Honey Vinegar Crock Pot Pulled Pork Sandwiches

June 20, 2015June 20, 20151 Comment

I bet some of you are planning on making your Pop’s a tasty lunch or dinner for Fathers Day coming up tomorrow. Well I have a great recipe that is easy and beyond delicious! The tangy balsamic vinegar goes perfectly with the sticky sweetness of the honey. And the combination glazed over slow cooked pork melts in your mouth. It will be a sure hit for that meat loving man in your life. I’m salivating with the memory of eating this meal – so this is also one for the ladies too!

Start with a nice looking two pounder pork tenderloin. Rub salt, pepper and fresh garlic over raw tenderloin. Pour half cup water into the Crock Pot and then place spiced tenderloin inside. Cook for 7 hours on low heat. I just left it on while I was at work for the day. David reported back that it was torturous smelling the meaty aromas all day long. He survived in the end, though.

Bob and Agent Cooper were ready with the magical potion ingredients and incantations.

Next you’ll need to make the glaze which is the best part!

You’ll notice I have a bag of brown sugar there which was the original plan but I substituted some raw honey instead. I received the jar of honey from a very sweet patient at my work. It came from their ranch and was just right for this recipe.

Stir together the balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, garlic powder, honey and pepper over medium heat until it starts to lightly boil. Add the corn starch and water mixture into the pan which will quickly thicken the glaze. Stir for another minute until it becomes a smooth and bubbly consistency then take off the heat so it doesn’t burn onto the bottom of the pan.

Don’t get too close to flame Bob! You little pyromaniac!

Use a brush to apply some of the yummy glaze onto your cooked tenderloin. Cover again and cook for another hour in the Crock Pot.

After you’ve suffered for another hour from the delightful smells wafting from your Crock Pot you can take the glazed tenderloin out and place in baking pan. I used one of my Pyrex dishes. The pork will be falling apart at this point which is good as we want a shredded and pulled apart consistency before broiling. You can use two forks to help along the shredding. Use the brush again to generously glaze the pulled apart pork. Place under the broiler. Use high heat because at this point you’re not gonna want to wait much longer to eat!

Throughout the broiling process brush more of the left over glaze every few minutes. Eventually the pork will caramelize under the broiler’s heat. The darkened, crispy edges are what make this meal such a treat in my opinion. I added some chopped mushrooms on top of the meat and added some glaze over them. The earthy flavor of mushrooms go well with most meat dishes.

Bob is such a carnivore and wanted to do a ‘Canon Ball’ into the sizzling meat. Oh Bob!

This meat could be the main course on it’s own with some veggies or salad but I decided to use it for a gourmet sandwich. David was more than fine with this plan as he loves bread almost as much as he loves meat. I used some ciabatta rolls and toasted them during the final couple minutes of the caramelizing process.

We had sides of salad and potato chips. A bit of healthy and a bit of not so healthy but all of it went perfectly with our heavenly sandwich.

This was a minimal ingredient salad with romaine heart lettuce and sliced Persian cucumbers (they are my fave!). Lightly Salted Lays Potato chips are much better than regular Lays if you don’t like too much salt. Yum!

This fed David and I for two whole meals plus some snacking in between. I dare you to open the fridge door with a Tupperware full of these leftovers and deny the urge to pinch a bite before dinner time. You can use leftovers for sandwiches Round 2 or inside a quesadilla, chimichanga (which is what we did) or in a bean stew. I’m not sure how long the meat will stay good in your fridge since we didn’t keep it sitting there for long. It’s just too good to not want seconds the very next night!

Crock Pot Cooked Pork Ingredients

2 pounds Pork tenderloin

½ teaspoon Salt

¼ teaspoon Pepper

2 cloves Garlic; crushed

½ cup Water

Honey Vinegar Glaze Ingredients

½ cup Raw Honey

1 tablespoon Cornstarch

(fully dissolve Cornstarch with ¼ water and stir until it looks like glass of low fat milk)

¼ cup Balsamic Vinegar

2 tablespoons Soy sauce

¼ teaspoon Pepper

1 teaspoon Garlic Powder

Hope you all enjoy this recipe. And to all you Fathers out there – have a happy and safe one!

Love and Honey,

Lani

One Pot Mexican Quinoa

June 18, 20152 Comments

When it comes to weeknight cooking, three things come to mind: fast, easy, nutritious. I know what you’re thinking – fast and easy is, well, easy, but the nutrition part? Not so much. Wrong. With this one-pot Mexican quinoa dish, you’ll be eating a fibrous, veggie-packed meal in about 30 minutes (Did I mention that 20 of those minutes can be spent sitting on the couch?). Plus, if you’re anything like me, leftovers for lunch are a key component of a fabulous recipe, and this my friends makes AWESOME leftovers. The one-pot thing is just the icing on the cake!

