Carnitas Soft Tacos

This dish is an experiment, because neither of us have ever cooked it. I just had my first taste of Carnitas a year ago, and Mikie has never made this before. She is pretty familiar with all of the ingredients, and we were eager to find another dish that we could use our picnic roasts with.

Traditionally, Carnitas are cooked with lard, but we opted to go with olive oil and chicken broth has a healthier alternative and quicken the cooking process.


We prepared fresh ingredients like oranges, red onions, avocados, lime juice and green chiles, using these fruits and vegetables together to brighten up the dish.

Aside from being really pretty to look at, it was really delicious. It kind of reminded me of our pulled pork dish a little bit, but we cooked it with green chiles and used other Mexican ingredients and spices to make it a completely different rendition.



COOKING DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook pork in large pot with olive oil on medium high heat until the pork is tender in center. Add Chicken Broth to avoid burning the meat and the bottom of the pan.Takes roughly 30 minutes to cook through. Finish in oven for another 15 to 20 minutes.



INGREDIENTS

• 1 Small Can of Diced Green Chiles
• 1/2 Cup of Chicken Broth
• 2 Pork Picnic Roasts
• 1/2 a Red Onion
• Sliced Avocados
• Sliced Oranges
• Squeezed Orange Juice
• Squeezed Lime Juice
• 1 Clove Chopped Garlic
• Salt & Pepper to Taste

Lentil Soup

If you haven't noticed it's been a while since we've updated our blog. Our whole family caught a cold. In case you don't know... when you have kids, if somebody gets sick, the whole family is going to catch it. There's just no way around it, especially when people don't know how to cover their mouths when they cough.




Seeing as though none of us has had much of an appetite lately, it's been tough to want to drag ourselves out of bed to fix dinner. Mikie thought some good hearty soup might by just the prescription we all needed to get us back up on our feet.





This Lentil soup recipe is really easy to make and is a sure-fire home remedy in the same league as chicken soup. This doesn't take long to prepare and won't keep you out of bed for hours cooking. It's a great vegetarian recipe (aside from the chicken broth) to prepare when you're sick and want to fix something that will warm your insides quickly.



INGREDIENTS

• 2 Cans of Swanson's Chicken Broth
• 2 Cans of Swanson's Vegetable Broth
• 1/2 an Onion cut into large chunks
• 4 Potatoes peeled and diced
• 2 Carrots peeled and sliced thinly
• 3 Stalks of Celery sliced thin
• 1/2 a large Zucchini diced
• 2 Cups of Lentils
• 1 Sprig of Rosemary
• Salt & Pepper to taste
  

COOKING DIRECTIONS

Add all ingredients to a large pot and cook on medium heat until lentils are al dente and vegetables are cooked.

Zucchini Spaghetti With Marinara Sauce & Sausage

Zucchini Spaghetti is a nice substitute sometimes. Mikie isn't really a big fan of macaroni in general and usually will opt for a rice dish over pasta any day of the week. Zucchini however offers a fun healthy alternative, since it happens to be one of those vegetables that inherits the flavors of whatever it's cooked with.



The kids also got a kick out of it since it's always fun to eat food that's the wrong color. It also helps that they have no clue that they're actually eating something that's good for them. It's a nice change of pace. It's a little crunchier than eating spaghetti and very tasty.




Now the sausage and tomato sauce is entirely up to you. We had some left over tomato sauce so we opted to use that. Normally you'll eat zucchini spaghetti with butter sauce, pesto or alfredo. Sausage is also a little rustic for this dish. A nice piece of fish could help make this a lighter meal.





INGREDIENTS

• 3 Large Zucchinis
• 1 Large Can of Pureed Tomato
• 1 Can of Tomato Paste
• 1/4 to 1/2 Cup of Red Wine
• 1/4 Cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 2 Cloves of Chopped Garlic
• 2 Chopped Shallots
• Italian Seasonings (Oregano, Basil, Parsley), Salt & Pepper
  
