellow mustard
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 Tablespoon minced onion

Directions
1) Spread mayonnaise onto both sides of the center of each roll. Place a quarter of Swiss on each side of the roll, and put three of the ham halves in the center. Close rolls and place them into a large baking dish or heavy cookie sheet. Place very close together.

2) In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the poppy seed sauce ingredients. Pour evenly over all of the sandwiches. You do not have to use all of the sauce! Just use enough to cover the tops. Let sit 10 minutes or until butter sets slightly.

3) Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until cheese is melted. Uncover and cook for 2 additional minutes or until tops are slightly brown and crispy. Serve warm.

These sandwiches were awesome.  They were a little bit messy, but so good that you didn't mind licking your fingers using your napkin afterwards.  We didn't have Miracle Whip, so just used mayo, and the flavor was subtle but still there.  The two pieces of swiss provided flavor, but since it was baby swiss, the swiss cheese was less pronounced.  The sauce was what made the whole thing.  The buttery, mustard sauce just tied everything together.  Jacob happily downed three of these and considered making more, but decided to make them the next day for lunch.  He loved them and hopefully this recipe will wipe out the extra ham that we have in the house.

Beer Braised Sausages with Warm Potato Salad

I just recently received a Dutch Oven that has allowed me to conquer more one-pot meals.  Before getting the Dutch Oven, I just didn't have any equipment that was big enough to handle all of the ingredients the one-pot recipes called for.  I'm finding that the Dutch Oven is just about as handy as a crock pot.  The ingredients all meld in the pot to create amazing flavors.

I recently stumbled across Martha Stewart's recipe site and she also has a lot of one-pot meals that I'm interested in making.  Most of them are fantastic comfort foods that are great for cold nights.  This recipe turned out great, so I'll definitely be heading back to find some other recipes to make.

 

Beer Braised Sausages with Warm Potato Salad

slightly adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients 

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 1/2 pounds sweet Italian sausages
1/2 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced

24 ounces beer (we used Easy Street, a nice wheat beer)
1 1/2 pounds small red potatoes, halved (I ended up quartering mine by the end so they'd cook faster)

2 cups of water
Coarse salt and ground pepper

1 tablespoon oregano

1 tablespoon chives

2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Directions

1) In a large Dutch oven or heavy pot, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high. Add garlic and sausages, cook until brown on all sides, about 8 minutes. Add onion and cook until softened, about 7 minutes. Add beer, potatoes, and water; season with salt, pepper, oregano and chives and press to submerge potatoes in cooking liquid. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat to medium, and cook until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes (took about 40 at high altitude).
2) Transfer sausages to a serving platter and keep warm. In a large bowl, stir together 1 tablespoon oil, vinegar, and parsley, and a dash of chives. With a slotted spoon, transfer potato mixture to dressing (reserve cooking liquid) and toss to combine.
3) Return pot to high heat; boil cooking liquid until reduced to 1 cup, about 15 minutes. Return sausages to pot and cook until heated through, 2 minutes. Place sausages and dressed potatoes on serving platter; drizzle half the sauce over top. Serve sausages and potatoes with remaining sauce alongside.

I really wanted to use turkey sausages in this recipe, but it turned out that my grocery store had run out.  Jacob kept commenting on how great the house smelled with the combination of the beer, sausages, and garlic.  I doubled the amount of beer in the recipe to get more of the flavor, but also to fully cover the potatoes in the Dutch Oven.  Without two bottles of beer and two cups of water, the potatoes would not have been covered.

I thought that the red wine vinegar taste of the potatoes went great with the beer flavored onions and sausages.  The herbs were subtle, but still contributed to the flavor profile of the dish.  Everything worked well to provide this great comforting dish.

Crock Pot Asian Pork with Mushrooms

Crock pots make meals very easy.  You spend a minimal amount of time in the morning gathering the ingredients, and then you combine them all in the dish.  When you get home from work 8 hours later, it is like magic has happened in your house.  The aromas are to die for, and your food slowly cooked while you were at work resulting amazingly juicy meats.

A lot of crock pot recipes that I've found are for the same types of things over and over again: pot roast, pulled pork sandwiches, and soups.  I found this recipe for Crock Pot Asian Pork with Mushrooms and figured that if it turned out good, I'd have a new recipe to add to the few crock pot recipes that I had. Not only did it turn out good, both Jacob and I talked about how great it was the entire time we ate it.