Side note: This meal is gluten free, vegetarian and even vegan! I am none of those things and I still think it’s super delish.

So… Let’s get started!

What you’ll need:

Large saucepan w/ lid
2-3 cloves of garlic (or 4… Or 5… I love garlic)
1 diced jalapeno (to reduce the spice level don’t include all the seeds or the whole pepper)
1c quinoa
1c vegetable broth
1 can corn drained (plain, unsalted corn – NOT sweet or creamed corn)
1 can black beans drained and rinsed
1 can fire roasted tomatoes, juice included
1t chili powder
1/2t cumin
salt
pepper
1 avocado cubed
2T chopped cilantro
1/2 lime juice

What You Need to Do:

Heat a swirl of olive oil on medium. Add garlic and jalapeno, season with salt and pepper. Cook 2-3 minutes until soft and fragrant.

Add quinoa, broth, corn, beans, tomatoes, chili powder, cumin. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer and cover.

Let cook 20-25 minutes or until liquid is absorbed.

Turn off heat, add avocado, cilantro and lime juice. Stir to mix.

Serve immediately and enjoy!

If this recipe turns into a favorite, it’s super easy to keep all of the dry ingredients on hand (I like to buy the canned stuff and quinoa on sale or at Costco). Then, all you have to buy is lime, cilantro, avo, and jalapeno when you’re in the mood.

More one-pot wonder meals comin’ at ya soon!

Xoxo,

Lindsay

Hawaiian Pork Katsu

June 16, 2015June 17, 2015Leave a comment

Aloha friends!

The hubster and I just got back from a whirlwind 3 1/2 days on the East Coast attending and being in the wedding of his sister Carrie and her new husband Anthony. They had their ceremony at their family’s church and a dream-come-true reception at The Wadsworth Mansion in CT. They then followed it up with an aloha honeymoon in Hawaii. Needless to say it was a struggle to quickly recover from a red-eye into wedding shenanigans into long flight back home. Caffeine was a must. As I got some super RARE and much needed coffee I passed an L&L Hawaiian BBQ restaurant that not only made me think about the newlywed’s awesome honeymoon but also made me realize that it had been waaaaay too long since I’ve had Katsu. Well, I have a blog now so Katsu it is!

For today we’ll be making pork katsu, sauce and jasmine rice. We did pair it with macaroni salad but I have to tell you a secret: I didn’t make it. Agh! Gasp! I know, I know. I just didn’t have time today. But if you have a killer recipe go for it. If not, stop at a deli counter and scoop up some macaroni salad.

And now for my other secret. I haven’t the slightest clue how to make Katsu sauce. I mean I had some general ideas of the basics but had to search for a recipe. I’ve had several diff kinds of Katsu in my time with one of my favs being from a tiny restaurant on the island of Lana’i that offers up pork katsu drowned under a fried egg served Loco Moco style with straight up mushroom and carmelized onion gravy. Sorry if I’m drooling on this post.

For this one I adapted a recipe I found on William Sonoma’s website. The issue is that I didn’t have two of the ingredients (Mirin or Hot mustard) so I winged it. The result was a less sweet and more vinegary sauce that I totally fell in love with. So, there you have it. It may not be uber authentic but it’s delish. Let’s head to the kitchen…

Pork Katsu & Sauce Shopping List

8 thinly sliced pork chops (boneless)
Breadcrumbs (I had Italian style on hand)
Panko
Soy Sauce
2 eggs
Flour (all purpose or any other flour would work)
Garlic Powder, S&P
Olive Oil
Jasmine Rice
Butter
1 tablespoon Ketchup
2 tablespoons Soy Sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire
1 tablespoon Hot Mustard (I used 1/2 tablespoon yellow mustard and 1/2 tablespoon Tapatio or Cholula hot sauce)
1 tablespoon Mirin (I used apple cider vinegar. I really need to restock my pantry soon.)

Let’s make us some Katsu.

Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees F.

First prepare the dredging station for your pork chops. You’ll need 3 shallow dishes. In the first put 2 eggs, a dash of water and several dashes of soy sauce, several dashes of hot sauce and mix thoroughly (yolks should be totally broken and mixed in).

In the second dish put several heapings of flour, sprinkle with garlic powder and S&P.

In the third dish put 1 cup panko, 1 cup breadcrumbs and S&P. Start with this, you may need to add more later which is totally fine.

Take each pork chop, pat with a paper towel to remove any excess moisture. Now dip it in the flour, then the egg, then the crumbs on both sides. Place onto a plate or cutting board for safe keeping.

When all the chops have been dressed heat up a nonstick skillet on Med-Hi heat and hit it with olive oil. Wait until it’s pretty hot and brown each side of the pork chop. Make sure the pan has plenty of oil as you do this or else you’ll get blackened bits and not awesome tasty brown bits.

