Boar...It's What's For Dinner.

At our local farmer's market a few weeks back our favorite farmer had boar sausage and ground boar for sale. He has a fantastic farm that we've visited with lots of produce but then tons of livestock as well - chickens, ducks, turkeys, boars, pigs, cows, you name it.

We decided to try the Mild Italian Boar Sausage Patties. I decided to make it how I've made one of our favorite dishes featured on this blog before from a Whole Foods Recipe.

This time I tweaked it a bit with the boar sausage and put the whole thing on a bed of fresh spinach leaves, also from the farmer's market.

I will say the boar is probably one of the most fantastic things I've ever eaten. It was incredibly lean, flavorful and tender. Since then, we've bought more of the sausage pretty much every week to stock in our freezer to have throughout the winter time.

If you can find a local farmer with boar, do try it! You won't regret it. And if not, still do make this dish and use a good Italian Sausage, you won't regret it!

How do you do your favorite leftovers?

I love cooking with leftovers and then turning them in to something new and exciting. Our favorite meal in our house is our Kalua Pulled Pork that we make, probably every other month. In fact, as we speak a pork shoulder is on my counter defrosting for tomorrow's pulled pork!

One of our favorite things to make with this leftover is lettuce wraps. Really no recipe, just place the pork in the lettuce with some fresh carrots, cucumber, bean sprouts, whatever you have, and top with a little Hoisin Sauce and enjoy!

Fig Glazed Pork Tenderloin is a Hit!

I have to admit, the hubs isn't a huge fan of pork tenderloin, but I always trust my favorite blogger Your Home Based Mom, and I knew she wouldn't steer me wrong.

This recipe was fantastic, great on the grill, great for summer, and I can imagine would be even more fantastic come fall with some nice roasted butternut squash and some fresh hearty bread on a cool evening! I bet if you were extra lazy and didn't want to leave your warm house you could also do this in the oven and it would still turn out fantastic.

This pork was done to perfection - tender, juicy, and flavorful. There was a great glaze on the pork when it came off the grill and then I made some of the marinade and heated it up before serving to have a small sauce with it. Even better!!


Ingredients

1 pork tenderloin 3-4 lbs.
1 13 oz. jar fig preserves (RI peeps, for a cheaper fig jam, hit up Christmas Tree Shop!)
3 tsp whole grain dijon mustard* We used a horseradish ale whole grain mustard and it was KILLER!
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
Instructions

Mix together preserves, mustard and vinegar.
Line pan with foil and place tenderloin in pan
Brush with glaze mixture on both sides
Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes or until meat is cooked* We did ours on the grill and did about 8-10 minutes a side on about 400 degrees on the grill
Brush with glaze several times during cooking process.

* I also made an extra smaller portion of the marinade with the jam, mustard and vinegar and heated that on the stove top to have a nice sauce at the end. I highly recommend it!!

Thanks Leigh Anne for a pork tenderloin recipe that was husband approved for a make again!!

I love a good Chinese Nut!

And I don't mean a funny or crazy Chinese person!

Thank you Joelen again for another great meal! This was a perfect meal for me because recently, I've given up chicken. I never really liked chicken, and just decided why do I eat things I don't like for the sake of eating them? So now I eat primarily vegetarian dinners or enjoy pork, fish and beef on occasion with the hubs.

This was completely like Chinese take out - all it needed was a little white box with the red pagoda and a tab for like 10 bucks!

Stir Fried Cashew Pork

Stir Fried Cashew Pork
original Joelen recipe
serves 4

1/3 cup hoisin sauce
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 pound pork (tenderloin, shoulder, boneless ribs) and cut into bite sized pieces
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
1 cup roasted unsalted cashews - half coarsely chopped, half whole
1/4 cup fresh whole cilantro leaves

Combine the hoisin sauce, water, soy sauce, and pepper flakes in 1 liquid measuring cup. Heat a few teaspoons of the oil in a large nonstick skillet (or cast iron skillet) over medium high heat until it just starts to smoke. Brown and saute the pork in the skillet and push out to the sides of the pan when done.

Add the remaining oil to the skillet and add the garlic and ginger. Cook the garlic and ginger for a few seconds until fragrant. Pull the pork back to the center of the skillet and add the cashews and hoisin mixture. Cook until the sauce has thickened and remove off heat. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve with steamed rice.

great some some steamed green beans. Was a really quick/easy meal and truly a taste of Chinese take out - at home!

