Recipes 9 and 10: Pork and Potatoes

Recipe 9: Baked Apple Pork Chops

Another recipe from the CrockPot cookbook that I modified.  Place your pork chops in the bottom of a pan.  Chop up a couple of apples and put them on top.  Sprinkle with a little cinnamon and a few tablespoons of brown sugar.  Cover, and bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes.  

They were quick and easy to make, but they were a bit bland.  We've got a smoked applewood spice blend that we'll put on the pork next time, along with the apples.  

Recipe 10: Cauliflower Scalloped Potatoes

This was something I made up, with inspiration from this post.  I put layers of potatoes, ham, broccoli, pureed cauliflower and grated cheese, sprinkled with garlic salt.  Bake, covered, at 400 degrees for at least an hour.  

I like scalloped potatoes, and have yet to perfect them.  This came closer: the flavors were good (Aaron didn't even mind the cauliflower sauce!), but I always have the problem of undercooked potatoes.  The stuff on top and around the edges was done, but the middle was still a little crunchy.  Must remember to use a bigger pan, so the layers aren't as thick, and to give myself enough time to let it bake - very minimum an hour, usually more.  

Recipe 6: Potato Soup

While I was babysitting the other day, I realized I had forgotten a book to read.  I searched the house to find something and came across just one cookbook.  Even though it was a Crock Pot book, I looked through it for inspiration.  I didn't find a lot that I liked, but I found a recipe for potato soup.

Put in the crock pot:
2 lbs potatoes, peeled and cubed
3/4 cup carrots, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cups chicken broth
Cook until tender (6-7 hours on low).
Add 1 cup half & half, cook on high for 15 minutes.
Turn off heat and stir in two cups shredded cheese.
Uncover and let stand for five minutes before serving.

I followed the recipe, sort of, but I still count it toward my new recipes because I had never made potato soup before.  I added celery, broccoli and cauliflower.  And when adding the cream at the end I also added some cubed ham.  YUM.

I like soup.  Aside from the time it takes to chop the vegetables, it doesn't take a lot of effort.  A lot of this batch will be going into the freezer, so I've got meals for later in the winter too.  Sounds like a winner to me!

June Cooking

After creating a dinner database (a big list of everything I like/would like to cook for dinner) planning meals has been less stressful.  And if I have a plan, dinner actually gets made.  The month of June has been quite successful.  Tried out some new recipes, some that will end up in the regular rotation.

Pizza Rolls - based off a cinnamon roll recipe, but instead of cinnamon and sugar in the middle, it's pizza sauce and meat, with cheese melted on top.  I had zero experience making cinnamon rolls, so they got a bit messy, but I'll get better when I make them again.

Zucchini Lasagna - Aaron doesn't like zucchini or lasagna, so I made this recipe while he was out of town.  A bit more time consuming than I'd usually like to spend on dinner, but it was delicious.  I didn't miss the lasagna noodles at all!  Next time I'd love to add spinach to the sauce.

Smashed Potatoes - Nice change from our usual potato wedges.  Good as a side.

Orange Muffins - Yummy! Yummy!  Made them one week and loved them so much that I made a double batch the next.  They freeze well.  Not at all healthy, since there is a full cup of melted butter in there, but light and fluffy and delicious.  I used Greek yogurt instead of sour cream and one cup of (freshly squeezed) orange juice instead of a half, so I cut the milk down to half cup.  And lots of zest.

Banana Peanut Butter Muffins - had to use the rest of the Greek yogurt before we leave town, so tried these.  Much heavier and rich than the orange ones, but still pretty good.  Not something I'd make super often, but they also freeze well.

Baked Broccoli - someone posted it on Facebook.  I'm not usually a fan of cooked broccoli, but I've made this multiple times throughout the month.  *Do not rinse the broccoli immediately before preparing.  Chop your broccoli and toss with minced garlic, olive oil, and a little salt and pepper.  Spread on a baking sheet and bake for 20-30 minutes at 375 degrees.  Easy and delicious!

And right now my husband is making a cherry cola BBQ sauce to go on some ribs for dinner tomorrow.  Should be interesting!

traditional Greek Easter dinner

Adam decided we were going to be a bit more adventurous for Easter dinner this year, and found this article the other day on NPR with a number of recipes in it. Adam followed the recipes exactly, since these were all new cooking concepts.

chicken and rice soup - we had this with homemade sour-dough bread. It was the perfect complement to it! The lemon flavor was quite prominent in the soup, but it wasn't overpowering. If you try this, be careful with the eggs so they don't cook up wrong. This was our "first course" which we had for lunch between General Conference sessions, and we had the rest of the dinner after Conference ended.

roasted leg of lamb - this was expensive! 30 bucks for a not-very-large piece of meat! We wondered at first if we'd like it - if not, that was a pretty big waste ... but hey, at least then we'd know to not spend that kind of money again. But it was good! Lots of rosemary and garlic and other herbs in it. Adam is sold - we'll have this maybe once a year just because of the cost.

asparagus with dill and garlic - asparagus was something I never had as a kid, but have liked quite a bit as an adult. It also had melted parmesan cheese over it.