Crock Pot Asian Pork with Mushrooms
slightly adapted from Skinnytaste
Ingredients
2 lb lean boneless pork roast 
kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup low-sodium fat-free chicken broth
1/2 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons Splenda
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon Chinese five spice  (I couldn't find Chinese Five Spice, so I used Jamaican Five Spice)
3 cloves crushed garlic
1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger root
3/4 cup of water
8 oz baby bella mushrooms

Topping:
1/4 cup cilantro
1/4 cup green onions

Directions
1)  Season pork with salt and pepper.
2)  Turn a skillet onto medium-high and place olive oil in the bottom of the skillet.  Brown pork on both sides approximately 7-8 minutes.
3)  Combine chicken broth, soy sauce, vinegar, splenda, sesame oil, five spice, crushed garlic and ginger root, and water in the crock pot.  When the pork is browned, place into the crock pot.  Cook on low for 8 hours.
4)  About an hour before you're about to serve, remove the pork and shred it.  Put the shredded pork back into the crock pot with the mushrooms until the mushrooms are soft and have absorbed some of the liquid.

5)  Set crock pot mixture atop rice and top with cilantro and green onions.

This is an excellent dish for anyone who has a busy day and needs an easy crock pot meal.  The meat browns while you're throwing all of the liquid elements into the crock pot, so browning the meat doesn't take any extra time out of your getting ready routine.

The pork shredded with one fork, it was so juicy and soft.  The soy sauce, sesame oil, and balsamic vinegar created this great sauce that the rice absorbed and made the meal even more amazing.  We removed the mushroom stems, but put them into the crock pot whole.  The result was these amazingly juicy mushrooms that burst with liquid in your mouth.  The green onions provided a little bit of crunch and the cilantro that extra bit of freshness and flavor.  It was so hard to keep myself from going up for seconds. .

Chicken, Sausage and Capers

A few weeks ago, my husband and I bought some pasta from a vendor at our Farmer's Market.  I let him choose the flavor (toasted garlic and onion fettucine), and then got home and was stumped as to what to do with it.

I looked all over online and through most of my cookbooks in order to find something that I thought would work.  I stumbled across this recipe in my Weight Watchers cookbook that I thought had potential. 

I don't usually cook a lot of pasta because I'm allergic to most tomato based sauces.  But I recently have found that there are a few that I can eat through some food trials.  This to me is the closest thing to spaghetti that I've been able to eat since I was a little kid.

Chicken, Sausage and Capers
adapted from the Weight Watchers recipe

¾ lb skinless boneless chicken breasts
¼ lb Italian turkey sausage
2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 green bell pepper, seeded and cut into strips
1 onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon dried oregano
½ cups canned crushed tomators
½ cup low sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
pasta of your choice

Directions:

1) In a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, heat the oil. Saute the chicken until golden and cooked through, 6-8 minutes. Transfer to a bowel with a slotted spoon.  (We grilled both the chicken and the sausage since it was really nice outside).
2) In the skillet, cook the sausage, stirring frequently, until cooked through and browned, 8-10 minutes. Pour in the vinegar; cook until the liquid evaporates, 1-2 minutes. Add the bell peppers, onion, garlic and oregano; cook, stirring, until the peppers are tender, 4-5 minutes.
3) Start boiling pasta.
4) Stir in the tomatoes, broth and capers; bring to a boil. Return the chicken to the skillet and sprinkle in the cheese. Reduce the heat and simmer until the sauce thickens slightly. (If it doesn't thicken as much as you want, add some cornstarch to the skiillet)
5) Slice chicken and sausage into bit sized pieces and then return to the pan to simmer in the sauce for a few minutes.
6) Garnish with a little extra cheese when serving.

I thought the pasta was amazing.  The pasta was a little weird, but all the ingredients worked together to make a great meal.  The chicken and the sausage had absorbed some of the tomato sauce.  The green bell pepper retained it's crunch and provided a different texture in a soft dish.  My husband said that the canned tomatoes drown out some of the flavors in the dish, but I thought they all worked together great.  We agreed that next time I'll make it with fresh tomatoes instead of the canned ones. 

Garlicky Red Beans and Pork

I have never made a meal with dried beans before. When I read through this recipe, I thought it sounded good, so I figured I'd try something new.
I realized when I walked into the living room with the recipe that this didn't have a picture, and I am usually horrible at making things without a picture.  The picture provides an end result goal for me and it seems like without it, I don't know if I'm doing anything right or not.  I had doubts the entire time I was making this meal.  I kept saying 'I didn't know it was going to be so stew-like.'  My husband reminded me that it would turn out however it turned out, but for some reason, I didn't find solace in that.