Place the browned chops on a baking sheet and bake until cooked through to a safe internal temperature of 165. This took about 15 min. May take more or less depending on the thickness of the chop.

While that’s cooking let’s whip up some rice and sauce.

In a sauce pan mix 2 cups water with 1 cup jasmine rice. Boil and stir until the rice is tender and water is mostly absorbed (took me about 17 min). HIt this with a tablespoon of butter, salt and mix well.

In a bowl combine the Ketchup, soy sauce, Worcestershire, mustard and vinegar and taste. Adjust seasonings accordingly.

Plate up your pork, rice, and macaroni salad and drizzle with the sauce. And there you have it. Homemade Katsu.

Aloha!

xoxo Shawna

Grilled Marinated Chicken and Mexican Street Corn w/ Chipotle Crema…Ole!

June 15, 2015June 15, 2015Leave a comment

Hello interweb amigos!

You want a super tasty and easy dinner that has a latin flair?!?! Well you are in luck. This is one of our weekly go-to meals and can easily be transitioned into a big ol’ meal for a crowd. Serve it with rice and guacamole and you have a South of the Border Feast! Now you can make this all indoors in the oven/stove top or on the grill. It’s very flexible like that.

Delicioso Ingredients

1 lb chicken breasts (we used the thin sliced – if you use whole give them a few whacks (in between parchment or saran wrap) with a meat mallet or back of a skillet to thin them out a bit)
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Garlic (2 diced up cloves)
Garlic Powder, S&P, Paprika, Olive Oil
2 large ears of corn, husks removed and corn cut in half
1 cup sour cream
1 small can chipotles in adobo
lime (juice)
Cotija cheese

It’s time to get cooking

First, let’s pre-heat your grill (if using oven, bake your chicken at 350 degrees F until cooked through – internal temp of 165 degrees)

The marinade for the chicken is so easy. In a large mixing bowl mix up the following:

8 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons lemon juice
2 diced garlic cloves
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp paprika
Lots of S&P

Now whisk that dressing until well combined.

Add your chicken into the bowl and combine thoroughly. Really get that marinade in there. It should be a happy lemon garlic chicken pool of awesome. Cover the bowl with saran wrap and put it in the fridge. I left mine an hour before cooking but if you are short on time any time will do.

Next, let’s make the AMAZING chipotle crema for the street corn. Yes we are making corn that has no butter in it but I swear this is the most amazing corn you will have ever made your family.

In a small bowl combine 1 cup sour cream and 1 heaping tablespoon of the sauce from inside of the chipotles in adobo can. The peppers are spicy! If you use just the sauce and not the pepper you still get spice but not “holy cow someone give me water…or bread…or milk…stat!” spicy. If you are feeling courageous take one of the peppers out, dice up and throw it in. Be bold. Be Spicy. (I feel like that’s a marketing tag line for something…..)

Squeeze in some lime (we used a 1/2 lime) and hit it with lots of S&P. Combine and tah dah!

Wrap with saran wrap and let it get happy in the fridge. The longer it goes the better the ingredients come together.

Now the corn. In a small sauce pan add in your two corn ears, cut in half, and cover with water. Boil just a couple of minutes until the yellow starts to darken.

Flip over in the water if needed to get all sides. This is to cook them ever so slightly. Next we will hit it with some fire flavor.

But…before we flame our corn, go ahead and grill or bake your chicken. Ours took about 12 minutes on the grill. Or enough for the Dude in the Galley to finish 1 Coor’s Light. 🙂

Back to the corn! Over a flame (stove top or direct flame on a grill) flame char your corn. Make sure to use tongs and a pot holder to protect yourself. Let the corn just start to blister in some places. Pay attention because this goes very fast once it starts to blister. Trust me on this one, the flavor this makes is incredible.

Add corn skewers, rub the corn with some lime, drizzle the crema over the corn and top with cotija cheese. Seriously, if you’ve never had corn like this you may never want to eat it any other way. It’s AMAZING.

Plate up this super flavorful South of the Border inspired meal and let your friends and family thank you. You can also serve this with rice and guacamole to really make it a big treat. Hope you love this as much as we do. Enjoy!

xoxo Shawna

Dudes in the Galley Meatballs

June 10, 2015Leave a comment

Alright, let’s be honest. (First, let’s get some wine). This next recipe is technically my own BUT it was strongly influenced by a knight in shining armor moment my favorite dude in the galley husband arranged a month or so ago. I worked way too many hours last week and it looked like not only would I be getting home way after dark but the tasty dinner I had waiting to cook would stay cold and lonely in the fridge. Out of nowhere the hubby volunteers to cook what I had planned for din din so long as I provided a very thorough set of instructions. He’s very good with lists. I accepted this challenge and texted…yes texted…the recipe below albeit in “Shawna shorthand.” Not only did the meatballs come out AMAZING but it inspired me to take it back to basics…and…basically…try to make it better than he did. I know, I know. If you’re not first, you’re last.