• 1 Package of Sweet Italian Sausage
  

COOKING DIRECTIONS

• Begin by heating some olive oil in a medium sized sauce pan on medium heat.
• Add in chopped shallots and garlic and heat until golden brown.
• Add in can of pureed tomato and paste and mix.
• Add in red wine and seasonings and then reduce heat to low and let simmer.
• Heat the sausage in a pan with a drizzle of olive oil until brown. You can either add these to the sauce or not when finished. Joe likes this, Mikie doesn't.
• Peel ribbons of zucchini either with a mandolin or a vegetable peeler. Since we don't own a mandolin we used a vegetable peeler to cut wide ribbons of zucchini.
• Cut ribbons into spaghetti width size strands or as close as you can get.
• Blanch the zucchini in boiling water for 1 minute (no more, no less-- otherwise the zucchini will become baby food) and then drain it and shock it in cold water to stop the cooking process. We ran cold water in the colander for about a minute.
• Serve with tomato sauce, sausage and a little grated parmesan cheese.
  

Chinese Fried Rice, Sweet & Sour Pork & Egg Rolls

Mikie and I made Chinese food tonight. We decided to make this entry a video blog and experimented with doing it on YouTube. We hope you enjoy the video. We hope you'll follow us on YouTube as we'll be posting more videos on there in the future.





Friday night is an excellent night for going out to eat or getting something delivered. Like many other people we are definitely feeling the crunch of this economy, so going out to restaurants is mainly limited to special occasions and is a luxury we can seldom afford.




Every once in a while Mikie gets in the mood for homemade Chinese Food, just like her Dad used to make. Usually she goes shopping ahead of time and makes a whole spread of dishes to accompany this one but we limited this particular recipe to just a basic 3 piece combo of Vegetable Fried Rice, Sweet and Sour Pork, and Fried Egg Rolls.



These dishes are extremely easy to make and because we have three kids to take care of we wanted to make it pretty quick. With prep and cooking time this dish takes about 45 minutes from start to finish.





SWEET & SOUR PORK INGREDIENTS

• 1 Tablespoon of Corn Starch
• 1 Tablespoon of Soy Sauce
• 1 Pound of Cubed Pork Shoulder
• 3/4's of a cup of Vinegar
• 1 cup of Water
• 2 Tablespoons of Vegetable Oil
• 1 Package of Sweet & Sour Sauce Mix
• 1 Cup of Pine Apple chunks
• 1 Green Bell Pepper cut into chunks
• 2 Carrots thinly sliced diagonally
• 1/2 an Onion cut into chunks (we used about 3 green onions for our recipe)
  

COOKING DIRECTIONS

• Mix Corn Starch and Soy Sauce with wire whisk or fork until smooth.
• Pour mixture into a medium sized bowl with chubed pork shoulder and toss until thoroughly coated.
• Blend sauce packet, vinegar and water and mix together. Set this aside.
• Heat oil in a skillet at medium heat and add pork.
  
• Cook approximately 10 minutes or until golden brown.
• Add sauce and vegetables. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until the sauce has thickened. Reduce heat to low.
• Add Pineapples.
• We used Kikkoman Sweet & Sour Sauce (usually we make this from scratch)
• We used Chungs Frozen Chicken Eggrolls. They were pretty good.

FRIED RICE INGREDIENTS

• 3 Cups of Cold White Rice, Cooked
• 1 Package of Fried Rice Mix
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Tablespoon of Soy Sauce
• 2 Tablespoons of Oil
• 3 Green Onions, Chopped
• 3/4 cup of Cooked Peas & Carrots (Frozen)
• We added extra vegetables, but you can add cooked meat if you like.

COOKING DIRECTIONS

• In a skillet with hot oil, stir fry the rice and onions.
• Add the soy sauce and fried rice mix.
• Push all the rice to one side and add the egg to the other side and scramble it.
• Mix the two sides together and add in your vegetables and cooked meat.
  

Stuffed Mushrooms

The other day we made stuffed mushrooms. This is one of my favorite recipes because they're a real crowd pleaser and are really easy to prepare. First, we start by removing the stems from about 2 dozen mushrooms and then we put these aside (you're going to use some of them later and can save the rest for tomato sauce, salads, etc). Next, we finely chop 2 cloves of peeled crushed garlic.

After chopping our garlic, we then take a can of minced clams and drain the juice into a separate container. We then rinse the clams of any debris that might still be on them and add them along with the garlic into a medium size mixing bowl.

