Peach Mango Habanero Pork Chops with Asparagus and Scalloped Potatoes

Here is a great meal idea if you want something to spice up your life a little bit, while maintaining a fairly healthy and tasty conglomeration.  Michael, Craig and I had to team up on this one to do our specialties.  Here are the recipes for the three dishes:

Pork chops:

Sauce- Start with about 2-5 tablespoons (depending on how spicy)  of habanero sauce (we like the yucateco brand), or you can use 2-5 real habanero peppers.  Place habanero sauce with about 2-4 peaches (depending on how sweet you want it), about 1/4 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 cup white distilled vinegar, 1/4 cup yellow mustard, and some sliced mangoes if you want.  Add them all to the blender/food processor, and blend for about 1-2 minutes.  

Place in bag with pork chops and marinate over night.  Cook in a frying pan with the sauce until it is done to taste.

Scalloped potatoes: 

Slice about 3-3.5 pounds of red potatoes.  Use about 4 tbs butter melted in a pan, and mix in 4-5 tbs to make a rue.  Then add 2.5 cups of milk, let simmer.  Add about 2 tsp pepper, 1 tsp fresh thyme, 1 sprig of rosemary, 1 tbs cayenne pepper, and about 1 cup of cheese.  Pour sauce over half the potatoes with some cheese, then put the rsst of the potatoes on too and put the rest of the sauce on with more cheese.

Asparagus: just steam and add a little butter to taste

Spinach Frittata

This is a super easy dish to make, and it's a great way to get those veggies we all need.  Each bite is full of a conglomeration of different flavors, so it's definitely enjoyable. 

* 9 large eggs

* 1/2 cup finely diced red onion

* 2 garlic cloves, minced

* 1/2 red bell pepper, diced

* 1 cup sliced baby bella mushrooms

* 4 cups baby spinach

* 1/2 cup goat cheese crumbles

* 1/4 cup parsley, roughly chopped

* 1/4 cup basil, roughy chopped

* 2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil

* 1/2 tsp coarse salt

* 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

* parmesan shavings for garnish

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, a pinch of salt, pepper, basil and parsley.

Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium-high. Add the onions and saute 3 minutes. Add the garlic and red bell pepper; saute 3 more minutes. Add the mushrooms and saute 3 more minutes. Add the spinach to wilt. Add a pinch of salt and pepper.

Pour the egg mixture over the sautéed veggies, until it has covered the whole skillet. Add the goat cheese and let eggs cook for a good 4 minutes, then move the skillet to the oven and let it sit under the broiler for a few more minutes, until the eggs are cooked and set.

Let cool 3 minutes, garnish with parmesan, slice and serve!

The...As much as you can put on your plate Salad.

Have you ever wanted to pack down the food but not feel like you ate an entire cow?

Do you love eating but feeling like you've got a bag of cement in your stomach afterward because you just ate too much?

So if you've got a hankering for as much as you can eat but don't want to feel bogged down by too much food there's nothing better than an, As much as you can put on your plate salad.

The great thing about salads is that you can put whatever you want on it.  Anything from bacon and eggs, to croutons and cheese, any and every fruit and vegetable, and just about any meat and cheese you'd like too!

Today we had a great As much as you can put on your plate Salad.

Of the countless pictures you could paint on on a plate we painted the following.

                                                                 With...

                                                                                    1 Mango

1 Avocado

5 Radishes

2 Carrots

2 Tomatoes

1/2 Bag of Baby Spinach

1 head Red lettuce

2 Chicken Breasts (Marinated in a white wine &              herbs marinade w/ mustard we got from the              grocery store)

Gorgonzola Crumbled cheese

Honey mustard red wine vinegar dressing (of our              own making)

                                                            

                                                                We Got...

One darn good salad.  Give what we made a try or invent something else to put in your salad.  Anything you can imagine works great.  Keep it lean with turkey or fish, or go all out with some great beef cut thinly on top or some bacon.  Strawberries, mango, raspberries, pecans, walnuts, almonds, water chestnuts, you name it!

We marinated our chicken in some marinade we got from the local grocery store and made our dressing with red wine vinegar, honey, and mustard.

All the delicious, none of the guilt!                       Enjoy!

Barbecue Parmesan Chicken

So this was just a quick invention we came up with.  It's super quick and simple, here's what you need:

4 chicken breasts

1 cup barbecue sauce

1 cup Parmesan cheese

2 cloves garlic

Green beans (frozen are better)

2 cups rice

1/4 cup butter

Salt and pepper

Basil

Oregano

Red pepper flakes

To start off, cut the chicken into bite size pieces.  Put the barbecue sauce, most of the Parmesan cheese, and the garlic in a bowl, and the mix the chicken in the sauce and place it on a cookie sheet.  Put the green beans on the pan with the chicken, and the sprinkle about a tablespoon of Parmesan, red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, basil, and oregano from high up so it can be spread evenly.  Cut the butter into slices and place on the pan as well.  Cook about 20 minutes on 350.  Cook the rice (you can add onion and peas for some extra veggies) and serve.

