Pulled Pork Sliders I selected this post to be featured on my blog’s page at Cooking Blogs.

I made the pulled pork and sandwich rolls last Sunday and have been eating these sliders for dinner every night.  The pork is very similar to the crock pot pork I made a few weeks ago.  The main is difference is that this time I coated the tenderloin in a flour/cinnamon rub before placing it in the bottom of the crockpot.  Also, I added some chopped garlic to the cider/bbq mix.  

I cooked the pork for almost 5 hours this time, then I fished it out of the crock pot and shredded it.  It was hard to get out of the pot because it was so tender it was falling apart = perfect. 

The rolls I made were my standard rosemary bread recipe, but I added a tbsp or 2 of cinnamon.  They went well with the cinnmon-rubbed pork!  And of course I added some mashed avocado to the sandwich.  In the last night or two, I also started adding arugula to the sandwiches.  Yummy.  

Who knew pulled-pork and rosemary-cinnamon rolls could be so delicious together?

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Pumpkin  Cheesecake

16 oz cream cheese

1/2 c  pumpkin

1/2 c  sour cream

1/2 c  sugar

1 1/2 tbsp  flour

1/2 tbsp  vanilla

2 eggs

mini chocolate chips

graham cracker crust

Take the cream cheese out of the fridge several hours before you plan on making your cheesecake so that it can reach room temperature.  Combine the cheese, pumpkin, and sour cream.  Add the sugar, flour, and vanilla.  Add the eggs.  Add the chocolate chips.  Bake for 40-60 minutes at 325 degrees.  Cheesecake is done when you insert a toothpick into the center and it comes out clean.  Chill the cake in the fridge before eating.

Yum!

Sopa Verde

The majority of my soups have a mashed vegetable of some sort in them.  This soup has mashed broccoli.

As a disclaimer...this is not the most attractive looking soup.  Nor is it the tastiest soup.  However, if you really, really, really, like green vegetables...you just might enjoy this soup.  

This soup was one of the many things I made during my cooking frenzy last week.  I didn't write down anything that I did and the details are kind of fuzzy now, so I'll just have to do my best to recreate it here.

Ingredients

(amounts approximate)

 2 cups chopped broccoli

1/2 cabbage, chopped

1 1/2 c chopped asparagus

3 stalks celery, chopped

1/4 sweet onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup cous cous

butter

bacon grease

veggie stock

water

seasoning to taste

(I don't remember what I used...thyme & sage maybe?

Cook the onions on low heat in bacon grease, stirring as necessary.  Add the garlic when the onions are browned.  Meanwhile, steam the broccoli in a soup pot with butter.  Add some veggie stock if the broccoli starts to stick. When it is soft, put it in a food processor until smooth, then set aside.  Put the asparagus, cabbage, and celery in the soup pot with some butter/bacon grease and steam.  Add veggie stock as needed.  Add the onions and mashed broccoli.  Season to taste.  Add water and veggie stock to achieve desired consistency.  Add slightly more water than you think you want.  When the soup is thoroughly blended/cooked, add the cous cous and cook til soft.  

To be perfectly honest, I did not particularly enjoy this first taste of the soup. 

It may or may not have anything to do with the fact that I don't particularly like broccoli or asparagus.

However, I made a big pot of this green goop, so I've been eating it.  I think it did taste better after the flavors had time to blend together in the fridge for a few days.  

BBQ Pork Tenderloin

Sunday is crock pot day!  Week 1 was ginger veggies & pork chops.  Week 2 was pot roast.  Week 3 is a pork tenderloin with veggies, cooked in apple cider and jack daniels bbq sauce.  I threw it all in the crockpot and then went to ride Pony.  My apartment smelled heavenly when I came home about 2 hours later.

The ride was great.  It was in the mid-60s today.  Felt like summer after the 20 degree weather we've been having.  I skipped the bridle today and just rode in a rope halter.  Brought a book along, rode out into the field, and let her eat grass while I sat on her back and read for about an hour.  Great way to spend the afternoon.  Pretty sure it was her favorite ride ever...she's normally not allowed to eat while I'm riding.  

Crock Pot BBQ Pork Tenderloin

1/4 c chopped onion

1/4 c chopped cabbage

4 small carrots, chopped

3/4 c bbq sauce

1 1/4 c apple cider

1 lb pork tenderloin

Put the pork in the bottom of the crock pot.  Throw the veggies on top.  Mix together the bbq sauce and cider, then pour it over the meat & veggies.  Cook on high for 4:20.  

I turned the crock pot to warm after 4:20 and left it for a couple hours until dinner.  Then I made some baked ranch mac n cheese to go with it.  Yumminess. 