There is also a recipe for an Easter bread (the red eggs on it look kinda yucky, if you ask me). Adam planned to make it but we ran out of time and didn't really need it anyway because we had the sour-dough to go with the soup.

roasted new potatoes with feta cheese - this was not included in the article but Adam found it to be a side to the lamb.

Cream of Potato Soup

This is a tasty and warm comfort food for those chilly days. I got it off of Recipezaar. It's #149810. I followed the recipe exactly and it was yummy!

Ingredients

• 1 cup chicken broth
• 3 cups potatoes, diced
• 1/3 cup onion, chopped
• 2 teaspoons parsley flakes
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 1/2 cups milk
• 1 1/2 cups swiss cheese, shredded
• paprika
• salt & pepper

Directions

1. Simmer broth, potatoes and onion until vegetables are tender.
2. Stir in parsley flakes.
3. In small bowl, blend flour with a few tbsp of the milk.
4. Add to the potato mixture.
5. Stir in remaining milk, cooking until soup thickens.
6. Add the cheese, stirring until it melts.
7. Season with paprika, pepper and salt to taste.

beef cabbage hash

This is number 27, which I got off AllRecipes and varied it a bit. It's more of a winter dish than summer, but I needed to use both potatoes and cabbage, and this took care of both.

• 1 pound hamburger
• 1 onion, chopped - I used about half an onion
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• potatoes - chopped into bite sized pieces, and I microwaved them first to soften them.
• shredded cabbage - the original called for an entire head. I think I used about a third of the head. It does cook down quite a bit, but it was still plenty in the balance of the whole thing.
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 beef bullion cube - or you could use vegetable
• Worcestershire sauce - to taste
• salt and pepper

Brown the hamburger with the onion and garlic in a large skillet. Drain any excess grease out of the pan. Add the rest of the ingredients, and keep mixing it around to cook it through. Then eat!

If you don't precook the potatoes to soften them, it will take FOREVER to cook and the cabbage will be completely obliterated. I added the cabbage at handful at a time - there just wasn't room in the skillet for everything all at once, and it did wilt down fairly quickly while waiting for the potatoes to get done. We were surprised at how much we liked it, and the cabbage had a sweet taste to it that we weren't expecting. I'm putting this on file to make again when the weather cools off.

potato salad

This is #18 of 50. I've made potato salad quite a few times but Adam and I were getting a bit bored with how we made it. This recipe was a bit off the beaten path for us - the vinegar makes a HUGE difference!

potatoes cut into bite sized pieces and boiled until you stick a fork into them. Check frequently so they don't get too soft.

1 celery stalk, chopped
1 cucumber, chopped
2 scallions, chopped
1/4 cup fresh parsley (or sprinkle in dried parsley)
salt and pepper

dressing: 1/2 cup mayo, 1 Tbl brown mustard, 1 Tbl white vinegar.

We left out the cucumber and added sliced hard-boiled eggs, because we're not big fans of cucumber and we like hard-boiled eggs.

Easter Challenge - garlic mashed potatoes

I actually just found this recipe at Christmas so we haven't used it at Easter yet ... but we will! It's our new mashed potato staple, from AllRecipes.

potatoes cut into small pieces and boiled until soft

Mix with ...
butter
crushed garlic cloves
Parmesan or Romano cheese
oregano
salt
a little bit of milk to cream it

The original recipe was to mass produce this and called for 50 pounds of potatoes. Use whatever amount of potatoes you normally make, and put everything in a little at a time until it's the taste that you like. It never would have occurred to me to put Parm and oregano in potatoes, but it's really good!

I need someone to make this...

Was flipping channels one day and caught a portion of a PBS program called Cooks Country where they were making these potatoes. I tracked down the recipe on line but haven't 1. got enough mouths to feed to accommodate the recipe and 2. haven't found the time to even think about it yet. IF anyone decides to make this would you let me know how it comes out! Thanks! Beth

MASHED POTATO CASSEROLE

Ingredients:

4 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
1/2 cup half and half cream
11/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
12 tablespoons unsalted butter ( or 1.5 sticks) cut into pieces
1 garlic clove, minced
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons salt
4 large eggs
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh chives

Instructions:

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Bring potatoes and water to cover by 1 inch to boil in large pot over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.

2. Heat half-and-half, broth, butter, garlic, mustard, and salt in saucepan over medium-low heat until smooth, about 5 minutes. Keep warm.

3. Drain potatoes and transfer to large bowl. With electric mixer on medium-low speed, beat potatoes, slowly adding half-and-half mixture, until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. Scrape down bowl; beat in eggs 1 at a time until incorporated, about 1 minute. Fold in chives.

4. Transfer potato mixture to greased 2-quart baking dish or a 13 x 9 inch pan. The potatoes will look very soupy when they are poured into the casserole dish. They will firm up and rise in the oven. For better browning and and impressive presentation, use a fork to make a peaked design on the top of the casserole. Bake until potatoes rise and begin to brown, about 35 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes. Serve.

5. Make Ahead: The baking dish with the potatoes can be covered with plastic and refrigerated for up to 24 hours. When ready to bake, let the casserole sit at room temperature for 1 hour. Increase baking time by 10 minutes.