April Eats

Only a few more weeks until our first CSA delivery! Can't wait. Until then, I'm trying to entertain myself with some new recipes and some old favorites.

Pulled Pork with Apple Slaw

Loved the pulled pork and loved the apple slaw. Mike and I added extra Tabasco on our sandwich. What put this meal over the top was eating it the next day on a homemade baguette. Delicious!



Pulled Pork
from A Year of Slow Cooking

4 pounds boneless pork shoulder
1 onion, sliced in rings
2 cups ketchup (a 24oz bottle seems to be exactly 2 cups. weird.)
1/2 cup warm water
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Use a 6 quart crockpot. Trim meat, and place into your crockpot. Add sliced onion. Squeeze in 2 cups of ketchup, and then pour 1/2 cup warm water into the ketchup bottle and shake. Pour the ketchup-y water into your crock. Add vinegar, brown sugar, Worcestershire, Tabasco and salt. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours, or until meat shreds easily with a fork.

Apple Slaw
from All Recipes

3 cups chopped cabbage
1 unpeeled red apple, cored and chopped
1 unpeeled Granny Smith apple, cored and chopped
1 carrot, grated
1/2 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
2 green onions, finely chopped
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice, or to taste

In a large bowl, combine cabbage, red apple, green apple, carrot, red bell pepper, and green onions. In a small bowl, mix together mayonnaise, brown sugar, and lemon juice. Pour dressing over salad.


Peanut Butter Snickers Cookies

Do you like peanut butter? Chocolate Chips? Caramel? Cookies? GO MAKE THESE NOW. And if you have a little helper like I do, bring them along but don't let them eat all the snickers.






Recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chopped Snickers Peanut Butter Squared candy bars
3/4 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and the peanut butter together until fluffy. Add the sugars and beat until smooth. Add the egg and mix until combined. Add the milk and the vanilla extract and mix again.

Add the flour mixture and beat until flour disappears. Stir in the chopped Snickers and chocolate chips.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheets. Gently flatten each cookie ball with the palm of your hand. Bake for 10-11 minutes, or until cookies are slightly brown on the edges.

Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for about 5 minutes, then remove to a rack to cool completely.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies


Friday Night Pizza

This week's pizza was made with spinach, goat cheese, roasted red peppers and leftover homemade marinara (Mario Batali Simple Marinara). Yum!




Cinnamon Rolls

I've been wanting to make these for a long time. Why did I wait so long?! Pure heaven. They were quite easy to make, too. Time consuming but simple. I wanted to eat the entire pan but I found strength and froze most of the pan for later indulgence. The recipe is from one of my very favorite baking books - The Weekend Baker. The author gives great directions and always provides make-ahead directions.




Cumin Roasted Cauliflower Soup
from Serious Eats

We've been meaning to try out some of the recipes from the Eat for Eight Bucks series on Serious Eats and finally got around to trying this soup. The verdict? Easy, delicious and cheap! Perfect!




1 medium head cauliflower
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon salt
1 large onion, diced
1 garlic clove
3-4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
Cayenne Pepper
¼ cup heavy cream
Cilantro for garnish (optional)

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 400°F.

Cut cauliflower into 2-inch florets. On a parchment-lined baking sheet, toss cauliflower with 1 tablespoon of oil, salt, and cumin to coat. Roast in the oven until the cauliflower is just beginning to turn golden brown, but still has a little bite to it, about 20 minutes.

In a medium Dutch oven or lidded saucepan, heat the remaining oil over a medium flame. Add the onion and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for an addition minute. Add the cauliflower, stock, and a dash of cayenne, and bring to a boil. Partially cover, reduce heat to medium, and simmer until the cauliflower is very tender, about 10 minutes.

Puree the soup using an immersion blender, or a standing blender. Return to the pot and add the cream. Thin the soup as necessary with additional stock until you reach your desired consistency. Taste for seasoning, and add more salt and cayenne to taste. Serve.


Roasted Cauliflower and Chickpea Pasta

I loved the simple flavors of this pasta. I can't locate the recipe for this one but all I did was roast some cauliflower and chickpeas (with olive oil) until the chickpeas begin to have a crunch to them. Toss that with the cooked pasta. Throw on some croutons (bake some chopped crusty bread for about 10 minutes while the other stuff is roasting) and top with a dollop of ricotta. And don't forget to salt the pasta water! Easy peasy!