Next we grate 1 cup of mozzarella cheese, adding 3/4's of the cup into our mix and reserving a 1/4 cup to put on top of our mushrooms after we finish stuffing them. You can use a little more if you really like cheese.

We then add a cup of Italian breadcrumbs and 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley into the mix. After adding our breadcrumbs, we pour in 4 tablespoons of melted butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Next, we chop up a handful of those leftover mushroom stems then add them into the bowl as well. Finally we add 1 egg and the clam juice we reserved earlier and hand mix everything until the mixture is roughly the same consistency of wet sand, (as if you're building a sand castle). We then take another two tablespoons of butter and slice a small individual square to go into the bottom of each mushroom cap. This is a handy method of keeping the mushrooms from drying out while they are cooking in the oven.

Next, we begin overtsuffing our mushrooms like so, and finish by sprinkling some mozzarella cheese on top of all of our mushrooms before they go into the oven. They should cook at 350 degrees for 15 minutes until the tops are brown like shown in the photo.

You can then slice some lemon wedges, garnish and serve. They make a perfect appetizer. This recipe serves 10 (2 mushrooms a piece with roughly 4 leftover if someone wants a 3rd).

This is Mikies recipe and I have to say it's a very good one. I've made this recipe along with her a few times and each time I do, I hog all the credit. Well this time I'll give credit where credit is due... the girl makes some bangin' mushrooms.

RE-CAP OF INGREDIENTS:

• 2 Dozen Mushrooms
• 2 Cloves of Garlic
• 1 Can of Minced Clams
• 1 Cup of Mozzarella Cheese
• 1 Cup of Italian Bread Crumbs
• 6 Tablespoons of Salted Butter
• 1 Egg
• 1 Lemon
• 2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil

Homemade Pizza With Linguica & Olives

One thing that was great about living in New York was the price of pizza. I would say that the average price for a large pizza costs about 13 dollars. In Sacramento, it's at least double! Is the cost of mozzarella and tomato sauce so much more out here compared to back east? Nope, it's actually cheaper. So what gives? It's like one of those traffic mystery spots where everybody slows down at the same time and all of a sudden you're stuck for 30 minutes and have no idea why.

I suspect it's due to the difference in culture and the lack of competition that pizza is so expensive. In California a pizza costs $25 bucks... but a taco is only 50 cents so I guess it evens out. Doesn't mean that I enjoy paying out the ying yang for something that is dirt cheap to make. Why bother, you can make your own? Besides, you should see what passes for pizza out here. I've only found a handful of good pizzerias in Sacramento. If you know of a good one, please let me know

This pizza recipe is really easy to pull off. Here's what you need for the dough.

2 and a half teaspoons of active dry yeast
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 cup of warm water
1 and a half cups of all purpose flour or bread flour
1 cup of Semolina flour
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 and quarter teaspoons of salt

We preheat the oven to 400. While that's going, grab a bowl and mix your yeast, water and sugar. The yeast is gonna react with the sugar and water and do what it does for about 10 minutes. It smells kind of funky to me to tell you the truth. After the yeast mixture gets kind of creamy we stir in the flour, salt and oil. Then we beat the whole mixture until it's nice and smooth. And then... well we leave it alone for a lil while and do something else because the dough is tired and needs to rest. Just kidding, but really it needs to settle a bit before you start shaping it into a pizza.

We then start making our pizza sauce. A can of tomato sauce, a can of paste, some red wine (optional), garlic salt, pizza seasoning, and cook on low heat for about 5 minutes. Just about enough time for our dough to settle. You can also put in some fresh herbs like basil, oregano, or just some Italian Seasoning mix, whatever you like. After it settles you have to knead the dough for a couple minutes to get it elastic enough to work with. So we dust our surface with some flour and work the dough out a lil bit and then roll and rub it into a round pizza onto our lightly greased pizza pan.

We spread mozzarella cheese, sliced linguica, and olives on our pizza. At the last minute I got some inspiration to slice up some left over sausage balls Mikie made as an appetizer the day before and put that on as well. We bake it until golden brown for about 15 minutes or so and then it's ready. It's a pretty simple recipe and it costs about 3 bucks to make. We buy alot of our ingredients in bulk at Winco so it's actually cheap to make. Stuff like sugar, salt, yeast, flour, spices, are all things we can buy at the Bulk section. Do what we do, buy cheap ingredients, make your own and tell Round Table to go scratch their butt.

