Friday, January 7, 2011

Pork Roast fajitas

I had a pork roast that needed to be cooked and I didn't want to cook it my same ol' way so..... I browsed the web for a little while trying to get some ideas. I found Pork Roast Mexican style. I read the recipe, it sounded good but I did my own thing with it.

Ingredients: I'm not so good at measuring when I wing it so I'll try and approx. it for you.

2 cups water
1 whole yellow onion, chopped,
1 cup, whole baby carrots
2 tablespoons garlic salt
1 tablespoon pepper
2 tablespoons coriander
3-4 tablespoons ground cumin


I added all of these ingredients into my crock pot on High with my Pork Sirloin Roast for 4-5 hours.

Occasionally I would open the lid and ladle some juice over the exposed part of the roast.



all my ingredients added, and ready to start cooking
 
really good locally made, Rita's brand Humboldt Salsa
http://www.ritascafe.com/
  For the fajitas part, I sauteed up some yellow and red bell pepper and some red onion. When the pork was done I added it to my veggies.

Meat is done, and added in with my peppers/onion


( I used about 1/4 cup of sliced onion, and 1 whole red bell pepper, and 1/2 a yellow bell pepper total.)

I served it with Whole Wheat Tortillas, Monterrey Jack Cheese, Rita's Humboldt Salsa, and some black beans. 
Yuuuummm, looks good right?? you better say Yes ;-)

The pork was a great change up to chicken or beef and the slow cooker just does pork soooo right. Not only is it all super easy, since the crock pot does all, well most, of the work. The combination of cumin and coriander for cooking Mexican food is perfect.

I love my crock pot.

I love pork too.

Give it a try and Enjoy!!
Thanks for stopping by and have a good Friday!!

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Rachael Ray People's Choice for best chef??

Wait wait wait a stinkin' second..... Rachael Ray won People's Choice Award for Best Chef?? Ok now mass public, she is really not that wonderful. Do you watch her show?? It's horrible, and she only cooks for like 15 minutes of it and the rest she barely knows what to talk to her guests about. Me no likely.  I have used her recipes in the past, I will say. But she is definitely not my favorite. Paula Deen, The Neeleys (by the way I just love how she always says to him "oh yeah Daddy" lol), Bobby Flay, umm anyone else on Cooking Channel or Food Network?!?!?!?!?

I'm blown away, damn near speechless. So here's my theory on why she won.



Number One she is a child of Oprah. I mean she did get her own she because of Ms. O.
Number Two she is on network TV, either middle of the day, or afternoon when most housewives are watching the tube. She's on a non-cable channel so a lot people are exposed to her.
Three, she's kinda the "mass media chef". She's in all kinds of commercials, has her own magazine(again, a Harpo product), cookware on QVC, and unlike many of my favorites she's a household name now. Oh the tragedy.

Oh well, we can't win em all Paula. But remember I love you.
So theres my rant on that. :-)

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

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Monday, January 3, 2011

I'm Peking... Chicken

Yeah yeah yeah, we've had this before. It's just so darn good! I use the same recipe every time but I've also changed what type of meat I use. My husband found this recipe on Food & Wine's website http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/peking-duck-stir-fry by chef Ken Hom.

First it was duck, YUM, then steak and now chicken breast. The flavors are so good in this dish that it doesn't seem to matter what type of meat you use. Best part is that my kids liked it too. I did omit the chili and jalapeno peppers though.


Peking Duck Stir-Fry by Ken Hom

  • TOTAL TIME: 30 MIN
  • SERVINGS: 4
  • FAST
  • HEALTHY

Ingredients

  1. 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  2. 1 tablespoon Shaoxing cooking wine or dry sherry
  3. 1 tablespoon Asian sesame oil
  4. 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  5. Salt
  6. Four skinless, boneless Pekin duck breasts (6 ounces each), cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices
  7. 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
  8. 4 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
  9. 1 large shallot, thinly sliced
  10. 1 jalapeño, seeded and thinly sliced
  11. 1 red chile, seeded and thinly sliced
  12. 2 teaspoons sugar
  13. 1/2 cup chicken stock or water
  14. 1/4 cup salted, roasted peanuts
  15. 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Directions

  1. In a medium bowl, stir 1 tablespoon of the soy sauce with the wine, sesame oil, cornstarch and a pinch of salt. Add the duck and turn to coat. Let the duck marinate for 10 minutes.
  2. In a large skillet or a wok, heat the oil. Add the duck; reserve any excess marinade. Cook over high heat until medium-rare, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate.

Step 1 in the directions. Letting the chicken marinate.
    
    last step, adding it all together
    
     
3. Add the garlic, shallot, jalapeño and chile to the skillet and cook over moderately high heat, stirring, until golden, about 2 minutes. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, the reserved marinade, the sugar and the stock and stir-fry, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom of the skillet. Return the duck to the skillet and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Remove from the heat and stir in the peanuts. Transfer to plates, sprinkle with the cilantro and serve.

cilantro, shallots, and garlic









a couple of my products



plated and ready to eat


Sunday, January 2, 2011

A new year, new eggs, and a bad hangover

Wow, Happy New Year everyone!! Hope it was a fun one. We had a full day of recovery yesterday. We had a pretty awesome new year's eve.

First and foremost, thank you to my wonderful friend/ babysitter for the night for keeping my kiddos. :-) Love you.

We started out by going to The Pearl Lounge,http://www.pearlloungeeureka.com/ in Eureka, CA, for pre-dinner drinks. One drink and a nice pricey tequila shot down we decided that was enough and headed over to The Carter House Inn, their restaurant, Restaurant 301, for dinner. http://www.carterhouse.com/. There we dinned on Crab Cocktail, Duck con Fete, an intermezzo of Mango Sorbet, and Prime Rib. I think there was dessert but we were so tipsy, I mean full, we didn't have it.
Oh and some more tequila and a couple bottles of Chardonnay. Note: This tequila/wine combination is not recommended and will Never happened for us again. Dinner was amazing and we walked back into Old Town to dance our asses off at The Pearl.

We had a great time. Ran into some old friends, drank champagne, and danced. Yes, my honey danced with me all night.  It was so much fun.

Yesterday was a full day of laying on the couch and starting to feel human again.

Ok ok now for the food. We started the day off with omelets.

I made my omelet using 3 eggs. I scrambled up the eggs in a small bowl and added a little salt and pepper to them. Once whipped up nice and fluffy, I added them to my skillet. The skillet was on medium heat and already nice and hot when I put the eggs in. Once the bottom of the eggs were looking cooked I added, to one side of the omelet, some diced up tomatoes, yellow bell pepper, chopped cilantro, and a dash of garlic salt. I then carefully folded my eggs in half and let it brown a little on each side. Lastly, I topped it with some feta cheese.

I have to admit it took me a long time to cook an omelet well. In the words of my old dance teacher, Practice makes permanent.  And in this case my eggs perfect. :-)



omelets using, tomatoes, yellow bell pepper, cilantro, and of course eggs


Mina wanted fried eggs instead, no prob.

finished omelet, topped with some feta cheese