Porchmas 2016

I have an amazing group of young friends that used to all live in this two-story house that had a glassed-in sun porch on the upper level. We had so many good times on that porch, that even though everyone has moved out of that residence now, we still refer to ourselves as "Porchlings" when we have our get-togethers. Likewise, our seasonal gift exchange and potluck is dubbed "Porchmas." Tee hee.

For my first culinary contribution, I made Pulled Pork Sliders with Homemade Pickled Green Tomatoes.

For the pulled pork, I marinated about three pounds of boneless ribs in soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, vegetable oil, sriracha, garlic powder and black pepper overnight. Then I browned them on all sides in a large skillet, placed them on the trivet along with a sliced onion over a cup of beef broth, and cooked them on "Meat" for 25 minutes. I let them sit for 10 or 15 minutes before releasing, then shredded the meat with two forks. I sprinkled the shredded meat with a couple of tablespoons of cider vinegar, added a few drops of liquid smoke, a big tablespoon of grainy mustard, and a small bottle of spicy honey barbecue sauce. I served the pulled pork on Hawaiian rolls with homemade pickled green tomatoes.

Pickled Green Tomatoes
(Source: Garden Betty)

Bring the following brine (per quart) to a boil:
1 cup white distilled vinegar (5% acidity)
1 cup water
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon sugar

Place in a washed quart jar:

1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
1 teaspoon celery seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon dill seeds

1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

4 cloves garlic, peeled

Slice the tomatoes to desired thickness and pack into the jar. Cover with hot brine, leaving a half inch of head space. Remove bubbles with the end of a wooden spoon or a chopstick, wipe the rim, and add a lid and ring (fingertip tighten only). Process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes. Store in a cool, dark place. Wait 3-4 weeks before tasting.

My second potluck offering was my old standby, potato salad prepared quickly and easily in the magic pot (four minutes!), which I made a little more festive-looking by including some of my homemade red-and-green cucumber relish that I made this summer/fall. (It was the Year of Peppers and Cucumbers!)

Instant Pot Potato Salad

3 lbs. red potatoes (I peel mine, but you can leave the peels on if you prefer), cut into one-inch chunks
4 large eggs
about 1/2 cup chopped green onions (four large, ends removed)
2 tablespoons sweet relish (I use homemade piccallili or cucumber or pepper relish)
1 large dill pickle, chopped (and about a tablespoon of juice)
about 3/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons mustard (I like to use one yellow and one Dijon)
1 teaspoon ground celery
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
salt and pepper, to taste (I like to use Cajun seasoning for more "zip")

In a steamer basket over 1 1/2 cups water (I like to use 1 1/4 cups water plus 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar to infuse the potatoes with some tanginess) put in the potato chunks with the whole eggs on top. Cook on manual/high for four minutes, then immediately release. Spread the potato pieces out on a cookie sheet to cool, and dunk the eggs into cold water until cool enough to handle.

Peel and chop the eggs. Mix together green onions, relish, chopped dill pickle and pickle juice, mayo, mustard, ground celery and granulated garlic. Toss in the slightly warm potatoes, using a potato masher or pastry cutter to create a texture like very chunky mashed potatoes, then fold in the chopped eggs. Season to taste. Chill thoroughly, then serve.

Cucumber Pickle Relish
(Source: Ball Blue Book)

4 cups chopped cucumbers
2 cups chopped onions
2 cups chopped sweet red peppers (or hot peppers)
1/4 cup salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon celery seed
1 tablespoon mustard seed
2 teaspoons turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper
2 cups cider vinegar
3 tablespoons minced garlic
3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

Combine cucumbers, onions, red peppers in a large bowl; sprinkle with salt and cover with cold water. Let stand two hours. Drain; rinse and drain thoroughly

Combine sugar, spices and vinegar in a large sauce pot. Bring to a boil. Add drained vegetables; simmer ten minutes. Pack hot relish into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process 10 minutes (15 for pints) in a boiling-water canner.

Yield: About four pints 

Lastly, for Christmukkah treats, I made three batches of the beloved matzoh toffee, so that I could bag it up as little gifts. And as we are going through a very early cold snap, I was able to use my own porch as a blast chiller for both the potato salad and the matzoh toffee before the party. Ha ha.

O, Amherst, Where Art Thou?

My friend Jamie is a real renaissance man. Besides being an amazing musician, he's a fabulous cook and gardener. His specialty is his homemade hot sauces (with chilies he grows himself) that are delicious, but might actually blow your head off. Tee hee.