Blueberry cream cheese rolls to die for

This is another original recipe that we made up here at usu. It is a play off of the cinnamon roll and is a great change up in the usual dessert.

Roll dough (This is an original recipe as well)

1 3/4 cup warm water

1 T yeast

4 1/2 cups flour

2 eggs

1/3 cup oil

1 T salt

2 T sugar

add all of the ingredients except the flour and mix it well. Then add the flour cup by cup until you have mixed in all of the flour. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes adding flour as needed. 

Divide the dough in two equal chunks and roll it out like you would for cinnamon rolls. when it is rolled out, spread cream cheese (1 package) across the  dough. Then take blueberry pie filling and spread it on top of the cream cheese and then just roll up the dough like you were making cinnamon rolls. Cut into 1 inch slices and put them in a pyrex pan and let them rise until double. When risen, bake on 350 for about 20 minutes or until golden brown on the top and bottom. Cream cheese icing is delicious on these rolls by the way.

buen provecho!!!!

Cafe Rio burritos

SWEET PORK BURRITOS:
2 pounds pork
3 cans Coke (NOT diet)
1/4 c. brown sugar
dash garlic salt
1/4 c. water
1 can sliced green chilies
3/4 can RED enchilada sauce (I used Old El Paso brand, medium spiciness)
1 c. brown sugar

Put the pork in a heavy duty Ziploc bag to marinade. Add about a can and a half of coke and about 1/4 c. of brown sugar. Marinade for a few hours or overnight. Drain marinade and put pork, 1/2 can of coke, water, and garlic salt in crock pot on high for about 3-4 hours (or until it shreds easily, but don't let it get TOO dry). Remove pork from crock pot and drain any liquid left in the pot. Shred pork.

In a food processor or blender, blend 1/2 can Coke, chilies, enchilada sauce and remaining brown sugar (about a cup, you can add a little more or less to taste..). If it looks too thick, add more Coke little by little.

Put shredded pork and sauce in crock pot and cook on low for 2 hours. That's it!

We replaced coke with Dr. Pepper, it gives a better taste.

lime brownie goodness!!!!!

So during the summer we saw a recipe with ice cream on brownies and it had popcorn or something like that on top. It was incredibly aesthetically pleasing but we in our minds did not think that it would taste very good, so with aesthetically pleasing in mind, we made this delectable recipe. Warning! if you do not like dark chocolate do not try this recipe because both the lime and the raspberries are playing off of the base flavor of the dark chocolate.
Ingredients
-your favorite brownie mix (if you have it use a dark chocolate recipe)
-1 bar of 70% to 90% dark chocolate
-raspberries
-vanilla ice cream
-limes
-whipped cream
-chocolate syrup
Instructions
When you make the brownie recipe add about half of the bar of chocolate to the batter before you bake as per usual. When the brownies are cooled, you will mix ice cream with lime juice and lime zest(you will want about half a lime for each serving and the ice cream should be about half an inch thick on the brownies). Stir it around until it looks like thick soft serve and then layer it on the brownies. If you want to be really fancy you can add another layer of  brownies on top of that making a brownie sandwich. On the top, add whipped cream, raspberries, crushed chocolate bar as garnish and then the chocolate syrup (in the most artful way possible, of coarse)

buen provecho!!!!!

super simple chipoltle chicken

So this slow cooker recipe is one of our own invention. Just like almost all slow cooker recipes this is super simple and is really good.
This recipe only has three ingredients
     -4-6 chicken breasts, or about 8 chicken thighs
     -2  6oz cans of chipoltle puree (just look in the Mexican section)
     -one or two good squeezes of barbecue sauce
Just throw all the ingredients in the crock pot for 6-8 hours. When it is super tender, shred it and serve it over rice.
 Buen provecho!!!!!

Simple tacos

Tacos are super quick and easy.  There is no need to go to the store and buy an expensive taco mix, here is a recipe that will save you some money as long as you own these common spices:

1lb ground beef defrosted

1 onion

1Tbs chili powder

1Tbs garlic powder (or 2 cloves of garlic)

1Tbs cayenne pepper

1Tbs cumin

1Tsp coriander

1Tsp paprika

To start off, put the chopped onion in the frying pan with about 1-2 Tbs oil, and fry for about 5 minutes on medium high.  Add ground beef and all the spices and cook for another 5-10 minutes.  If you like spicy food, feel free to add more chili powder and cayenne pepper.  Serve with lettuce, tomato, sour cream, hot sauce, cheese, lime and salsa, and enjoy!  

