Some Food Pics! and Recipes too!

I am such a slacker when it comes to taking pictures of the food. I know why. I am obsessed with the food actually being HOT when I serve it. Most of my food pictures are portions AFTER I have already eaten. And as a single girl on a budget (that is my mantra for the year), I can't afford to make an extra portion for posterity. "posterity" is a fancy name for "the readers".

Picture Numero Uno: The horror of the Red Velvet Cake Truffle. I don't recommend making them, so I will not give the recipe.

Picture Numero Dos: New Year's Day Pork and Sauerkraut, extra kraut-y
Ingredients:
1 3-4 lb Pork Loin, sliced into 8 pieces
4 yellow potatoes, quartered
1/2 large onion, chopped
2 cans of saurkraut, juice included
4 T brown sugar
1 really big apple, chopped
shakes of caraway seeds
salt
pepper

In crockpot, layer first can of sauerkraut, onion, and apple. Place browned, salted, and peppered, pork on top. When I cut the pork, I didn't cut all the way through, so it fans out a little in the pot. Place potatoes around the pork. Sprinkle the caraway seeds on top. Sprinkle the brown sugar on top of pork. Pour last can of sauerkraut over pork and potato. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. The pork will just fall apart.

We liked it with all the juices. And the potato tastes like sauerkraut, which we liked too. If you want it a little sweeter and less tart, add more sugar. And you could possibly use NONE of the sauerkraut juice from ONE of the cans and be just fine. My audience for this dish wanted ALL the juice...oh and I gave it to him. "you like-a the juice?"

Picture Numero Tres: Ham and Cheese Mini Frittatas
Oh so good! And I put this recipe into Sparkpeople.com. It has 9 grams of fat and 170ish calories per 6 little frittatas. You could cut some of the fat out by using skim milk and egg beaters. But 9 isn't that bad, to me! And I made these with some other variations for my Christmas Party! I did a bacon and leek (awesome!) and a potatoa, red pepper, and onion. You could do WHATEVER you want for these. They rock!

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Maple Mustard Cream Sauce

The sweet potato gnocchi (SPG) was supposed to be my signature dish. It is unique and something not many people would go through the pains of making. Honestly, gnocchi making is pretty fun! And it is so reassuring to know that restaurants who make their own gnocchi, fresh, DON'T do the crazy fork markings. I still do though. It is a cute personal touch. Literally, every gnocchi gets personally TOUCHED!

The recipe that I use makes a POOP TON of gnocchi. And the gnocchi I cooked last night had been frozen, thawed in the fridge, and then rolled last night. So if you freeze the dough, it will still come out as if you didn't. When you freeze the dough, I recommend freezing it in about the size of a bratwurst, wrapped in parchment paper. When thawed, they probably need some flour added.

This recipe is from epicurious, and I think it is the same as the one I have. But I got mine from another website.
Sweet Potato Gnocchi in Sage Brown Butter:
2 1-pound red-skinned sweet potatoes (yams), rinsed, patted dry, pierced all over with fork

1 12-ounce container fresh ricotta cheese, drained in sieve 2 hours 1 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese (about 3 ounces)
2 tablespoons (packed) golden brown sugar
2 teaspoons plus 2 tablespoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
2 3/4 cups (about) all purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
6 tablespoons chopped fresh sage plus whole leaves for garnish

Line large baking sheet with parchment paper. Place sweet potatoes on plate; microwave on high until tender, about 5 minutes per side. Cut in half and cool. Scrape sweet potato flesh into medium bowl and mash; transfer 3 cups to large bowl. Add ricotta cheese; blend well. Add Parmesan cheese, brown sugar, 2 teaspoons salt, and nutmeg; mash to blend. Mix in flour, about 1/2 cup at a time, until soft dough forms.

Turn dough out onto floured surface; divide into 6 equal pieces (two pieces will create two servings, freeze the remaining). Rolling between palms and floured work surface, form each piece into 20-inch-long rope (about 1 inch in diameter), sprinkling with flour as needed if sticky. Cut each rope into 20 pieces. Roll each piece over tines of fork to indent. Transfer to baking sheet.

Bring large pot of water to boil; add 2 tablespoons salt and return to boil. Working in batches, boil gnocchi until tender (uh when they float, they are done), 5 to 6 minutes. Transfer gnocchi to clean rimmed baking sheet. Cool completely. (Can be made 4 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.)

Preheat oven to 300°F. Melt butter in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook until butter solids are brown and have toasty aroma, swirling pan occasionally, about 5 minutes.

Add chopped sage (mixture will bubble up). Turn off heat. Season sage butter generously with salt and pepper.