But to the matter at hand, we used to have this great little burrito shop in our town that made many different kinds of interesting burritos, all charmingly named after different cities. But unfortunately, they have changed locations and owners a couple of times, and the joint is just not what it used to be. The menu has changed, too, and a lot former favorites are no longer available. One of Jamie's hobbies, like mine, is to try an retro-engineer restaurant items to be made at home. So Jamie decided to try and replicate his favorite burrito known as "The Amherst." Then he posted about it on Facebook, and though I had never tried that one, it looked and sounded so good, that I wanted to make my own version.

On the old restaurant menu, "The Amherst" had chicken salad, cheddar jack cheese, cucumber-dill cream cheese, and tomatoes, and then it was grilled, panini-style. Jamie leaves off the tomatoes, adds rice and bacon and, of course, some of his special hot sauce. As for the one I made, I started by mixing softened cream cheese (8 oz.) with about 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill, two small dill pickles (instead of raw cucumbers), 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic, and black pepper, to taste. I spread some of this on a large flour tortilla, then added a handful of shredded colby jack, and about a quarter cup of black Japonica rice (1 1/2 cups of rice in a scant two cups of water with a good pinch of salt for 24 minutes on Manual/high in the Instant Pot), Next came prepared chicken salad (Sam's Club makes a decent one with white meat--or you can make your own, of course) and chopped tomatoes. I chose not to grill mine, but I did drizzle it with sriracha. YUM and YUM!

2016 is already COOKIN'!

As Suzie Diamond says in The Fabulous Baker Boys about New Year's resolutions, "I figure all that stuff's a bunch of crap, anyway. You do what you do, right?" But one resolution I know I can keep is to cook lots of tasty food in new year, and I'm already cooking up a storm for 2016! I made Monte Cristo Sliders and Sour Cream Banana Cake with Vanilla Bean Frosting for a New Year's Eve party last night. And then for lunch today, I whipped up a hearty and comforting (and easy!) Beefy Tomato Soup. Shout-out to my wonderful friend, Karen, for sharing the recipe. All in all, what a delicious start to the new year!

Here are the pics and recipes:

My friends at the New Year's Eve party that I attended were all over these tasty little sammies, and I took home two empty pans! WOOT! They also loved the banana cake, even some of them who claimed (like myself) not to like bananas. I especially loved the frosting, and I will use it n the future of other kinds of cakes.

And the soup I made for lunch today is also going into a regular rotation around here! It's simple and yummy, and perfect for a busy work week dinner with leftovers to take for lunch the next day.

Baked Monte Cristo Party Sliders
(Source: Creme de la Crumb)

12 King's Hawaiian rolls, sliced in half horizontally
12 slices deli ham
12 slices deli turkey
6 slices swiss cheese, cut in half
1/2 cup butter (8 tablespoons), melted
1 egg
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
1 to 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
raspberry preserves (I used homemade black raspberry-peach jam)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease or spray a 9x13 inch baking pan. (I used disposable aluminum pans covered with foil to take to the party.)

Slice rolls in half horizontally. Place bottom halves (side by side, touching) in your prepared baking pan. Distribute ham over the bottom half of the rolls. Next layer the turkey, then the swiss cheese. Top with the top halves of the rolls.

In a bowl, whisk together melted butter, egg, and dijon mustard. Pour mixture over rolls. Cover loosely with foil (tent the foil so that it does not touch the tops of the rolls) and bake for 20 minutes.  Uncover and bake for 10-15 minutes longer.

Using a mesh strainer, sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve the sliders with raspberry preserves.

To Die For Banana Cake with Vanilla Bean Frosting
(Source: adapted from Cooking Classy)

1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed overripe bananas (from about 3 large)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans, optional

Frosting
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

For the cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 13 by 9-inch baking dish (or use baking spray) then set aside.
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together sugar and butter, then mix in sour cream and eggs (occasionally scrape down bowl throughout mixing process). Stir in mashed banana and vanilla extract. Add the flour, salt and baking soda then mix well. Mix in nuts, if using.

Pour batter into prepared baking dish, spread into an even layer and bake in preheated oven until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 33 - 38 minutes. Cool completely on wire rack before frosting.

For the frosting:
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together butter, powdered sugar and vanilla bean paste. Slowly add in heavy cream and mix until smooth and fluffy. Spread over cooled cake. Store cake in refrigerator in an airtight container. Let rest at room temperature a bit before serving.

