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Appetizers/ HotApp/ Morning Foods/ Pork

Rosemary Brown Sugar Bacon Twist

Need something special for your brunch? Only three ingredients!

This is by far the easiest recipe I have ever made (Rosemary and The Goat comes in second.) with the fewest ingredients.Go figure, I use to say I like recipes with lots of ingredients which yield lots of taste and flavors; but this recipe just goes to show you that great things come from small beginnings.

Do you know there are entire blogs that are devoted to bacon. Is there anything better than the smell of bacon and the sizzling sound of it cooking to make you want to jump out of bed in the morning. Did you know there are bacon flavored beers, vodkas, candy bars with bacon bits, chocolate covered bacon (now that sounds good), bacon toothpaste (that sounds like a little too much bacon even for me), bacon mayonnaise, and the list goes on and on and on.

When it comes to bacon I will try just about anything that has the cured meat as one of the ingredients. Turkey bacon is not a favorite of mine. If you can find uncured bacon, then you have pork belly and I think this is even better than bacon. Fry it up, salt it because it hasn’t been cured and it is the Cinderella of bacon. Canada has Canadian Bacon, Pancetta is Italy’s version of bacon, all the dieters have turkey bacon (they can keep it), and the Irish have back bacon.

Bacon has such an addictive taste; it is hard to just eat one piece, kind of like potato chips. Have you tried caramel popcorn with bacon added at the last stirring; it’s great.

I’ve seen lots of bacon twist recipes and they all have the brown sugar; but most of the recipes have cinnamon and other sweet type spices. I decided to use the rosemary because I think it pairs nicely with the brown sugar and the bacon. Now these would really be good with a glass of wine or beer or just for your weekend brunch.

One more thing before I get on to the recipe; my son, Paul, made a compound bacon butter at Christmas to put on top of our steaks. I’ve been thinking of doing a blog on different compound butters that can be made and kept in the freezer; so stay tuned because that may be coming in the near future.

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Entree/ Game/ Pork

A Very Good Cassoulet

This was fantastic and so good on a cold winter night.

I was hoping to try this in France last Spring but there were so many other things to try and I had already made this a couple of times so it didn’t bother me that it wasn’t on my list of “tried things” while there.

Did you grow up (or still do) eating white beans in a bowl with a big chunk of corn bread on the side (please don’t say sweet cornbread) with maybe some chow chow to add to your beans. We did and they were the best beans you could possibly hope for at the time. A few years ago, my dad showed my husband how he had started making beans. He would soak the beans over night and then he would put the beans in a pot (he used a pressure cooker) with a couple of country style ribs (or backbone depending on where you live) and a ham hock.

Then along came Cassoulet (new to me). A word I had heard but never paid much attention to. I had never had the dish before our French Country Feast a few years ago. It was fantastic. A cassoulet is a stew made with white beans, sausage, duck confit, sometimes lamb, ham hocks and ham bone. Now, how could that not be an out of this world dish.

This recipe may take hours in the making but it will well be worth it in the end. I would either serve my mother’s cornbread recipe or a crusty French bread with this. There are so many recipes on the Internet for cassoulet and methods of making it. I would suggest reading a few before trying this recipe. In the end though, how can you mess up beans and a bunch of different kinds of meat. The end results will be great, no matter what you put in it.

BLAST FROM THE PASTFried Eggplant Chips with Honey Drizzle was an appetizer we had in Seville, Spain. Very delicious. I was excited to see that 2,600 people have looked at this recipe. Back in March I had 1,600 views — WOW. I really get excited when I think how many people just happen to find a recipe of mine through a google search.

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Entree/ Pork

Wok’n Noodles

Wok’n around Paris on a rainy day.

For some reason, I love taking pictures of signs and windows/doors. When we were in Spain a couple of years ago I took a lot of pictures of these beautiful white formal dresses I kept seeing in windows. Some looked like wedding dresses and some like formals.  They just really spoke to me and said, “take a picture of me”. Not six months after that my daughter got engaged — maybe that was a “sign”. In Paris I took pictures of stores named “Terry” (my sister) and “Paul” (my son).

This is a picture I took from the top of a bus on our first day in Paris back in March. I just knew I was going to have to come up with a good noodle recipe after seeing the name of this restaurant. I’m always getting inspiration from all sorts of places.

 

Our only rainy day in Paris was the first day we arrived, and it was a steady drizzle. We were not going to let that stop us from getting out, and we decided to do one of the open double decker buses. We stayed on the top through all the drizzle and enjoyed the view and sites. Then at one of the stops right there on the corner was this little place called “Wok’n Noodles”. A blog post was in the making. I immediately thought of  “Wok Around the Clock” (Bill Haley and his Comets), then “I’m Wok’n” (by Fats Domino), “Wok Like A Man” (Four Seasons), and finally “Wok Like An Egyptian” (Bangles). Weren’t those great woking songs.

