I want pork pork pork pork pork

At the end of my fork, Pork Pork Pork Pork!



There's a Chipotle Ad that aired on the radio a while back with a great little ditty about wanting pork at the end of your fork. Everytime we eat pork at home, we both sing that little ditty - but only that refrain line I typed above - because that's all we can remember.



The other week at the market I found two HUGE stuffing pork chops at the market for 5 bucks. What a bargain!



I decided I wanted to make stuffed porkchops after a few of my friends have made them on their blogs in the past weeks - it gave me a hankering!



I started the endeavor by making my homemade stuffing that I love. This is how my mom made it growing up and is still my favorite stuffing.



For the Stuffing:

In a dutch oven, sautee in butter, one diced onion, 4 diced celery stalks, garlic, and 1 conatiner of sliced mushrooms. When all of that is tender, add one bag of stuffing mix (such as Peppridge Farms). Moisten with 1 can of chicken stock and a little under 1 cup of water. Add fresh sage to season.



I made the stuffing early this AM and let cool all day.



For the pork chops



Take a large, thick pork chop and cut a pouch in the pork chop. Line the inside of the chop with fresh sage leaves. Add stuffing mixture. Press or seal closed. Brown the porkchops briefly in a skillet then transfer to baking dish. Add about an 8th of an inch of water to the pan. Top the cops with a pat of butter each and some more sage leaves. Cover with foil, leaving one corner open for steam to escape. Bake at 350 for about an hour or until pork is done.



Serve with more stuffing if you'd like.



This was by far enough for one person alone. We both only ate half our chops and stuffing and now have lunch for Tuesday!

I Made Sauce...

Does this mean I now qualify as a true Rhode Islander or an Italian? Probably not. But for my first forte, DAMN' I did good.

I've been wanting to make sauce (or as RIers call it, Gravy) for a while now. We had a load of roma tomatoes from the garden that needed to be used, and we've given up on the peeling, dicing and freezing because we rarely use them.

I figured I'd find a recipe for sauce and make some.

Hold the phone, a recipe for sauce using fresh tomatoes, that, I determined is like finding a needle in a haystack. Every recipe I was finding used canned tomatoes. NO WAY I wanted to do this au natural!

I finally found a recipe on All Recipes for Fresh Tomato and Basil Sauce. So I dilligently read all of the reciews and it was rated way up there. People raved about the ease of the recipe, the taste, everything... I knew this was the recipe for me.

At first I started by peeling the tomatoes, but then it was taking so long that I heeded the recipe and the reviews and skipped peeling and just diced and seeded.

I let it simmer down for a long time today - the house smelled incredible. And when it was done I did run the immersion blender in it for a smoother sauce and to get rid of any remaining skin pieces - although there were like none.

The sauce has this wonderful consistency, a little thin, but certainly able to cling well to a noodle. Hubs tried it and his eyes lit up "This is the best sauce ever." And I would have to agree!

Fresh Tomato and Basil Sauce

INGREDIENTS

8 pounds tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1 large onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced - I used a whole head of garlic. PERFECT FLAVOR
1/2 cup olive oil - I only used about 2 T
salt and pepper to taste

(I also added some dried oregano from our garden at the end, along with some more fresh basil for fresher flavor)


DIRECTIONS
In large saucepan, cook tomatoes and basil over medium-low heat until tomatoes are soft.
Meanwhile, in medium skillet, saute onion and garlic in olive oil until onions are translucent.
Add onion mixture to tomato mixture and add salt and pepper. Let simmer on low heat for 2 hours or until thick.

20 minutes in of simmering

After Immersion.

Another Whole Foods Rave!

Thanks to the commenter - I've entered this in the Presto Pasta Night roundup. Thank you to Ruth at Once Upon a Feast and Abby at Eat The Right Stuff.




I grabbed this recipe off of the Whole Foods website and we adored this recipe. First off it was so easy to make. Secondly, it was so delicious as well - even the leftovers were tasty!

We used fresh roma tomatoes and basil from our garden. I used ground sausage as well. Otherwise it was the same thing and it was surely delicious!



