Giving Other Pork Chops a Run for Their Money

Good evening everyone!  If I've said it once, I'll say it again:  sometimes the best recipes are the most simplest.  Simple ingredients and/or simple preparation often lead to the most delicious results.  Tonight, I have another great example of this great cooking concept and will yield one great recipe!

The Recipe:  Tuscan-Style Garlic-Herb Pork Chops
Original Recipe Found In:  Cooking Light, October 2014 Issue

What You'll Need:
4 Teaspoons Olive Oil, divided
1/4 Cup chopped fresh flat-leaf Parsley
2 Tablespoons thinly sliced Sage Leaves
1 Tablespoon Balsamic Vinegar
1 Teaspoon finely chopped Rosemary
3 Garlic cloves, minced and divided
4 (6 Ounce) bone-in, center-cut loin Pork Chops
1/2 Teaspoon freshly ground Black Pepper
1/4 Teaspoon Salt

To start, preheat a grill pan to high heat.  While the grill pan heats, combine two teaspoons oil, two tablespoons parsley, sage, balsamic vinegar, rosemary, and half the garlic on a clean plate.  Stir until the oil and vinegar have just started to combine.  Set the plate aside, combine the mixture only if the oil and vinegar start to separate.

Next, sprinkle the pork chops on both sides with 1/4 teaspoon pepper and the salt.  By this time, the the grill pan should be good and hot.  Coat the grill rack with cooking spray and place the chops on the grill pan.  Grill for five minutes on one side, then turn the chops over and continue to grill for three to five minutes, or until done or a meat thermometer reads 145 degrees.

Transfer the chops to the plate with the oil, vinegar, and herbs and turn to coat in the herb mixture.  If you want more of the herb mixture, you can spoon more of it on top of the chops.  Serve the chops with your favorite side dish or vegetable and enjoy!

The End Result:

This is one flavorful chop!  What normally is a "blah" pork chop is really enhanced by the fresh garlic and herb "marinade", although I can't call it a true marinade, since the chops didn't sit in it for any particular time.  Obviously, the oil and vinegar help bind the herbs and garlic to the chops, and that always a good thing!  While this might not be the most complicated recipe, the flavors certainly outdo the work and makes for one incredibly delicious dish!

Thanks for joining us tonight, check back frequently for brand new recipes heading your way!  Until then,

~Cheers!

Stout Chicken Stew

Good evening everyone! Every once in a while, I look back on the recipes we cook and review the "season". The last time I did this for last fall / winter, I came to a conclusion - I didn't make enough stew and soup recipes. Fall, after all, is stew season and soups and stews are some of my favorite dishes to cook up. So, this fall I plan on focusing a lot more on soups, stews and "foods of the season". (Don't worry, we're not launching a "16 weeks of stews" feature).

We're getting the stew theme started this week by combining some of our favorite things: craft beer, fresh ingredients and easy preparation. Intrigued? You should be! Let's get cooking!

The Recipe: Stout Chicken Stew
Original Recipe Found on: Eatingwell.com

What You'll Need:

2 Pounds Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs*
1 Cup All Purpose Flour (divided)
5 Slices Thick Cut Bacon (chopped)
1 Pound Baby Carrots (Cut into 1 inch pieces)
2 Cups White Onion (Diced)
3 Garlic Cloves (Minced)
2 Cups Frozen Peas
12 Ounces Stout Beer**
1 Cup Low Sodium Chicken Broth


* For this recipe you will NEED boneless, skinless thighs. Chicken thighs can take longterm cooking better than any other cut of chicken and this recipe intends to cook the chicken until it falls apart. Since we're cooking the pieces to that point, you don't want skin and bones to "gunk" up the works - boneless skinless is the only way to go.

** We're big fans of craft brewing and local brewing. As such, when we have a chance to feature a smaller brewery, we always want to "tip our cap" towards their efforts. We enjoy the entire portfolio of beers offered by Millstream Brewing - especially their ales and stouts. So, when this dish called for a stout beer, we knew exactly where to turn.

Begin preparing the dish by adding 1/2 cup of the flour to a plate with a pinch of salt and pepper. Dredge the chicken thighs through this mixture until all of the thighs are evenly covered in a thin layer of flour. Set the chicken aside until all pieces are covered.

Add 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil to a large (12 inch) non stick skillet over medium high heat. Bring the oil to a shimmer before adding the chicken and cooking for 5 minutes per side, or until the exterior turns a nice golden brown. Once all the pieces are evenly browned, transfer them to the bottom of a 5 quart slow cooker.

