Smokey Tomatillo Pork Tacos

Smokey Tomatillo Pork Tacos

I've fallen behind on the blog this week as we have so much going on right now, however, I put together these tacos last week using my trusty slow cooker. You could also use a dutch oven and cook in your oven on a low temperature. I needed to use up the pork tenderloin I had in my freezer and you just can't go wrong with mexican food in our house

What's in it:

• 1.5 lbs pork tenderloin, cut into 3 large pieces

• 18 oz smoky tomatillo sauce (or green sauce)

• 1 medium white onion, chopped

• 3 roasted green chiles, chopped

• About 1/2 tsp salt, pepper, cumin, oregano, garlic powder

• Pinch of cayenne

• Small flour or corn tortillas

Toppings: • Cilantro • Jalapeno • crumbled queso fresco • fresh salsa • avocado • white onion

Cook in a slow cooker for 6-7 hours on low. Pull the pork out, shred it and place back into the slow cooker for another 20-30 minutes so the meat soaks up the liquid and adds some more flavor. Season with salt & pepper to taste before serving.

Serve on tortillas and the suggested toppings mentioned above.

For leftovers: I left the rest of the juice with the meat so it stayed moist and flavorful.

Enjoy!

Honey Mustard Wings & Parsnip Fries

Tonight we roasted wings and tossed them in homemade honey mustard sauce! They ended up being at the top of our favorite homemade wings list!  And..... they were finger licking good!!! OMG you gotta try these!!!

To make the sauce (I guess you could buy honey mustard but why would you???), just melt 1 Tablespoon of butter, 1/4 cup of honey & 1/3 cup of dijon mustard in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally. Let sit at room temperature once the ingredients have melded together while the wings are cooking. Here's what it will look like when it's done....

Honey Mustard Sauce

The wings can be roasted at 425 degree oven. I put the wings on a cooling rack on top of a foil lined baking sheet. This technique is fantastic because the heat circulates all the way around the wings, the fat  drips off onto the foil, and you won't have to rotate the wings halfway through the cooking process. I cooked them for a total of 55 minutes (we like ours extra crispy!!!)

Honey Mustard Roasted Wings

I also made parsnip french fries to go with the wings... just decided to make them as I was popping the wings in the oven. I was looking around in the fridge to see what we had to go with the wings and noticed I had a few extra parsnips laying around from a past recipe and then it dawned on me - roasted parsnips, and fries - yum. No recipe just going with what I know... and they were delicious. I'd say even better than regular fries and so much healthier!!! Here's how I did it:  Cut up 2 large parsnips in medium sticks. Put on a baking sheet and toss with EVOO, sea salt & freshly ground pepper... roast in the oven for about 25-30 minutes (425 degrees). Toss once during cooking so they evenly brown. They are sweet but also have a little kick to them.

Parsnip Fries

You will have extra honey mustard sauce from the wings and we dipped our "fries" in the extra sauce. I also served celery with the meal as well!

NOM NOM NOM!

Naan Pizzas

This week I am cooking from the pantry, freezer & fridge. Last night I made pizzas using naan that we had in the freezer (I bought ginormous package from Costco). Just threw a bunch of favorite flavors (see toppings below) and made our own pizza. I cooked them at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Sprinkle some corn meal on the baking sheet to help the crust get crispy on the bottom. They were so good, I think I will make these whenever we want pizza in a pinch! For seasonings, I used rosemary, oregano, basil, red pepper flakes, salt & pepper. I can't wait for my herbs to get established so I can start using fresh herbs in everything! 

For Q's pizza, I used leftover red sauce and sliced up one link of sausage from the sauce I made earlier this week. So he had some meat on his pizza and that always makes him happy! 

Q's Pizza:  Red Sauce, Red Onion, Artichoke Hearts, Jalapeno,
Kalamata Olives, Garlic & Italian Sausage

For my pizza, I decided to go meatless and make a white pizza with a few veggies I had around the house. One trick I've learned about ricotta is to let it rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes so it is easier to spread. Oh and since I have a love affair with garlic I added one large garlic clove (shaved with microplane) before adding the veggies on top of the ricotta.

