.honey cider glazed pork.

My husband and I got sucked into another reality tv cooking show on Bravo called "Chef Academy". It is run by Chef Jean Christophe Novelli from France. Difficult to understand what he's saying half the time, but for me.. it's all about the food.

Each week he'd focus on different areas of cooking - bread, meat, seafood, desserts. The week he taught how to cook meat, he made a honey cider glazed pork that looked to.die.for. He used pork belly and let it slow cook for 4 hours in the oven. Heaven help me! *swoon*

I wasn't able to find pork belly so I used a Boston pork butt roast and it was amazing. I can only imagine how much better the belly portion would be. This was super super easy to make. If you're looking for something you can pop into the oven and forget about, this is the dish for you!

Take your piece of pork and, with the fat side up, rub liberally with cumin, kosher salt, and fresh cracked black pepper. Chef Novelli put 2 star anise on top, but I didn't have whole, so I sprinkled on anise seed. Don't use too much because it can be overpowering. Place on top of the roast 3 bay leaves, 5-6 sprigs of fresh thyme and 2 crushed cloves of garlic.

Put the roast into a pan and drizzle with a cup of honey and 1 1/2 cups apple cider. Slice up two onions and scatter those around the sides of the pork.

Pop into a 300* F oven and let it cook. Make sure you check on it every 30 minutes or so and baste with the juices in the bottom of the pan. The honey and cider will caramelize all over the skin of the pork. If it's looking too black, cover it with a piece of foil.

When it's done, remove from the oven and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Slice or shred and serve with your favorite side item. The flavors are a lot like a bbq sauce. So tender and juicy and aromatic. Enjoy!

Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZ-Z_fQXybIkZGcydmZqcW1fMTYyZ2NxZDNrZ3I&hl=en

New Year's Eve Madness

Since I last posted back in October, a lot has been happening. We were in the process of buying a house closer to campus but that fell through, so we started looking again and found a beautiful new home only 25 minutes from the school. We're expected to close mid February and while I'm not looking forward to moving AGAIN, I'm excited to have a new place and start decorating.



This year, I catered and planned a wedding, catered and planned a birthday bash, catered and planned the Christmas party for church, *and* on top of it all, decided to throw a New Year's Eve party! I am completely insane. I'm just grateful my husband is so willing to go along with my plans and still keep a smile on his face. I just *LOVE* him! <3 id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425885664440924354" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 266px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhse0EP9LQNxJBi8yaaszz6Zw0yeZXGZf7QMVowFBTid7CGEY1kT7BfKwMbPNfhxcKtkdNpq7lHu2OUpW7r0O-FQd4m_ALZek3vt1HyGYrs-Sy1pPZfoodzStuD9PlC8E4_wnHZZ8bRrIii/s400/nyebuffet1.jpg" border="0">Here's what my dining table looked like that night. When throwing a party, it's always a great idea to make the food and table the focal point. Putting food trays at various heights and angles is a great way to do that. If I removed that white tablecloth, you'd see how I did it. I used books, boxes, pots and pans upside down and towels. If I'm putting a basket at an angle, or want a salad tipped, towels are AWESOME because you can get the achieved look and it will keep the bowl/basket from moving too much. Once I put everything in the right spot, I drape it with tablecloths or fabric. I put a strand of white icicle lights on the table to give it extra lumination. A hurricane candle put on a tier and a vase of branches spray-painted white, help bring visual interest as well.

From this angle, let me tell you what I made. (left to right) Rosettes, Crab Rangoon, Meat and Cheese tray (I had a small tray of crackers on the other side), Lemon Tarts, Baked Santa Fe Dip, and Chocolate Cake.

From this side (right to left) I made a Parmesan-Artichoke dip (recipe below), Stuffed Mushrooms, Hot Wings, and on the far far end, you can't see but I had a tray of Soutwest Eggrolls.

The next time you decide to have a party, try out some of these recipes. Happy New Year!