Using the same skillet (don't clean it out) add the bacon and cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until the bacon begins to brown. Next, add the remaining 1/2 cup of flour to the skillet and cook for an additional two minutes, stirring constantly. Once the mixture begins to thicken, stir in the stout beer. Use a spatula or wooden spoon to work up any browned on bits from the bottom of the skillet. Once the mixture thickens and you'e worked up all the browned on bits, carefully pour the mixture into the slow cooker over the chicken.

Add the carrots, onions and garlic to the slow cooker along with the chicken broth. Give the mixture a good stir before coving the slow cooker and setting it to low. Allow the stew to cook for 7 to 8 hours.

Roughly 15 minutes before serving, stir in the frozen peas and allow them to cook until heated through. Immediately before serving, use a spatula or wooden spoon to stir the stew a final time - this should break up any of the larger chicken pieces (that haven't already broken up during cooking).

Once you're satisfied all the chicken is broken up into manageable chunks, simply serve and enjoy!

The Results:

The base of this stew is bacon and beer...how do you think it tasted?!

The answer, obviously, is fantastic.

The base of the stew was deep and rich with flavor (no strong beer flavoring here) while the veggies added a bit of bright "fresh" flavors to the dish. The chicken's lovely neutral flavor tied the whole dish together and formed a delicious warming stew.


That's all we have for you this evening. Maggie takes to the kitchen tomorrow night with a fresh new take on a classic pasta recipe. Until then,

~Cheers

16 Burgers of Summer: Latin Burger

Good evening everyone! We missed our official cutoff by a day – but hey, it’s our blog, so who cares!? I, of course, am speaking in regards to our burgers of summer series where from May through…well, today, we featured a brand new burger recipe every week. We’ve tried everything from the standard cheeseburger to making turkey burgers a dish they deserve. We wrap things up today with the most ambitious burger recipe to date. The grilled pork Latin burger. This baby is so packed full of spices I almost didn’t give it a shot. As our series drew to a close I thought “why not?” and decided to close out the feature with the most unique burger yet. The results? Well, we’ll get there.

The Recipe: Grilled Pork Latin Burger

Original Recipe Adapted From: Food Network: Our Favorite Meals

What You’ll Need:

1 Pound Ground Pork
3 Garlic Cloves (Chopped)
1 Tablespoon Dried Oregano
1 Tablespoon Ground Ancho Chile Powder
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1 Teaspoon Ground Coriander
½ Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
¼ Teaspoon Ground Allspice
¼ Teaspoon Ground Cloves
1 Teaspoon Kosher Salt

Begin by combining all of the spices in a medium bowl (Yes, all) mix until well blended, then add the ground pork to the bowl and use your hands to work the pork and spices together until everything is well blended. There’s a lot of spice in this mixture, so don’t be alarmed if you only see a bit of actual pink pork when you’re done. There’s a lot to blend it and not a lot of room to get it done.

As we’ve done with nearly every burger recipe before, place the patties on a plate and store it in the refrigerator for at least 10 minutes. That will allow the patties to set up a bit before moving to the grill.

Speaking of the grill, preheat it to 500 degrees, clean the grates and then turn off one side of the grill. Lower the other side to medium (300 degrees). The 300 degree side is the side we’ll be using.

Place the patties on the grill and cook for 5 to 7 minutes per side, or until the burgers have browned nicely and the pork is evenly cooked through. If you’d like, check the center of the pork for 165 degrees (safe temperature for all ground meats, per the FDA) with an instant read thermometer.

To this point, we’ve followed the recipe very close – however, we’re about to go off the rails here. The original dish calls for jack cheese to top these burgers. BUT, as you’re cooking them and smell the spices, adding cheese just doesn’t seem to fit. As cinnamon, allspice and clove filled the air, my stomach actually churned at the notion of trying to add cheese to that blend. So, I bailed and turned to plan B.

In this case, B stood for BBQ sauce.

My theory was these intense spices needed a sweeter offset – thus BBQ sauce would be the perfect companion. I spread a thin layer of our favorite BBQ sauce (Sweet Baby Rays) on the bottom of a bakery fresh bun and topped with the burger. You can add other fixings as you see fit, but I opted to leave the burger as it stood.