So, I thought, why can’t I come up with a Wok’n Noodle dish that is absolutely “rocking” and one that I think you will enjoy.

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Entree/ Pork

Smokin Succulent Grilled Pork Chops

“Call 911, something’s on fire”!

These were just as juicy as they look in the picture.

This is sooooo funny I just have to write about it.  My husband got his new Kamodo Joe grill this summer and we have grilled just about everything you can imagine on it. Well,  a couple of weeks ago he was getting the grill ready to first cook some sausage stuffed jalapeños for an appetizer and then to make these Smokin Succulent Grilled Pork Chops.

So, here’s what happened. He had dumped the bottom part of a bag of charcoal in the smoker and I think it was wet. The grill started putting off this huge plume of smoke and it kept going, and going, and going just like the Energizer Bunny. All of a sudden our neighbor from across the street rushes to our back yard with phone and fire extinguisher in hand and was ready to call the fire department. She thought our garage was on fire and she was over, as any good neighbor, would to fight the fire. We have been having a lot of fires the last few weeks here in Texas and I wasn’t looking to have one right in my back yard. We all had a good laugh and we sent her home with some of our smoking sausage stuffed jalapeños.

Turns out these pork chops were really good. Smoke and all and were delicious with our Sweet Corn Risotto with Blue Cheese and the Baby Carrots with Dried Apricots.

I don’t know about you but I am guilty of tearing recipes out of a magazine while waiting for either a doctor, dentist or even car repair. I try to be pretty sneaky about it; quietly tearing out the recipe so it doesn’t make a sound. Then I quickly fold it up and put it in my purse. Well, I would not have this recipe if I not seen the ad in a magazine.

This recipe is so easy, not many ingredients, and very deliciously tender.

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Entree/ Pork

Pork Chops with Cabbage and Thyme

Baked in oven or crock pot, this is a favorite!

I’m one of those people who is happiest in the kitchen preparing food for someone to enjoy. I tend to like complicated recipes with lots of ingredients and a challenge to make and most of the time the recipes are successful. I’ve done so many sweet things lately you may think that I don’t have a recipe that doesn’t have “sugar” in it.

I love meat, I could never give up meat, could never come close to being a vegetarian even though I love vegetables. I love the thought of cooking something on a bone and then being able to pick up that bone and gnaw it clean — I do this when no one else is around. So what’s with all the boneless meat these days, boneless chops (this recipe), boneless chicken breast and thighs, no bones in the 7-bone pot roast any more and I could never figure out where those 7 bones were anyway. I’ve even seen boneless wings and I don’t even think those are wings.

There are so many working mothers/dads out there now, who has time to cook? Maybe on the weekends but then who wants to spend all weekend cooking. Years ago my sister and I use to make what we called Chops Casserole.  It wasn’t really a casserole in the sense that it didn’t have some kind of canned creamed soup in it or loaded with cheese. I have revised that recipe and changed a few ingredients and gone is the word “casserole”. This dish could even be made in a slow cooker or crock pot and be ready to put on the table when you get to the end of your long day and you can sit down with a glass of wine and enjoy a nice home cooked meal.

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Appetizers/ Entree/ HotApp/ Pork

Pork in Whiskey Sauce Tapas

Who ever thought little plates of food could be soooo good!

We returned from our cruise and time in Spain a few weeks ago. A couple of days in Amsterdam, cruising for 8 days and 9 days in Spain and I only gained 2 pounds.  Didn’t think I would ever be glad to say I gained weight, but after the way we ate and drank for 19 days, I’m surprised my husband could fit me through the door.

My last entry had pictures of many of the tapas we had while in Spain. We had a Pork in Whiskey Sauce at this one tapas bar in Seville and I have tried to recreate that recipe and I must say, it was almost exactly like the one we had there.

A little more about our trip. We had some great Indonesian food in Amsterdam and were able to visit Van Gogh and Reich museum. Ann Frank’s house was a very interesting tour and we toured Heinken Brewery — who doesn’t like beer (me). In Brugge we tried steamed mussels and frites, Belgium chocolates (DELICIOUS), Belgium waffles with chocolate and a cup of coffee that was half chocolate, 2 shots of espresso  and topped with a creamy hot chocolate.

Our food on the ship was wonderful and I got a lot of great ideas for tapas and things I might want to try for dinner parties.  Our port calls were Brugge, Cherborg (did Normandy tour there), Lisbon, Gibratar, Vigo and the cruise ended in Barcelona. Then it was time to hit all those tapas bars I had been reading about. We spent two days in Barcelona making the Mori and Picasso museums and Gaudi cathedral and lots of shopping and walking, walking, walking (guess that is why I only gained 2 pounds).  We flew from Barcelona to Sevilla (my favorite of all our Spain cities). Very cool city with streets just wide enough for a taxi to race down causing people to jump up on the curb (no sidewalk to escape to, so watch out).