I present to you now homemade browned-in-a-pan-then-finished-in-homemade-tomato-sauce meatballs served over buttered creamy thin spaghetti. (Fun trick: once you assemble the dish the crazy good sauce falls over the noodles and the cream combines with the tomato and you end up with unintentional but oh so good pink sauce. Culinary magic trick. You’re welcome.)

The Goods

1 lb ground lean turkey meat
1 egg
1 cup (or so) breadcrumbs (last time I made this I had literally no bread left…which is so weird in our house but it happened. So I took my fav crackers Melba crisps and slapped them into the food processor and bam….bread crumbs. Today, I used the pre-made kind but only because I was trying to kick out two blogs before we head back to CT this week for the hubster’s sister Carrie’s wedding! So excited! Sorry, I digress…)
Worcestershire sauce (that’s how you know you get REALLY into cooking when you can spell Worcestershire sauce and not need spell check to correct it for you.)
Grated Parmesan (get the block, grate it yourself…it’s SO much better)
1 large can crushed tomatoes (wanna go crazy? Get San Marzan tomatoes. Chefs use them. It’s worth it.)
1 smaller can of tomato sauce
Veggie Oil (for browning meatballs) & Olive Oil (for the tomato sauce)
Seasonings: Garlic Powder, S&P, dried chili flakes (like what you put on pizza), dried Oregano, fresh basil (dried is fine if you have it)
1/2 large onion, diced
1/2 carton of portabella or other mushrooms, rinsed, patted dried and diced
1/2 package thin spaghetti
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup sour cream

Today’s music selection: 90’s hits on cable TV music channel. First up, my dream boyfriend from Junior High…Justin Timberlake. Perfect.

Let’s get saucy….

In a medium-large sauce pan heat pan up to med high and give it a couple of swirls of olive oil (Note: you’ll see in the pic below there is a can of diced tomatoes. I ended up not using it. Feel free to add some for texture but drain them first so you just have the tomatoes. The seasonings and such are measured to not include it so you may need to kick up the S&P and oregano if you do).

Add in onions, mushrooms, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp Oregano and 1/2 tsp pepper flakes

When onions are translucent add in the crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce

Let simmer over med or med-hi heat while you make the meatballs. Adjust seasoning if you’d like but once you add the partially cooked meatballs a LOT of flavor will transfer to the sauce so maybe hold off for a bit.

Mini balls of meaty deliciousness..

In a large mixing bowl add in the turkey meat, 1 egg, 4 dashes of Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 cup bread crumbs and S&P. Combine with your hands. I’m telling you, it’s really the only way to go. I ended up washing my hands in varying levels of intensity about 15 times during this recipe but you want to be safe! At this point you probably need some more breadcrumbs.

Add in 1/2 cup more breadcrumbs and 1/2 cup grated parm and mix one more time.

Form large meatballs (we got 10 total from 1 lb of meat) and heat up a large non stick skillet over med-hi heat. When heated swirl around some veggie oil.

Brown the meatballs on both sides. Look at those glorious brown bits of deliciousness. Man, that’s good.

Add partially cooked meatballs and some torn up basil into the sauce and kick up the heat a bit. Put on a lid and let cook until internal meat temp hits 165 (this should take about 12-15 min). If you have more time, set the temp to medium and let it simmer for 30 min. The sauce will be ridiculously good this way.

While the mighty meatballs are simmering away let’s make the pasta.

Boil pasta in heavily salted water. (1. I use Morton’s salt and 2. One of my favorite chefs, Anne Burrell, says the water should taste like the sea before the pasta hits it. Do as the pros do. Ocean the crap out of your water. It makes even store bought dry pasta taste great and not like cardboard.)

Cook about 8 min until al dente (nobody likes mushy pasta), drain and return to pan.

Add in 3 tablespoons salted butter and 1/2 cup (or 1 cup if it’s not creamy enough) sour cream. Mix religiously until well combined.

Serve meatball over pasta with sauce drizzled over both.

Man, the smells in this kitchen are crazy. Hubster just walked in and guessed right away what I was making. He then immediately got slapped with a kitchen glove when he tried to dip his finger into the bowl of meatballs pictured below BEFORE I took the picture. Unless his hand wants to be famous on a blog I suggest he not get in the way of his awesome wanna be pro chef wife and her food blog iPhone photo shoot. 🙂

Cheers to all the men and women in our lives that support us, love us, and inspire us to try to cook better than they can. 😉

Cheers!

Shawna

S’more Cupcakes

June 9, 2015June 20, 2015Leave a comment

Greetings Blog-Universe! I felt it was about time I join this maiden voyage with my compatriots Shawna and Lindsay. They have already posted some recipes that are beyond tasty and I speak from first hand knowledge on a couple of them. Can’t wait to try each recipe out in my own Country Kitchen. Recently my husband and I – along with our dog Sky and our maniac-with-claws known as Ronin – moved up the mountain to a little town called Julian. As this is Apple Country you can bet on some upcoming recipes incorporating the delicious fruit.

