Sunday, February 26, 2012

braised pork and sweet onions

One of Tony's favorite dishes, you can do it in either the crock pot or pressure cooker. I think it turns out best in the crock pot so here is my recipe

Ingredients

1)      Pork shoulder or loin roughly diced up
2)      Sweet onions, halved then cut into strips lengthwise
3)      Soy sauce
4)      Sugar



-          Prepare pork and sweet onions the night before. Make the mix about 70%pork, 30% onions, however much will fit into your slow cooker

-          In the morning, place the pork and onions into the crock pot. Drizzle a couple tablespoons of soy sauce over them (I just guess, a couple times around the pot is fine) and sprinkle a couple tablespoons of sugar on top

-          Cover and cook for several hours. 5-6 hours on HIGH, 7-8 hours on LOW should yield a very tender dish

-          It’s as easy as that! I serve it over rice, but it’s great over egg noodles as well.

23 weeks

2/26/12







22 weeks

2/19/12






5 months

2/18/12







21 weeks

2/12/12







20 weeks

2/5/12



rolled over during the night :]


19 weeks

 1/29/12





Sunday, February 19, 2012

crock pot pot roast

A simple, tried and true crock pot recipie

Ingredients

·         Boneless chuck roast to fit into your crock pot

·         Carrots

·         Celery

·         Onions

·         Potatos

·         garlic

·         Beef broth

·         Seasonings

o   Italian seasoning

o   Granulated garlic

o   Salt

o   Pepper

o   Any other seasonings to taste





Instructions:

·         May use a slower cooker liner

·         Put about ½ of a small can of beef broth in the bottom of the crock pot

·         Mix seasonings together and rub between palms/fingers into beef broth (tip: place seasonings in a small bowl the night before and cover for quick and easy morning-of preparation)

·         Put diced garlic in

·         Place most of the vegetables (roughly chopped) into the crock pot

·         Dry the meat then season both sides with salt and pepper

·         Place meat on top of vegetables

·         Pack in the rest of the vegetables around the meat

·         Cook on low for 8-9 hours

·         Beware the meat will be so tender that it will just fall apart when you go to pick it up with tongs :]

Gravy

·         Place equal amounts of butter and flour into bottom of warmed sauce pan (2-3 each is usually enough)

·         Whisk together to create rue, be sure to blend thoroughly

·         Slowly add the rest of beef broth from the can, stirring frequently

·         Ladle out some juices from the crock pot and add to the pot

·         Season to taste

·         Simmer and stir until at desired thickness





Enjoy!

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Split Pea with Ham Soup

My first attempt last night resulted in us eating leftovers, but after adding another bag of peas, it has turned out quite tasty and will be dinner tonight
Ingredients:
2 bags split peas (about 16oz bags)
carrots
celery
parsley
onion
garlic
ham- you can use a hock or do what I did and buy a bag of spiral ham slices/pieces about 1.5 lbs.


1. Soak beans overnight

2. dice onions and mince garlic. sauté in bottom of large stock pan with olive oil on medium to medium-high heat

3. roughly dice carrots and celery, roughly chop parsley (you will just end up blending it together so the goal is just to get them small enough to cook through well)

4. drain, rinse, and sort through beans

5. add beans and veggies to pot

6. add a few large pieces of the ham to the pot, dice up the rest to add after blending. If you use a hock, put the hock in and cook with veggies until ready to blend, remove before blending and remove meat from hock and save to add back in after blending.

7. barely cover ingredients with water

8. cover the pot, bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, then simmer (a pretty vigorous simmer is best) with lid on in the pot for at least 1.5hrs OR add all ingredients to crock pot on high for several hours (6-8 should do it).

9. When all ingredients are soft/well cooked, remove excess water and set aside. This will avoid making the soup too watery like I did at first

10. Blend ingredients together adding water as needed to make a thick soup. I HIGHLY recommend an immersion blender; you can just remove the pot from heat and blend right in the pot. Otherwise, allow to cool slightly then blend in small batches in a regular blender.

11. Put soup back in pot if necessary, and add ham chunks. Return to a boil and simmer until ham is heated through OR return to crock pot after blending (if needed), add ham, and turn to high for 1-2 more hours.

12. Taste, season if needed, and ENJOY!

obviously, you can make it without ham, though you may need to season it more and/or you can try to cook the veggies in chicken/vegetable broth for more flavor