My Pizza: Ricotta, Mozzerella, fresh garlic, red pepper
flake, olives, artichoke hearts, & red onion

Happy Eating!!!

Homemade Sauce - An All Day Affair!

I've been itching to make some sauce for many months now. When I make sauce I make a ginormous batch so I can freeze it and have homemade sauce on hand when I need it! I think one of the most time consuming steps in making sauce is browning the meat. I'm half Italian coming from my mother's side of the family and grew up watching my Nonni, Grandmother & mother make their own version of "sauce". I can't say that I have an actual recipe per say as much as I know the basic techniques and just taste as I go and add whatever I think it needs. Because of this, I think it comes out a little bit different each time I make it.

So, you will need a big enough pot to both brown the meat and cook the sauce in as you want all the tasty tidbits that the seared meat leaves behind for added flavor. I inherited my grandmother's giant aluminum pot so it's super light and works like a charm and it reminds me of her every time I pull it out.

It's always a superb idea to use a tasty red wine (preferably a wine that you love to drink) to deglaze the pan after searing all the meat and before adding the tomatoes. One of my go-tos is Red Curtain Shiraz for both drinking and cooking with. This time I tried a new wine, Anakena Carmenere and it turned out to add a tasty flavor to tonight's sauce.

What's in it:

• 2 large onions diced

• 4 cloves garlic, smashed

• 6 skin on chicken drumsticks

• 2 mild italian sausage links

• 1.5 lb ground beef

• 1 lb ground pork

• 1.5-2 cups red wine

• (3) 6 lb cans of San Marzano whole tomatoes with basil

• blend of italian seasonings, salt, pepper to taste

• 1 bunch of basil with stems

1. Browning the meat:  Heat up the pot over medium-high heat, once hot add EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil, learn it) about 2 turns of the pan. Season chicken with salt & pepper on all sides and brown, remove and let rest on paper towel lined plate. Add sausage and brown on all sides, let rest on paper lined paper plate. Add ground meat and break up with a spatula so evenly distributed around the bottom of the pot. Let it develop a brown crust, stir and add salt, pepper to taste. Add basil stems to the meat and pour in wine to deglaze, scrapping bottom to get up all the tasty bits. 

2. Turn the pot off, gently pour the tomatoes into the pot with the ground meat in it. Turn the heat on to medium-low. Season and gently mash the tomatoes with the potato masher. Add the sausage links back to the sauce. Cook on medium low, stirring occasionally every 30 mins - hour for 6-8 hours. It is important to start tasting the sauce about 2 hours into cooking, adding salt & pepper to taste. Also, it's important to taste to check for bitterness, if it's bitter just add some sugar. The longer it cooks the sweeter it will get. 

And in goes all the tomatoes... stir with a potato masher to combine
and mash up the big chunks as you cook the sauce down.

3. Add the chicken drumsticks into the sauce during the last 3 hours of cooking. Add the fresh basil leaves during the last 30 mins of cooking. 

With this much sauce, I will most likely make a lasagna to freeze or eat next week. The night that I made the sauce I made some corkscrew (fun shape!) pasta and an italian salad. 

Sauce with corkscrew pasta

Last year around Thanksgiving (while making stuffing), I realized you can just as easily freeze bread cubes to use for croutons. I just pick up a baguette and chop into cubes, bake the cubes on a baking sheet for 5-10 minutes. Then, place in a storage bag in your freezer until you are ready to use. The night you want to make croutons, take however many out that you want let sit at room temp for 5-10 minutes. Preheat oven to 325 - 350 degrees. Toss the cubes in olive oil, S&P, garlic powder & oregano (any herbs would be nice). Scatter on a foil lined cookie sheet and bake 5-10 minutes, tossing halfway through. Keep an eye on them because you don't want them to go too far and become solid rocks. I like to sprinkle them lightly with parmesan right when they come out of the oven so the cheese melts into them. 