One of the true loves in my life is the heavenly goodness of S’mores. As many of you will agree, one abiding and treasured memories of my childhood was visiting the countryside, pitching a tent with a group of family and friends, gathering around the camp fire and roasting marshmallows to sandwich between graham crackers with a layer of chocolate. As much as I love camping and camp fires, the biggest and most seductive allure is knowing they will most likely lead to S’mores.

I’ve heard from a lot of people about the special and original ways they like their S’mores and I’m always impressed with their ingenuity and creativity when it comes to making the perfect melted marshmallow treat. Well one creation I have no doubt many of you have seen while trolling Pintrest boards is the S’more in cupcake form.

Here is my version of this brilliant invention:

But first I’d like to introduce my trusty Kitchen Aid. I call her Ripley. She’s never let me down with all my baking endeavors.

I took the short cut of using a boxed cake instead of from scratch…but hey…when has Betty Crocker ever let us down. Can I get an amen?!

I’d also like to introduce you to my two kitchen ‘familiars’ – Bob and Agent Cooper. They assist with the brewing of our culinary magic.

Step One: Prepare the chocolate cake batter by following Betty’s instructions which she so helpfully writes on the back of her boxes. The lady has some awesome penmanship, lemme tell ya.

Bob knew what was coming next so he wisely took cover.

I like to put my prepared cake batter into a zip-lock bag and pipe it into my cupcake tins instead of spooning the batter directly from the bowl. Not that I have anything against spooning, mind you.

Placing the zip-lock bag into a small bowl makes it easier to pour the batter inside without making an epic mess.

Agent Cooper offered to take the first watch. He barely escaped gangrene and amputation after being inside the fridge for so long. His dedication knows no bounds.

The Marshmallow filling was up next.

Nice hat, Agent Cooper!

Beat together the Jet Puffed Marshmallow Cream, Powdered Sugar, vanilla and butter until smooth. This I also poured into a zip-lock back and set aside in the fridge.

I told Bob we didn’t need the WHOLE jar of Jet-Puffed but his intimidation tactics are unrivaled.

Our S’more Cupcakes wouldn’t be complete without the Graham Cracker Crumb Crust! Using a spoon or spatula, just fold Cracker Crumbs with butter, vanilla and brown sugar. The consistency will still be crumbly but will mold together when pressed by the spoon.

Drop a spoonful of crust mixture into cupcake liners and then gently press until flattened crust is formed.

Retrieve bag of chilled cake batter from fridge and cut a small hole at the corner of the zip-lock bag. Fill batter up to about two thirds. You can fill them higher if you like rounded cupcakes but the recipe will just yield less cakes. We don’t judge those who believe that size DOES matter. Heh

These babies are ready to find a warm and cozy spot inside the oven now.

14 minutes later and VOILA! Magic!

I allowed the boys to join me again after Agent Cooper had to restrain Bob from using the batter filled cake pan for his own personal owl jacuzzi. I shouldn’t even mention how he threatened Agent Cooper with the idea of an owl oven bake. That Bob can be a real demon sometimes.

They know this is my weapon of choice for the next step.

Looks good Agent Cooper!

I used a knife to make room for the creamy, marshmallow goodness.

Fill each gap up to the top avoiding overfilling them as you’ll want the chocolate frosting to cover the filling. Unless you decide to get crazy and swirl the frosting and filling together. There’s a place on this Earth for all kinds of weirdos. Again, we don’t judge here at galsinthegalley.

Bob didn’t seem to mind I used frosting from a jar instead of homemade. He did hold the butter knife ransom until I promised him a beak full of frosting though.

The cupcake toppings were the perfect finishing touch.

They look pretty darn tasty!

Job well done boys!

Ingredients

Cupcakes

1 package ( 1 pound 2.25 ounces) Super Moist cake mix

1 1/3 cups water

3 eggs

1 tub (12 ounces) chocolate whipped frosting or 1 tub (16 ounces) chocolate ready-to-spread frosting

Cracker Crumb Crust

1 1/2 cup Graham Cracker Crumbs

1/4 cup butter

1 Tbsp. Brown Sugar

1/2 tsp. Vanilla

Marshmallow Filling

1 Jar Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme

1/4 cup softened butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp. Vanilla

Toppings

Light sprinkle of Graham Cracker Crumbs

Jet Puffed Mallow Bits (I found these tasty bits at Target)

Enjoy!