Farfalle with Hot Italian Sausage, Tomatoes and Basil

Hot Italian sausage, sweet tomatoes and fresh basil are tossed with bowtie pasta in this easy, flavor-packed summer dinner. Try this recipe with classic Italian pork sausage or leaner chicken or turkey sausage if you prefer.


Serves 6 to 8


3/4 pound farfalle (bowtie) pasta
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 pound hot Italian sausage
3 tablespoons chopped garlic
1 bunch basil, leaves torn into pieces
1 pound cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
4 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, shaved or shredded
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
Sea salt and pepper


Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook pasta until al dente. Drain and toss in olive oil. Set aside. Meanwhile, preheat a large skillet. Squeeze sausage from casing into pan, crumbling it into small pieces. Add garlic and cook until sausage is browned and cooked through, 7 to 10 minutes. Toss cooked sausage with pasta, basil, tomatoes, cheese, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Serve warm or at room temperature.

My Kitchen Just Got More Colorful and Fun!

I came home the other day to find a great little box on my door from The Spoon Sisters. I recently entered another contest at Blake Makes for a chance to win these awesome measuring/tasting spoons from The Spoon Sisters.



Now I love spoons. I fly through those more than any other utensil. I have spoons for everything in the kitchen - salt spoon, sugar spoons, honey spoons, serving, cooking stirring, spoons for only dark colored foods that can stain, spoons for high heat, etc. A spoon is my favorite untensil for cooking and eating!



So when I saw these colorful little guys I had to enter and crossed my fingers I'd win... If not I knew I'd probably cave and buy them at some point! That's just how cute they are.



Unfortunately my picture (or any of the ones I took) do these justice! You just have to buy a set to check them out yourself. I've already used them for my cooking and am totally digging them.



I've met a new spoon set - and I'm in LOVE!!!







And do check out the SS website for some other great gifts - great for those upcoming holiday exchanges!!! Hint Hint people!!!

Thank You Blake Makes!

I love the blog Blake Makes. I mean LOVE! Not only does he have great innovative recipes, he shares the glory with other cooks around the globe and their delicious recipes as well. He always features new and innovate products and foods and always gives us the chance to try and win products as well.

This was the first contest I entered on Blake's site. I don't know I've always been too nervous to enter them in the past but finally decided oh just get over it!

I was really glad I was chosen to try these new treat - You Bars. The company makes these bars with natural ingredients. And you can even go on the site and make your own bars that they'll make and ship for you.

Now part of the reason I was so interested in this give away was because I do like "bar food" as we call it in my family, but sometimes I am disappointed with the bars I try. I don't like the texture or the flavor. So I always like trying new bars to see if I can find a new one I like. I really enjoy a bar for breakfast with a glass of milk - it's filling and can hold me most of the morning along with a piece of fruit about 11 am or so.

So I tried the first You Bar out of the package and it was YUMMY. I loved it because for once it was a bar that didn't have the texture of a Power Bar - that stickiness to it and it wasn't candy coated or chocolate coated to make you think it was a candy bar. It was just wholesome and good and fruity and grainy.

I've still got a couple more to try out of the selection pack, but so far I've been a happy camper.

Thank You Blake and Thank You You Bar!

Kudos to the Hubs

Kudos to the hubs for this great salad the other week with our Pesto Pasta for dinner.

The tomatoes are fresh from our garden along with the basil. We picked up the mozarella cheese,proscuitto and the olives at the market.

These are some of our favorite summer salads ever and we'll be sad when tomato season is finished.

Stuffed Auburgenes

Ok, so it's stuffed eggplants, I'm just trying to be all fancy.

I came up with this recipe a couple of years ago when we first had eggplants in our garden. So when the eggplants started growing this year I knew I'd make them again.

It's a little bit time consuming, but the results are well worth it.

Stuffed Eggplants

2 cups cooked rice
1 eggplant
1 lb. ground meat (beef, veal, pork, turkey whatever)
1 onion diced
2-3 cloves of garlic minced
other veggies as you'd like - mushrooms, zucchini, etc.
Sliced olives
feta cheese
1 can diced tomato

Cut eggplant in half long wise and cut a rim around the side to hollow out, leaving enough for a stury shell. Coat eggplant halves in olive oil and salt and roast in the oven on 375 for about 30 minutes or until just tender. Remove from oven and drain on paper towels. Reduce oven to 350.

