made by Miranda This is an easy but delicious summery salad that I KNOW I ate long ago at Emily's beach house, but she has no rememberance of it...who knows where it came from but it was great and here's what i came up with from what I tasted (or perhaps imagined I tasted).
Ingredients:
1 lb uncooked cheese tortellini
6-8 oz fresh baby spinach
8-10 oz polish keilbasa
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup grated parmesean cheese
Drizzle of olive oil
Cook the tortellini according to package directions being careful not to overcook (test pasta atleast 2 minutes prior to recommended cooking time). Drain and place in a large serving bowl.
Heat a large saute pan over medium heat and drizzle in a titch of olive oil. Slice your keilbasa into little disks about 1/8-1/4 inch thick. Working in batches so you dont crowd the pan, brown the keilbasa on both sides in your saute pan. Don't stir them too much, just add them to the pan and then flip them when they are browned. As they are done, add them to the bowl with the tortellini. Don't wipe out your keilbasa pan.
Wash spinach well and add that to your saute pan. Cover with a lid and let it wilt slightly. This will only take a minute or maybe less. Add the spinach to your bowl.
Add the tomatoes to your saute pan and cook just until warmed through, maybe a minute. Add the tomatoes to your bowl, as well, then top with parm.
Toss and serve!
Note: If your keilbasa is leaner (like turkey keilbasa) you may need a drizzle of olive oil over the salad. Salad can be eaten warm, room temp, or cold. Serves 6-8.
made by Rachel This is my attempt at recreating my brother in laws amazing pork tacos. The pork takes a long time to cook but it is super easy considering you basically just dump it all into a crock pot and walk away! The result is a really tender, slightly sweetened pork with a kick. It is going to be hard to go back to chicken after this! You will need (for the pork):
2 bottles of beer (I used lager, Dos Equis)
2 cups orange juice
2 large jalapenos, chopped big
1 large onion, chopped big
4 cloves garlic, left whole
1 habanero, left whole
1 mango, chopped big
1 peach, chopped big
Juice of one lime
4 country style ribs (about 3-4lbs)
*When I say chopped big, I mean cut up but into large enough pieces that you can pick them out later - these ingredients are for flavoring the meat, not for eating.
Combine all the above ingredients in your crock pot and set to high for 6-8 hours. The meat should be falling off the bone when it is done.
After the meat is done, strain the juices from the crock AND SAVE THEM! This is what you will store the meat in (there will be leftovers unless you are making for more than 4 people).
Separate the meat from the rest of the ingredients and discard the rest of the ingredients. Pull the meat off the bone and shred with a fork or loosely chop with a knife. Go ahead and take a bite...but be warned, if you taste it now there may not be any left for the tacos!
Taco Toppings:
Corn
Black beans
Cilantro
Cheddar
Salsa/Tomatoes
Sour Cream
Limes
You can definitely use whatever toppings you want. I made a cilantro lime slaw the second time I made these and it was AWESOME. I will post that recipe soon.
For the picture above, I roasted the corn and black beans with some S&P and cumin before using as a topping. Whatever floats your boat I say give it a try. The real show stopper here is the meat - it's so good!
Enjoy!
made by Emily This recipe is rich and delicious comfort food, not for the dieters.... But for once in a while it's totally worth it. It's so good. This is from the Pioneer Woman website, which I love. Her recipes are great, and she's so entertaining! I love her humor. Anyway, I only altered it slightly because I wanted to make this slightly "lighter", haha, which is funny to say when we're talking about a pasta recipe with bacon and cream and cheese.... so there's nothing light about it really, except that I wanted to remove some of the pancetta grease from the pan before cooking the leeks. Otherwise it's pretty much the same idea.
You'll Need:
10 oz bowtie pasta
1/2-3/4 lb pancetta, chopped small (or you can slice it large as in my picture, and break it up after cooking when it's crispy - I hate cutting pancetta!)
3-5 leeks, cleaned well and sliced into small pcs (5 thin leeks or 3 fat leeks)
1 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs butter
1/2 cup white or red wine (I used red because that's all I had, Pioneer Woman uses white)
1/2 cup heavy cream
Fresh Parmesan to sprinkle on top
S & P to taste
To Make:
Start pasta water. Cook pasta til al dente, reserve 1/2 cup pasta water, and drain the pasta.
While waiting for pasta water to boil, cook pancetta on medium heat in a large frying pan or deep pot to avoid grease splatter (if you have a metal splatter shield that helps avoid mess/burn).
Toss so all sides cook til crispy brown looking. Dry on paper towels and set aside.
Wipe pan almost clean with paper towels, leaving at most a tablespoon of grease in the pan. Add leaks, olive oil and butter, and cook 5 minutes or so. Add wine and stir, scrape down the pot to get all the flavors incorporated. Cook for another minute, then turn heat off and add cream.
Keep pan on burner, just turn the heat off while you stir in the cream. Add cooked pasta and pancetta to the pan with leeks and toss to coat everything. If it seems dry, you can add a little of the reserved pasta water.
