Boneless Pork Roast

This meal was a one dish wonder!

The Meat

- 1 1/2 pound boneless pork roast, tied with string

- salt, pepper, marjoram, savory, fennel, rosemary to taste

The Veggies

- 2 heirloom carrots, thickly sliced

- 1 zucchini, thickly sliced

- 2 stalks celery, thickly sliced

- 1 turnip, diced

- 2 yellow potatoes, diced

- 1 heirloom tomato, diced

- 1/2 cup spinach, raw

- 1/2 cup chard, raw

1 cup vegetable broth

- salt, pepper, marjoram, savory, fennel, rosemary to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Chop all the veggies and get a big baking dish to fit everything.  Place the pork roast in the center, and mix all the veggies minus the chard and spinach together around the roast.  Pour in the broth and season everything.  

Place the baking dish with all the raw meat and veggies into the oven and roast for 45 minutes.  Check on the roast every 15 minutes or so, basting with the vegetable stock in the bottom of the baking dish.  

After 45 minutes, add the spinach and chard into the baking dish.  Swirl it around to make sure the leaves get coated with the juices that are in your pan.  Also at this point, I sliced the pork within the string netting and then cooked the meal for 15 more minutes.  The pork was juicy and tender, and the veggies were melt in your mouth soft.  Overall this is a great, hearty dinner!

Beef Patties with Garlic, Bacon, and Fresh Mozzarella

Another patty meal - these are my "easy" meals, where I use different kinds of stuffed ground meat to make a quick and cheap entree that still tastes awesome.  I asked my hubbie if he ever gets bored of eating ground meat and I got a pretty serious NO as a response.  Enjoy!

The Meat

- 1 pound ground beef

- 8 cloves garlic, sliced

- 2 mushrooms, sliced

- salt, pepper, dill, basil to taste

- 3 slices bacon

The Garnish

- green onion, sliced

- mozzarella cut into large chunks

The Veggies

- 1 zucchini, sliced

1 summer squash, sliced

- 2 turnips, sliced

- 2 cups spinach, raw

- 1 cup water, divided

- 1 tablespoon of olive oil

- salt, pepper, dill to taste

In a large mixing bowl, mix together the sliced garlic, mushrooms, and ground beef with the seasonings. Form the patties by picking up a fistful of the mixture and rolling it into a ball, then patting the ball flat on both sides.

In a large pan, bring the zucchini and turnips to a boil with the oil and 1/2 cup of water.  Season liberally and let cook for 15 minutes or until the turnips are soft.

Fry up 3 slices of bacon on high heat on a griddle pan.  Once cooked crispy, cut up the bacon and mix it with the zucchini and turnip mixture.  On the still greasy griddle pan, cook your patties, around 6 minutes a side - check with a knife to see how the centers of the patties look - you want them to still be a little pink in the middle so the meat is juicy and full of flavor, not dried out or burnt.

Wilt the spinach with the remaining half cup water.  Drain the spinach and toss it with the bacon, zucchini, and turnip mixture.  Layer the veggies on the plate, then the patties, and cover everything with green onion and mozzarella.  Yum-o.

Lemon Butter Salmon With Turnips and Zucchini

The combination of bacon grease and butter makes this meal so tasty.  Indulge in delicious fats!

The Meat

- 2 fillets of boneless, skinless salmon

- salt, pepper, dill to taste

- 1 teaspoon bacon grease for frying

- 1 teaspoon lemon juice

- green onion, diced for topping

The Sauce

- 4 tablespoons of butter

- 2 cloves garlic, diced

- 2 tablespoons lemon juice

- salt, dill to taste

The Veggies

- 2-3 turnips, thinly sliced and cut

- 1 large zucchini, thinly sliced

- 3 mushrooms, thinly sliced

- 6 Padron peppers, diced

- 1 tablespoon bacon grease

- salt, pepper, dill, basil to taste

- 1/2 heirloom tomato, sliced

- fresh mozzarella to taste

- 1 teaspoon olive oil

- salt, pepper, basil, oregano to taste

Begin by dicing the veggies and putting them in a large pan.  Add the bacon grease, season everything, and bring the heat up to medium.  Saute all the veggies for around 15 minutes, until the turnips and zucchini are soft.  

Melt the butter in a small saucepan on medium heat, and cook the chopped garlic until it is soft and has brown edges.  Add the salt, dill, and lemon juice, and bring it down to a low heat to let all the flavors meld together.

Cook the salmon on a griddle pan, using high heat.  Season the salmon while the bacon grease warms up in the pan.  Sear each side of the salmon, a minute per side, and sprinkle the seared sides with the lemon juice before letting them sit longer, around 4-5 minutes per side.  The salmon should be pinkish, opaque, and flake apart with a fork.  Watch it so it doesn't overcook and dry out.  

Toss the mozzarella and tomato in oil and the seasonings, then add them to the vegetables.