In a skillet, brown the ground meat, the remaining eggplant and any other veggies you'd like. Once the eggplant and veggies are tender, add the diced drained tomatoes. Season at this time as you like. I like to use a little salt, pepper and either cinnamon or garam masala.

Remove mixture from heat. Return eggplant sheels to roasting dish. Add the cooked rice to the filling mixture. Add the sliced olives and about a quarter of a cup of feta cheese. Stuff the eggplants and top with a ittle extra feta if you'd like at this time.

Pop pan in the oven and bake for aboug 20 minutes until everything is heated.

The Kings Chops

I've blogged about the King's Chops before here. Now I finally have a picture of them!

Made these the other week and again, so good as always.

Don't doubt it or knock it until you've tried it!

I promise you won't be disappointed.

Adventures in Canadian Eating, Take 3

From PEI, the hubs and I took the ferry and thendrove to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. First off, if you ever have the chance to go to Cape Breton, you must go. It is by far the most beautiful place we have ever visited - and we've both been all over the country and many places in Europe.

Prior to gettin g on the ferry we stopped at a little local vineyard and bought a bottle of the most delicious Wild Blueberry Wine. It was more savory than sweet with very subtle tones and is so going to go well with a nice pice of pork or beef.

Our Ferry ride over introduced us to two delicious Canadian classics. Cows Ice Cream (so natural and delicious!) and more importantly Lays Gravy Flavored Potato Chips. Dear God! How does Lays not sell these in the states. It's supposed to be a take on fries with Putine but in Chip form. It's like a not so spicy or tangy BBQ potato chip. Adam and I spent the rest of the trip going to every market to find bags of these to take home. Finally we found mini bags at some service stations and we took 7 of those back to the states with us.

Hubs Loves him some gravy chips!

Along the potato chip journey we also encountered Smoked Bacon Potato Chips, Roast Chicken Potato Chips, Dill Chips and Dill Pickle Chips and a variety of other flavors we never got the chance to try. We ended up bringing back more potato chips than anything I think.

On our first night in Cape Breton we went to this great restaurant called the Lynwood Inn which was very nice and they had this great locacl musician playing who was like listening to James Taylor.

I had this great salmon that had this wonderful cream sauce that had chopped hard boiled egg in it. With some help from the girls on the Nest What's Cooking board, I think I finally found the closest thing to it - so now I can't wait to make that.

Our 2nd night in Cape Breton, we went to a Ceilidh (pronounced Kay-lee). It was fabulous to hear the great local music live and it was by far one of the most fun things we did on the trip. However, by the time it ended at almost 10 pm most of the restaurants were closed. There was however a little local pizza place open and we decided to get a pizza to take back to the B&B room.

They were out of most of the individual slices, so we were game for a whole pizza. They had this pizza on the menu called Donairs pizza. And we actually saw the guy working there grinding the Donair in the meat grinder. We had no clue what it was but decided not to ask and just order it.

Oh my god so glad we did - it was the best pizza we've ever had - hands down. It was this incredible crust with a creamy garlic sauce, ground donair, onion tomato and cheese. We got our pizza, a quart of milk from the mini mart and ate while watching the olympics in our room with the fire place going.

The pizza, was so divine, that we finally asked in Halifax what Donairs was at a restaurant and we discovered it's a ground spiced beef - like what is used for Gyros meat. So from then on we were on a mission to find Donairs to take back to the states with us. Finally at a little market outside of St. John New Brunswick, we did find some.

So if you get up to Canada, do try some Donair Pizza!!

Cheers!

Adventures in Canadian Eating, Take 2

From New Brunswick we went to PEI. On our first night in PEI we were told we had to try a Lobster Supper. We ended up in New Glasgow for their lobster supper.

I wish we would have had lobster supper for every meal on our trip up there. This was by far the best meal we had in our whole trip in Canada and I was upset on our last night in Canada that we didn't eat something as fun or delicious or exciting.

If you go up to PEI you have to try the New Glasgow Lobster Supper.