Parmesan-Artichoke Dip

1 can (the size of a can of beans) artichokes, drained and roughly chopped
1 1/2 cup mayonnaise
8oz goat cheese
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 cups fresh grated parmesan cheese
4 Tbsp basil (fresh), roughly chopped
3/4 c. panko bread crumbs (japanese bread crumbs)

Mix all the ingredients together and put in a baking crock. Put in a 375* oven for about 20 minutes or until the dip is bubbling and golden on top. Serve with crostini (toasted baguette chip).

*To make the crostini, slide a french baguette on the diagonal. Lay on a cookie sheet and brush the tops with olive oil. Put in a 400* oven for about 5 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Store in a large ziploc to keep fresh.

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZ-Z_fQXybIkZGcydmZqcW1fMTY1Y2QyOXQ4aHM&hl=en

.beef stew.

Happy New Year! I'm embarrassed that I haven't updated in so long but truth be told, I have been so busy the past few months. I'm hoping for a reprieve once we get settled into our new house next month.


I trust you all had a good holiday season? Ours was wonderful. During the time my husband had off work, we watched the movie Julie & Julia. Have you seen it? It's such a great movie and it helped to inspire me all over again! One of the recipes the main character makes is Boeuf Bourguignon and it had me craving (craving!) a rich beefy stock with cooked vegetables.


Growing up, my mom would make stew quite a lot trying to use up the odds and ends of vegetables in the freezer (She can make a mean soup!) and I would have used her method, but I was looking to do something richer... something better (sorry mom!).


I remembered back to when I made Shepherd's Pie. The rich sauce from that dish was exactly what I wanted so I took a little from that recipe and a little from my mom's and went from there.


Something about stew, is you can't rush it. The beef needs to be seared and then braised in liquid until it's so fork tender it literally melts in your mouth. This pot sat on the stove to simmer for at least 2 hours. Trust me... if you give it the proper time it needs, the results will be well worth it!



Begin by taking a package of beef stew chunks, found in any grocery meat department and cutting off as much fat and sinew as possible. Sinew is that muscle layer that sticks to the meat and makes it tough and chewy.

Stew meat is perfect for this. It's rather cheap since it's pieces of meat that are remaining once all the big, regular cuts are made. Since the butcher can't actually sell it as a steak, they sell it for occasions when you need small, bite-sized pieces of meat. The downside is you have to cut off all the undesireable stuff.

Put the cut up stew meat in a bowl or in a large ziploc and sprinkle with flour and salt and pepper. In my case, I used Lawry's seasoned salt. Coat well.




Prep your vegetables. I used one onion (sliced into quarters), 4 carrots (left in their round shape), and 3 white or gold potatoes. You want about 1 1/2 cups of all your vegetables. I also quartered mushrooms to add in later.







Slice up approximately 1/2 cup pancetta. You could use bacon, but the smoky flavor of the bacon is not what we want and will probably overpower the soup. Pancetta is usually found in the deli area of your grocer.






Make your bouquet garni. We want to add a lot of flavor to the stew and this is a great way to do it. In my bouquet, I put thyme, bay leaf, and some flat leaf parsley. In addition to the garni, I minced 1 clove garlic and set it aside.











Heat a soup pot and drizzle in some olive oil. Add a third to half the stew meat. Don't overcrowd the pan. Sear the beef as best you can on all sides. My meat tends to stick together because of the flour so it's difficult browning on all sides. Don't worry about that. Just make sure you get as many sides browned. This will lock in the juices, resulting in tender tender steak! When one half is done, remove from the pan and set aside. Repeat until all meat is seared.





Add the vegetables to the pot with the pancetta and garlic. Saute for a 4-5 minutes. When the onions are nearly translucent, add 2 cups red wine, 4 cups beef stock, and 4 cups chicken stock. Season with salt and pepper.

Bring the soup to a boil and scrape along the bottom of the pan to bring up those baked on bits of delicious goodness. When the liquid begins to boil, add the bouquet garni and mushrooms, and reduce the heat down to low. Cover the top part way with a lid.