The Results:

This is one intense burger. Allspice, cinnamon, ancho chile powder, cloves – there’s a lot of flavor competing for center stage with this dish and, served on its own, it’s almost too much. The BBQ sauce, however, was the savior of the dish. After trying a bit of the burger without the sauce, I moved on to eating it with the sauce and was amazed at the change. The sweet yet spicy sauce completely mellowed the rest of the spices and pulled all of the flavors into one cohesive unit. The end result was a perfectly OK burger. Of the 16 we tried, I think this one finishes 16^th. That’s not to say it’s a BAD dish, there’s just a lot of spice that goes towards this dish and I don’t know that it’s really worth all the effort.

That’s all we have for you this evening, but we’ve got a jam PACKED week coming up. I have a new recipe to debut later in the week (it’s NOT a burger) that looks back to classic French cuisine. Maggie has a new dish featuring a brand new take with pork chops. I’ll follow that with ANOTHER new recipe (likely on Friday) and we’ll close out the week with a product review and maybe even a pumpkin cupcake recipe.

We’ve been busy this summer, so we’ve got a bit of a backlog to clean out, but rest assured we’ve still got lots of cooking to share. Until next time,

~Cheers

Stay at Home & Make this Breakfast Sandwich

Good evening everyone!  While last week I made a variation on the breakfast muffin, tonight I'll be making another variation of a different kind.  While you don't typically think of breakfast sandwiches making their mainstay in the home realm, I've found a delicious dish that will change your mind on how you think this notion.  

The Recipe:  Banana-Almond Butter French Toast Sandwiches
Original Recipe Found In:  Cooking Light, September 2014 Issue

What You'll Need:
2 Large Eggs
1/4 Cup Unsweetened Almond Milk
2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1/4 Teaspoon Cinnamon
2 Tablespoons Almond Butter*
4 Teaspoons Maple Syrup
1 Banana
4 Slices Multigrain Bread

*If you've been in the supermarket the last year or so, you've probably seen several variations of nut butters.  We're all familiar with the peanut variety, but almond, soy, and other nuts have hit the shelves.  Some stores even have the option of making your own nut butter.  This is definitely an untapped market for the blog.  While almond butter isn't as sweet as standard peanut butter, it's creamier, smoother texture and consistency than peanut butter.  This is why it is used in this recipe.

To start, make the french toast dipping mixture.  In a small bowl, crack the eggs and discard the shells.  Also add the almond milk, vanilla extract, and cinnamon.  Whisk to combine and set aside.  If the cinnamon starts to separate from the rest of the mixture before the cooking part, whisk again for consistency.

Next, in a small mixing bowl combine the almond butter and maple syrup until thoroughly mixed.  Set this mixture aside.  On a plate, cut the banana lengthwise into four thin slices then cut crosswise into halves.  Set the banana slices aside also.  Spread the almond butter evenly across all four slices of bread.  Top two bread slices with four banana pieces.  Place the remaining two bread slices over the banana, sandwiching the almond butter and bananas inside.

Using a grill pan and a sandwich press, you can speed up the process of making the french toast sandwiches.  Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat.  Meanwhile, very carefully dip the sandwiches in the egg mixture and let any excess drip off.  Once the grill pan is heated, place one sandwich down and using the sandwich press, cover.  Cook for three to four minutes on each side, until the egg has cooked and the bread as browned.  Also, the almond butter should be heated inside the sandwich.  Place sandwiches on a cutting board to cut in half, serve, and enjoy!

The End Result:

These "breakfast" sandwiches are delicious, melty, and gooey (and I wouldn't want it any other way!)  The almond butter, combined with the maple syrup is an  ingenious design.  While the syrup doesn't shine completely in the butter, it adds a sweetness it definitely needs.  The bananas hit the right notes also and don't weigh the sandwich down with mushiness.  If I make any french toast in the future, I'll want to use the mixture from this recipe.  The vanilla extract with the cinnamon are tasty additions in the standard "milk and egg" french toast mixture.  Overall, another great breakfast for supper (or breakfast for breakfast) recipe that I highly recommend you check out.

Thanks for joining us tonight.  Tyler will close out the week with another delicious burger recipe.  Until then,

~Cheers!

16 Burgers of Summer: Classic Drive-In Burgers

Good evening everyone. We continue our burgers of summer series with a classic that, at one time, I thought would be difficult to duplicate. I'm not talking about the standard "off the grill" burger, but the true "burger joint" burger. If you've ever been to a true blue burger drive in or burger joint (note: not the chains - not a modern "burger bar" but a traditional, old school "burger joint") you know what I've talking about. There's something about a true burger joint's burger that makes them unbelievably savory and yet...difficult to duplicate at home.