Pork Tenderloin Stuffing & Apple Compote

There are a zillion tenderloin recipes out there but this one happens to be really easy to follow. Especially since 90% of the work takes place before you even get the meat out of the wrapper.

We start off with a packaged Hormel Pork Tenderloin. It's already been seasoned with Honey Mustard but it was a little light for our taste so we seasoned it with some more honey mustard, added some salt & pepper and that's about it! We pop it in the oven for 45 Minutes at 350 degrees and it's ready.

We were going to make potatoes, but we've had that like 10 nights in a row and I'm getting a little tired of roasted potatoes. Unfortunately we didn't have a better game plan tonight so we made some Stove Top stuffing real quick and called it good. I think Stove Top is great in a pinch and is the perfect side dish when you don't know what else to make or lack inspiration. Also, while writing this Mikie wants you all the know that her favorite kind of Stove Top is the Corn Bread stuffing, so now you know and knowing is half the battle.

We noticed that we were light for a vegetable, so I suggested Apple Compote because I know it goes good with Pork Tenderloin. Mikie cut up some apples, chopped up some celery (for some crunch), and we cooked it all in melted butter, cinnamon, brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice. We then crushed the entire mixture together to infuse all the flavors. Mikie wasn't too hot on my Apple Compote idea until we sat down and actually ate it. She said it was actually the best thing on the plate.


I'll have to agree with her on this one because it added some fun and flavor. It gave us that little something extra that makes a ho-hum dinner so much better. It's the little things like an Apple Compote that can make simple dish like this better than the sum of its parts. It only takes 5 minutes to make and can really make the whole plate look composed.

Cinnamon Rolls

Mikie made some terrific Cinnamon Buns for breakfast the other day. I'm not going to blog about it, but I did want to share some photos of how they came out. You can find the recipe here http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cinnamon-Rolls-I-2/Detail.aspx

Rosemary Chicken, Potatoes, & Mixed Vegetables

I'm actually a meal behind because of a class I had to take the other day. I got home late and was too burnt out to get on the web and update our blog. This dish was prepared LAST night, eh... no big deal, alright? S'right.

So we start out by seasoning our chicken with a drizzle of olive oil followed by salt and pepper. We then squeeze lemon juice (1 whole lemon) onto our chicken and then sprinkle some plucked rosemary on top.

How's that for easy? All the preparation takes exactly the same amount of time as it does for me to figure out how to record something on our DVR. It's actually done before I finish figuring it out.

Our roasted potatoes are just about as fast. We chop up some Russet potatoes real nice (left unpeeled but that's ok as long as you wash them first) and then drizzle again with a little EVOO (Rachael Ray-ism #1 of the night) and some garlic salt.

Again we sprinkled some rosemary on top and gave it a hand toss so that all the flavors get mixed up. This goes in the oven at the same time as the chicken.


You pop both of these dishes in the oven for 45 minutes at 400 degrees until the juices run clear and the skin is nice and crispy. As far as the vegetables go, again we got a little lazy because it was around 8:30 at night and the natives were getting restless and wanted to eat already. We gave in and opted for a frozen bag of vegetables which is no big deal, because that's why we bought them in the first place. I am glad that we went with frozen though as opposed to nasty canned vegetables which have a bitter metallic aftertaste and overall crappy appearance.


We also made some garlic butter and toasted some nice fresh Ciabatta bread which is a little softer than Pugliese bread. Very flaky and it toasts up beautifully.

I get our bread from Nugget most of the time because I love that store. It's beautiful, clean, and they have a fantastic selection and it's cheaper than your average Whole Foods or D'Agostino (NYC Grocery Store).


We try to incorporate a vegetable into every dinner we make, because we're trying to eat healthier and instill good habits in the children. We want them to know that vegetables are important and an essential part of eating right. Maybe this dish wasn't the best example of making vegetables fun and interesting for the kids, but it is a good example of making sure that you have a veggie even if it's nothing to write home about.