Garlicky Red Beans and Pork adapted from SparkRecipes
Ingredients1 tablespoon olive oil
1.5 lbs lean boneless pork loin, cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 red onion chopped
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 cup dried red kidney beans, soaked overnight, rinsed and drained
1 tablespoon cumin
3 green chiles, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 cup water

Directions
1. In a large saucepan, heat the oil. Add the pork and pepper; cook, stirring as needed, until the pork is cooked through and lightly browned, 8-10 mins. Add the onions and garlic; cook, stirring as needed, until the onions are tender about 8 mins.

2. Stir in the tomatoes, beans, chiles, cumin and water; bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until the beans are tender, 80-120 mins.

I realized that dried beans are another thing that take FOREVER at high altitude.  I tasted them at 50 minutes like the recipe said, and the beans were still rock hard.  I soaked them for 10 hours, so I know I did followed the process correctly, I guess the altitude just plays more of a part than I realized.  It ended up cooking for about 2 hours at our house before it was done.  Just taste everything along the way.

The good part of everything cooking for 2 hours is that the flavors melded so well.   It was warm and filling on a cold Wyoming autumn night.  The thing that I loved about it was that the pork tasted amazing.  It is probably the best pork that I have ever eaten.  It flaked really easy and was juicy and flavorful.  When I got full, I picked all the pieces of pork out like a kid does with a meal they don't like and just ate all the pork.

My husband says this meal would be great with some kind of bread.  Since it was chili-like he kept mentioning cornbread, but I didn't have the stuff for it.  I thought it was great, although I'll have to tackle the beans in a different fashion next time. 

Cumin and Lime Roasted Pork Tenderloin

Rachel Ray makes putting dinner on your table in 30 minutes seem so achievable.  She is always so calm and in control during those thirty minutes too.  Every movement on her show seems to have purpose and she makes everything look so easy.  Whereas I always seem to be running around trying to find the right whisk or figure out where a spice is hiding in the cabinet.  Basically I am the complete opposite of Rachel Ray.

Her recipes have so many ingredients yet everything seems to magically come together in the allotted time frame for her show.  I really wish that I could make 30 minute meals within 30 minutes, that would be amazing.  Besides marinating the meat for two hours before putting it into the oven, this recipe really did come really close to the thirty minutes.  Plus it was amazing!

Cumin and Lime Roasted Pork Tenderloin

Adapted from Rachel Ray’s 365:No Repeats

Ingredients

2.25 lbs pork tenderloin

1 can of orange juice concentrate, made into juice

2 limes, juiced

3 tablespoons cumin, divided

2 tablespoon ground coriander, divided

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1 jalapeno, chopped and seeded

6 garlic cloves

Directions

1)      I marinated the pork tenderloins in orange juice, the spices, and the jalapenos for two hours.  I put the pork in a gallon sized zip lock bag and put enough orange juice to cover the pork in the bag.  I used one lime, took a tablespoon of pepper, a tablespoon of the coriander, and one jalapeno and threw it in with the orange juice.

2)      Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.

3)      Place the pork tenderloins on a baking sheet and drizzle a little of the marinade liquid onto them. Try to dig all the jalapeno pieces out of the liquid and put them on the pork as well.  Cut 3 or 4 slits in the pork (depending on the length) and stuff the slits with garlic.  Rub the remaining lime juice and spices on onto the tenderloin.

4)      Place into the oven for about 25 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees.  (I am finding that living at altitude is messing up my cooking times quite a bit).

5)      Take out and let rest for a few minutes before cutting.

The meat was so juicy from marinating it for 2 hours that the medallions could be cut with a fork.  When I first plated it, Jacob asked if there was a sauce, and I realized I hadn’t even thought of making a sauce.  I told him to try it first before worrying about it, and after his first bite he declared that it didn’t need a sauce.

I really thought the spices would be overwhelming.  The whole house smelled like cumin and coriander, and the tenderloin looked like it was coated in seasoning.  However, all the flavors worked and the pork didn’t taste over-seasoned at all.  I thought the seasoning was actually spot on.

This recipe made me start to flip through my 365: No Repeats cookbook some more and find some more recipes that I want to mark to make later.  The handy thing about this cookbook is that there are little checkboxes up at the top that say “Try this again” or “Put off til later”.    We checked the “Try this again.”  I definitely recommend this recipe.

Rootbeer BBQ pulled pork

The weather channel is saying that our run of high summer temperatures will break next week.  Which means that cold weather is probably somewhere a few weeks behind.  I felt like making something that is easy but had that summer feel to it, so I chose pulled pork.

This time I changed up my recipe quite a bit.