There will be a lot of broth, and we want to reduce it down a little so it leaves you with a rich sauce that has a lot of flavor. If you put the lid on all the way, the evaporated moisture won't have a way to escape and your sauce can't reduce down.

After it simmers on the cooktop for 2 hours, it's time for the last step. Remove the bouquet garni and discard. In a bowl, mix together 1 cup milk with 1/4 cup flour. Whisk well to remove all lumps. To ensure I don't have any, I strain with a sieve. While stirring, add the milk/flour mixture to the pot. Turn the heat to high and keep stirring until the sauce thickens a little. Taste and re-season if necessary.

This stew is the perfect dish on a cold winter night. Serve with salad and rolls, if you like. As Julia Child would say.... Bon Appetit!


Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZ-Z_fQXybIkZGcydmZqcW1fMTU5MzM1ZG1uZmM&hl=en

.croquembouche w/ lemon cream filling.

Last weekend, I went to a social at church. We were asked to bring a "dessert for one" wrapped as a gift. I spent about a week debating what to make. I had originally thought I'd make some kind of sponge cake with mousse filling, but I wasn't sure how long something would be sitting out and I didn't want the mousse to melt all over the place. That would have been a disaster! Well, I decided to make a croquembouche, which is a fancy word for cream puffs stacked all pretty like in a pyramid shape and draped with spun sugar.




Don't be intimidated by the picture. This is a very IMPRESSIVE, do-able dessert that makes a statement for parties, or even for intimate dinners. You can make the cream puffs bigger, or smaller, just make sure you keep the sizes consistent otherwise it'll look strange.



I filled the cream puffs with a lemon cream that brought these babies into a whole new dimension. The contrast of the tart with the sweetness of the spun sugar and caramel "glue" is pure perfection. I know you'll enjoy this if you make the recipe.



First, make the lemon cream filling.



Juice 2 small lemons or 1 large. You need 4 Tablespoons lemon juice. Zest the lemons too. You need 1 Tablespoon zest. Set aside.














In a bowl whisk 9 egg yolks, 3/4 cup sugar, the lemon juice, and 1/2 cup flour.

After whisking, pour it through a mesh sieve to remove any lumps or egg particles.







Put 2 cups cream in a saucepan and bring to a scald. Do not let it boil.

While whisking, pour some of the hot cream into the egg yolk mixture. This is called tempering the yolks. If you had added the egg mixture directly to the hot cream, it would have instantly cooked the eggs and made scrambled eggs. Ick. After whisking in some of the cream into the yolk mixture, add the yolk mixture back into the saucepan and put back on a burner and kick up the heat. Whisk constantly while this cooks so it doesn't burn on the bottom. It will start thickening up quickly.





As soon as it's thick, remove from the heat and add 1 Tablespoon butter and the lemon zest. Set the pan in a shallow bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process and cool the filing down.

To store, put in an airtight container and keep in the fridge until ready to use.

This filling can be made up to 2 days ahead of time.








For croquembouche, I use my basic cream puff recipe. Pipe small little dollops on a buttered cookie sheet and touch the pointy tips with a wet finger.



Bake at 375* until nice and golden brown. It's safer to overbake these a little so they don't collapse on themselves. We need them to stay firm.







When the cream puffs are baked and cooled, poke the bottom of each puff with a chop stick or any other tool that's similar.

Fill a piping bag with the lemon cream and stick the tip of the piping bag into the bottom and squeeze. Don't overfill.









I made a little cone out of cardstock and wrapped with foil. Since I was taking this somewhere, I needed a disposable base so I cut a piece of cardboard from an old box and wrapped that with foil too. To adhere the cone to the base, dip into the pan of caramel sugar and then press down. It cools quickly so you won't have to hold it down long.

If you're using a plate, use the same method.






For the caramel/sugar for spinning, put in a saucepan:
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup water

Put the pan over medium heat on the stove until the sugar dissolves. Let this cook until a candy thermometer reaches 110*.