A new use for the local library

The hubs and I go through phases with the library. We frequent it for a while, then we forget about it. The past 6-9 months though we've been using the library weekly. DVDs, CDs, Audio Books, and my new favorite reason - Cook Books!

I've been slowly making my way though a variety of cook books from the local library system and it's really the best thing I think I, personally, as someone who likes to cook, can use the library for. I love cookbooks, but I buy buy buy. And usually end up donating a pile of them back to the library in the end because there just isn't really anything I end up making out of them. This way, I check them out, pick out some recipes, make them while I have the book for 3 weeks, and if I'm sold on the cook book, then I can buy it. It's been great!

Last weekend I made something from Thai, the Essence of Asian Cooking book. And you know what, it was REALLY REALLY GOOD! But after pursuing most of the book, I realized this really is the ONLY dish I'd want to make out of here or isn't similar to something else I have already in another book. So now I know I don't need to buy this book. But I've got this great recipe from it so it was a win-win all around.

Do make this, it as quick, easy and most delicious. Great when you really have a hankering for some Chinese food.

Pork Belly with Five Spices

1 large bunch of cilantro * the recipe calls for using cilantro roots, but I just used some of the stems with it*

2 T vegetable oil

1 garlic clove

2 T Chinese 5 Spice Powder

1 1/4 lb. pork belly cut in to 1 inch pieces

14 oz can chopped tomatoes

2/3 cup hot water

2T soy sauce

3 T Thai fish sauce

2 T sugar

1 lime, halved.

1. cut off the cilantro roots. chop five and freeze the rest (again, I omitted this and just used some of the stems). Chop the stalks and leaves and set aside. Keep roots separate.

2. heat oil in a large skillet and cook the garlic until golden brown. Stir constantly and add the cilantro roots and the five spice powder.

3. Add the pork and stir fry until the meat is thoroughly coated in the spices and has browned. Stir in the tomatoes and hot water. Bring to a boil and stir in the soy sauce, fish sauce and sugar.

4. Reduce heat and cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Stir in the cilantro leaves and squeeze the lime juice over it.

Serve with rice or noodles and enjoy! I also served with steamed broccoli, sugar snaps and carrots that I flavored with fresh ginger and soy sauce in the steam pouch.

So easy, quick and tasty.

Going out with a bang.

When you spend 6 years of your life dedicated to a TV show, it seems only fitting to celebrate it's end in style.

For 6 years, I've watched LOST. I've been baffled, touched, scratched my head,

researched on the web for clues, re-watched episodes, you name it - it has sucked me in for all 6 years - about 4 years for the hubs, he didn't get on the bandwagon right away.

We made an event of the finale of LOST. And we did it in true Hawaiian fashion with a luau for two.

Since digging a hole in the backyard and roasting a whole pig wasn't really an option for this luau - I opted for using this recipe from Allrecipes and WOW it was just like sitting on a beach being entertained by fire breathers and hula dancers good. I don't think I'll ever make pork roast another way again. Now the recipe for the Kalua Pig in a Slow Cooker was simple, but instead of cooking it for like 20 hours on low, I did 4 hours on high, 4 hours on low, a few more hours on warm, and another hour on low again - yes, I got up at 6 am to put the pork roasts in the crock pot. I also used two 2 pound pork roasts with a descent amount of fat to them as well. This made enough for dinner, a leftover lettuce wrap dinner and a leftover pulled bbq pork sandwiches as well and we still put some in the freezer!!

For sides, I still needed some tropical things. I opted for some fried plantains, Asian coleslaw with the Ramen noodles, and boiled yucca that I tossed with garlic, onion, butter and lemon juice.

And of course you can't enjoy a LOST luau without some fish biscuits!! Yes the infamous fish biscuits from when Kate and Swayer were stuck in the Dharma cages. These were so delicious and tasty - even my office mates loved them for our LOST recap lunch on Monday.

All in all the meal was fantastic and the show was worth dedicating 6 years and 4.5 hours of my Sunday too.

I'll miss you LOST... thank you for making my brain hurt and challenging me to think in a way like no other TV show has!!

Easy, Light Salad

I had a recipe kicking around on my computer from a couple of years ago and it was interesting to me but not quite flavorful enough. So I tweaked it here and there and we ended up with a yummy dinner!