Hot German Slaw

What do you do with some leftover cabbage? Make hot german slaw! Good for your soul but not for your arteries.




Baked Ziti

This recipe is from March 2009 Cooks Illustrated (psst...). I will continue to make this recipe my entire life. It's absolutely perfect.

End of Winter Doldrums

I can barely stand the wait until our first box of fresh veggies from the farm. We're going with Harmony Valley again this year and can't wait for spring's bounty of radishes, ramps, arugula, asparagus, etc.

In the meantime, I've been experimenting with slow cooker recipes and bread baking.

Sweet & Sour Chicken (from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook)

This was okay. Not great and I wouldn't make it again. Bummer.




St. Patrick's Day

Ever since I can remember, my family has celebrated St. Patrick's Day with a corned beef dinner. The funny thing is that I don't think we're Irish. Scottish, maybe, but not Irish. The last 5 or so years, I've been using the same soda bread recipe. Perhaps soda bread should be dry but I like mine moist. This makes phenomenal french toast the next day.




Wild Rice Soup

Sometimes you just need some creamy wild rice soup that will stick to your ribs. Well, at least I do. Love the recipe from A Good Appetite.




Ebelskivers

Mike received an Ebelskiver pan for Christmas two years ago and has made some tasty creations. They usually contain something sweet inside - raspberry jam, nutella, etc. This time we decided to go savory with the Reuben Ebelskiver. Delicious.






Sugar Crusted Popovers

This recipe had been circulating on my facebook feed and I needed to give it a try. It was pretty much like eating a donut. Yum! I need to make popovers more often. They're so easy!




Bread Baking

It was a long week. Mike worked 7 days in a row and my little man had been sick for four days. We were stuck at home and I was getting bored. So, what do I do? Try my hand at artisan bread! Mike usually does the bread baking but I decided to give it a shot, too. I made a simple batard for my first loaf. It turned out quite well! I have dough in the refrigerator for another loaf. Maybe I'll make a baguette and practice my shaping skills some more.

I have a fun menu lined up for this week - stay tuned!

Mascarpone Stuffed French Toast

I was in the mood for some serious breakfast. We had a container of mascarpone sitting in our fridge for way too long that needed to be used. I had originally bought the mascarpone to make tiramisu cookies but never got around to doing so.

Awhile back (years ago?), I made this mascarpone stuffed french toast (allrecipes.com) and it came to mind. This time I used canned peaches because it's nearly impossible to find good peaches right now. Other modifications included not stuffing the bread - we just cut pieces of french bread into 1/2" pieces and spooned the filling in between two pieces. I'll definitely skip the "stuffing" again but I'll use fresh peaches. Even Owen liked it!

Friday (errr... Saturday) Night Pizza

We've been trying to keep up our Friday Night Pizza tradition but it has been to throw together a great pizza without much fresh produce around. It's also a little challenging to make pizza dough on Friday afternoons with two reluctant nappers. So, this week it was a Saturday Night Pizza. I looked for some inspiration this week and found a Sausage and Grape Pizza from A Good Appetite. We paired it with a simple spinach side salad. It was mighty tasty.

PS - Photos

A photo organizing project went haywire and I broke all the blog photo links. I'm slowly fixing them but it will take me awhile...

Cooking Club

I'm baaaaaaaaaaack! Well, sort of. I'm getting anxious for spring and fresh produce. I've had my share of winter food and want arugula, spinach, radishes, ramps, etc. I can barely contain my drool just writing those words. So here I am, hoping to get back into blogging about food. I don't really want to post photos of my slow cooker corn chowder or my mexican casserole so stay tuned until we something blog worthy.

