Memorial 'All Things Pork' Day

With Memorial Day weekend coming up, I am hoping to spend my time outside at the BBQ.

I love food, love to be outside, love to grill. I can show off my patio or garden, invite friends, feed numerous amounts of people cheaply, and just enjoy our weather and a cold beverage. Grilling is an easy way to bring the ‘wow, this is good’ factor to your food. It is—by far—one of my favorite things to do in the summer, besides set off treasure hunting around town at the many yard sales. In fact, I found my grill at one such yard sale, where I paid a minimal price for a great gadget, complete with a tank of propane gas.

Since there has been a large sale on grill-worthy meat lately, I hope you all take advantage of our great weather and a three-day weekend. I picked up a bunch of pork ribs and after my Memorial ‘All Things Pork’ Day, I am going to experiment with some of these recipes so I can have scrumptious lunches for the duration of the week. If pork is your choice, check out my recipes for this blog. If it is chicken, see the great recipes in last week's blog on Planning A Week of Food. And if it is steak, shoot me some recipes for next week!

Spices and Sauces

For my day of grilling pork, I am doing pork ribs, pork chops, a tenderloin, and two packages that were in my cousins freezer labeled 'pork'. I am going to dry rub them with spice and throw them on the grill 'til they are done.

Cajun Spices

3 tablespoons sweet paprika

2 tablespoons onion powder

2 tablespoons garlic powder

2 tablespoons dried oregano leaves

2 tablespoons dried sweet basil

1 tablespoon dried thyme leaves

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 tablespoon white pepper

1 tablespoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon salt

Dash chili powder

Dash cumin powder

Mix dry ingredients together using a fork or place them in a jar, cover & shake until they are mixed thoroughly. Store in tightly covered container.makes about 1/2 cup

Blackberry Barbecue Sauce

This makes about 8 servings and add a subtlely sweet flavor to the pork. Recipe from The Encyclopedia of Cajun and Creale Cuisine by John Folse

1/2 cup blackberry preserves

1 1/2 cup ketchum

1/8 cup packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons cane syrup (Louisiana cane syrup is the best)

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon mustard powder

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1/2 cup fresh blackberries

In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients. Mix well. Brush sauce over grilled pork tenderloin, pork chops or ribs when they are almost cooked.

 

After my pork is cooked, I usually pull off all the meat and shred it. I do this using two forks and just tearing the meat apart. One EASY thing to do is to top the meat with BBQ sauce and enjoy a sando. But here are two different options:

BBQ Pork Pizza

2/3 cup barbecue sauce

1 prepared pizza dough (i like the Pillsbury ones that you can roll-out and prebake)

3/4 cup shredded Gouda

1 cup shredded mozzarella

3/4 cup Parmesan

1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced

1/2 green pepper, diced

1/4-1/2 pound shredded pork

3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a small bowl, toss pork with 2 tablespoons barbecue sauce. Set aside. On a floured surface, roll out dough and place on a greased sheet pan. Shape to fill the sheet pan, about a 15 by 10-inch rectangle. Spread remaining barbecue sauce evenly over pizza dough. Sprinkle Gouda, mozzarella, Parmesan, onions, pepper  and pork over top. Bake for 20 minutes or until cheese bubbles. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro and cut into pieces.

Pork Fajitas with Mango Black Bean Salsa

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice

1 tablespoon chopped cilantro

1 garlic clove, crushed

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/4 teaspoon salt or spices

1/4-1/2 pound of your leftover pork (can be sliced, shredded, etc)

6 scallions, trimmed

Flour tortillas, at least 6

Mango Black Bean Salsa

1 large mango, chopped

1/2 red onion, diced

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

1 jalepeno pepper, seeded and diced

dash of jalepeno juice

juice of one lime

1/2 teaspoon cajun spices (or salt)

For the salsa: Combine all ingredients in a meduim bowl. Stir well, cover and refrigerate until ready to use

For the fajitas: Whisk together lime juice, cilantro, garlic, cumin, oregano, chili powder, and salt. Place pork in baking dish and pour lime dressing over pork. Cover and let sit for 15-20 minutes while making salsa. Heat up a saute' pan and grill scallions until crisp. Remove pork from dressing and add to pan to heat. Divide pork and scallions among tortillas. Top with salsa. Serve.

Y'all have a great Memorial Day weekend. There is so much going on around town. Enjoy!

Planning A Week of Food

My immediate dilemna is solving the current trend with my grocery budget. It is either feast or famine. Literally. But since I am a Master at looking in my bare and empty fridge and creating a 5-course meal, yet frugal enough when the living is large to know to double recipes and freeze, this has never bothered me. 

But this weekend as I rushed around eating on-the-go, I realized that I have not been planning ahead and it is costing me time, money, and healthy meals—all things I like to have. So, I decided to give myself a slight challenge this May: To plan a ‘pay-it-forward’ dinner every week. Grab one big ingredient (something as a base to many meals) and cook it, then spend the week enjoying a twist on the leftovers. Hopefully this will stretch my grocery budget a bit (saving some cash for my summer plans), turn my hurried lunch hour of making food into enjoying my meal, and be a healthy way to stock my fridge.