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Appetizers/ Entree/ HotApp/ Pork/ Sauces

Pork Satay with Three Dipping Sauces

Satay’s make a great little appetizer or entree.

The January 2010 DC challenge was hosted by Cuppy of Cuppylicious and she chose a delicious Thai-inspired recipe for Pork Satay from the book 1000 Recipes by Martha Day.

I know I have mentioned this before but in case you missed it — DC is the www.thedaringkitchen.com site that I belong to and they have a bakers and cooks challenge each month that members are challened to make certain dishes. The member has almost a month to complete the challenge and post to their site and to our own sites. Every one makes the same recipe but you can do your own variations on part of the recipe. There are only a few things that I have been intimadated by so far with these challenges — The French Meringues and the ginger bread houes (couldn’t do the houses because I was busy catering over Christmas). I would also like to see a challenge for peti fours. I’ve always wanted to make those but never have attempted to make the really pretty ones like I would want to do.

I have made chicken satay’s before for catering but for this challenge I decided to do the Pork Satay and make at least three dipping sauces. I just ordered some really fun looking skewers so I’m going for the appetizer portion but these can also be made with larger skewers.

Satay is a popular dish originating from Indonesia and Malaysia and is often served as “street fare” and accompanied by a dipping sauce. It can be made from cubed meats or strips of meat that are threaded on a skewer. Most of us think of kebabs when we think of skewered meat. To me, satay is strips of meat and served with a peanut dipping sauces. Usually kebabs have vegetables skewered along with the meat and I only do meat when making satays.

Hope you will try this challenge along with me and if you are interested in joining The Daring Kitchen, go to their website and check it out. It is really fun to see what others challenges look like.

Dmeat

I used a pork tenderloin and sliced it very thin. It turned out very tender.

Ding

These are all the ingredients for the marinade. It was really fast to throw together in the food processor.

dmar

Spread marinade all over the meat and marinate for 4-8 hours.

dgrill

I talked my husband into grilling these outside in 40° weather.

dsau

I did three different sauces, peanut sauce, taminand sauce and a soy green onion sauce.

dlast

Great little recipe and I was glad to take this challenge.

Pork Satay with Three Dipping Sauces

Ingredients

  • 1/2 small onion chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic crushed
  • 1 Tbsp. ginger root chopped
  • 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
  • 1 Tbsp. soy sauce
  • 1 tsp. ground coriander
  • 1 tsp. ground cumin
  • 1/2 tsp. turmeric
  • 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
  • 1 pound pork

Instructions

  1. Cut pork in 1 " strips (I cut my thin).  For marinade put all ingredients xexcept for the meat in a food processor and process until smooth.  Put the pork in either a bowl or plastic zip-lock and cover the pork with the marinade. Chill for 4-8 hours.
  2. Soak your wooden skewers for about 20 minutes before preparing skewers.
  3. Gently and slowly slide the meat strips onto the skewers. Discard any leftover marinade.
  4. Grill or broil until the edges just start to char, 8-10 minutes.. Flip and cook another 8-10 minutes.
  5. If you are grilling you could definitely brush once with some of the left over marinade when you flip the skewers. Then discard any left over marinade.

Peanut Sauce

Ingredients

  • 3/4 c. coconut milk
  • 4 Tbsp. peanut butter
  • 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
  • 1 Tbsp. soy sauce
  • 1 tsp. brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
  • 1/2 tsp. ground coriander
  • 1-2 dried red chilies chopped (keep the seeds for heat)

Instructions

  1. Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl. Add soy sauce and lemon, mix well. Over low heat, combine coconut milk, peanut butter and your soy-lemon-seasoning mix. Mix well, stir often.
  2. All you are doing is melting the peanut butter, so make your peanut sauce after you have made everything else in your meal or make ahead of time and reheat.

Pepper Dip

Ingredients

  • 4 Tbsp. soy sauce
  • 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
  • 1 tsp. brown sugar
  • 1-2 dried chilies chopped, keep seeds for heat
  • 1 finely chopped green onio

Instructions

  1. Mix well. Serve chilled or room temperature.

Tamarind Dip

Ingredients

  • 4 Tbsp. tamarind paste I used tamarind chutney
  • 1 Tbsp. soy sauce
  • 1 clove garlic minced
  • 1 finely chopped green onion
  • 1 tsp. brown or white sugar

Instructions

  1. Mix well. Serve chilled or room temperature.