Pot Roast Lo Mein

Chicken lo mein happens to be one of my comfort foods.  I don't eat it very often, for various reasons.  Like, I'm too lazy to call in the take-out order and go pick it up.  Also, it has got to be ridiculously unhealthy and loaded with a year's worth of sodium.  This evening, I found myself craving lo mein, but I didn't get home until almost 6:00 and there was no way I was going back out.  At some point in the last year, I came across a recipe for lo mein, which I added to my favorites bar and then more-or-less forgot about.  Granted, at that time I had never made anything remotely Asian and had never bought ginger or soy sauce.  Now my kitchen is stocked with both.

I didn't have any chicken.  But I did have a whole bunch of leftover pot roast.  And pot roast shreds really easily so it's perfect for lo mein.  

1 1/2 c cabbage

1 carrot

2 stalks of celery

1/8 c onion

1+ tsp fresh chopped ginger

1+ tsp fresh chopped garlic

1-2 c shredded pot roast

olive oil

soy sauce

rice vinegar

angel hair pasta

Cook the pasta. Chop the veggies.  Brown the garlic, ginger, and onion in some olive oil, then add the veggies and stir fry them.  When the veggies are done, add the meat.  If the meat was cold like mine was, stir until it is warm.  Add the pasta, sprinkle with rice vinegar, and add enough soy sauce to coat the whole mixture.  

If you're addicted to avocados like I am, you can chop one up and add it to your bowl as well.  

I've cooked so much in the past week, I've had to put quite a few things in the freezer because I just can't eat that much food before it would go bad.  I hope we don't lose power any time soon...I haven't managed to post everything I've made, but the soup I made a few nights ago will make it on here eventually.  Maybe tomorrow...maybe later in the weekend.  By the time I get around to posting it I may or may not remember exactly what I put in it...

Beer-Batter Pork Tenders

It was one of those days...where I was so exhausted by the time I got home from school, I couldn't even begin to think about putting on running shoes and dragging myself out for a run.  So I parked on the couch with a book (something I don't get to do nearly often enough).  Then, I started thinking about dinner.  And about how maybe playing in the kitchen could turn my day around.  

I had some pork chops in the fridge that I needed to cook tonight.  I was going to bread and fry them on the stovetop, but then I decided that it has been awhile since I made beer batter.  So I grabbed a Guinness out of the fridge and made beer batter.  I think the arm workout I got while whipping the egg white made up for my lack of a run today.  Beer Batter recipe here.  (except this time I used Guinness, and used little enough of it that I only needed a scant 1/2 c of the white flour)

I cut the pork into strips, covered them in beer batter, and dropped them into a pot of hot olive oil.  I also beer-battered some mushrooms I had lying in the fridge.  

the egg white actually got stiff before I gave up...

beer-batter mushrooms & pork

pasta with spinach, asparagus, and sun-dried tomato alfredo

Pot Roast

Crock Pot Adventure Número Dos 

4 small potatoes

3 carrots

1/3 head of cabbage

6 mushrooms

1 granny smith apple

2.5 lb hunk o' beef

1/2 c flour

seasoning to taste

1/2 c apple cider

1/2 c veggie stock

1/8 c red wine

Chop the veggies and throw them all in the crock pot except for the mushrooms.  Mix together the flour/seasonings and coat the beef with the mixture.  ( I used salt, pepper, oregano, mustard powder, and garlic powder...I think...).  Put the beef on top of the veggies.  Add the mushrooms on top, then pour in the liquids.  

Cook on High for 4.5 hrs

Dinner is Served.

With a glass of Red Wine.

(Or a mug of hot cider, if you prefer)

A delightful meal on a cold November evening.

Cream Cheese Bacon Brownies

Because chocolate and bacon go with everything.  Including each other.  

Culinary match made in Heaven?

Cream Cheese Bacon Brownies

4 squares (4 ounces) of Baker's Chocolate

1 1/2 sticks of Butter

2 scant cups of Sugar

3 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla

1+ cup of Flour

6 strips of Bacon

3 oz Cream Cheese

Put the Butter and Chocolate in a glass bowl and microwave for 2 minutes, then stir until fully melted. Add the Sugar, Eggs, Vanilla, and Flour, stirring well after each ingredient is added.  Chop the Bacon into small pieces and fry it.  Spoon out the grease and add it to your bacon grease jar for use in future kitchen adventures.  Chop the Cream Cheese into small pieces, then mix them into the brownie batter.  Pour the batter into a greased 9x9 pan.  

Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.  

Brownies are done when you jab a toothpick into the center of the pan and it comes out clean.

Delicious-ness. 

Photos to Salivate Over: Part 4

Cucumber-Guacamole, Salmon Burger, Gouda Mac n Cheese

Scrambled Eggs, Pumpkin-Chocolate Bread, Potato-Bacon Cake

Chocolate-chip Pumpkin Cookies

                           

I made 75 of these for the kids to munch on while listening to a scary story 

during the Halloween festivities at GES.

Pumpkin-chocolate-chip Pancakes & Cranberry Topping

snow-day breakfast