xxxLanixxx

Galley Gals Sassy Stroganoff

June 9, 2015June 9, 2015Leave a comment

I’m pretty excited for this post. College classmates of my hubster (and now friends of mine) Shawn, Marissa and their Boston Terrier rescue pup Rocky (follow him on Instagram @lordrockefeller), just moved back to California from Maryland! We were so excited that they are back on the West Coast that we had to have them over for dinner. That also meant that they got to be front and center in taste test group for today’s recipe. Lucky people! I also learned that Marissa makes her own jams/marinades so she will most definitely be guest blogging in the VERY near future. Alright, so now about the food…

I love beef stroganoff and I have to admit I’ve made it a slightly different way each time. Each batch sort of revolves around my mom’s original recipe which was awesome, but because I’m me, I have to do it differently. Since I made this on a Sunday I had a wee bit more time for prep so I made it the “low and slow” way. It’s really good. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

The Goods

2 lbs beef (ok, so if you go “low and slow” really any cut will do. Get the cheap stuff that says “for stews” if you want or get boneless chuck. Remove any super massive chunks of fat and slice into medium thick strips)

3 tablespoons flour (all-purpose is fine)

2 cups beef stock (1 cup of this can be replaced with red wine and I’ll note below where that will be. I didn’t have any….I may have drank it all with the last couple of recipes….but remember this is a safe place No judging.)

Worcestershire sauce

Veggie Oil, S&P & Garlic Powder

1 can cream of mushroom soup (I used low-fat)

Equipment: Dutch oven or other pot/lid combo that is oven safe. This FINE piece of equipment was given to me by my good friend and bridesmaid Elaine for my 30th birthday….”some” number of years ago….

Put on some music, pour a cocktail and let’s get cooking…

Pre-heat your oven to 300 degrees F

Get a dutch oven on the stove over high heat and let her warm up (she needs a minute so pour some more wine…check facebook…snap-a-chat….tweet….tind…what ever makes you happy just be patient).

Slice your meat into thick strips

Put about 2 tablespoons of veggie oil into the dutch oven and after about 30 seconds add your meat (You want this hot, so Olive Oil is not a super great choice. It smokes at a lower temp than Veggie oil so unless you want an olive oil facial and bitter sauce skip the EVOO)

Immediately add S&P and a couple of shakes of garlic powder. Add seasoning to each batch if you need to do them in separate batches.

Remove the meat to a platter.

Make sure there is liquid in the dutch oven. It should still have some oil mixed with liquid released from the meat. If there is not enough, add some butter (you need fat for the next fancy part that the pros call a “roux” (pronounced Roooo…like Moooo but with an R (this is why they don’t let me teach elementary school).

We are using 3 tablespoons flour so you want about the same amount of fat in the pan.

Add in the 3 tablespoons of flour and start whisking. You don’t want to burn it but you want the mixture to fully incorporate and start getting brown. You want to cook out the flour taste a bit. Once it becomes sort of a light brown “roux”y mixture add in 1 cup of beef stock (or wine!) and whisk whisk whisk! Let it come to a light bubble and get happy until it reduces by about half (mine went really fast, like 3 min but can take up to 10 if you pot isn’t terribly hot)

Add in the other 1 cup of stock and send the meat into this delicious stroganoff sauna (aka = meat goes back into the pot)

Mix to incorporate, put the lid on the dutch oven and put it into the oven.

Let it cook for 2 1/2 hours and it comes out soooo tender and flavorful.

When it’s done remove most of the liquid so you have about 2 cups remaining and the meat. Or you can remove the meat + 2 cups liquid to a new pot but I was just trying to help you reduce the number of dishes you’ve got coming after this one.

Add in 1 can of cream of mushroom soup and mix. Heat over Med heat until warmed through. Taste for seasoning and adjust with more S&P if needed.

We served this amazingly tender meat in stroganoff sauce over buttered egg noodles and green beans (my trick: put butter in a small sauce pan, add diced dried onions (from seasoning aisle) at the store, rehydrate them for a minute, add green beans, S&P and boom! You never had better tasting GB’s.)

Other versions use no soup and instead sour cream, some use flour dipped meat pan seared then cooked in the sauce. I’m telling you, “strogy”, like my dad likes to call it, can go many different ways but this one is amazeballs.

Well I hope you enjoyed today’s recipe. Now it’s off to bed to get ready for another fun week in Paradise…and I mean work. Until next time friends…

Cheers!

Shawna

Stuffed Sweet Mini Peppers

June 5, 2015June 5, 2015Leave a comment

We are friends right!?! (Picture me dramatically walking with a glass of Pinot in my hand to the West Wing of my estate and sitting down on a luxurious chaise on my veranda overlooking the Caribbean to start my syndicated cooking show. Ok…OK fine. The blog hasn’t skyrocketed to a Kardashian level of fame existence yet but I feel like we’re close. In the mean time I’ll grab a coke, head for the kitchen and keeping writing my post. Same thing). Back to the matter at hand…

Can we talk about bacon for a second? It’s one of my favorite ingredients. I like to showcase it as a show piece (think pork belly), let it be the salt element in soups, casseroles and stews and wrap it around some of our fav ocean givings – scallops and shrimp. Today, we are making the most delish cheese stuffing for those adorable mini sweet peppers you see at the market. These work great as an appetizer, veggie side dish or a lunch & cocktail party to share with friends. These peppers are not spicy at all so it’s safe for even our favorite younger diners.