Beefy Tomato Soup
(Source: adapted from Mantitlement)

1 lb. ground beef
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
pinch of red pepper flakes
1 (23.5) oz jar of your favorite pasta sauce
4 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup (1/2 8 oz. package) cream cheese
11/2 cups  elbow macaroni or short-tubed pasta
1/4 cup fresh chopped basil, divided (or 2T dried)
Parmesan cheese, for garnish

In a large pot heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for three to four minutes until the onion gets soft. Add the ground beef, breaking up with a spoon and cook until no longer pink, then add the garlic, salt, pepper, oregano, and red pepper flakes to the beef and stir to combine. Next pour in the chicken stock, scraping the bottom of the pot as you stir, then add the jar of pasta sauce.

Bring the soup to a simmer and let cook for ten minutes. Stir in the cream cheese, using a whisk to incorporate it well, then add half of the fresh basil. Pour in the pasta, stir and let cook for another ten minutes with the lid on. (If the soup is too thick for your liking, thin with additional chicken stock.)

Spoon into bowls and garnish with the leftover basil and a sprinkle of Parmesan.

BEST. PANINI. EVER.

Stop what you're doing. Go to the kitchen. Get out your leftovers. Make this magnificent Thanksgiving turkey panini.

Use Puerto Rican bread (or your favorite type of sub roll) spread with a small amount of butter and toasted on a griddle. When golden brown, spread one side with your favorite mustard (I am obsessed with Green Mountain Mustard's Clove Encounter), the other with cranberry sauce. Add sliced cheese to both sides (I used sharp cheddar because that's what I had on hand). Heat up some stuffing and add that to the bottom part of the roll. Drizzle with hot gravy, then top with pieces of warmed turkey. Place the other half of the roll (and cheese) on top, and then grill on both sides until the cheese melts, pressing down with a heavy lid or pan (or use a panini press).

For this, you will be truly thankful.
#yourewelcome

Cooking...without really cooking.

We are heading into the roughest part of the semester, and it seems like I have commitments almost every weekend lately, too. So today, I am thankful just to be at home and to have no plans. I need a break! But a gal's gotta eat, so I made a simple yet innovative lunch that I thought I'd share with you. Ladies and gentlemen, the Grilled Kimcheese Sandwich! I used both sharp and smoked cheddars, my homemade kimchi, and a fried egg. (Carnivores may wish to add ham, but I found it unnecessary.) SO DELICIOUS! This "recipe" is a keeper, for sure.

Since I was just enjoying my lazy Saturday, I had no intentions of baking anything. But one of my friends on Facebook posted something about making a "Watergate Cake" for her boyfriend, and I was intrigued. It's basically just a pistachio cake, but the moniker is an homage to President Nixon. According to crafsty.com, "After the Watergate scandal broke, there was a surge of interest in all things Richard Nixon. Turns out, pistachio was a favorite flavor of Nixon’s, and so all sorts of pistachio-flavored treats proliferated and were dubbed 'Watergate.' This cake is one of the more enduring examples, possibly because of its clever topping: 'cover up' icing." Ha ha! Not only is the name of this cake interesting, it's a cinch to make, because it's made with a boxed cake mix and instant pudding. The food purists may balk, but it was pretty tasty. I like it best once it chills in the fridge.

A couple of notes: Many recipes that you find online call for chopped pecans, but I think a pistachio cake should have, well, pistachios! Most recipes also call for powdered Dream Whip in the topping, but Cool Whip saves you a step and holds up longer in the fridge. Lastly, many recipes call for shredded coconut either in the cake or the topping or both, but I personally can't abide it. But you do as you like. In the words of Nadia G, "It doesn't affect me." (Tee hee.)

Watergate Cake with Cover-Up Icing
(Sources: cobbled together from a number of similar recipes on the interwebs)

Cake:

1 box white cake mix
3 eggs
1 cup lemon-lime seltzer
1 cup finely chopped roasted pistachios
1 cup vegetable oil
1 (3 1/2 ounce) package instant pistachio pudding mix

Cover-Up Icing:
1 1/2 cups cold milk
1 (3 1/2 ounce) packages instant pistachio pudding mix
1 regular tub (9 oz.) Cool Whip
1/2 cup chopped roasted pistachios

Cake: Mix all of the cake ingredients together. Pour into a greased and floured 13x9 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes or until a tester comes out with just moist crumbs clinging to it. Cool completely.