 I noticed that the whole chickens at Atkinson's were on sale (as are pork ribs). I grabbed a medium fryer – and this was my week:

Roasted Chicken

Roasted chicken is easy, good, and pretty quick. Rub down the chicken and cover with salt and pepper if ingredients are sparse or flavor it up for a little more kick.

3-pound farm-raised chicken

Cajun spices, kosher salt, fresh ground pepper

2 medium onions, peeled and quartered

4 celery stalks

1 green pepper, quartered

Unsalted butter

Dijon mustard

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Rinse the chicken, then dry it well. Salt and pepper the cavity and then stuff with onion, pepper and celery. Truss the bird, which ensures more even cooking and makes a more beautiful roasted bird. Spice the chicken—I like to rain the spices over the bird so that it has a nice uniform coating that will result in a crisp, salty, flavorful skin (about 1 tablespoon). Place the chicken in a sauté pan or roasting pan and, when the oven is up to temperature, put the chicken in the oven. Roast it until it's done, 50 to 60 minutes. Remove it from the oven. Baste the chicken with the juices and let it rest for 15 minutes on a cutting board. Remove the twine. Remove the legs and thighs and wings. And use that for your dinner. Slather the meat with fresh butter and serve with a simple green vegetable or salad.

When the chicken is cool, get all of the meat off the bones and reserve. Use the chicken carcass to make a really good homemade stock for future recipes or soups.

You have so many options with chicken meat. You could top green salads, make a soup, enjoy wraps, make chicken salad, chicken fajitas, chicken pizza, chicken and rice, chicken stir-fry, etc. etc. etc. Here are two ideas that I tried this week:

 

Chicken Enchiladas

My brother sent me this recipe and used 1.5-2 pounds of shrimp instead of chicken. He had 'the kid test' and 'the guest test' and passed. Everyone—his friends, wife, thirteen-year-old boy, eleven-year-old girl, and two-year-old baby—loved it. It is simple, easy, six ingredients, good and good for you. Special Equipment: food processor or blender

10-12 fresh tomatillos

2 serrano peppers.  

1 1.5 pounds of chicken, cooked and slightly shredded into pieces

Corn tortillas

Pam cooking spray

6 ounces pepper jack cheese, grated

2 tomatoes, chopped

Husk and wash tomatillos and peppers, boil ‘til soft and color changes.  Drain and blend together in a food processor or blender. Set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat a pan on the stove to medium and soften corn tortillas one at a time with Pam. Fill tortillas with chicken and grated cheese, roll them up and put them in a 9x13 pyrex pan. My pan fit 2 rows of 6 enchiladas nicely. Cover with Tomatillo sauce and some more cheese. At this point everything’s cooked so heat it up for 20 minutes or so at 325, until cheese is good and melted. Put some fresh chopped tomatoes on top, eat.

Cooks note: You can do the tomatillo sauce beforehand, you can also get the whole thing together earlier in the day and let it sit before the heating up part (not too long so the tortillas don’t go to mush). 

Fiesta Chicken Empanada

This is a recipe from Pillsbury® I cut out of a magazine—it really streches your chicken into a dinner, with great leftovers for lunch.

1 (15-oz) package Pillsbury® Refrigerated Pie Crusts, softened

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, sliced

½ medium red bell pepper, chopped

½ medium green bell pepper, chopped

½ medium yellow bell pepper, chopped

10 ounces of cooked chicken, chopped

4 teaspoons dry fajita seasoning

½ cheese and salsa dip (I like using Rotel®)

1 egg, beaten

Garnish:

Sour cream

Salsa

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Use one pie crust, roll out and place in ungreased 14-inch pizza pan. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add onion and bell peppers; cook 5 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Add chicken and fajita seasoning; mix well. Spoon chicken mixture onto crust, leaving one inch around the edge. Spread ½ cup dip over chicken mixture. Brush ege of crust with water and place remaining crust over filling. Press edges firmly to seal. Brush top with beaten egg. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until deep golden brown. Cover edge of crust with strips of foil after 10 or 15 minutes to prevent excessive browning. Cut into wedges, garnish, and serve.

There are so many options with chicken – it is easy, versatile, yummy, and cheap!

 

Strawberry Banana Crepes

Because I love my crepe maker and the strawberries are good right now. I got this recipe from Quick Cooking and it yields about 16-20 crepes. Special equipment: crepe maker – or use an 8-inch nonstick skillet.

Crepe Batter:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1-1/2 cups milk

2 eggs

1 to 2 tablespoons butter or margarine

Filling:

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

1 carton (8 ounces) frozen whipped topping, thawed

½ cup confectioners’ sugar

Topping:

2 cups sliced fresh strawberries

2 medium firm bananas, sliced

¼ cup sugar, optional

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cinnamon, milk, and eggs; mix well. Cover and refrigerate for one hour. In an 8-inch nonstick skillet, melt one teaspoon butter. Stir batter; pour about 2 tablespoons into the center of skillet. Lift and tilt pan to evenly coat bottom. Cook until top appears dry; turn and cook 15-20 seconds longer. Remove to a wire rack. Repeat with remaining batter, adding butter to skillet as needed. When cool, stack crepes with waxed paper or paper towels in between.

In a mixing bowl, combine the filling ingredients. Spread 2 rounded tablespoons on each crepe; roll up. Combine topping ingredients and spoon over crepes. Serve.

yum!