Iceberg lettuce, red onion, carrots, hard boiled egg,
olives, croutons & italian dressing

Enjoy!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!!

To celebrate Cinco de Mayo this year I decided to have our own little mexican food fiesta at home. We spent the day working on our dining room table that we built, planted some veggies, board games and cooking some yummy mexican food!

It all started off with some salsa... I've come to realize it's really not that difficult to make your own salsa instead of buying those jarred salsas. All you need is a food processor or a blender really. The salsa will last in the fridge in a tupperware for at least 2- 3 weeks. It's great to have on hand to use in most cooking as well. And.. the longer it sits the better it tastes! You have the power to make it as spicy or mild as you want! C'mon now!

Fresh Salsa
• 2 cans hot rotel, undrained
• 2 cans organic diced tomatoes, undrained
• handful cilantro
• 1 tsp each cumin, salt & pepper
• 1 lime juiced
• 1 tsp honey or sugar
• 1 jalapeno sliced and quartered
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 medium onion roughly chopped

Salsa

Put all the ingredients in the food processor and pulse until the bigger chunks are broken down, then puree until the thickness is to your liking. Pour in a bowl, cover and refrigerate until you are ready to use. I'd recommend letting the salsa sit in fridge for at least and hour so the flavors can meld together.


Carnitas
(original recipe found here)
• 3 lbs pork shoulder cut into 2" chunks, extra fat trimmed
• 1 large orange, juiced and cut in half
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/4 tsp each of dried oregano, cumin, pepper
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp of coarse salt
• 2 cups water
• 1 large onion, peeled & quartered
• 1 red fresno & jalapeno, thinly sliced
• 1 small white onion, finely diced
• 1 avocado, chopped
• small corn or flour tortillas
• cilantro leaves

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Put all ingredients in a large cast iron dutch oven on the stovetop and bring to a simmer. Cover, and place in middle rack of the oven. Cook undisturbed for at least 2 hours.

In the meantime, chop up your favorite toppings. I used 1 small white onion (finely diced), 1 red fresno sliced thinly, 1 jalapeno sliced thinly. Let the toppings sit at room temperature until meat is ready. Don't cut up the avocado until right before you are ready to serve the Carnitas.

Once the meat is fork tender, gently pull it out of the dutch oven and remove any excess fat that might have hung around after cooking. At this point, go ahead and turn the broiler on in your oven. I left the meat chunky but you can shred it if you want too. Remove everything from the pot except the liquid and bring to a boil for about 10 minutes until it is thickened. Place meat back in pot and coat with the glaze. Spread the meat on a foil lined baking sheet and broil on one side for 5 minutes. Gently toss the meat over and broil for another 5 minutes. Serve in tortillas with your favorite toppings.

Carnitas

We used the leftovers for breakfast this morning with eggs and tortillas... yum! It was simple - I warmed up the carnitas in a dry non stick skillet, serve them in a shallow bowl. Top with your favorite style egg, cilantro, crumbled queso fresco, salsa, chopped onion and avocado.

WOW - I don't know what I liked more, the dinner or the leftovers as breakfast. Luckily we still have some leftover to enjoy over the next day or two!

Enjoy!

Mushroom Swiss Burgers with Perfectly Cooked Carrots

Last night I made some really tasty burgers for dinner. I usually just buy the packaged breads at the grocery store but the fresh hamburger buns looked really great at Publix this week so I grabbed a package. I've learned that you CAN freeze bread and it comes back out of frozen land tasting just great. Since I'm only making 2 servings at a time, this is a game changer and I am not throwing out moldy bread anymore - WIN! I wrap each individual bun in saran wrap then toss in a gallon freezer bag that way I can take out however many I need without have to unwrap them all and it keeps them safe from air (which causes freezer burn, so I've heard).