Carne Asada Tacos

Mikie has been making tacos practically her whole life. Growing up, she must have prepared them literally thousands of times. I give her props because even though she makes some seriously professional tacos she was still open to new ideas when I made an impromptu suggestion to try a new taco recipe.

After scouring the internet for almost an hour I was still unable to find a better recipe than her own, so we scrapped the idea completely. I ate a little crow and admitted that it was a bad idea to "G Check" her recipe.

In a previous entry we were discussing how expensive steak can be and to always keep your eye open for an alternative, especially if it's on sale. That just happened to be the case with how we wound up with our Carne Asada (carne - "meat" & asada "grill"). Which is exactly what we did with it to make our steak tacos.


We started off by grilling some onions and garlic in some olive oil. After the flavors infuse, we put the meat on. This meat is very thin and cooks quickly. We add some Carne Asada seasoning (salt, chili pepper, spices, garlic, onion) and some Chile Con Limon Salt (typically used as a Mexican fruit seasoning). This is usually found in the produce section of some supermarkets and online at http://www.mexgrocer.com. Your meat should be cooked about 3 minutes on each side on medium heat.


Once the meat has cooked, we remove it from the pan and chop it up finely. We also throw in some cilantro (optional) and chop that up, adding it to our mix. Then we put everything back into the pan on low heat to keep everything warm while we prepare the Taco shells.





Our vegetables and shredded cheese that go on the taco (avocadoes, tomatoes, lettuce, red onions). You can get as creative as you like with what you want to put on your taco. It's open season on all the favorites (Jalapenos, Guacamole, Sour Cream, Salsa, etc.).





We're using small corn tortillas for our taco shells, but you can use whatever tortillas you prefer. We fill a pan with some vegetable oil, and wait until the oil is bubbling before adding in our tortilla.







Mikie and I use a set of metal tongs for forming our taco shells as illustrated in the picture. Take them out when they turn light brown and before they get too crispy or hard, because they break easily if they've cooked too long.








We did not have time to make a side dish from scratch so we are using store bought Rosarita refried beans. Mikie wants to learn how to make them from scratch, so if anyone has a good recipe, please let us know. To warm up the beans, just add a little olive oil in a sauce pan on low heat and stir until heated then serve.





It normally takes Mikie 27 minutes, (estimate) to construct the ultimate Taco. I've seen her weigh and scrutinize both meat and produce like a precious metals prospector before adding things to her Taco. I have legitimately finished my entire meal before she has finished putting the Coup De Grace on hers. What does the finished product look like, see the photo to the left.

Shrimp With Garlic Shallots And White Wine

We sauteed Shrimps, Shallots, Garlic, White Wine and Butter together and served this dish over pasta. This is a very simple recipe that can serve up to 4 people. When shopping, we chose a small package of raw de-veined shrimp (61-70 count per pound). If you want bigger shrimp, you'll get a lower count. Since our shrimp is going over pasta and has to feed a bunch of hungry kids we opted for the smaller size. This is also handy if you want left overs or folks wants seconds. To start things off we got a pot of water boiling while we did our prep work (I would caution those that prep slower to wait until the shrimp is almost completely cooked until you start boiling your pasta). As soon as the water starts boiling, we added our spaghetti and let it begin to cook. After finely chopping up 2 shallots, and 4 cloves of garlic, we sauteed these in 4 tablespoons of butter instead of olive oil while our pasta cooks. We're using butter as a base, because it's more flavorful and less greasy. We peel all the shrimp and add them to the garlic shallot mix and saute everything until they shrimp are nice and pink. When our shrimp are all almost cooked, we add in 2 cups of white wine and let everything boil and cook until the alcohol smell is gone. We picked up some beautiful Pugliese bread from Nugget this evening to serve with our dinner and cooked up some spinach in olive oil and garlic, to serve as a side dish. Next we take a strand of pasta out with a fork and fling it against the wall. The rule of thumb here is "If it sticks to the wall it's done!". Now before closing this entry, I wanted to mention a discussion I had with some folks at work today. We were discussing exactly how we go about planning our meals, and here are a few helpful things that we do in our family to make things a little easier. 4 Ways To Simplify Your Shopping 1) Have a Flexible Meal Plan If you go food shopping once a week or once every two weeks it's a good idea to make a meal plan for the time period between now and your next time food shopping. We like to list our meals for 2 weeks and have a rough outline of what we want to buy that will fill our meal plan. 2) Take Advantage of Whats on Sale Now is where the flexibility comes in. Your meal plan can and should make allowances for whats on sale at the store. If you have planned London Broil and steak prices are crazy, you should probably look for something cheaper... like Carne Asada (a dish we will be preparing soon). 3) Break Down Your Meats After we go shopping we come home and break down our meat into proper portions for cooking a dinner for our whole family. This saves time having to defrost more meat because you ran out, or not having enough to make a complete meal. It's also easier to keep inventory of what you have. 4) Buy Fresh! You should go back to the supermarket at least once or twice a week to restock your vegetables so that you are always using fresh ingredients when you cook. Fish is also a dish you want to have as fresh as possible. I'm Joe - owner of Pool Marketing and Pool Contractor and this is my recipe for a great meal.