Ginger Pork & Pear Spinach Salad

1 lb. sliced or diced lean pork

1 - 2 pears diced

1 bag baby spinach leaves cleaned

feta or blue cheese for topping salad

fresh ginger and garlic - about a T of ginger and a clove or 2 of garlic

Dressing

1/4 cup olive oil

2 T honey

2 T cider or white wine vinegar (you can do this to taste too)

salt and pepper to taste

2-3 tsp. dijon mustard

2 tsp. lemon juice.

you can do all of this to taste too. Blend it and toss with the salad.

For the salad.

Saute the pork in some olive oil until almost done. Then toss with the ginger and garlic and a touch of salt to season.

Toss the pork, spinach, pear and cheese together and top with the dressing or the dressing of your choice.

Enjoy!

Caramel Apples for Dinner?

Um, yeah, seriously, caramel apples for dinner!!

I found this recipe for Caramel Apple Pork Chops on all recipes and it was fan-frigging-tastic. I'm already dreaming of making these again. It was the prefect combo of sweet and savory and just such a perfect fall dinner.

The recipe calls for making these on the stove top. But, and I'm going to admit something here... there is nothing I dislike more about cooking than babysitting a stove top (unless it's for risotto or polenta). Therefore every time you see a recipe on this blog that calls for a stove top cooking process for a meat or something like that - you can bet a good 90% of the time I cook it in the oven instead. Truth be told by the end of the day after working, the last thing I have any interest in doing is standing at a stove top flipping meat!

So you can CERTAINLY make this in the oven - in fact, I totally would - it was so easy and so good!

This is the recipe as is from Allrecipes

The changes I made. Place oven at 350 and spray a pan with PAM.

Season pork with salt and pepper on both sides.

Cook the apples on the stove top according to the recipe and then remove them with a slotted spoon and place on top of the pork chops. Drizzle a TINY bit of sauce over the apples and pork and bake for about 30 minutes until the pork is done.

While that's cooking you can finish cooking the sauce to thicken it up - and let me tell you it really does make caramel sauce. Like top your ice cream, dip your apples, make your turtles, caramel sauce!

When the pork is done, plate it, top with the sauce and sprinkle some chopped nuts on top - I used pecans.

Serve with some wonderful fall squash or corn and enjoy!!

Down Home Cookin'

For some reason I was craving something down home, smothered and delicious. But again, I don't like to make really fatty foods or high caloric foods so finding something that fit the bill was proving challenging.

I turned to one of my good old healthy cooking site standbys - Prevention Magazine's Cook! Section.

These did not disappoint. Absolutely wonderful, flavorful, and would be the perfect meal for for a cold winters night.

I served with some acorn squash and corn on the cob and it couldn't have been any more comforting!

Smothered Pork Chops

8 pork loin chops - 3-4 oz. each (I just used two)

1 can low sodium condensed cream of mushroom soup

1 can mushroom stems and pieces (I just used fresh mushrooms that I sauteed first)

2 7/8 0z cans french fried onions (I omitted this but I think it would be great)

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/4 tsp. garlic powder (I also added 1/4 tsp. pepper and 1/4 tsp. paprika)

2 T vegetable oil (I used canola)

3/4 cup fat free milk

Directions

1.

In a shallow dish, combine the flour and the garlic powder; mix well. Coat the pork chops completely with the seasoned flour. Heat the oil in a large skillet and brown the pork chops over high heat for 2 to 3 minutes per side. Dump in the soup, the mushrooms, and the milk; mix well and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium, cover, and cook for 15 to 18 minutes, or until the pork chops are cooked through and tender. Sprinkle with the onions, and serve.

Perfect Fall Night Meal

Well, totally forgot to take a picture of this one - oops!

So that just means I get to post about it the night I ate it instead!

Made this meal from Epicurious. It's a make when you get home meal - but I bet you could do it in the crockpot, but really - it was so easy and good the way it was. I didn't alter ANYTHING. Next time we both agreed we'd add more apple and onion though and perhaps use 1 lb. of pork instead of 2, since we're not huge meat eaters. Serve with some wheat egg noodles - DELISH!!

Hmmm in read this now I realized I forgot to put the sugar in - you know what, it was sweet enough as it was with the apple and carrot. I also remember I didn't use 6 T oil. Just 1-2. And I did add in a few dashes of cinnamon and that made for a wonderful flavor. So in retrospect, guess I didn't make this exactly as is... ha!