The Goods

1 bag of those colorful small mini peppers
4 slices of bacon (thick words well)
1 jar ricotta cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella or pepper jack or even shredded manchego if you’re feeling fancy!
1/2 cup frozen peas (Hold up what?!?!? Yup, I said peas. They add such a great pop of sweetness against the salty cheese interior. Trust me on this.)
S&P
Garlic Powder

Pepper magic

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

Cook your bacon until it’s pretty crispy. Place on a paper towel to absorb some of the fat and chop it up.

First you want to give your lil’ peppers a rinse. Using a small paring knife remove the top stem and carefully cut out the interior stems (this is mostly to remove the seeds but also to get maximum space to add your delicious filling.) Set those aside.

In a mixing bowl add the jar of ricotta, the bacon, mozzarella, and your peas. Hit it with S&P and about 1/2 tsp of garlic salt. Mix together with a fork (I find that works best but really any implement will do). Make sure to taste it but I’m sorry in advance if it’s amazing. EVERY time I make this I end up eating…a tad too much and run out of filling for the peppers. Don’t be that girl. Do as I say, not as I do…

Using a spoon shovel some filling into each pepper and place onto a baking sheet.

Bake those mini flavor bombs for about 20-25 min. You want the underside just to get brown and delicious and the flesh of the peppers to get soft and just start to wilt down. Yes, the filling may come oozing out and that’s totally ok! The little cheese that hits the pan may get some brown bits on them and OMG browned cheese is amazing. You’re welcome in advance for those tiny gifts from cheese heaven.

Remove and let cool for just a few min then plate up your gorgeous peppers. Big shout out to our equally gorgeous friend Maggie who bought us these plates from West Elm as a wedding present. Now they, and you, are famous.

Happy Cooking Friends!

xoxo Shawna

Sour Cream & Verde Chicken Enchiladas

June 3, 2015June 3, 20151 Comment

Ok guys. Seriously. These have got to be one of my favorite meals I make at home, period. Let me remind you I live in San Diego…the gateway to Mexican food. I’ve had a whole lotta years to experiment and taste amazing Mexican food and this recipe is the prodigy child of all those years. One of my fav restaurants growing up had these KILLER sour cream and chicken enchiladas and these are a nod to that memory.

But these enchiladas are made with flour tortillas?!?! Gasp! You make it all from scratch on a week night, gasp?!?! Yup! But you know what, you can bet your sombrero not only will you love these you’ll be willing to come to the dark side of “making food that tastes good and doesn’t necessarily fit the norm.” Exciting right?!?! You’re welcome. Let’s get cooking….

The Goods

3 Chicken Breasts
2 Anaheim chili peppers (dark green, medium to large is fine)
1 lb tomatillo peppers (round, looks like a green tomato with paper skin)
1 small tub sour cream
Taco size tortillas (we used flour…I know, I know…OMG they didn’t use corn. Nope, we didn’t. And we loved it.)
Pepper jack cheese (We like a bit of a kick and the sauce we are making is not spicy at all. This cheese is a nice addition. If you want you can replace with regular jack cheese, shredded)
1 cup jarred salsa (you can use homemade if you have it…I actually ran out of tomatoes and it was coming up on 6pm and my household had not eaten so needless to say I went with jarred. You get it, I know you do. That’s why we are friends.)

The Fiesta (Ironically, Enrique Iglesias just came up on our cable music channel…ha! It’s like the world knew I was blogging about enchiladas. Perfect.)

Preheat your good ol’ trusty oven to 350 degrees F. (Note: I’ve made these on the boat before and they were amazing. Make sure to pick a smaller lasagna dish to make them in beforehand so you don’t end up with a large pan and a tiny oven.)

Start by filling up a stock pot with water and set the heat to medium. Add your chicken breasts and poach until they hit 165 degrees F.

Next, using tongs you want to char your Anaheim peppers over an open flame (gas stove) or under the broiler. You want them super charred on all sides. When done add them to a small bowl and cover TIGHTLY with plastic wrap. Add something on top so it stays shut and don’t touch it for about 15 min.

After 15 min take them out and using a paper towel simply slide the charred skin off and you have this amazing dark green flesh left that is AMAZING to taste. Slice the peppers in half and remove the seeds. Chop it up and set it aside.

While that’s happening peel the tomatillos (the paper comes off super easily), rinse under water, cut into quarters and add to a smaller sauce pot.