Transfer half of sage butter to large skillet set over medium-high heat. Add half of gnocchi. Sauté until gnocchi are heated through, about 6 minutes. Empty skillet onto rimmed baking sheet; place in oven to keep warm. Repeat with remaining sage butter and gnocchi. (This seems entirely too high maintenance...just toss and go!)

Last night, I served these with Pork and a Maple Mustard Sauce (featured in a previous blog entry). This sauce actually went GREAT with the gnocchis! SO I took a picture of the gnocchi atop the sauce. A really nice and different way to eat them. And who doesn't love sweet potato with some maple syrup??

Pictures Coming Soon!!

I got a great deal on a canon digital camera yesterday. It was an early morning impulse buy, but it is for the good of Foodie Nation that I can take photos of my creations. (rhymed)

Last night was comfort food night. It was a cozy 62 degrees in my house when I got home, and soup and macaroni and cheese certainly sounded good!

Brocolli and Potato Soup (5-6 servings)
1 small onion chopped
1 smaller carrot peeled and chopped small
2 potatoes peeled and cubed
1 brocolli stalk, chopped
2 T butter
chicken broth to cover, about 3.5 cups
1 cup milk
1/3 cup Half and Half
1 cup white cheddar cheese, shredded
salt and pepper

In a pot, melt butter, and add onion and carrot, seasoning with salt and pepper. Cook until softened. Add potato, brocolli, and broth (I did not add salt and pepper here, but you probably should). Simmer until potatoes are softened. Then cover for about 10 minutes over low heat. While simmering, take about 1/4 cup of the milk, and mix with 1/4 cup of flour; this is The Agent, the thickening agent.

Uncover the soup and add the milk, The Agent, and the cream. Bring to a simmer; let it simmer until it creams up. Add the cheese.

With soups, I just prefer to salt to my personal taste when I eat it. This was a little under salted upon serving, but I prefer it that way!

Second Course: Macaroni and Cheese with Bacon and Ham (6 servings)
2 cups dry elbow macaroni
1 can Fat Free Evaporated Milk
1 cup milk
3 T butter
1/3 cup flour
1.5-2 cups shredded cheese (I used white cheddar and swiss. Just use up what you have!)
1/2 cup deli ham chopped
4 slices of bacon, cooked and chopped

Cook the macaroni.
Melt the butter, add the flour (The Agent), then whisk in the milk. Once creamy, add the Evaporated Milk. Mix in shredded cheeses. Once thick and looking like heaven, add the ham and bacon. Stir in macaroni. Turn into a buttered round casserole dish and bake at 375 until bubbly goodah.

Notes:
-I am NOT a breadcrumb topping kinda gal, so you won't see a topping on the mac.
-Block cheese, shreddeed on your cheese grater, melts the best.
-If you eat the soup first, it will fill you up more, and you will not need as much of the super rich mac and cheese.

Porky Pink

I made something up last night!

Spinach and Spanish Cheese Stuffed Pork Tenderloin with an Maple Mustard Apple Chutney
Holy long title Batman!

Ingredients:
Pork Tenderloin sliced carefully to make flat and rollable
Bagged Baby Spinach
Grated Mahone and Roncal Cheese
salt and pepper

Chutney:
one granny smith apple, diced
2T diced onion
2T butter
1/2 cup chicken broth
1t dijon mustard
1t whole grain mustard
1/4 cup maple syrup
splash of milk
1 t butter

Place spinach and cheese inside pork, and roll. Use toothpicks or twine to bind, but it is not necessary. Grill on all four sides, about 4 minutes a side.

Melt butter and add apple and onion, let saute until soft. Add chicken broth to syrup and whisk. Add butter and milk to desired thickness. Place chutney over or under pork on a serving plate.

I served this with a side of sweet potato and white potato cooked in foil, also on the grill.

For dessert, Vanilla Crepes with Strawberries and Dark Chocolate Sauce. Crepe recipe is from allrecipes.com.

Vanilla Crepe
INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups milk
3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons melted butter
DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, mix together the milk, egg yolks and vanilla. Stir in the flour, sugar, salt and melted butter until well blended.
Heat a crepe pan over medium heat until hot. Coat with vegetable oil or cooking spray. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter into the pan and tip to spread the batter to the edges. When bubbles form on the top and the edges are dry, flip over and cook until lightly browned on the other side and edges are golden. Repeat with remaining batter.
Fill crepes with your favorite fruit, cream, caramel or even ice cream or cheese to serve.

A couple tips:
-Pork is usually dry because it is overcooked. Do you KNOW how many antibiotics are in pig feed these days to prevent crazy pig borne illnesses? Lotsa. So eat your pork medium-medium well. A little pink makes things so much better!
-Find friends/dinner guests who enjoy your food and then say, "You are not doing anything else! I am cleaning it all up!" These people just come from a better ilk than other people. And they probably are very thoughtful in other ways too.
-Crepes are easy. Don't let the french fool you! They are tricky like that.