Carefully dip part of each filled cream puff into the sugar and start stacking around the cone. There will be some gaps between each puff. That's okay. We'll camoflauge with the spun sugar.













This part is FUN but so messy. Make sure you put a towel down on the floor and put paper under the pans.

I put two saucepans down and sprayed the handles with Pam. Dip a fork into the sugar and drizzle it back and forth from the handles. Do this until you have a good buildup of thin strands of sugar.

This cools almost immediately so you don't have to let it stay for long. Remove from the handles and repeat until you have as much spun sugar as needed.

I put a silpat down on a cookie sheet and poured some of the caramel/sugar to create some designs. Break them apart when they cool and harden.

Carefully wrap the croquembouche with the spun sugar so that it spirals down the cone. Stick pieces of the broken sugar pieces around the cake, and at the top. Serve immediately!

.raspberry coffee cake.

I had a meeting the other morning for church and I thought I would take a little treat for us to enjoy. When I got there, I discovered my friend, Leesa also made a coffee cake! Hers was cinnamon sugar... mine was a really moist raspberry coffee cake. Absolutely delicious. Rather funny that we both had coffee cake on the brain though!

You can use any berry you want. I had raspberries in the freezer and wanted to use them up. The perfect choice, in my opinion!

There are three steps to making this cake: Batter. Berries. Crumb topping.




Put 1 lb of berries in a bowl and add 1/3 cup sugar.











In a mixing bowl, put 2 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, and 1/2 tsp salt.










In another bowl, mix together 2/3 cup sour cream, 2 eggs + 2 egg yolks, and 3 tsp vanilla. Set aside.

Cut up 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) butter into 12 pieces
and set aside.







With your mixer on low, alternate adding some of the egg/sour cream mixture and 1-2 pieces of butter until it's all combined.











For the topping, put in a bowl: 2/3 cup brown sugar, 2/3 cup sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp salt, 3 1/2 cups flour and 1 cup melted butter. Mix it well together.








Butter a 9x13 baking dish and spread out 1/2 of the cake batter. Sprinkle the berries over the top evenly so that the entire surface has berries. Dollop the rest of the cake batter on top of the berries. Don't worry about spreading it out.

Spread out the crumb mixture over the entire top. Bake in a 325* oven for about an hour. I had to cook a little longer because the center was a little jiggly. If your center is jiggly, then keep on baking! When the center is set, remove from the oven and allow to cool. Make sure it's completely cool before serving.

Bon appetite!


Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZ-Z_fQXybIkZGcydmZqcW1fMTY3aGJiOG1iY2I&hl=en

.suzanne's spaghetti.

I was in Seattle this summer for most of July with the girls. When we got back, I went right to work helping my friend plan and cater her son's wedding reception. Four days before the reception, I got a call from my sister telling me my oldest brother passed away. He was diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer at the end of July (just days before I came home from my vacation) and we thought he would have more time. Apparently we were wrong.

When I got back to New York from this latest trip to Seattle, we were running low on funds and my husband put me on a pretty strict grocery budget. I'm not used to budgeting! One meal that's very economical and something we all love to eat is spaghetti. If you've never made your own spaghetti sauce, you really should try because it's EASY and usually tastes a whole lot better than what you get in a pre-made jar. Here's what you need.

1 large can tomato puree
2 cans petite diced tomatoes
1 lb hamburger
2-3 italian sausage links, removed from the casing
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
salt, pepper, and sugar
extra virgin olive oil
herbs (oregano, marjoram, basil)

When I make my sauce, I let it simmer all day long. This is one of the times I pull out my crock pot because I love for all of the flavors to merry together. You can't get that in an hour or two.

I use tomato puree versus tomato sauce because it's slightly thicker. I don't like watery spaghetti sauce! This helps to cut down on the liquid.

