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Summer Grilling~ Spicy Barbecued Pork Loin

June 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Pork Lion 5x3

I have a yummy summer grilling recipe today that would be the perfect addition to the menu for your Father’s Day cookout. This delicious recipe is courtesy of Tabasco.

This is truly a no-fuss recipe combining classic barbecue flavors with a touch of heat with the Tabasco sauce. The results are a tasty tribute to dad. I don’t know about your house, but at our house we always have at least one bottle of Tabasco hanging out in the fridge for just such an occasion.

Spicy Barbecued Pork Loin

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 medium onion, finely diced
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 tablespoon original Tabasco® brand pepper sauce
1 teaspoon salt, divided
1 (2-pound) boneless pork loin, about 6-inches long

Preheat oven 350° F.

Heat oil in small 2-quart saucepan over medium heat; add onion; cook about 5 minutes or until softened. Add ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, Tabasco sauce and ½ teaspoon salt. Set aside ½ cup sauce.

Rub outside of pork roast with ½ teaspoon salt. Place in roasting pan; top with sauce mixture to cover completely. Cover pan tightly with foil and cook 1 hour.
Meanwhile, preheat grill to medium. Place pork on grill; cook, covered 30 minutes, turning frequently, and brushing with reserved sauce until meat thermometer reaches 160° F.

Serves 8.

Serving Suggestion: Sautéed green beans and sliced red onion; toss with cooked, crumbled bacon.

Leftover Suggestion: Slice leftover pork; place on rye bread; top with deli sliced ham, sliced Swiss cheese, pickle slices, mustard and rye bread slice. Press in a pannini machine until sandwich is golden and cheese is melted.

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Cheesy Hashbrown Casserole Recipe

June 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment
cheesy hashbrowns2

My sister makes the most fan-tabulous hash brown and cheese casserole! It’s super simple to make, just combine everything into one casserole dish and pop it in the oven, set the timer and you’re done.

Sometimes I add a little ham, but usually I make it just like the recipe below. It’s wonderful during the summer if you’re grilling out, just make the casserole ahead and pop it in the oven about 1 1/2 to 2 hours before you plan to eat.

Cheesy Hash Brown Casserole

  • 1 bag of hash browns (small squares, or shredded)
  • 8 oz of shredded cheddar cheese (2 cups)
  • 1 can of cream of mushroom soup
  • 2 cups (1 container) sour cream
  • 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Preheat you oven to 425`F. Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl, reserve 1 cup of the shredded cheddar cheese. Put the mixture in a large casserole, or baking pan, then sprinkle the last cup of shredded cheddar over the top.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for one hour. Remove the foil and bake for 30 more minutes, or until the potatoes are soft, and the cheese is bubbly.

These potatoes are even better the next day as leftovers reheated for breakfast!

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Fresh Garden Salsa

June 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment
salsa4

I love making salsa fresh from the garden during the summer. The flavors of the fresh tomatoes, onions, spices, and peppers are fabulous!

My brother in law makes the best salsa ever, so I talked him into sharing his super secret fresh from the garden salsa recipe. This is not an exact recipe, just chop, mix and taste, then adjust it to fit your own taste buds. I’m a big salsa fan, and I love garlic, so I tend to use quite a bit of both. If you’re not a fan, cut them back a little, or even leave the cilantro out entirely.

Fresh From The Garden Salsa

3-4 medium tomatoes

1 bell pepper

1 banana pepper

2 hot peppers (Jalapeno, Pueblo, Habanera, your choice and heat)

1-2 Tablespoons of apple cider vinegar

3-4 cloves of garlic

cilantro (optional)

1 small onion

Give everything a coarse chop, then feed it all together into a food processor. Refrigerate the salsa when you’re done to let all the flavors blend together. This salsa is actually even better after a couple hours when the flavors are all melded together.

Serve with corn chips.

I’m warning you ahead of time, this salsa is very addicting! Once you start eating it, you might have a hard time stopping! Definitely worth the effort of chopping and mixing up a batch, especially with fresh from the garden ingredients.

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Strawberry Shortcake Recipe

May 7, 2010 By 1 Comment
strawberry-shortcake2

The other day I shared my favorite recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp. I’m on a strawberry kick lately, they’ve been tasting so good already, and the strawberries in my garden aren’t even ripe yet!

Today I want to share one of my favorite recipes for strawberry shortcake. This is a quick and easy recipe you can bake in a 9×9 baking dish. Then top the shortcake warm out of the oven with fresh strawberries, and a little strawberry sauce. Top it all with fresh whip topping and you’ll have one of the best summer desserts ever!