Recently, my knitting/playgroup friends and I agreed to start a cooking club. The plan is to get together once a month around a food theme. The host chooses the themes, prepares the main dish, and provides beverages. We all get along quite well and are really hoping our men-folk will get along, too. Last Friday was to be our first cooking club night and Mike and I were the hosts. We chose authentic mexican and planned to make Turkey with Red Mole (Rick Bayless), serve margaritas, Mike's homebrew, and mexican hot chocolate. We began preparing the mole on Wednesday. We washed all our china (because honestly it was super dusty from not being used) and our stemware. And then Friday came and I woke up and felt like I had been hit by a truck. Hello sinus infection. We ended up canceling cooking club (whimper) but Mike finished the turkey dish because we couldn't keep partially-cooked turkey around. The turkey with red mole was served with white rice and vegetables (frozen, because we're sometimes fancy like that). It was seriously tasty. Smokey, spicy, deep, and rich. And, cooking club is rescheduled for March so we get to try this all over again! Luckily, we have a batch of red mole in the freezer because it was quite a bit of work.

End of August Bounty

We've reached the midpoint of our CSA deliveries and the boxes are getting quite heavy (literally). Here's what we've been cooking:

Steak Fajitas

We pan grilled some steak and served with sauteed onions and peppers. Simple and delicious.




Poached Eggs with Tomato on Toast

I can't get enough tomatoes. There's nothing better than a bright red, juicy tomato. I've been eating as many as I can which translates to tomatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Poached eggs are a standard breakfast around here. We put them on top of all sorts of CSA veggies (sauteed greens, spinach, pea vine, tomatoes, etc.). I believe the tomato in the photo is one from our own garden.




Marinated Peppers on French Bread and Trout
Peppers recipe from All Recipes

In the past, we've had trouble using up the peppers fast enough. My new strategy is to roast them or saute them and eat as many as possible in one meal. We got a variety of peppers this week (ukrainian, roaster, pimento, mini sweets). I used all but the roasters (similar to poblanos) in this mix. A delicious side and a new regular to our menu.




* 1 red bell pepper
* 1 green bell pepper
* 1 yellow bell pepper
* 1 1/2 cloves garlic, sliced
* 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
* 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
* 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh basil
* 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley (didn't use)
* salt and pepper to taste


1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (200 degrees C). Place the whole red, green and yellow peppers in the oven directly on the rack. Roast for about 15 minutes, turning if needed, until the skin is well scorched. Immediately place in a bowl covered with plastic wrap or in a paper bag, and allow to cool. (I put them under the broiler)
2. Remove the skins from the peppers by rubbing with your hands, and rinse under cold water. Cut in half, remove stem and seeds, then cut into strips.
3. Place peppers into a medium serving bowl, and stir in the garlic, vinegar, oil, basil, parsley, salt and pepper.


Tomato Brie Fusilli
recipe from Whole Foods

We've been making this recipe for years and I'm pretty sure I blogged it last year. One of my favorite ways to use tomatoes and basil.




Sausage & Peppers Pasta and Chopped Caprese Salad
recipe from A Good Appetite

I love reading A Good Appetite. They have so many great ideas, they seem to be into the same things we are, AND they're in Minneapolis and get veggies from Harmony Valley. I feel like we should meet them. Anyway! We're fans of the traditional sausage and peppers dish but I like this recipe for a little something different. We had tomatoes to use up (suprise!) so I made a side salad of tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt. Easy and delicious!



olive oil
6 - 7 oz bulk Italian sausage
1 medium yellow onion, sliced (about 1 cup)
2 c sweet peppers, seeded & sliced
1/4 c sherry
2 T tomato paste
1 T red wine vinegar
dash of red pepper flakes
4 oz pasta, medium shells
1/4 c reserved pasta cooking water
grated Parmesan (optional)

Coat the bottom of a large skillet with a little olive oil & heat over medium-high heat. Add the sausage & brown until cooked. Add the onions & cook until starting to soften. Stir in the peppers, sherry, tomato paste, vinegar & red pepper flakes. Cover & turn the heat down to low. Let cook for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to the directions. Drain the pasta reserving 1/4 cup of the water. Mix the pasta & water into the sausage & peppers. Top each serving with grated Parmesan if desired.

Serves 2 (we increased everything to make enough for 4+)


Rocky Road Cake
recipe from All Recipes

My sister was in town and she had just recently celebrated her 19th birthday (yes, there's quite an age difference there). I decided to make her a cake (because I want cake and she likes cake and it's her birthday) so I found an absolutely ridiculous cake. I tend to make cakes from scratch and avoid mixes and canned frosting but I had a craving for pure junk. Pure junk but absolutely delicious.