In a skillet, heat a little drizzle of olive oil. Brown the hamburger and sausage and break it into fine pieces by chopping it up with the blade of a spatula. When the meat is almost cooked through, add the garlic, onion, and mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper. When the aroma from the garlic and onion intensifies, dump it all into your crock pot.

Add the tomato puree, diced tomato, some salt, pepper, and about 1/2 tsp sugar. If you don't have fresh herbs, it's okay! I use a lot of herbs to season my sauce so dump in a generous amount of basil and oregano, then a little marjoram. Marjoram is a sister to oregano and has a gentle sweet flavor that is a great compliment to the sauce.

My oldest sister, Ronda, likes to add a splash of burgundy to her spaghetti sauce. I don't normally have burgundy on hand, but if you do, add a little!

Turn your crock pot on and let this cook all day long. Serve over cooked spaghetti noodles and top with some fresh grated parmesan cheese. We love spaghetti with fresh homemade french bread and a vegetable packed garden salad.

(NOTE: I usually have a lot of sauce leftover so I put it in a ziploc and freeze. This way, I have extra sauce for the future for a quick meal, or to make lasagna with.)

Next time you're looking for a cost efficient meal that your whole family will love, don't open a jar. Make this sauce and you'll save on the pocketbook and put smiles on your family's faces!

Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZ-Z_fQXybIkZGcydmZqcW1fMTY5Zmd3YmtraHE&hl=en

.watermelon ribs.

Thursday was Jim's birthday so the girls and I decided to have a small party for him. One of his most favorite foods is bbq ribs. He loves them! I always make the same sauce and thought I would try something different this time.

In my cookbook "Top Secret Recipes", there's a recipe in there for Hard Rock Cafe's Watermelon Ribs. The recipe looked incomplete to me so I changed it up and made it my own. Here's what I did.

You're going to need 2 cups watermelon pulp, so cut the rind off of the watermelon, leaving a lot of the white you don't usually eat. Cube and put in a blender. Puree. It doesn't need to be completely smooth. In fact, if you leave it slightly chunky you'll have tiny sweet chunks caramelized to your ribs. Delicious! Set the pulp aside.

Mince 2 cloves garlic and 1/2 of a small onion. Heat a little olive oil in a large saucepan and saute the onion and garlic for a minute, until fragrant.

Dump in the watermelon pulp, 3/4 cup ketchup, 1/4 cup molasses, a couple shakes liquid smoke, 3 Tbsp white vinegar, 1 cup honey, and a shake or two of crushed red pepper flakes.

This is all you need for the bbq sauce! How easy is that? Now let this simmer on low for at least an hour. The sauce needs to reduce down and let some of that water evaporate out. You should be left with a nice rich and sweet bbq sauce after that time.

Now the sauce can be made days in advance if you need and kept in the fridge. You need to make it at *least* the day before because we're going to marinate the ribs in the fridge overnight.

Normally I use pork loin ribs that are practically boneless and super meaty. I decided to use racks of ribs. They came in this big pack so I cut the ribs into groups of 5 or 6 and put in large ziplocs. Pour in some of the bbq sauce (once cooled) and put in the fridge. Make sure you leave some bbq sauce for grilling!

To make: Heat an oven to 300*. Remove the ribs from the ziplocs and put in a baking dish. Cover the baking dish tightly with foil to lock in all the moisture. Bake for 2 hours.

Prepare your BBQ grill. To finish the ribs, throw them on the grill on medium heat (you don't want the coals too hot). Brush on some bbq sauce. Put the lid on the grill and let that bbq sauce caramelize on the skin of those ribs. Check periodically to turn them and glaze with more sauce. When they're nice and coated and have grill marks, pull from the bbq and serve.

To finish off Jim's birthday dinner I made smashed potatoes, corn on the cob, fresh slices of watermelon, and baked beans. Pun intended - he was HOG happy! LOL

These ribs were delicious. Sweet and tangy with a little kick from the pepper flakes. I'll be making these again!


Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZ-Z_fQXybIkZGcydmZqcW1fMTU3cG02M2hkaGI&hl=en