Until tonight. I found an America's Test Kitchen recipe for "classic burgers" and an accompanying recipe for "burger sauce". With a few tweaks, I had the base for our own attempt at recreating the burger joint classic.


The Recipe: Drive In Burgers
Recipe Adapted From: Classic Cheeseburgers (America's Test Kitchen)


What You'll Need:

1 Crackin' Burger Recipe
4 Slices American Cheese
1 Small Onion (Diced fine)

For the burger sacue:

2 Tablespoons Mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon Sriracha
1 Teaspoon Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Teaspoon Pepper

For the french fries:

2.5 Pounds Yukon Gold Potatoes (Sliced thin)
6 Cups Peanut Oil


You can make the burger sauce a day ahead of time (just keep it covered in the refrigerator). To make the sauce, simply add all of the ingredients to a small bowl and whisk until blended. Store in the refrigerator until needed.

The fries are the most time consuming part of this recipe - so if you're making every part of this dish - begin here. Add the potatoes into a large dutch oven and slowly add the peanut oil. Set the dutch oven on your stove over high heat and bring the oil to a rolling boil. Allow to potatoes to cook at this high temperature for 5 minutes before reducing the heat to medium high. Give the potatoes a light stir and then allow them to cook for 10 minutes before reducing the heat to medium, stirring gently once more and cooking for an additional 5 minutes. During this last 5 minutes, preheat your broiler and place a wire drying rack over a rimmed baking sheet.

Drain the oil from the potatoes and transfer them to the wire rack. Place the baking sheet in the oven under the broiler for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the potatoes are a deep golden brown and are nice and crispy. Serve with a sprinkle of salt alongside a burger  or any dish of your choosing.

To prepare the burgers: add a tablespoon of oil to a large (12 inch) non stick skillet over medium high heat. Once the oil begins to shimmer, add the burgers and cook for 3 to 5 minutes per side until the burger has developed an even brown exterior and is cooked through. After the second 5 minute cooking phase, spoon some onions on the top of each patty before covering the patties (and onions) with a slice of American cheese. Reduce the heat to low and cover the skillet for 2 minutes or until the cheese is completely melted and has encased the burger.

Spread a thin layer of the burger sauce on a bakery fresh bun and top with the burger. Serve with the fries and enjoy!

The Results:

It may look like a big goopy mess, but it holds together well (and tastes great!) 

This is, without a doubt, the easiest way to duplicate that traditional "burger joint" flavor without even having to leave the house. The blending of raw onions with the melted cheese and skillet fried burger creates a great flavor - but the true "clincher" is the burger sauce, which when combined with the aforementioned flavors creates the best burgers you can make in your own kitchen. The fries are a nice crispy companion to the burger and are relatively low maintenance (as far as at home frying goes). All in all, this is one dish that's simple to create, but you'll have your family or friends thinking you're a culinary mastermind. That's a pretty good pairing in my opinion!

That's all we have for you this evening. Maggie takes to the kitchen later this week with a unique dish that is sure to please the whole family. I'll follow her with another burger recipe as we near the end of our summer burger series. Until then,

~Cheers

Not Your Momma's Muffins

Good evening everyone!  As many followers know, we have many themes we rotate through here on the blog.  With the general "healthy" and "good-for-you" overall theme, I often tend to shift between two different themes:  Mexican and breakfast.  As long as there are new recipes to try, I don't think I can ever exhaust recipes from these themes.  Tonight, I present a new breakfast for dinner recipe, that is something completely new, and also completely delicious.

The Recipe:  Savory Egg Muffins
Original Recipe Found From:  www.cookinglight.com

What You'll Need:
1 1/2 Cups Water
2 Tablespoons unsalted Butter
1 (6-Ounce) package Stuffing mix for chicken (such as Stove-Top)
3 Ounces ground Pork Sausage
6 large Eggs, beaten
1/3 Cup Monterey Jack Cheese, shredded
1/2 Cup finely chopped Red Bell Pepper
1/4 Cup sliced Green Onions

To start, combine the water and butter in a medium saucepan.  Bring the combination to a boil over medium-high heat and stir in stuffing mix.  Cover with a lid and take the pan off the heat.  Let the pan stand for five minutes, then fluff with a fork.  Uncover the pan and let stand for 10 minutes, or until cool enough to handle.  This might require fluffing additional times while uncovered, because the heat will retain its temperature in the pan!

Next, while the stuffing cools, cook the sausage in a small, nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Cook for five to eight minutes, or until the sausage has browned lightly.  Depending how fatty the sausage is, you might need to drain the excess fat.