Icing: Beat the milk and the pudding mix together, then fold in the Cool Whip. Spread on top of cooled cake. Sprinkle with nuts. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours untl well-chilled. 

Store leftover cake covered in the refrigerator.

Picnic at the Agility Trial

My friend, June, invite me to another agility trial with her poodle, Beau, today. I had to be at her house at zero-dark-thirty to travel to lovely Lewis, NY, but we had a very nice day. It started off quite chilly, but the sun came out by the afternoon. And June and Beau qualified and placed first on all of their runs! But best of all was the picnic lunch that we prepared.

June brought two thermoses full of this wonderfully spiced butternut squash soup. She said she based it off of a recipe that she found on Epicurious that she will direct me to later, but basically, she started with bacon and shallots, vegetable broth and white wine, the squash, of course, and then star anise, peppercorns, and a bay leaf in a tea ball, and a sprinkling of cinnamon and fresh nutmeg at the end. So warming, filling, and DELICIOUS!

Since June did soup, my job was sandwiches. And I began by pondering the eternal question, why couldn't you combine a BLT and a Caprese salad into one incredible sandwich? As it turns out, you definitely can! So for the BLT part of the equation, I used local Bibb lettuce, peppered bacon, yellow heirloom tomatoes and a little mayo on a toasted crusty roll (ciabatta would be awesome, too). Then for the Caprese elements, I added fresh mozzarella slices, basil leaves from my herb garden, and a drizzle of thick balsamic glaze--the tomato being the common denominator, of course. You could also blend the mayo and basil leaves to make an herby spread, but I just layered on the whole basil leaves. SO YUMMY! The ultimate end-of-summer sandwich!

First Crock Pot Meal of the Fall Semester!

Fall semester is officially underway, and the weather has swung back to summery and sticky. Thus, I turned to my trusty crock pot to cook dinner for me while I was at work, and as a bonus, I didn't have to heat up the kitchen to prepare a meal when I got home. Someone recently posted this recipe on Facebook (sorry, but it did not include the source), and it's FANTASTIC! I made this with Coke, since I had some left over from the Coca-Cola cake, but you can use Dr Pepper, Coke, or root beer. And by the time I got home, I just had to shred and sauce the pork, toast some rolls, and throw together a quick cole slaw while the meat finished cooking. PULLED PORK--ON A WEEKNIGHT!

Dr Pepper Pulled Pork in the Slow Cooker

1 large onion, peeled, cut in half and sliced
3-4 lb pork butt (aka pork SHOULDER--I used bone-in, DO NOT substitute a loin roast!)
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced (or 4!)
1 1/2 teaspoons dry ground mustard
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon each salt and black pepper
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
24 oz. (2 cans) Dr Pepper (or Classic Coke or root beer)
barbecue sauce of choice (I like Sweet Baby Ray's)

Place the sliced onions in the bottom of the slow cooker. Place the pork butt on top of the onions and add the garlic, ground mustard, cayenne pepper, salt, pepper, apple cider vinegar and Worcestershire sauce. Pour the Dr. Pepper on top and cook on high for 4-5 hours or on low for 8 hours. (Mine took about seven hours on HIGH, maybe because I used a bone-in roast. Anyhoo, keep going until it's fork-tender. Also, if you are around, you might want to flip the roast about halfway through the cooking time.)Very carefully, because the pork will be hot, remove the meat from the slow cooker and place on a large cutting board. Remove bones if there are any and excess fat. Using two forks, shred the pork by pulling away from each other. The meat should be very tender by this point. Place the shredded pork back into the slow cooker and continue to cook for an additional hour (on high).

Drain the remaining juices and toss the meat and onion mixture in the barbecue sauce of choice. Just add a bit at a time until you get to your desired level of sauciness. I also added a couple of big squeezes of yellow mustard, because I am all about mustard! Serve on toasted Kaiser rolls with a mound of cole slaw on top. 

For the cole slaw: I used a bag of cole slaw mix (1lb.), maybe a scant cup of Miracle Whip thinned with about three tablespoons of red wine vinegar, and seasoned with about 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper and 1/2 teaspoon or so of ground celery. That's it! SO DELICIOUS, and we are exclusively a Team Mayo household. I probably buy Miracle Whip once every five years, if that. But it made a nicely thick, sweet dressing that didn't break down and become watery by the next day.

Layering on the summery goodness...