Cover with water and boil until the dark green turns to pale green and they just get soft. (This only takes a few minutes. Just enough time to grab another margarita. Go ahead, we don’t judge here.)

Once complete place the tomatillos into a blender, add in about 1/2 c of the cooking water and lots of S&P. Give it a whirl until it looks like enchilada sauce. Pour out the remaining water in the pot and add the sauce back in. Hit it with some heat and let her reduce a bit and come together.

Once your chicken is done shred her up and return her to the pot.

Add in 1/2 c sour cream, the salsa, your chopped Anaheim peppers and mix it up. Taste. It should be amazing. Add S&P if needed. Now stop eating it or else you won’t have enough to make the enchiladas.

Spray the bottom of a lasagna pan with cooking spray. Grab a tortilla, add some of the delish chicken mixture, some shredded cheese, roll up tight, and add to the pan. Repeat until you fill up the pan. We made GIANT enchiladas (I had some help from the Dudes in the Galley tonight and well…they are men…and they like to eat…so big enchiladas is what happened.) We ended up fitting about 7 in the pan but you can probably get 8.

Now slather the whole thing with your amazing tomatillo sauce you made and top with some shredded cheese.

Bake for about 20 min at 350 degrees F and enjoy. Serve with beans and rice and your favorite Margarita. Ole!

xoxo Shawna

Working Lady’s Lasagna

June 2, 2015June 3, 2015Leave a comment

Let me give it to you straight. I work way over 40 hours a week number crunching, typing and engaging in general office shenanigans. I love my friends and hubster a TON but there are not enough hours in the day for homemade lasagna – by scratch – on a weeknight – while there is still light outside. So, I’ve come up with the “working lady’s lasagna.” There are some homemade parts, some store bought parts and a whole lot of wine. I mean a whole lot of love. But mostly wine.

If you really want to get down and dirty we’ll post a full blown made-from-scratch lasagna that would be the talk of the town in any trendy hipster alcove. That post will come soon enough. For now. Working Lady Lasagna.

The Goods

Lasagna noodles (alright, just buy a box of the kind you boil in water. Trust me, it’s fine. Breathe in, then out and then realize there are worse things in life. You’re making dinner for crying out loud! *patting self on back*)
1 large jar (24 oz or so) pasta sauce
1 bag mozzarella cheese (shredded)
1 container ricotta (17 oz, I used low fat but who are we kidding, this is lasagna. Get the regular kind if you’d like)
1 bunch basil leaves
1 1/2 lbs ground beef, ground pork, or a mixture of both (get crazy if you want just stay away from the heavily seasoned meat like chorizo. There is a time and place for that delicious Spanish & Latin morsel and this is not one of them)
1 large onion
1/2 cup sour cream or greek yogurt plain flavor
S&P
Garlic

Let’s do this…

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Boil the noodles until al dente. The lasagna will continue to cook in the oven. Ideally, you want the noodles to be done as soon as you are ready to start layering. If they get done early, drain the noodles and lay out on some parchment or wax paper and it’ll prevent it from sticking. Rad, right?!?

Get your lasagna pan ready (I have both glass and ceramic and both work fine) by putting a bit of the sauce at the bottom of the pan.

Heat a large sautee pan (I’m talking as large as you can get. If you don’t have one feel free to use a pot, either works just fine) and give it a couple o’ swirls of olive oil.

Dice up the onion and throw it in the pan. Immediately hit it with S&P (seasoning is your best friend).

Once translucent add a healthy tablespoon full of chopped garlic and stir around a bit for a few seconds.

Add in the meat. You’ll want to break it up so it ends up looking like ground beef when done. Cook until all the pink is gone.

Add in the rest of our sauce to the pan and stir to combine. Let this hang out a bit until the meat is cooked through then turn down the heat to low to keep warm.

Next you want to make the delicious cheesy layer. You see the Mister does not like ricotta. So I basically hide it. You know, like you hide vegetables in kid’s meals? I hide Ricotta in adult meals. Same-same.

In a bowl combine: the jar of ricotta, 1/2 c sour cream, 1/2 c mozzarella cheese, and a handful of basil either chopped up or ripped by hand. Be rustic, I dare you. Add S&P and taste. It should taste lovely.

Now it’s time to layer.

Lay down 4 pieces of lasagna noodle, lengthwise, overlapping, to create a bottom in your lasagna dish.

Add half the meat/sauce mixture.

Add half the cheese mixture and spread evenly. It’s ok if the two layers mix, it will be all that more delicious.

Add 4 more pieces of lasagna noodle, the rest of the meat and the rest of the cheese.

Top with 4 more noodles and some shredded mozzarella.

Bake in oven for about 30-40 min until bubbly and hot. Invite some friends or family over and dig in. Or eat the whole thing yourself. This is a no judging blog, eat your heart out. We dig it.

Enjoy friends!

xoxo Shawna