At this point, you can preheat an oven to 400 degrees and prepare a muffin tin, by heavily coating the bottom and sides with cooking spray.  Give a quick spritz to your fingertips and press 1/4 cup of the stuffing into the bottom of each muffin cup.

Next, pour the egg mixture evenly into the stuffing cups.

Layer with cheese, sausage, bell pepper, and green onion evenly over the egg.

Once all the muffin cups have been filled, place the muffin tin in the oven and bake at 400 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes, or until the centers of the muffins have been set.  Bring out of the oven and let stand for five minutes before serving.  Lightly run a small knife around the edges of the muffin cups to loosen.  Serve and enjoy!

The End Result:

These are definitely one-of-kind muffins!  If you are expecting any sort of sweetness, you will not get it from these muffins.  The stuffing gives a base to the muffins, without expanding them at all.  The eggs are just fluffy enough, without too much weight.  Also, the cheese, sausage, and veggies add their own pops of flavor to really harmonize the entire muffin.  If you were to serve this as part of a breakfast meal, I would recommend adding something a bit sweet, to balance out the flavors, maybe a french toast?  But these little morsels can definitely add to your next breakfast (or breakfast for dinner) meal!

That's all we have for you this week, but before we go, I wanted to take the time to wish my blog partner, my husband, Tyler, a happy 4th anniversary today.  We started this blog several months before our wedding and continued through a wedding and moving into a house.  There's been plenty of adventures (besides cooking) to had and there'll be much more to come.  Tyler:  I've been blessed to have you by my side through it all and through the many years ahead.  You complete me and I'm "lucky in love with my best friend".  Thank you for sharing your journey with me - I love you!

Join us next week as we continue our culinary adventures with brand new recipes and product reviews.  Until then,

~Cheers!

16 Burgers of Summer: BBQ Pork Burger

Good evening everyone! Labor day unofficially marks the end of summer - which SHOULD have marked the end of our burgers of summer series. Of course, life happens and even the best laid plays go astray. As a  result, today's burger entry is number 13 in our burgers of summer series. We've got another recipe on tap for this weekend and we'll look to close out our series NEXT week with two other burger recipes.

A week off isn't too bad in the big picture...right?

Either way, the series continues today with a take on a classic. I saw a recipe for a pulled pork sandwich last weekend that got me to thinking...why can't I turn a pulled pork sandwich into a burger? Now, I knew I couldn't just make a pulled pork sandwich and call it a burger. That'd be cheating by the very strict definition of what a burger really is...so, as I am often accused of doing when I hit the kitchen - I improvised. The result? A delicious take on a culinary classic!

The Recipe: BBQ Pork Burger
This is an Out of the Culinary Original Recipe


What You'll Need:

1 Pound Ground Pork
1 Cup Prepared Coleslaw
Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce


Sometimes the best recipes are the simplest recipes. In trying to duplicate a pulled pork dish, I decided to embrace the elements that make the sandwich great - mainly pork and BBQ sauce. I've seen fresh coleslaw used as a topping on BBQ pork sandwiches, so I wanted to add that element as well - after that, I decided to keep it simple.

To begin, work the pork with a pinch of salt and pepper until well blended. Break the mixture into 4 separate balls and work the balls into smaller, equally sized patties. Like we've done with every burger we've made this summer - pop the patties onto a plate and allow them to rest in the refrigerator for 10 minutes before moving them to the grill.

Speaking of the grill, preheat it to 500 degrees, clean the grates and reduce the temperature of one burner to 300 degrees. Prepare the burgers over this burner.

Cook the burgers for 3 minutes per side. Once each side has developed a nice crisp outer edge - pour on a helping of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce and spread it evenly with a basting brush. Allow the burgers to sit over heat for 1 minute (so the sauce "bakes" onto the surface) before flipping and repeating the process. Once the burger has developed a nice even sauce glaze, remove them from the grill and place them atop a bakery fresh bun. Serve with a helping of fresh coleslaw and enjoy!

The Results:

The simplest recipes have always been my favorite. This dish simply shines by keeping it simple. The blending of grilled pork with a sweet yet savory BBQ sauce duplicates the all day flavor of pulled pork nicely. The addition of the fresh coleslaw adds a bright element to the burger that standard lettuce simply couldn't bring to the table.

This simple dish is a surefire way to spice up any weeknight meal. Give it a try yourself!

That's all we have for you this evening. Maggie will take to the kitchen tomorrow night with a brand new recipe and I'll close out the weekend with a brand new burger of my own. Until then,

~Cheers