Serve with fresh grated parmesan on top - Mmmm. This dish tastes good room temp too.
made by Emily I recently came up with this recipe after making a Honey Baked ham. After a few days of eating the ham leftovers, finally I got around to making soup from the ham bone (to freeze because we were sick of ham!). I read a few recipes and got the idea to puree the soup which added a fancy twist. It was so good, it never made it to the freezer!
You'll Need:
1 Tbs olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, whole
3 sizable celery stalks chopped (with leaves if they have them)
3 large carrots, peeled and chopped
1-2 lb ham bone (not sure what mine weighed but it was what was left over from a Honey Baked ham, and it still had some meat on it)
1 bay leaf
About 10 cups of water
3 15 1/2 oz cans of light colored beans (I used "pinto", "white" & "navy" beans)
To Make:
In a large soup pot, cook veggies (onion, garlic, celery & carrots) in olive oil on medium for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add 10 cups of water, ham bone with all the meat on it, beans and bay leaf. The meat will fall off the ham bone after cooking for a while so don't do any trimming yet.
Bring to a boil, then simmer with a lid on for 2 hrs.
Remove ham bone and set aside on a plate to cool.
Meanwhile, let the soup cool a little, then puree in batches using a blender or food processor. This gets a little messy but it's worth it. Return pureed soup to the pot.
Remove meat from the ham bone now that it's slightly cooled enough to handle, chop and return the meat to the pot of soup. Discard the bone and any fatty pieces.
Season to taste with sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. Serve with warm rolls, crusty french bread, or you can garnish with homemade croutons*.
*To make homemade croutons, chop french bread up into small cubes (about 1/2-1" diameter) and toss with olive oil, sea salt and fresh ground pepper. Spread all out on a cookie sheet and broil on high for about 5 minutes until they start to brown and toast. Toss the croutons halfway thru broiling so the other sides get a little brown too. Remove and let them cool on a paper towel.
made by Emily If you like tender, fall-off-the-bone ribs, then this is the recipe for you... AND this recipe is so easy! It takes 5 minutes of prep. The only thing is that you need to put it in the oven after lunch in order to have for dinner that night. I found this recipe from a blog called Steamy Kitchen and I make these all the time now.
You'll need:
Baby back ribs (for 2 people, get a rack of ribs around 2-3 lbs, 5-6lbs for 4 people)
Salt & pepper
Bottle of sweet Thai chili sauce (found in ethnic food aisle near soy sauce, etc.)
To Make:
Preheat oven to 275F. Rinse ribs with water and you may cut rack in half so it fits in your dish*. Season both sides with salt and pepper.
Place the ribs in a glass pyrex or roasting pan, cover tightly with foil.
Cook in oven for 4-6 hours. Longer the more tender. Remove from oven and place ribs on a baking sheet. Brush on a LOT of the Thai chili sauce, and both sides.
Place oven rack near the top of the oven and broil the ribs for 3-5 minutes, until the sweet chili sauce begins to caramelize and bubble.
Keep checking so you don't burn the sauce. Serve with rice or veggies and enjoy!! *Note: On the underside of the ribs, remove the thin membrane IF you see this; some have it removed already. It's a thin layer of fat. You can remove it by inserting a butterknife underneath and pull the layer of fatty membrane off the rack of ribs. I didn't remove this and it was fine, but if you remove it, it helps make the ribs more tender. Check out this blog if you want more details on this: http://steamykitchen.com/11036-baby-back-ribs-recipe-fall-off-bone.html
By Emily Having some family from the South, my husband grew up accustomed to a southern favorite which is real "southern style" pork barbeque. Here's a recipe that I came up with that most resembles the pulled pork we've had on our trips down south. It's a very vinegar-y slow cooked pulled pork, which you smother in yellow mustard or your favorite BBQ sauce if you need it less tart, and load onto good rolls. This is a one of my easy "guy" recipes... great for Sunday football or a day when you don't feel like slaving in the kitchen all day. And you can even freeze pints of this for a quick meal for 2 later.
You'll need:
2 onions, chopped in quarters, so you can pick it out at the end
2 Tbs brown sugar
1 Tbs paprika
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 4-6 lb pork butt or shoulder
1 Tbs dry mustard (or 3 T. of whatever mustard you have in the fridge)
2 tsp sugar
3 cloves garlic, mashed slightly so you can pick it out at the end
2 cups of vinegar (cider or white or combo of both)
1/2 cup Worcester sauce
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Optional: 1 cup of water (if all the liquid does not cover the pork, I added approx a cup of water to cover the meat)
To make:
Sprinkle all dry ingredients on the meat, put meat in the slow cooker and cover with liquid and everything else in no particular order. Set slow cooker to HIGH for about 7+ hrs. The longer the better!