You get to pick your meal - just apps and dessert, lobster, fish, etc. It comes with bread, chowder or soup, all you can eat mussels and chowder, your lobster and all you can eat desserts.

Now, I enjoy mussels but it's hard to get good, fresh tasting mussels out here. But I figured, Man we're IN PEI I can't not have them. I didn't think hubs would eat them at all, but alas, he did and we had to go through two big buckets or more to get our love worth. They were the best mussels we've ever had and I would move to PEI just for the mussels.

It was more food than I could ever imagine - but the seafood chowder was incredible. The mussels, so good, and the lobster - like buttah baby. Sweeter than lobster that we get in RI to say the least - hence we haven't had lobster since we got home.

Here's the hubs with with this mussels.

MMMMM Seafood!!

The second night in PEI we tried a different lobster supper - the Fisherman's Wharf - and it was still good but we went with the PEI Snow Crab that night - a nice treat since we don't get snow crab down here at all. The crab was good, but I should have had lobster. Again more mussels than you could shake a stick at - but you had to fight off the crazy bus loads of tourists taking buckets of mussels. So a different experience. The New Glasgow one is a more sit down and relax night.

Oh and here's the hubs with the lobster who eats tourists - we found him upon our arrival in PEI. His name is Lorenzo Lobster - if you make it to PEI say hello! But don't get eaten!

Adventures in Canadian Eating, Take 1

So Hubby and I went up to Canada the other week for a nice long vacation. We started in New Brunswick - so that's where this post will start.

In NB, visiting our good friends, we went to the city market on Saturday. There were so many delicious sights and smells and flavors it was so sad we did that first and not on our way back to the states - we would have come home with much more!

Here's the market!





While there, we bought some fresh garlic. We have a friend whose family goes up to Canada to work on a garlic farm each summer - they get free room and board in exchange for their labor and they get a ton of garlic to take home and they always bring us a few bulbs. Each year we use one and then we plant the others in our garden to harvest in the late summer. So while confronted with this great local garlic that smelled divine... we had to buy some of our own. We spent the rest of the trip drying it out in the back window of the car, and it made us crave Italian food the whole trip!


While at the market, I saw a sign for dulse.

I grabbed the hubs and we spoke with the vendor who let us sample some. It's a sea vegetable, like seaweed or kelp that is dried on the rocks. It's got a VERY strong fishy/oceany/sea flavor. Being from the coast out here, I didn't think it would bother me but I couldn't stand it, it was so chewy, tough and strong. Hubs however, loved the dulse so he had to buy a bag to bring home with him.

I let Adam enjoy his dulse while I picked out a great local strawberry and basil vinegar that is just out of this world delicious!

Aside from the excitement, the neatest thing was waiting in line to buy our vinegar, we were behind a French Family (Ok maybe they were from Quebec) but they spoke all in French and they ordered du jambon... oooo du jambon - hubs and I were in heaven with the French - Jambon is one of our favorite French words. For those non Francais speakers - Jambon is Ham.

My New Favorite Candy

I bought a candy up in Canada when we were there the other week ( along with the plothera of other food related items we brought back with us!) and OMG it's divine.

It's the Curly Wurly from Cadbury. It's caramel and chocolate - that's it. No fancy bells and whistles. Just pure good chocolate and rich, sticky caramel - and it's thin and delicious. It's the most perfect balance of sweet, sticky and a little salty.

I'm so buying a case online!!!

What Have/Would/Could you Eat??

I saw this on my friend Carrie's Blog at Carriessweetlife.com and thought it was interesting and thought I'd give it a post / try on my blog.

How the Omnivore’s 100 Works:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating. (I can't do that in blogger, so I'll just put a NO)
4) Optional: Post a comment at Very Good Taste, linking to your results.