So I adapted the burger recipe from Rachael Ray's Worcestershire Burgers with Swiss, Mushrooms & Ranch Dressing. The seasonings and various ingredients in this particular recipe really bring out the flavor in the meat. I would suggest sticking to a chuck meat as the recipe suggests as the leaner meats will not be as juicy for a burger. We used a lean beef and while it was still delicious the texture and juicy elements were not there. So next time we will go with a ground chuck or something of that nature.  Two things to remember when cooking that I've learned is to get all of your ingredients ready to go before starting the cooking process AND make sure you read the entire recipe at least a day ahead of time to make sure you aren't supposed to marinate something overnight, etc! Ask me how I know!!!!

I only used 1/2 lb beef for 2 burgers because I find anything bigger is just too much meat for us. All the other ingredients I cut in half exactly. Here are some other changes I made:

• 2 slices swiss (I couldn't find emmentaler cheese at my local grocery store)
• 8 oz baby portabella mushrooms (I buy these whole and slice them myself... I've found the mushrooms lose something when they are pre-sliced and you are paying for them to be sliced so it's more expensive)
• 1/2 small onion finely chopped (versus shallot)
• 1/2 cup plain greek yogurt (versus sour cream)


I've learned over time that cooking mushrooms in a pan is quite a science... I used a cast iron skillet, melted the butter then added the shrooms. I stirred them up until they were somewhat evenly scattered in the pan and let them be so they could brown nicely. I stirred them again only halfway through the cooking time that the recipe indicates. Don't ever season the mushrooms with salt until they have browned as this slows the process of browning down. Sometimes, you may never reach that stage because the salt draws out all the moisture in the mushrooms.

I cooked the burgers tonight in a secondary cast iron skillet over high heat. Make sure you get it hot before you add the oil and definitely before you add the burgers. I'd suggest 4 minutes on the first side, then flip and cook 2 minutes, add the cheese and cook additional 2 minutes and remove from pan. Top with the mushrooms and smear some yummy ranch sauce on the lid of the burger...

Worcestershire Burgers topped with Swiss,
Mushrooms & Scratch Ranch Dressing

Lastly, I made the carrots simultaneously as the mushrooms (which can be tricky so make sure you have everything ready to go before you start cooking). I cooked this side dish from another Rachael Ray recipe which can be found here: Perfectly Cooked Carrots. As the recipe title suggests, we do agree these were perfectly cooked carrots and sooo tasty! I left the smashed garlic clove in as you can break it up as you are stirring the carrots around but feel free to remove it. 

Burgers, Mushrooms & Carrots

I had extra mushrooms even though I cut the original recipe in half so I served them on the side. I also had extra ranch dressing that you can dip your burger in as you are eating! The entire meal was so good and worth the legwork to prep all the ingredients. I would definitely recommend it... Enjoy!

Spicy Pineapple Chicken thighs with Rice & Peas

Tonight's dinner had a tangy, sweet & had a hint of spicy flavor to it... I made this meal compliments of my take on Rachael Ray's Spicy Pineapple Chicken. I decided to use 2 large bone in, skin on chicken thighs, I prefer these to the boneless because they have more flavor and you get the crispy skin element to the dish. I cooked the thighs at 375 degrees for 35 minutes, then let rest on a plate tented with foil for 5 minutes. While the chicken was resting I made the glaze in a cast iron skillet.  I made my own honey mustard by mixing mayo, dijon mustard & honey, let it sit in fridge for at least 30 minutes. Super easy to make sauces like this when you only need a small amount versus buying the bottled ones and then they sit in your fridge for who knows how long. I also cut the ingredients for the rice side dish in half since it was just the 2 of us eating tonight!

Spicy Pineapple Chicken thighs with Rice & Peas = YUM!

I made the full amount of the glaze to dip the chicken in because it was so good and drizzled a small amount over our rice as well. Q & I both give this dinner an A+ and would definitely make it again!

Enjoy!