Pork Meatballs II: How these little guys went from Cream Sauce to Soup

So, when cooking for two people, there are often leftovers. And making something like meatballs, you really need to have more than one plan. I mean, who wants to create a meaty mess for half as much outcome? If I make meatballs, I make a normal recipe's worth, and then freeze them. But since there wasn't a sauce with these meatballs, as they weren't "Italian", I had another idea.

Meatball, Tortellini and Spinach Soup
Ingredients:
20 meatballs (cooked)
frozen cheese tortellini (half the bag or two handfulls)
frozen chopped spinach (only half the package, as I used the OTHER half in the cream sauce below)
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup water
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
sald and pepper
1 T butter

In soup pot, saute the carrot, celery and onion (the trinity) in butter. Salt and pepper. Add spinach to combine. Add chicken broth and 1 cup water. Add meatballs Simmer until carrots are soft. Add tortelli, and simmer until cooked.

This all made about 4 servings. Great for lunch! And add parmesan cheese, if that is your 'thang'.

The Pasty from Cornwall

Not sure where this Cornwall place is...but the Cornwallish, Cornwallians, Cornish, were the creators of the Pasty. It is not a sticker that covers your nipple. It is not pronounced like a sticker that covers your nipple, either. The U-ppers in Michigan pronounce it in a way that it rhymes with "nasty." I heard it pronounced like a "pasta" with an EE at the end too. Who cares. The food is GOOD!

It is basically a shmancy hot pocket :)

Here is my recipe:
Pork, Potato and Apple Pasty

1/3 lb ground pork
1 medium yellow potato
1 large granny smith apple
2T chopped onion
1 sheet of Pepperidge Farm puffed pastry
2T butter, melted

Cut the apple and potato to similar sizes. In a bowl, mix apple, potato, pork, and onion. On thawed pastry, heap a mound of mixture in the middle. Pull up both sides of pastry and meet in the middle, closing the pastry by pressing the dough together. On a cookie sheet with parchment paper, place Pasty with seam on the side. Pour butter over the pasty. Bake at 375 for 45-50 minutes.

There is no cheese in this pasty, but you could put some swiss or gruyere inside and it would be awesome!

And looky! A picture!

Pork with Maple Mustard Glaze

Oh the deliciousness of last night's dinner. Oh the yummy smells. Oh the desire to lick the saute pan even with the searing burns that would occur on the tongue. Sidenote: your tongue heals faster than any other part of your body. Well your tongue and the whoo-whoo on a woman. So really, it would just be a temporary pain. Highly worth it so as not to waste yummy leftover pan bits.

The dinner was a joint effort. But really, my part in the effort was not the most important. I am humble enough to admit that the Pork with the Maple Mustard Glaze was not my creation. After the pork was cooked, the leftove pan goodness was deglazed with chicken broth and a splash of heavy whipping cream to create an amazing sauce. The sauce was then poured on top of the pork and mashed potatoes (my humble contribution).

Here is the recipe from Cooking Light. Now it probably wasn't all that light for US, because to the dearest one who shares my life, a teaspoon of butter is more like 1/3 stick. And "sauce serving" is 1 T of sauce. HA. I think I just peed laughing at that one. We poured the sauce we made; I dipped into the sauce. I think I licked the side of the measuring cup.

And if you don't like links:
Pork Chops with Maple Mustard Glaze

Maple syrup makes a fine stand-in for honey or sugar in sauces. Here, it adds a rich, sweet note to herbed mustard sauce. This sauce goes nicely with sautéed chicken breasts as well. 1 teaspoon butter
(4-ounce) boneless pork loin chops, trimmed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
2 teaspoons heavy cream

Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Sprinkle pork chops evenly with salt and pepper; add pork to pan. Cook 4 minutes on each side or until lightly browned. Remove from pan; keep warm.
Add broth and next 4 ingredients (through thyme) to pan. Bring to a boil, and cook for 3 minutes or until slightly thickened. Stir in cream, and reduce heat to medium. Return pork to pan; simmer 3 minutes or until pork is done, turning once. Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 pork chop and about 1 tablespoon sauce)


NUTRITION PER SERVINGCALORIES 214(22% from fat); FAT 5.2g (sat 1.9g,mono 1.9g,poly 0.6g); PROTEIN 26.3g; CHOLESTEROL 68mg; CALCIUM 38mg; SODIUM 751mg; FIBER 0.3g; IRON 1.2mg; CARBOHYDRATE 14.6g