Rich Autumn Pork Stew with Beer

Epicurious

• 2 pounds boneless pork shoulder, cut in 1 1/2-inch bits
• Salt and pepper
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 4 medium carrots, diced
• 2 medium apples, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 tablespoons finely minced garlic
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cup diced canned or fresh tomatoes
• 2 cups chicken broth (bouillon)
• 1 bottle (12 ounces) beer
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• Cooked buttered egg noodles
• 
  

1. Season the pork with salt and pepper. Heat 4 tablespoons oil in a heavy casserole over medium-high heat. Brown the pork well in batches. Remove to a bowl.

2. Wipe casserole clean and heat the remaining oil over low heat. Add onions, carrots, and apples. Stir until softened, 10 minutes, adding the garlic in the last 3 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients except noodles. Return pork and any juices to the casserole.

3. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, stirring, until the meat is very tender, about 1 1/2 hours. Discard bay leaf; adjust seasonings. Serve over egg noodles in shallow bowls.

Just Wing It!

I will be the first to admit I'm an avid recipe follower. Not because I don't trust my cooking abilities, but because, well by the time dinner rolls around, I'm tired and lazy and just want to make things as easy as possible.

But tonight I didn't really have a gameplan and decided to just wing it with what I had moderately planned for.

I had taken out a leftover cooked Asian Flavored Pork Tenderloin from the freezer to defrost. I really didn't know what to do, since I wasn't jonsing for our usual lettuce wraps with our leftover tenderloin.

I also had some nice veggies to use from the farmers market before they went bad.

So I opted for a Asian Pork and Ramen and Zucchini Noodle Soup.

The results were REALLY good and we were both really satisfied with the flavor, textures and fillingness of the meal.

Asian Pork, Rame and Zucchini Noodle Soup.

2 packages ramen noodles - any flavor

1 can beef broth

1 pork tenderloin, cooked and shredded or diced

2 golden zucchini, shredded long wise to be like noodles

4 green onions sliced

2-3 tsp. fresh ginger minced

2 cloves garlic crushed

1 shake of red pepper flakes

1/2 package cole slaw mix

soy sauce to taste

In a large stock pot, combine 1 can beef broth and 8-10 cups water, depending how many veggies you're going to add. Add in ginger, garlic, red pepper flakes and green onion and bring to a boil.

Prepare your veggies and meat. Toss in the veggies and cole slaw mix and meat to the simmer in the stock pot. 10 minutes before you're ready to eat, add in the ramen noodles and 1 flavor packet. Serve when noodles are done and top with green onion.

Pork-A-Licious

Once again, another FANTASTIC recipe from Your Home Based Mom's blog.

Made these - gosh it looks like back in May or June - realized I didn't have a picture of it but the recipe is SO good I don't want to loose the print out - so why not blog it and share it!

Seriously, you need to make these Salsa Verde Carnitas - get yourself a nice piece of pork and make these this weekend - Holy cow you won't be disappointed.

I'm not even going to re-post the recipe - because without pictures it doesn't do it justice and her pictures will make you want to lick your monitor (go ahead, it's OK we're not watching!).

I made it exactly as is from her recipe, seasoned cabbage slaw and all. And I did it in the crock pot per her suggestion (I also just used a pork roast I had in the freezer and it was perfect!)

God I need to make these again now!

How The Hubs Eats...

When the Wife is Away...

I went out of town to visit my mom recently and left the hubs a menu plan, got the things he would need - one night was BLTs.

He was so impressed with his incredible BLT Skills, he took a picture - or 10 - so I would blog about it.

I love this man so much - he's so adorable.

Here you go babe - your BLT Special.

UPDATE: The Hubs comment when I read him this and showed him the picture : "BLOG"

How do you Re-purpose Meals?

I had made this a week or so back but my friend and I were sitting around talking the other night about how to re-use meats and other leftovers. Rather than just re-eating the same meal again, what do you do??

I was sharing my ideas with her, and there were some she'd never heard of.

I really got in to re-purposing meals about a year ago. Quite simply I got sick and tired of just re-eating chicken the same way. I got a lot of tips from magazines as I was researching how to re-purpose meals, but mostly I made things up just being creative.

This is one of our favorite re-purposes - and really if I may boast I'm best at reusing pork in our house over chicken!

I like to take leftover pork tenderloin and slice it down thin and heat it up in a skillet with some bbq sauce. We then put it on buns or on top of baked potatoes or even on top of mashed potatoes.