Break apart meat toward the end of the cooking with forks, and let cook for about another 30-60 minutes at least to let juices absorb again. Serve with soft rolls, or fresh bread (you can pull out the middle of the bread if too thick), and don't forget to dress your buns with yellow mustard or you can use mayo, BBQ sauce, etc. Tastes great with a side of coleslaw too!
Recipe from our Mother, photos by Miranda, blogged by Rachel (what a mouthful!) Our mom shared this recipe with us and made it for Miranda and her family just recently. The original recipe was by Guy Fieri, but was adapted and lovingly renamed by our momma...I am laughing as I type this, cause if you knew our mom, you would know how funny her sayings can be!
Tenderizing/pounding the pork chops takes FOREVER, so start early, or do it in the afternoon, take a break and then cook the rest! I would strongly suggest investing in a cooking mallet (or whatever you call it) - I did not have one and ended up using a real hammer to make it go quicker....don't worry, I protected my meat in plastic first.
What you will need:
8 center cut pork chops without any bones (about inch thick, trimmed of access fat)
8 bacon strips
8 oz cream cheese (solid brick kind)
Small jar of roasted red peppers (one slice per chop)
Small jar of jalapeno peppers, chopped/diced (about a tsp per chop)
Medium jar of articoke hearts (1 heart per chop)
One bottle of beer (lighter, less hoppy beers will taste better)
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup yellow mustard
Wooden toothpicks (or turkey pins)
Foil for grilling
A grill
A mallet, or a hammer, or a plate, or a big strong man!
In our Mother's words - here is what you do:
Flatten the pork chop in between plastic wrap with a mallet until about three times the size. You can use the side of a plate if you don't have a mallet, or a real hammer, like I did. Give yourself time to do this, it takes a long time! It probably took us about five minutes or so for each chop. Thats alot of banging!!! (see what I mean about the things our Mom says! LOL).
At one end of the pork chop, place a 1/4 inch slice of cream cheese, a one inch strip of pepper, cut an artichoke heart in half and place on top, and some pieces of jalapeno pepper. Roll up, and as you go, try to fold in the sides of meat. The folding in of the sides never worked for me cause my meat was not that thin to do this - but they still turned out fine!
Roll up, and as you go, try to fold in the sides of meat. The folding in of the sides never worked for me cause my meat was not that thin to do this - but they still turned out fine!
Take one strip of bacon and roll around in a spirl fashion trying to cover the length of the pork roll. Secure with at least two long toothpicks.
Keep doing this for all the chops. Next, take about a 10 inch piece of foil and roll the pork up in it, folding in the sides like you would a baked potato.
Cook on the grill for about 12 minutes, then turn over and continue for another 12 minutes. Then unwrap the rolls from the foil and put back onto grill to brown up the bacon on the outside.
While meat is cooking on the grill, prepare the sauce.
(And now I am laughing again because of the Vanna-White-wanna-be who snuck into this picture!)
In a sauce pan, take the bottle of beer and combine with mustard and honey. I use a whisk to stir and cook over a medium heat until thickened. It takes around 15 to 20 minutes for the beer to cook down and thicken into a nice sauce. As you cook it, keep whisking it so the foam goes away and mustard gets dissolved.
After removing the rolls from the grill, remove the toothpicks and slice with a serrated knife into 1/2 inch or less wheels, then top with a drissle of sauce down the whole roll that is sliced. These are really cool looking and so impressive to me!!!
*We hope you have enjoyed this edition of cooking with our Momma! Enjoy!!
By Miranda This recipe is adapted from a book called "The Gourmet Slow Cooker - Vol II." I adapted it because I didn't have all of the ingredients and couldn't go out because my kids were napping...so the original might be better, but this was pretty darn good. I hope you think so too!
Ingredients:
3 lbs pork, babyback ribs
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 cup cider
2 Tbs cider vinegar
1 Tbs finely minced or fresh grated ginger (I used 1 tsp powdered ginger but am positive fresh would have been better)
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbs toasted sesame oil
2 Tbs brown sugar
Sesame seeds for garnish (optional)
Chopped scallions for garnish (optional)
1 Tbs corn starch
Directions:
In a large saute pan over medium high heat, brown ribs on all sides and place in crock pot.
Combine soy sauce, cider, vinegar, ginger, garlic, sesame oil, and brown sugar in a bowl and whisk to combine. Pour over ribs and set crock pot to low for 6-8 hrs until meat is very tender. I was home during this so I spooned the juices over the meat about once an hour to baste it. To serve, arrange ribs on a plate. Turn crock-pot to high and add 1 tablespoon of corn starch and whisk. This might take a few minutes but it will help it to thicken the sauce. Strain sauce into a bowl then spoon over ribs.
Note: I served this will a vegetable fried rice that I just made up and don't really have a recipe for but I do know it was really good. I added some shredded cabbage to it which really made it, I thought. I also had soy sauce, a touch of fish oil, sesame oil, and also scrambled egg, onion, peppers and peas. If you want a fried rice recipe,click here for one Rachel made.
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