Are you hungry?: 11/1/09

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Slow Cooker Puerto Rican Style Pork

Pork loin roasts were on sale again last week, I bought two. And, I took the opportunity to used my new slow cooker. If you read my homemade applesauce post you know about my part time daughter, and the story behind this slow cooker. Anyway, if you like spicy, flavorful pork that's easy to prepare, then this pork recipe is for you. I can tell you, my family really enjoyed it.

Slow Cooker Puerto Rican Style Pork (Pernil)

1 (3 pound) pork loin roast (with bone)
4 cloves garlic
1 large onion, quartered
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
3 tablespoons Mojo
1/2 can Salsa Verde
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

Place the garlic, onion, oregano, cumin, salt, and pepper into a blender. Pour in the salsa verde, Mojo, and vinegar. Puree until smooth. Cut a few slits in the roast and stuff with puree. Spread the balance all over the pork loin, and place into a slow cooker.

Cook on high until the pork is fork tender, 5 - 6 hours. The pork will fall off the bone in chunks. Serve with Spanish rice smothered with a health ladle of that flavorful broth. This recipe is second best to a traditional "Puerto Rican Pernil". My first mother in law prepared hers where the main ingredients were tons of garlic, Adobo, oregano, white vinegar, and onions.

Are you hungry?

♥

Comments Recipe Tags: dinner, pork, spicy

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Uplifted and Inspired - Foodbuzz & Foodie Blogroll Friends

It has been an incredible week, thanks to my foodie friends!

Anyone that has read my Google profile knows that I am all about family and food. When I started this blog in 2008, my last son went away to school. It was my intention to post recipes, honoring the memory of my mother. She fed everyone! Her infamous statement, Are you hungry, eat more is burned into my brain. Now, my family hails me as a great cook. In reality, I had a great mother who's children were her life. I was raised that family comes first, your children before you. She was a great cook; came from an Italian family full of great cooks. My mother taught me everything I needed to know about being a woman, a respected, loving, home maker type of woman. My mother was a 20 years cancer survivor, with a reoccurrance that was a five year battle. I traveled 150 miles each way, sometimes daily, to assist her. I had three children at home, two of which were teenagers. In just two and a half years I put 86,000 miles on my car. I attended all of her doctor appointments, dealt with the insurance companies, the HMOs, the PPOs, and kept my then alcoholic father in line. She relied on my strength. That was the least I could offer since I was given so much from her! My mother died in 1999. I'll never be the same, I felt so lost. Then, the kids grew up, went their ways and I started surfing the net, dabbled in web design a bit, and then blogging.

So what does all of this have to do with a great week and foodies?

Before I answer that question, I have to tell my foodie story, hope you don't mind. While I may not prepare high end cuisine, I do love to cook, learn about cooking, and how to prepare different ethnic foods. That makes me a "kinda foodie" right? Anyway, I signed up for the foodie Blogroll in Feb 2009. I was impressed and inspired by Jen aka the leftover queen, originator and owner of the Foodie Blogroll. From there I started to explore other food blogs and sites. Next, I joined the Foodbuzz. Now that is a community of real live Foodies. I made some friends but in all honesty I was kinda intimidated by the top notch members there. How could I belong to a community along side chefs, photographers and foodie pros when I'm just a mom who loves food? Who would ever be interested in my blog? But, I continued checking out the whole foodie scene online. I frequented the Foodie Blogroll and made some foodie friends on Food Buzz. Next I signed up to become a featured publisher. Wow, my mom would just love this, wish she was here. Anyhow, with my family cheering for me and my foodie friends supporting me with comments and suggestions, I continued my food blogging.

Now for the answer ....

On Wednesday I received this in my email -
You were lucky enough to be chosen by Random.org as a butterball winner! Send me your address and I will send it out. Thanks for stopping by and participating in the giveaway!
Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving
Angie

Yesterday, I received this -
We are happy to let you know that your blog was randomly selected as the winner for this week's Foodie Blogroll Tote Bag Giveaway!
You will receive a custom Foodie Blogroll Tote Bag! We hope it will come useful on those trips to the grocery store.

And today while reading Mary's blog, My New Thirty, I found this -
Congrats to Shelly, RedKathy, Suzanne, Carol, AnnMarie & Pam - your comments were chosen by random draw. Winners of $1.10 off a box of Progresso Panko Bread Crumbs!

None of this would have occurred without my foodie friends. Thank you for the gifts. More importantly thank you for the inspiration! I know my mother would have been happy for me, and my family sure is!

♥

Comments Recipe Tags: contest

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Fresh Cranberry Apple Bake

Amen to cooler weather and my continued festive fall mood! I bought some fresh cranberries yesterday morning, thinking I would try preparing fresh cranberries for Thanksgiving this year. Of course I intended to do a test run today... The cranberries never made it that far. I let myself get derailed, imagine that! It's that addiction; you know the one that started with the homemade applesauce. In searching for that perfect homemade cranberry sauce, I ended up preparing an apple cranberry bake. I knew it was going to be good because is came from a Taste of Home collection.

