Sunday, June 24, 2012

Pulled Pork Tacos

Pulled Pork Tacos
Serves 2-4

Ingredients:
Pulled Pork (from this recipe: Slow Cooker Pulled Pork  )
Cilantro 
Mexican Crema
Queso Fresco
Lime
Soft Corn Tortillas
Chopped yellow onion

Using your slow cooker spicy pulled pork leftovers you can make some really delicious, light and refreshing tacos!


Get all your ingredients together...


Its always a good idea to wrap your refrigerated corn tortillas in a damp paper towel and microwave for several minutes until they are hot, steamy and pliable before making tacos. You can also set them over the open flame of your burner after to char them slightly.



Assemble tacos with warm meat, chopped onion and cilantro, queso fresco, mexican crema and a squeeze of lime juice. 

They are delicious!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Avocado and Corn Salad

Avocado and Corn Salad
Serves: 4

This salad is so light and refreshing you could eat it with a spoon in a bowl (as I did!) or serve it with anything! It has a crunch from the fresh corn, a creaminess from the avocado, and a brightness from the lime and cilantro, its a perfect salad!


Ingredients:
2 fresh corn cobs
2 avocados
1/2 small onion
juice of 1-2 limes
handfull chopped cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

I was too lazy to pull out a grill pan, so I just put the corn directly over my gas burner, turning every minute or so until the kernels became dark yellow and slightly charred on the outside.



After you've cut corn kernels off, mix in with diced avocados, onion, lime juice and salt and pepper. My avocados were really ripe so be sure to toss gently to avoid mashing them.


Chop the cilantro


Add your onion.

Mix in. Check your seasonings.


Cool in fridge, and enjoy! Its so light and fresh tasting it can be eaten with anything. I'm serving it with chipotle marinated grilled chicken thighs. 

Nutritional Data Estimated on Sparkrecipes.com 



Monday, June 11, 2012

Pan Fried Whole Rainbow Trout

Pan Fried Whole Rainbow Trout
Serves: 6

My parents went fishing at Grand Lake last weekend, and brought home a huge bounty of Rainbow trout. My Dad, not being a fish eater gave them all to me, and I decided to force him to come eat them with us for Dinner :-)

(Which of course he loved - which is why we are going back this weekend)






Ingredients:

6 full trout fish, cleaned, descaled and heads removed
flour
panko bread crumbs
1 teaspoon each garlic powder, salt, pepper, paprika
Egg wash: 1 egg, dash of milk, dash of hot sauce

Instructions:

Mix dry ingredients in to a casserole dish
Make egg wash

Dredge trout on each side in flour mixture, then in the egg wash, and again in the flour mixture.
Heat up a large skillet with olive oil on high heat. Fry the trout on each side for three minutes.


 Heat up some butter, and chop in some chives to pour over your fish to serve.





I served them with butter roasted green beans and yellow wax beans along with roasted potato wedges. Delish!



Slow Cooker - Spicy Pulled Pork

Slow Cooker - Spicy Pulled Pork
Serves: 6+
* See additional recipe post called "Pulled Pork Tacos" for ideas on how to use all that delicious pork goodness

Ingredients:

1 pork butt - for Josh and I, I bought a 2lb butt that resulted in tons of leftovers....
1 can of chipotle peppers in adobo
1 bottle of soda (if you can get the stuff in glass bottles it means no HFCS, which is best) - if you want to skip the soda altogether then make a mixture of any sweetener and water
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 onion sliced into quarters

Instructions:

  • Pour contents of one soda into crock pot.
  • Add 1-2 chipotle peppers and a few spoonfulls of sauce from can to crockpot. Now don't over do this - if your not into the spicy start with one pepper for your first time making it - and adjust - these little suckers can be hot! 
    • Place the remainder of the can in a tupperware container and add to things like mayo or sourcream or ranch dressing to spice up other dishes!
  • Liberally season both sides of pork shoulder and place into crockpot


  • Top with quartered onion and cook in crockpot on high for 8 hours until soft and falling apart and sauce has reduced.



  • Remove pork meat, separate out bones, and fat/gristle to discard. Remove onions, and peppers. I  will also strain the sauce to get rid of anything else, and return it back to the crockpot. Taste your sauce for the spice level, if too spicy, add a few tablespoons of the sweetener of your choice, such as honey or brown sugar, and a dash more vinegar to mellow it out.

  • I also always stir in about 2-3 tablespoons of butter into the sauce before adding the meat back in, I find it will also mellow out the spicy sauce, but add a rich and creamy mouth feel that can't be beat. Turn meat to coat, and its ready to serve! 
    • If eating paleo skip the butter.



Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Rustic Burlap Wreath

DIY Rustic Burlap Wreath




I saw a wreath like this on Etsy not long back, I thought it would look really pretty displayed somewhere at my wedding, but the lady wanted like $40 dollars for it - and knowing that she maybe spent $12 in materials, that I pretty much already had on hand, I decided to make it myself.
Materials:

A grapevine wreath, of a size you desire - Mine was about $8
jute twine - already owned, but an entire spool is a couple bucks
3 burlap flowers - purchased at Hobby Lobby - $3 each
Lace ribbon - already owned, but a few bucks at most for an entire roll
Burlap ribbon - already owned, again a few bucks and a lot of ribbon
Pearl "gemstones" from scrap-booking department - $3 for an entire sheet
Hot glue gun

Instructions:

Wrap several strands around one side of the wreath.

On the adjacent side, wrap a few layers of lace ribbon, and secure with hot glue.

Then arrange your burlap flowers over the lace, but still allowing some of it to show through. Hot glue the flowers to the lace.


Next, take your burlap ribbon - mine had a thin wire on the edges of it - to aid it holding in place, and bend into what will make several "leaves"


Postion them around the flowers.


Affix the top of the wreath with several strands of jute twine, and make a large loop for your wreath to hang from.


 I bought these small half circular beads, the resemble pearls, in the scrap-book section of Hobby Lobby, they worked perfectly.



Hot glue the pearls in the center of the flowers, I used three in each to add some flair.



Done.



Brick Grilled Cornish Game Hens

 Brick Grilled Cornish Game Hens with Ginger Honey Sauce
Serves: 2

Ingredients:

2 cornish game hens
2 inch piece of grated ginger
4 tablespoons honey
4 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper

Instructions:

This is my first attempt at butterflying poultry, and I was a little too excited. Not sure why, but I really wanted to.

                                      

Take some sharp kitchen shears and your hens, breast side down cut along one side of the backbone all the way to the end, then cut along the otherside, removing it completely. Pull bird out flat and press against cutting board so that it lays flat. Tuck wing upward so that the tip is nestled on the side cavaity of the bird (to help from burning later)


Mix your marinade (without oil) into a small bowl, split liquid in half and reserve. Add oil to the remaining half of mixture and place into a casserole dish. Place birds in marinade and toss every so often - letting marinate for 30 minutes or overnight.


Find two bricks and wrap in tin foil. Place on a grill and preheat on high. Once hot, place hens on grill breast side down and place hot brick on top. Cook 5 minutes, then rotate bird 90 degrees, place brick again and cook another 5 minutes.
Flip bird over and cook for 2 minutes with brick on top, rotate, and cook and additional 2 minutes.

In the meantime, take remaining marinade mixture and place into a small sauce pan, heat on high, boiling to reduce sauce. Pour thickened glaze over hens when resting.

Let rest for 5 minutes then serve.



Monday, June 4, 2012

Creamy Cucumber Salad

Creamy Cucumber Salad
Serves: 4

I love a nice cold and creamy cucumbersalad, I make it to change up our normal salad with dinner every night. During the summer months we use fresh cucumbers from the garden, and it really is the best!

Growing up we didn't add the feta to the recipe, but since feta is Josh's favorite cheese it has been added to my cucumber salad as a new tradition.

For this recipe I am using the sweet vidalia onion, since it is in season in early May, and it really is the best onion on earth. Sweet enough to eat raw, it makes a great addition to the salad. If you don't have access to this beauty a red onion will work perfectly.

Ingredients:

2 large cucumbers, peeled, seeded and sliced into half moons
1 medium vidalia onion cut in half, sliced thin into half moons
salt and pepper to taste
2-4 tablespoons rice vinegar to taste
1/4 - 1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

Instructions:

Slice cucumbers and onions and place in large bowl. Pour a couple tablespoons of vinegar over and stir well to coat. Salt and pepper and let sit, stirring occasionally for 10-15 minutes. This ensures that the onion gets the raw taste out of it, and adds the zesty pickle flavor to the cucumber.

Once the cucumbers/onions have sat and pickled for 10-15 minutes drain off some (about half or so) of the accumulated liquid from the bowl (the salt and vinegar will bring the liquid out of the cucumbers) and stir in the sour cream. Taste and season if necessary, and then stir in the feta cheese. Let entire mixture cool in fridge for 20 minutes or so and serve.


* Sometimes if I have it on hand I will add some chopped dill or chives to add a little something to the salad.
Nutritional data estimated from sparkrecipes.com