Omnivore’s Hundred:
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding NO
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar NO
37. Clotted Cream Tea NO
38. Vodka Jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail NO
41. Curried goat NO
42. Whole insects (Giant Water Bug, to be specific) NO
43. Phaal NO
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth $120 or more NO- I wouldn't waste the $$ on this one!
46. Fugu NO - have you seen the simpson's 3 eyed fish episode -that's how I feel about puffer fish - I don't want to die!
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV NO - I don't like beer
59. Poutine - I can say yes to this cause we had it for the 1st time last week! OH MY GOD how do we American's not eat this??? It's the most delicious thing!
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian NO
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake - is it sad I've had, still eat and love them all??
68. Haggis - I would only try this because of my affinity for the movie So I Married an Axe Murderer
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe NO
74. Gjetost or brunost
75. Roadkill NO
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang Souchong - No becuase i don't like smoky things and that would get me on this one.
80. Bellini
81. Tom Yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. 3 Michelin Star Tasting Menu
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse NO I don't know if I could bring myself to do this one.
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake No - unless i didn't know what it was I was eating.

I'm surprised by how many things I've tried on here and would still try if given the chance!

Delicious Homemade Pizza

Another whole foods recipe this past week that was out of this world delicious.

I used a premade dough from the store that we always buy, and a full pound of italian sausage that I removed from the casing and browned up.

Quick, easy and so yummy - everything the hubby wanted.

Sausage and Artichoke Pizza

Serves 4
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 package (2 crusts) pizza crusts
1 (28-ounce) can Italian diced tomatoes with basil
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
1 (14-ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained
1/2 pound fresh lamb sausage or sausage of your choice, squeezed from casing, cooked and drained
6 ounces fresh mozzarella, sliced
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
red pepper flakes (optional)

Preheat oven to 400°F. Place pizza crusts on work surface. Brush all over with olive oil. Top crusts with diced tomatoes, onion, artichoke hearts and sausage. Arrange mozzarella slices on top. Bake 10-15 minutes, until crispy and cheese is bubbly. Sprinkle with Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes, if desired.

A Wonderful Blend of Flavors

I got the idea for this recipe while browsling the planet green site.

Chef Emeril was inspiring me to try golden beets and I came across some at Whole Foods. But I didn't want to just roast them.

Someone posted a recipe that used beets and pasta and I was like - now that's an interesting idea. So here's my variation.

Beet-a-licious Pasta

Boil water for pasta

While water is boiling, clean stem and peel a variety of beets - I used one large red and about 6 small golden. Once peeled, dice in quarters.

When the pasta goes in the pot - I used a whole wheat penne - add the diced beets as well.

Note the water WILL TURN RED when you do this.

Cook until pasta and beets are tender.

Drain and return to pot.

Season with salt, pepper, crushed garlic - about 2-3 cloves, olive oil (about a quarter cup or less) and some fresh sage. Then before serving toss with some goat cheese and some defrosted frozen peas.

Very tasty, easy and a great nutrient rich lunch!

This meal screams summer

When I was searching for meals this week - I choose the Whole Foods web site. Usually as I menu plan each week I go with one area, cookbooks at home, friend's recipes, recipes saved on the computer or web recipes.

I came across this recipe and it just screamed HELLO COOK ME NOW!!!

It wasn't on the menu for last night, but we spent a chunk of the late afternoon both napping on the couches so there was no time to bake the salmon quiche. So instead we made this pasta since it was quick and easy.

And wow was it ever quick and easy and oh my god delicious. The whole time we ate we kept saying, this is it, we have to make it again, this is the new pasta staple in our household - at least for the summer when basil is of abundance in our garden.

Pasta with Lemon, Olives and Basil

1 Pound Pasta, penne, farfalle or macaroni
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1/3 cup lemon juice (I just used the juice of one lemon)
1/2 cup olive oil (I would reduce this to 1/4 next time maybe, it was a little oily for us)
1-2 large garlic cloves minced
1/2 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and sliced (I didn't remember if hubs liked Kalamatas or not, so I went with the cans of black sliced olives from the market and let me tell you those were great with it - and a lot less expensive too - I used 2 cans of those, next time though I'll do the Kalamatas)
1/4 cup chopped basil
Salt and pepper to season

Cook pasta in boiling salted water according to package directions. While pasta is cooking, whisk together the lemon zes, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, basil, salt and pepper. Then I lightly folded in the olives so they wouldn't break apart. When pasta is done drain but don't rinse. Add hot pasta to the lemon mixture and toss to coat. Season with Salt and Pepper.

Serve and boy will you ever enjoy!!