Here's the original post-

Even folks who claim not to like cranberries rave about this dish. I cherish the recipe from my mother, who inspired my love of cooking.
-- Debbie Daly, Florence, Kentucky

You Will Need-
1 cup sugar ( I used 3/4 cups)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
3 cups chopped unpeeled tart apples (I used 2 small red delicious and 2 small granny smith. I peeled mine)
2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries (I used fresh)
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans (Sorry no pecans in the pantry, so I used raisins)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cold butter

What to Do-
1. In a large bowl, combine sugar and cornstarch; stir in the apples and cranberries. Transfer to a greased 2-qt. baking dish.

2. In another bowl, combine the oats, brown sugar, pecans and flour; cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle over apple mixture. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.

Serves 12

Taste of Home's Holiday & Celebrations Cookbook 2005
http://www.rd.com/advice-and-know-how/apple-cranberry-bake-recipe/article19100.html

Ok, I have to say this apple cranberry crisp was superb. The apples were not at all tart, thus the idea to reduced the sugar. This allowed the cranberry to be the perfect contrast. I couldn't wait to try it, the aroma was oh so overpowering! Red was working when it came out of the oven so you get the point and shoot display. My DH can't eat sweets and complained when he got a glimpse of it. His comment was, this would be great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, which I can't have either." Poor dear.

One more note, the recipe says it serves twelve. Nope, not true unless of course you plan on serving just one big spoonful, topped with that ice cream DH spoke of. Red and I ate the whole pan in just one day.

Oh, and my apples are almost gone. Don't have enough for applesauce, what ever will I do.

FYI - The whole year of Taste of Home is available for download for free. I downloaded the special collections and will l be posting them on my other blog in the coming days.

♥

Comments Recipe Tags: dessert, entertaining, fruit

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Awards times three

Three times in the past three weeks I received this award. I'm not really all that creative, however I'm honored to have been chosen and happy to accept. How thoughtful these ladies have been.

The rules are:

1. Thank the person who has given you the award.

Thank you - Janis, Jodi and Patricia, Angelia

2. Copy the logo and place to your blog. (See it up there?)

3. Link to the person who has nominated you for the award.

Bite Me New England - Two Girls Cooking - Southern Grace Gourmet

4. Name 7 things about yourself (No I'm not naming 21 things and you don't really want that much info anyway!)

My family is more important than anything, including myself.

I love cheese!
I began studying hematology upon graduating high school but never finished my degree because the party life was more important.
I turn out to be an advocate of children, mostly teenagers, even though I was know to be the "mean one" and never thought I wanted children as a young person.
I have two sons and a few temporary daughters. (temporary because they spent their teen years with me)
I've been married twice, hit by three different cars on three occasions, and I'm still here.... God has a plan for me.
My mother passed away in 1999; I will never been the same.

5. Nominate 7 kreativ bloggers (This was most difficult, I could have easily listed 100 -7 are the rules so 7 it will be)

Comments Recipe Tags: uncategorized

Friday, November 06, 2009

My Homemade Applesauce Addiction

I had NO idea how easy it it to prepare homemade applesauce. My mother made everything from scratch, noodles, dumplings, spaghetti, dressing, pies, cookies, candy, and cakes but not applesauce. We ate applesauce with dinner, and it was always served with pork chops.... I'm stumped .

Anyhow, I was reading this great post at Cookin' Canuck about their families home made applesauce and thought about the three bags of apples I had in the fridge. This was a slow cooker applesauce recipe. What happened next you might not believe, it's going to sound like a lie but I promise it is not. My part time daughter Erika (she live with me when she was a teen thus the title) stopped by to give me a new crock pot! See she had borrowed mine some time ago and hadn't returned it. Her reasoning, "Kathy that thing is ancient and a hazard so I decided I would return it along with a new one too! Look, the new one has the removable pot and it's red!" Don't you just love it when life exposes the fruits of parental labor!

Oh gosh enough babbling, on with the applesauce! I made the first batch in the new red crock pot. (I used what I had which was half red delicious and half green granny smith apples)

The Family Crock pot Applesauce Recipe by Cookin' Canuck

5 medium-sized Gala apples, peeled, cored, quartered, and sliced
5 medium-sized Golden Yellow Delicious apples, peeled, cored, quartered, and sliced
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup water or apple juice

Place all of the apple pieces in a large bowl and stir in sugar and ground cinnamon. Pour water or apple juice into the bottom of a large crock pot (slow cooker) and add the apple mixture. Cover, turn the crock pot setting to Low, and cook for about 8 hours (or on High for 5 hours), stirring occasionally.

Serve warm or room temperature.

Makes approximately 4 cups of applesauce.

I set my NEW cooker on high, I just couldn't wait the eight hours. Red and I ate the entire bowl that night. Oh my, this applesauce was so fabulous, we are both addicted. Red shot this photo for me before we dug in. I think he knew it would be gone right quick after experiencing that wonderful aroma all afternoon.

I made another batch a few days later. This addiction produced a level of impatience that forced a stove top method. This time I used 4 pears, 6 apples, and a half cup raisins. I increased the liquid to 1/2 cup and followed the same mixing instructions. Cooked this on low for about an hour total, adding the raisins at about 30 minutes. I gently mashed the fruit with a fork and served it warm. Oh wow this was really good too!

I'm wondering how many times I'll have to make home made applesauce before we're cured of this addiction!

♥