Rootbeer BBQ Pulled Pork
adapted from Allrecipes.com Pulled Pork
Ingredients

1 (3 pound) pork shoulder

1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle root beer (we used our SodaStream rootbeer)

1 (18 ounce) bottle your favorite barbecue sauce

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp butter

1/4 large white onion, chopped

8 hamburger buns

Directions

Place pork shoulder in the crockpot.  Cover with rootbeer, barbecue sauce, and onions, and place on low for 7 to 8 hours.  Pull out of crockpot and shred meat with 2 forks.  Serve over buns.

Sometimes I shred the meat and put it back in the sauce for about thirty minutes more just so that the individual shredded parts get soaked in the sauce for a little bit.

From the picture, you can see it was very messy, but amazing as well.  The BBQ sauce tasted great with all the add-ins.  The onions took on the color of the rootbeer and BBQ sauce but they provided some great flavor to the meat as well.  Maybe we'll have a summer picnic in the winter and pull these sandwiches out again.

Herb Mustard Pork Loin

Jacob loves pork.  I am constantly trying to find new pork recipes.  One day while clicking from one blog to another, meal planning, I found this recipe on Budget Bytes for Herb Mustard Pork Loin.  The thing that enticed me to make it was the creamy sauce that you put on top. We also love dijon mustard so I added extra in both the marinade and the sauce.  It was such an easy meal to make.

Herb Mustard Pork Loin
adapted from Budget Bytes

Ingredients
For the pork:
3/4 cup dijon mustard
1 tbsp olive oil
3 sprigs of fresh thyme
3 cloves of garlic
1 handful parsley
1 pork tenderloin

Sauce:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 chicken bouillion cube
1/2 cup water
3 sprigs of thyme
3 tbsp Dijon
4 ounces sour cream

Directions 
1) In a bowl combine the mustard, olive oil, minced garlic, thyme and parsley. Stir it up good. Place the pork loin in a large dish, coat it with the marinade, cover and refrigerate for at least two hours (the more time it marinates, the more the flavor develops).

2) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spray a baking sheet or glass dish with nonstick spray and place the pork loin inside. Scoop up any marinade left in the bowl and paste it over the meat. Roast for about 40 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees (I am at altitude, so it took closer to 60 minutes).

3) In the last twenty minutes of the pork cooking, make the sauce. Saute garlic in a pan with some olive oil. Add the bouillon, water, 3 Tbsp of dijon and thyme. Let simmer for about 10 minutes (volume will reduce during this time). Turn off the heat then whisk in the sour cream. Season with fresh black pepper.

4) Let the pork rest for at least 5 minutes after you take it out of the oven to let the juices redistribute. Slice on an angle into medallion. Plate the medallions and spoon sauce over top.
*served with stuffing

Before I had even plated mine, I heard an "Oh my gosh, this is good" come from my husband in the living room.   He went back and finished off the pork tenderloin and the stuffing and exclaimed that we should have it again.  I loved the sauce, but he thought the sauce wasn't needed since the pork had so much flavor on its own.  Maybe next time I'll only make a little bit of the sauce for me, and he can just eat the pork. 

Definitely a successful meal.

Pork Po'Boys

I'm always looking for meatball recipes because I think they make for a hearty meal.  I saw this recipe, but cannot eat red spices (paprika, cayenne pepper) so I decided to modify the recipe to something that I could eat.

Pork Po'Boys
adapted from Annie's Eats

Ingredients:
For the meatballs:
1 1/2 lbs. ground pork
1 1/4 tsp. dried thyme
3/4 tsp. garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 egg
1 handful of breadcrumbs

For the sauce:
1/2 cup light mayonnaise
3 tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 medium kosher dill pickles, finely chopped
1/2 small shallot, minced

For the sandwiches:
4 (8-inch) soft baguettes, split (or hoagie rolls)
Red Leaf Lettuce
2 tomatoes, thinly sliced
1/4 red onion
4 slices provolone cheese

Directions:
In a large bowl combine the ground pork and all of the spices for the meatballs.  Mix thoroughly using your hands until the mixture is well combined.  Form the pork into golf-ball sized meatballs.  Preheat oil in a skillet and place the meatballs in once your pan is hot.  Turning the meatballs once, about 12 minutes total, until cooked through.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine the ingredients for the sauce.  Season with salt and pepper.  Mix well and spread the sauce onto the split baguettes.

Place meatballs on each baguette and top with lettuce, tomato and slices of onion.  Close the sandwiches and serve.

I followed Annie's recipe for the sauce, but the pickle taste was extremely overwhelming.  The meatballs were great, they had great texture, and they weren't dried out.  The sandwich was great, although a little messy.  The next day when I ate it for lunch, I added the cheese, which added another flavor element to the sandwich.  It was great, and my husband loved it too.