Viva La Pork!

I was in the mood for some Mexican food this week. (which is not that different from any other week) On Monday a co-worker was talking about this amazing pulled pork with homemade BBQ sauce she made over the weekend and it got me thinking about pork carnitas. One of my favorite restraunts in Dallas, Matt's Ranchero, makes these little corn tortillas filled with pulled pork, cheese and avacado..... amazing! So I took her recipe and made it my own in an attempt to create these delicious little tacos. I started by making a marinade for the pork roast to chill in over night. I basically put in things I thought would be yummy.

Pork Roast marinade:
Puree' in food processor 1 bunch of cilantro, 1 bulb of garlic (yeah, I used the whole thing) juice from 1 fresh squeezed lime, 2T of salt ( i would use 3 next time) fresh ground pepper, and enough olive oil to make it liquid enough to pour. I poured the marinade into a large freezer bag with the pork roast, squished out the air, and placed in the fridge for the night.

(oh and just a quick note about the pork.... I used a bone in pork roast. some stores call them pork butt or boston butt)

Yummm, so on to the cooking part! The next morning I dumped the roast, marinade, and 1 cup of ckn broth into my crock-pot and set it on Low. I let it simmer in there for most of the day, 8 hrs. Once cooked, remove roast from pot and shred with two forks. Grant wanted his with corn tortillas wrapped like a taco, I decided to fry my tortillas in a little hot oil to make them more like a tostada (and a little bit less healthy).

I topped them with sour cream, white cheddar, avacado, and salsa. They were super yummy! It was a successful experiment.

Disclaimer: I don't speak ANY spanish so I'm sure everything is misspelled and Viva la pork means slap a pig or something.

Soups

Grant can be the biggest baby when he feels bad. It's funny how we all want certain comfort foods when we don't feel good. So, with a sick husband all week, my menu revolved around soup. (since I can't make anything out of Gatorade) My potato soup is from a recipe the ladies at work shared and I just cut out a few steps. It is super creamy and delicious!

Potato Soup:
Bake 3 medium sized potatoes in microwave, cool and dice into bite size pieces. Set aside. In your soup pot, cook 6 strips of bacon (chopped) over medium high heat. When the bacon starts to crisp add half an onion chopped and saute' with the bacon. Once onion and bacon are fully cooked stir in 1 1/2T of salt and 1T of pepper, 3T flour, and a few shakes of garlic powder. (This should make a kind of paste in your soup pot and will make your soup thick and creamy) slowly add 3 cups of ckn broth while stirring. Bring to a boil for 2 minutes. Add diced potatoes and 1cup of heavy cream. Lower heat and simmer until ready to serve. Top with cheddar cheese, grn onion, bacon, or croutons... whatever sounds good :)

Freezer Chicken Noodle soup is a last minute staple in our house. I make this anytime I have a half eaten rotisserie ckn sitting in my fridge.

Freezer Ckn Noodle:
Dice any cooked leftover ckn in your fridge and set aside. Bring 6 cups of ckn broth to a boil. Add any veggies you might need to use out of the fridge (carrots, squash, celery, etc) I used all of the above plus a zuchini, onion, and a few pieces of cilantro. I put the carrots in a few minutes before everything else b/c they take longer to cook. You can add any freezer veggies you might have as well. Ava loves when I put edamame in hers. Boil till veggies are tender. Add any pasta from the pantry (about 1/2 a cup) cook for 6-7 minutes,(I used bow tie) add ckn and cook for 1-2 minutes then serve.

In the Begining

After several months of encouragement and harassment from some very sweet friends, I have finally started a cooking blog! I can't really tell you how I learned to cook. I never use a recipe (although I will have them now). I do think alot of my cooking "skills" came from sitting on my grandmothers kitchen counter every afternoon while she prepared dinner. (She did not even own a cookbook, whereas I read them for fun) This all took place in southern Arkansas, so if you are reading through a recipe and wonder why I would use leftover bacon grease or heavy cream.... it's because that's all I grew up on. OK, so onto the cooking! Tonight I made an antipasta plate and stuffed sweet peppers. The antipasta is a new favorite in this house, thanks to the Lovetts! I'm sharing pics of dinner tonight, but no recipe, b/c the peppers need a little work. I will try them again with a few small changes in a few weeks, and if they are as amazing as I imagine them, I will post a recipe then! In the meantime, here is a Lovett family favorite, since they were the inspiration for tonights dinner and blog.

Stuffed Dates:

Mejoul Dates (pitted, unless you want to do the extra work)

parmesan cheese

bacon (thin slices) or procuito would work

stuff dates with parmesan cheese, wrap with bacon and secure with toothpick, place on foil covered baking sheet and roast at 400 for about 10-15 min

watch them! sometimes the dates can start to burn before the bacon crisps

Enjoy!!

RT