Strawberry Shortcake Recipe

Ingredients:

3 eggs
1 c sugar
2 c flour
1/2 c milk
1 tbs butter
1 tsp baking powder
1tsp vanilla

Mix all the ingredients together in a medium bowl. Preheat your oven to 350` while you are mixing the ingredients. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the cake is a light golden brown on top. Top with fresh strawberries, and whipped cream.

I have a wonderful recipe for strawberry pie. I’ll just have to make one in the next week or two so I can come back and share a photo and the recipe!

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Cinco De Mayo Party Roundup

May 1, 2010 By 1 Comment
enchiladas beef and bean

Cinco de Mayo is coming up this week. I’m planning on having at least one margarita to celebrate the occasion. From recipes to cocktails, and fun ideas for the kids, I have a roundup of Cinco de Mayo party ideas to share with you today.

Are you planning a party for Cinco de Mayo?

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Fried Wild Morel Mushrooms

April 30, 2010 By 2 Comments
mushrooms morel

We have a wonderful patch of woods behind our house, so we headed back mushroom hunting the other night, and found a nice bunch of sponge and spike morel mushrooms. So of course I had to fry them up for supper.

I love morel mushrooms, and you can only get them fresh for about a week or two a year here in Ohio.

I cleaned the mushrooms by soaking them in water for about an hour, then I cleaned each individual mushroom by slicing them open, and rinsing them under warm running water. Just to make sure there were no bugs hiding in the stems!

Then I roll them in a little flour and fried them in a skillet with olive oil. Hey, I definitely don’t claim these are healthy for you! But they sure are yummy.

I wouldn’t recommend eating wild mushrooms unless you know what you’re looking for. My dad taught me how to hunt them about the same time I started to walk. Well, maybe it was a few years later, but I’ve been hunting them every year since I can remember. It’s something I look forward to every spring.

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Cinco De Mayo Recipe~ Baked Chipotle Chicken Flautas

April 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment
ChipotleFlautas

Do you celebrate Cinco De Mayo at your house? We don’t have a huge celebration here, but we do usually try to head out to our favorite Mexican restaurant, or make a few Mexican favorites here at home. I have a couple new recipes I think I might try for our Cinco De Mayo celebration this year, including this recipe from Mission Foods.

Baked Chipotle Chicken Flautas

Serving Size: 5

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups diced cooked chicken breast meat
  • 1 (10) ounce can of reduced-fat & sodium cream of chicken soup
  • 1/3 cup reduced-fat sour cream
  • 1 (4) ounce can of diced green chile peppers, undrained
  • 1 teaspoon ground chipotle pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon of ground coriander
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
  • 10 Mission small flour tortillas
  • 2 teaspoons canola oil mixed with 1/2 teaspoon of ground chipotle pepper

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
  2. Mix all above ingredients (except flour tortillas, canola oil, and ground chipotle pepper) in a medium-sized saucepan. Heat over medium heat until hot. Remove from heat.
  3. Place about 3 tablespoons of the chicken filling along the edge of a tortilla. Roll the tortilla up more tight than loose. Put a toothpick through the middle of the flauta to hold in place. Place on a sprayed large baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining tortillas.
  4. In a small bowl, mix together the canola oil and ground chipotle pepper.

Lightly brush the flautas with the oil mixture. Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Cool. Remove toothpicks and slice each flauta on the diagonal. Transfer on your favorite fiesta platter, sprinkle with chopped fresh cilantro and serve with low-fat sour cream and salsa.

I’m a fan of any recipe with cilantro in it. I think I’m a cilantro addict! I can’t wait until I’m snipping it fresh from the garden again in a few weeks.

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Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

April 22, 2010 By 2 Comments
strawberry rhubarb crunch 4

I love the tangy sweet bite of strawberries and rhubarb combined. The rhubarb in my kitchen garden is about ready for me to start snipping some. The strawberries aren’t quite ready yet, they’re just blooming here in Ohio. They did have some fabulous berries at the local grocery the last time I was there, so I had to get some.

Strawberry rhubarb crisp is one of my favorite spring desserts, add in some ice cream and I’m in heaven!

Strawberry rhubarb crisp is a wonderful alternative for strawberry rhubarb pie. There’s still a little sugar, and oil, but there’s plenty of fiber and natural goodness to make up for it.

Here’s my recipe~

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp Recipe:

  • One quart of fresh strawberries
  • One cup of chopped rhubarb
  • 1/4 cup plus two tablespoons of evaporated cane sugar
  • 1/4 cup canola oil
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 2 cups of rolled oats
  • cooking spray

Preheat your oven to 325`and spray a 9×9 baking dish with cooking spray. Chop the strawberries and the rhubarb, and place them in the baking dish. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of sugar over the top.

