Tag: food

P is for…

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Portugal. Pork chops. Pomegranates. Portobellos. Parsley. How’s that for a lot of P’s? Who knew dinner could be both delicious and educational! Well, maybe just delicious. Miss A wasn’t really into helping with this one; although she and Mr. N kept passing through the kitchen stealing pomegranate seeds. (But who could blame them! Yum!)

This past weekend we made another Portuguese dinner, Stuffed Pork Chops with Pomegranate Sauce. We chose this recipe not only because it sounded delicious, but because it featured pomegranates, a fruit we had never used or eaten at home. We started by preparing the stuffing for the chops with portobellos, a shallot, parsley, garlic, olive oil, bread crumbs and Gruyère cheese. 

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Sweethearts and Sweet Tarts

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This past Sunday morning Mike and I were fortunate enough to wake up on our own accord as Nana and Papa had graciously taken the kids on an over-nighter. While I do miss their happy little faces and morning hugs, every now and then it’s pure bliss to wake up to your own internal alarm clock. Mike and I even slept past seven a.m.!

After lying in bed for a while we got up, ate breakfast at a leisurely pace, watched some news, did some reading, made some coffee and then decided to bake together before the kids got home. We put on some classic rock and got down to making our next Portuguese recipe, Pasteis de Nata, or custard tarts.

We started by whisking together a few egg yolks, corn starch, sugar and half & half in a saucepan over medium heat. Many of the recipes called for using either all milk (skim, whole, 2 percent), or a combination of heavy cream and milk. I know some of the professional chefs out there are cringing, but we went for the fat-free half & half just to be a little healthier.  Continue reading →

Fast Approaching Three and a Half

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This title refers not only to the number of spoons given to today’s dish by myself and Mike, but also the age of our precious little Miss A. Now, for those of you that have children, you’ll know what we’re talking about when we say Miss A is officially entering “the three’s.” For those of you that don’t have children, let’s just say the person that came up with the slogan, “the terrible two’s” clearly did not have a three-year old child.

But before we get to that, let me share with you where Mike has chosen to take us for the next two weeks….Portugal! After a quick search of Portuguese recipes we were definitely excited. There is a myriad of delicious options from which to choose and today we’re kicking it off with one of the most popular foods in Portugal.

Portugal is a seafaring nation with the most prevalent fish being the cod, both dried (salt cod) and fresh. According to Wikipedia it is said that there are more than 365 recipes for cod, one for every day of the year; and it didn’t take us long to select our recipe, Portuguese Baked Cod. Continue reading →

Love, Loyalty and Barbecue

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Okay, so the words to the salute of the state flag in The Palmetto State are actually, “love, loyalty and faith,” but we’re talking about slow cooked barbecue goodness today. More specifically we’re talking about Mr. N’s state pick for the week, South Carolina Slow Cooker Pulled Pork.

We learned quite a bit about the different styles of BBQ and BBQ sauce for the southeastern coastal state, the most important thing being that BBQ refers exclusively to pork. If you want barbecued beef, it’s called “barbecued beef.” Simply asking for barbecue, however, will land you a pulled, shredded or chopped BBQ pork sandwich. And then there are the sauces which vary by region and include mustard-based sauces, ketchup-based sauces and vinegar-based sauces.

This week we chose the slow cooker method for our pork – it’s easy and convenient enough for a weekday and we love the way it makes the house smell. We also went with the ketchup-based barbecue sauce popular in the upstate and Savannah River regions, thinking that would be more up the kids’ alley.

The day before we planned to slow cook the pork, Miss A and I prepared the barbecue sauce. We used ketchup, apple cider vinegar, salt, brown sugar and crushed red pepper. 

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You Don’t Know Jack

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Well, at least we didn’t, until this week. I’m talking about this interesting little fruit we learned about while exploring Filipino recipes, the jackfruit – but more on that in a minute. We wanted something sweet to go along with our baked tahong and after Kay over at Pure Complex posted her Friday recipes last week, we knew a meal of appetizers was going to fit the bill. That’s when we came across the recipe for Turon Saba, a sweet banana (plantain) and jackfruit (or langka) spring roll, often served as a street snack in the Philippines.

The recipe seemed easy enough. We just needed plantains, jackfruit, brown sugar and spring roll wrappers. Miss A and I were really excited when we found the jackfruit at the grocery store. We had no idea that this even existed before this week, and yet here it was right on our grocery store’s shelves. And what was even better, the spring roll wrappers were right next to the jackfruit. So with all of our ingredients on hand, we started by peeling and slicing the plantains and laying out the jackfruit. 

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Rockin’ the Pumpkin

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We’ve got one more pumpkin recipe for you before we head back to sampling recipes from the Philippines. This particular dish makes use of the leftover roasted pumpkin we had from our risotto and makes for a great lunch or side salad. If you don’t have any leftover pumpkin on hand, it’s simple to roast up a fresh batch, just allow for an extra hour of cooking time.

So what is this easy, tasty and refreshing pumpkin recipe? The Pumpkin and Couscous Rocket Salad. Yep, it’s healthy and offers some much-needed freshness after all the Halloween sweets and treats. We started by preparing our couscous. We used a whole wheat couscous, chicken stock, dry white wine, fresh sage, lemon zest and lemon juice. 

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