My roommate is still home, malingering after her gall bladder surgery, so I find myself in charge of making us breakfast, lunch, AND dinner (or brunch, supper, and late-night snack, as the case very well may be). That's a lot of food ideas that I have to come up with every day! Today, I made a cream of tomato and roasted red pepper soup with fresh parsley and basil, and The Pioneer Woman's "best ever" grilled cheese sandwiches on the side. Bless her heart, P-Dub doesn't lie. Those sandwiches were the business!

I used multigrain bread buttered lightly on the outside and spread with a very thin layer of mayo and spicy brown mustard on the inside, a slice of provolone, a whole mild chile (from a can, though roasting your own Anaheim would be better), a slice of cheddar-jack, some pickled red onion slices, another slice of provolone, a tiny bit more of the mayo-mustard sauce, and topped with another buttered slice of bread. Then you grill the sammies SLOWLY over low heat so that all of the cheese has a chance to melt before the bread burns. PW's version also involves sliced tomato, but I omitted that layer because we were having tomato soup.

 

Then for dinner, I made a version of something I had pinned to my "Recipes to Try" board on Pinterest called Mexican Shrimp Cobb Salad (though it has no bacon or bleu cheese, so that's probably a misnomer). Mine had farm stand lettuce, smoky cumin-lime shrimp (large ez-peels tossed with cumin, smoked paprika, granulated garlic, salt and lemon pepper then sauteed, and the pan deglazed with lime juice), avocado slices, grilled corn cut from the cob (nuked for five minutes in the husks then blistered over a gas burner for a minute or two), seasoned black beans (from Trader Joe's), artichoke and garlic salsa (Aldi), chopped tomatoes, (farm stand), shredded cheddar cheese, black olives, green onions (farm stand), and creamy cilantro tomatillo dressing (1/4 cup each mayo and sour cream mixed with 1/2 cup of my homemade roasted tomatillo salsa, a couple of cloves of minced garlic, and thinned with lime juice).

The salad was really yummy, but I think it needed some crunchy, crushed-up tortilla chips tossed on there for good measure. Note to self for next time. Also, if you were to layer all of the ingredients in a trifle bowl, it would be a real showstopper to take to a picnic or potluck!

Recipe inspired by: http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/07/mexican-shrimp-cobb-salad.html

Like that Bible miracle...but with ham.

I have been playing my Aldi "Chopped" game again, where I wander around the store, grabbing random things, then I come home and figure out how to combine them. This round, I sliced up half a large onion and put it in the bottom of the crock pot, then put in a small ham (3-4 lbs.). I sprinkled it with pepper, garlic, and ground celery seed, and slathered it with grainy honey mustard and a handful of brown sugar. Then I added the mystery ingredient--a jar of red cabbage and apples--and finally, a good splash of apple cider vinegar. I cooked it in the crock pot on low all day (6-8 hours) then served it with homemade mashed potatoes. This is my basic methodology for cooking pork roast, but I wasn't sure what it would be like with ham. As it turns out, it's DELICIOUS! My roommate was heard to exclaim, "I never want to eat anything else but THIS!" Ha ha.

We had this ham dinner for two nights, and there was still plenty left. Monday night after choir rehearsal, I stopped by Panera to buy a loaf of bread to make some sandwiches for an Election Night party (FOUR MORE YEARS! FOUR MORE YEARS!), but they were closed. Boo hiss. So I popped into Walmart and I was surprised to find that they had Cubano bread in their bakery. So I made two (whole loaf) Cubano sandwiches for the get-together.

A Cubano is normally ham and pork roast, but I used ham and honey roasted turkey, Swiss cheese, yellow mustard, and homemade pickles, and crisped up the bread and melted the cheese in a 400 degree oven for a few minutes before serving. My fellow Democrats gobbled them up, despite the fact that Cuban sandwiches made no sense thematically for the occasion. Tee hee. (Pictured left is the AWESOME serving platter than my darling friend, Kurt, sent me for my birthday. It reads: "Democrat: a person who believes in the political and social equality of all. A member of the Democratic Party of the United States." How perfect is that??)

And can you believe that there was STILL ham left after all of this? So for lunch today, I chopped the remaining ham (a couple of cups?) and whizzed it up in the food processor with half of an onion and three medium dill pickles, a good dash of black pepper, and about a half cup of mayo. Then I toasted up some bread, slathered on the ham salad, topped each open-faced sandwich with a slice of sharp cheddar (one had to have pepper jack when I ran out of cheddar), and some tomato slices for my roommate's sammies. YUM! And all this from one little seven-dollar Aldi ham! I AM THE BUDGET MASTER! FEAR ME!