In another bowl combine the rest of the sugar, the rolled oats, maple syrup and canola oil. When they’re thoroughly mixed pour the mixture over the top of the berries and rhubarb. Bake for about 35-40 minutes, or until the crunch topping is golden brown.

Strawberry rhubarb crunch is wonderful hot out of the oven with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream. Yum!

This recipe has quite a bit of juice when you’re done baking it, I love it that way. If you want your crunch a little thicker you can add a tablespoon or two of flour to the strawberry rhubarb mixture before you bake it to thicken it up.

This recipe freezes well. If you have extra berries and rhubarb, you can double or triple the recipe and freeze individual servings in plastic containers. It will be quick and easy to pull out later for a quick dessert.

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Cinco de Mayo Recipe With a Cheesy Twist

April 20, 2010 By 1 Comment
cinco de mayo bread pudding-3

Today I have a traditional Mexican dish with a cheesy twist to help you celebrate Cinco de Mayo this year. This unique recipe for individual Fiesta Green Chile and Cheese Bread Puddings is created by blending traditional Mexican spices with green chiles, California Monterey Jack and tangy sharp California Cheddar cheese.

I don’t know about you, but I’m always ready for a dish that features cheese!

The recipe is created using a muffin pan to create savory individually portioned bread puddings.  Add fresh guacamole, chips, salsa and a crisp green salad with jicama, or corn and California Cotija cheese to complete your Mexican feast. Can you say yum! Ole!

This recipe was provided courtesy of Real California Milk, you can visit their website for even more great recipes.

Fiesta Green Chile & Cheese Bread Puddings
Makes 12 servings

  • 5 large eggs
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 2/3 cup heavy cream
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 3/4 cup (21/2 ounces) loosely packed coarsely shredded California sharp Cheddar cheese
  • 1/2 cup (11/2 ounces) loosely packed coarsely shredded California Monterey Jack cheese
  • 2 tablespoons canned diced green chiles
  • 61/2 cups trimmed and cubed (3/4-inch) day-old French or Italian bread

Adjust rack to lower third of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter 12
(23/4-inch, scant 1/2-cup capacity) muffin tin cups or ramekins.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, milk and cream to blend thoroughly. Mix in the chili powder,salt, cumin and oregano, then mix in the cheeses and chiles. Add the bread; mix thoroughly.

Divide the mixture evenly among the muffin tin cups.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until a knife blade inserted into the centers comes out clean. Cool 5 to 10 minutes. Slide a knife blade around puddings to loosen them; lift out of molds with a small spatula.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

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Drew Brees’ Strawberry Pie

April 2, 2010 By 1 Comment
drew brees stawberry pie

One of my favorite times of the year is strawberry season. I love strawberry pie, strawberry shortcake, strawberry smoothies, and everything else made from fresh strawberries, yum! This time of year the strawberries are loaded with flavor, and by the end of May will be ripening in my backyard garden.

Football star Drew Brees just returned from  a USO tour to visit with the troops. Besides being a famous personality, Drew Brees is a father and family man himself.  He’s teaming up with Walmart to ask families across the country to think about who they would invite if they could save enough money in their Easter shopping to be able to include one more person to dinner.

The best part, is in partnership with Walmart, Drew to share his favorite recipe for Strawberry Pie! What better way is there to stretch your budget and make a fabulous dessert at the same time.

Brees’ Family Strawberry Pie

Ingredients

  • 1 Ready-made pie crust

First Layer of filling

  • 1 Cup Coconut Milk
  • 3 Eggs
  • 1/4 Cup Sugar
  • 1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Flavoring
  • 1 Tablespoon Cornstarch

Second Layer of Filling

  • 3 Cups Fresh Strawberries, hulled

Third Layer of Filling

  • 1 Cup Fresh Strawberries, smashed or pureed
  • 2 Tablespoons Cornstarch
  • 3/4 Cup water

Directions

  1. In medium saucepan, combine ingredients for first layer. Heat over medium heat until mixture begins to thicken, stirring constantly to avoid curdling. Spread evenly on bottom of pie crust. Allow to cool to room temperature. Arrange fresh whole strawberries, tops down, in even manner on top of first layer. Set aside.
  2. In small saucepan, combine ingredients for third layer. Stir well and cook over medium heat until mixture thickens. Spoon evenly over strawberries and refrigerate for at least two hours to chill. Top with (dairy free) whip cream and serve.

Note: All ingredients can be bought at Walmart for unbeatably low prices.

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