All it takes is some creative thinking and then you won't be throwing so much wasted food down the disposal or in the trash can.

A Taste of New England

I found this recipe in Cooking Light and decided I'd try it for dinner last night.

I have to admit I had 2 pounds of pork so I used more maple syrup - actually I used probably a quarter of a cup! I doubled up on everything and I also added so peeled whole garlic cloves. I let this sit in the fridge for about 6 hours. It also did take a little longer to cook but we like our pork more well done.

Very good- will certainly make this one again!

Maple Sage Roasted Pork from Cooking Light Magazine

Yield
4 servings (serving size: 3 ounces)

Ingredients
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (1-pound) pork tenderloin, trimmed
Cooking spray

Preparation
1. Combine first 5 ingredients in a large zip-top plastic bag; seal and turn to coat. Marinate in refrigerator 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 400°.
3. Remove pork from bag. Place pork on a foil-lined baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 25 minutes or until a thermometer registers 155°. Cover loosely with foil. Let stand 10 minutes before slicing.

Apple-licious

So my neighbor came by the other night and told me about this recipe. So I went with what I remembered her telling me. Then one of the blogs I like - retro-foods.com had the same recipe like 2 days later.

This was so easy, so good, and really something everyone could eat and enjoy.

Baked Apple Pie Pork Chops

4-6 pork chops

1 can apple pie filling

Favorite sage dressing (6oz box)
Brown pork chops. Put pie filling in bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish. Arrange pork chops on top of pie filling. Put dressing on top of chops. Bake at 325 for 1 hour (or until done) , uncovered.

So I mixed things up a bit cause I didn't print the recipe out to make it.

So here's what I did.

I put the can of pie filling at the bottom of a baking dish. Then I topped with raw boneless cut up lean pork pieces that were defrosted. Then I topped with the stuffing. I pursed 1 cup of water over the top and kinda mushed everything around. Then I covered and baked on 350 for about 30-40 minutes.

This was so good!!!

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!

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.

A great way to use Jam

So, do you ever find you have random jars of jams and jelly in your house?
You buy a new one cause it's some exotic flavor and it looks great?
It comes in a gift basket?

And before you know it WHAM you have a shelf of Jam.

Well we're that household.

So tonight I had a pork roast out to make for supper and was browsing for some inspiration to make a glaze or something for it and came across an idea from myrecipes.com that I tweaked and it came out so good.

One of the best pork roasts we've had in a LONG time!


Jam Glazed Pork Roast

1 pork roast
2 cloves of garlic minced
salt
pepper
3 T soy Sauce
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup OJ
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup jam of choice - we used Boysenberry

Place roast on rack in roasting pan. Set oven to 325. Season pork with salt and pepper. In a bowl combine the jam, garlic, soy sauce and OJ and stir to combine. Pour half over the roast and use the other half to baste as you cook.

Cook for about an hour and a half to 2 hours or until it reaches 160-165 degrees. We cooked ours per the recipe from myrecipes.com to 155 and it was NOT done. And in an hour and a half at 325 it was no where near done as well. So play around to what is best for your oven.

This was sweet, sticky, tender and fabulous!

Gnocchi and Sausage and Beans, Oh My!

The other night I made up this recipe and it was so tasty good.

I think I'll call this...

Herbed Gnocchi with Loaded Goodness

1 package gnocchi

1 pound of Italian Sausage (removed from casings and formed into balls)

2-3 cups of green beans, trimmed and blanched

1/4 cup fresh sage

1/4 cup fresh oregano

4 cloves of garlic

olive oil

paremsan cheese

pepper

Place water in pot to boil for gnocchi.

Heat a large skillet over medium high and place sausage balls in the skillet. Brown the sausage until cooked through. Once it is done, remove from the pan and place the green beans in the pan to sautee until tender and lightly browned. Return the sausage to the pan and and the sage. Pt gnocchi in to cook. When it is done, remove from pot and drain and place gnocchi in the skillet. Stir. Add in crushed garlic and oregano that has been minced.

Toss to combine and serve with pepper and parmesan cheese.

Throughout the cooking process you may find you need to add some olive oil to keep things from sticking - go ahead.

Enjoy!

This was delicious! Hubs said it was by far his favorite meal we've had. Even as I was blogging this he went oh yeah this is so blog worthy!