Slow Braised Pulled Pork Sandwiches

This is a continuation of a dish that we started preparing last night along with the Lemon Pepper Chicken Breast Salad we made. After slow braising the pork roast for 4 hours, we took it out and refrigerated it over night. This allows all the flavors from the chicken broth and onions and spices come together and really adds a lot of flavor.



Tonight we took out our roasted pork and began to sauce it and allow the flavors to soak in for another hour on a low simmer while we prepared the garlic bread and potato wedges. After separating the pork with two forks, we let the pulled pork soak in a mixture of KC Masterpiece and Stubbs Pork Marinade and just a little bit of Ketchup to cut the heat a bit and add some sweetness.





Yesterday afternoon we picked up some sourdough baguettes from Nugget market (for those back east, they're kind of like Whole Foods) to use for our pulled pork sandwiches this evening. We cut them, smeared them with a nice butter and chopped garlic mix, (Mikie and I added some roasted pepper garlic seasoning to our portions).




We then broiled the garlic bread for 7 minutes until golden brown (soft on the inside, crunchy outside is what you're going for). We also cut up some potato wedges, seasoned with garlic, salt, pepper, and I snuck in a little bacon salt on the fries too.





We cooked them for 35 minutes at 400 degrees until cooked but still soft. It's very easy to overcook these if you're not careful. I like my potatoes nice and soft but still fully cooked. The longer you leave them in the more crispy they will become but it's so damn easy to overcook them we err on the side of caution sometimes.




The end result was a very tasty meal for four that we all enjoyed. I can honestly say that our sourdough garlic bread pulled pork sandwich was one of the tastiest ones that I've ever eaten. I like a pickle with my pulled pork sandwich. Kosher Dills are my favorite.





There is one alas, that puts my own invention to shame and that is Cubbys Pulled Pork Sandwich in Hackensack, NJ. If you live in the area, I suggest you try it for yourselves. They have old school Birch Beer and Sweet Potato Fries. It's unbelievable. Cubby's BBQ: http://www.cubbysbarbeque.com/

Roasted Chicken, Vegetables and Potatoes

Inspired By Elia Aboumrad of Top Chef Season 2. This is a variation of her recipe from that show - which can be found on Bravo's own blog: http://www.bravotv.com/blogs/cookbook-chronicles/elia-aboumrads-proud-roasted-chicken-with-vegetables

Elia Aboumrad also coincidentally or not happens to be the same middle name as our daughter Jasmine!

Our version of this dish is shown here. We followed Elias recipe pretty closely. We went to Winco and bought a 6 pound organic roasting chicken. We filled our bird with onions and herbs and arranged it in a roasting pan. We smeared butter all over the outside of the chicken and rubbed in a generous amount of salt & pepper. I like my chicken well seasoned, but the recipe is pretty forgiving.


Next we chopped up carrots and zucchini. We quartered some mushrooms and made some potatoe wedges. One thing I can tell you about this recipe is that the carrots come out so sweet, you can't help but want to make a lot of carrots. Next we melted a stick of butter and poured it all over the chopped vegetables in a large bowl. We seasoned with salt and pepper and then arranged them in a roasting pan with the chicken. 500 Degrees for an hour to an hour and a half (check on it at about an hour).