Garden Goodness Pizza

So this is one of our own creations. We made it because we did not have the regular pizza ingredients and so we threw what we had on the pizza and it turned out fantastically.

If you cannot tell by the picture, it is whole wheat crust with an Alfredo sauce and lots and lots of garden goodness on top.

Pizza Crust

1 3/4 Cup water

4 cups flour

1 T yeast

1 T sugar

1 T salt

mix water, sugar, yeast and salt in a bowl and then mix in the flour until you cant mix it anymore then knead it until the dough is not sticky anymore. Spread out the dough and let it rise a little bit and bake it at 350 for 15 minutes.

Alfredo sauce

1 cup cream

3/4 cup Parmesan cheese

just heat up the cream and cheese until it melts then spread it over the pizza. If you are like me then you usually don't have cream on hand so here is an alternate recipe

2/3 cup milk

1/3 cup sour cream

3/4 cup Parmesan cheese

As toppings we suggest

• Fresh cut tomatoes
• Chicken
• Spinach
• avocado
• cheese (sparingly)
• anything else you want

Buen Provecho!!!!!

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

10 slices of minced bacon

2 medium onions

6-8 stalks of celery 

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 cup of white cooking wine

20 oz minced clams

7-8 potatoes chopped

5 cups cream

1 1\2 cups milk

2 tbs thyme (fresh if possible)

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

2 tbs white pepper 

Salt

Cook the bacon in the pot, then add the onions and celery and cook until they are tender.  Add the garlic, pepper, chicken broth, clams with juice and white wine.  Allow to simmer on medium heat for 5-10 minutes.  Add the potatoes and cover for 10-15 minutes until tender.  Add the cream and milk and allow to cook on low for 10 minutes.  Add salt to taste (about 2 tbs).

This was a first attempt, so feel free to try adding different vegetables or other ingredients to see if you can improve it.

Basil Spinach and Cheese Ravioli

So on Sunday we decided to make ravioli. None of us had ever made ravioli before but we were up for the challenge (and besides, we were trying to impress the ladies that were over at our house at the time). We did not use any recipes as a reference but it turned out marvelously.

This is the final product with a little bit of filling on the side for artistic purposes.

So funny story that happened when I (Craig) was making the cheese filling. I added all of the cheese to the blender along with the spinach and the basil. The problem was that the cheese mixture was too thick for the blender to vortex, so everything just stayed on its own layer. In an effort to rectify this problem I (foolishly) started stirring the cheese as the blender was still going. It worked for a little bit but inevitably the tip of the spoon nicked the whirling blades. The effect of the interaction was that the blender took a small piece out of our spoon, and that the spoon rocketed upward, spraying cheesy goodness on the ceiling and cabinets. Oh well. You live and you learn right?

Oh just so you know, the noodles were made with half white, half freshly ground whole wheat and that process was spearheaded by Michael and the simple but delicious marinara sauce was the creation of Ryan.

So the way that we made ravioli was simple, but a little labor intensive. We had a ravioli press which sped the process along nicely but anyone really can make ravioli by cutting out squares and then crimping the sides with a fork. Although tedious, this process produces infinitely better ravioli than store-bought varieties.

The filling was incredibly easy to make. 

30 oz ricotta cheese

4 oz Parmesan cheese

4 oz cheddar-mozzarella mix

5 large basil leaves (you should be able to taste it, but not have it overpowering)

2-3 large handfuls of spinach

Just add a bit of the following:

fennel

oregano

tarragon

just blend everything together in the blender. If you have a food processor, I would recommend using that so that you avoid a similar spoon incident

This is the cheese filling when it is all blended up.

Michael working the ravioli press. What a stud.

Just so everyone knows we take requests on the food that we make. If you want us to make something specific we would be more than glad to.

Buen Provecho!!!!

.

Starting the Year Off Right With Crepes

So on January first, when we did not have any work we decided to start the year off right. So we woke up late (8:30 in the morning- oh blessed day!!!!) and we made crepes and as you can see, we succeeded with style. Along with the crepes you will note that there are grapes, pomegranate, bananas and strawberries in sugar and cream (we were trying to use up cream because we found cream on sale for 39 cents per pint and we went a little overboard in our excitement, buying four pints in total). In addition to the fruity goodness, Michael Tobler made a simple and delicious custard.

you make the custard with the following
2 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp corn starch
2 beaten eggs
1 tsp vanilla
just a little bit of salt
dash of cinnamon if you want
heat the milk, sugar, salt, and corn starch and scald the milk while whisking. When scalded,  remove from heat and add a little of the milk mixture to the eggs and stir it in. When it is homogeneous (well as close as you can get it) add this to the pot of the rest of the milk mixture and continue heating. Cook for several minutes until it has thickened. Add vanilla and (if you want to be fancy, top with the cinnamon) enjoy!