Put the cooked vegetables on the plates and place the salmon next to/somewhat on top of them.  Drizzle the salmon liberally with the lemon butter and garnish the dish with the diced green onion.  Enjoy!

Cranberry and Walnut Stuffed Lamb Patties

Tonight was family game night at our house, and my darling little sister adores lamb, so I decided to treat her and my brother to some delectable lamb patties.  I mixed celery, dried cranberries, diced scallion and walnuts into the ground meat to make the patties have a little extra pizzazz.  

The Meat

- 1 1/2 pounds of ground lamb

- 1 scallion, diced

- 2 stalks of celery, diced

- 1/4 cup of dried cranberries

- 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts

- 2 stalks of green onions, diced

- 4 slices of Port Salut cheese

- salt, pepper, dill, marjoram, savory, cinnamon, paprika to taste

The Veggies

- 1 head of cauliflower, chopped

- 1 large sweet potato, chopped

- 2 turnips, chopped

- 1 zucchini, cut into large pieces

- 1 summer squash, cut into large pieces

- 2 tablespoons olive oil

- salt, pepper, dill, marjoram to taste

- 1 cup water

Preheat the oven to 380 degrees.

Put the chopped veggies into a glass baking dish.  Brush the tops with olive oil and season everything.  Pop the pan in the oven and cook the veggies for 45 minutes.

In a metal mixing bowl, prepare the ground lamb with the goodies listed above.  Form the patties with your hands (remember to take off your rings!) and place them on your griddle pan to cook.  Cook them on high heat, turning occasionally, until the inside is just pink in the center if you cut one open.  The lamb will continue to cook a few minutes after taken off of the heat, so you don't want them to dry out.  

Layer the Port Salut cheese on top of the patties and let it melt for a minute before serving.  Sprinkle green onion on top of everything and enjoy the meal!

A Marsala Meal

What. A. Meal.  

We had friends over for dinner on this beautiful, warm Friday night, and I decided to go all out, formulating a fantastic meal around a main ingredient - Marsala wine.  I use a sweet, superiore Marsala when I cook.  It is a versatile cooking wine, since it goes so well with tomatoes, cream, fish, veal, chicken, and so many vegetables that it is hard to go wrong.  I made boneless, skinless chicken thighs in a Marsala cream sauce and I also used the Marsala to make stuffed onions.  Since one of our guests was vegetarian, I separated some of the sauce and made some rosa bianca eggplant steaks as a substitute for the chicken.  Add some of my standard roasted sweet potatoes and turnips into the mix and we had ourselves quite the meal!

The Meat

- 6-10 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (approximately 2-3 thighs per person)

- olive oil for cooking

The Sauce

- 1 1/2 cups of whole milk

- 1 cup of Marsala wine

- 3-4 tablespoons of tomato paste

- 4 tablespoons butter

- salt, pepper, marjoram, oregano, parsley to taste

- potato starch to thicken

The Veggies

- 1 medium sized rosa bianca eggplant,  sliced into steaks

- 1-2 tablespoons olive oil

- salt, pepper to taste

- 2 large sweet potatoes, chopped into bite size pieces

- 1-2 large turnips, chopped into bite size pieces

- olive oil, salt, pepper, dill to taste

- 7-10 small onions

- 2 stalks celery, diced

- 1 large scallion, diced

- 1 1/2 cup spinach, raw and chopped

- 6-8 lare white mushrooms, diced

- 6-8 cloves garlic, diced

- 1/2 cup Marsala wine

- 1 tablespoon tomato paste

It is a several step process to make the stuffed onions, and since they took the longest, that is what I started with first.  Begin by peeling the onions and cutting off the ends - don't cut off too much, though, because you don't want the layers to separate.  Bring a pot of water to boil on the stovetop and once you have a rolling boil, drop in the whole onions for 12-15 minutes.  

In the meantime, take your chopped celery, garlic, sliced scallion, and mushrooms and put them into a large pan with the tablespoon of olive oil.  Saute for a few minutes, then season.  Separate a small amount out to use in your Marsala sauce for your chicken. With what is left, add the walnuts, spinach, tomato paste and the Marsala wine.  Bring the whole mixture to a simmer and allow it to cook for around 8-10 minutes, helping the alcohol burn off and infusing the stuffing with flavor.

When the onions are soft from boiling, take them out of the water and let them cool for a little while.  Use a small paring knife and gently cut through the center layers - you are using the knife to help separate the inner layers of the onion, not butchering them!  I also cut a small X on the side I would be pushing the centers out from, to help create a larger opening for the onion inners to go out, and later, my stuffing to go in. Hold the onion in both hands, and using your thumbs, gently (GENTLY!!!) push the inner layers of onion out into a bowl.  You want to leave around 3 of the outer layers intact, as your stuffing "shells." Place the intact outer layers in an oven safe baking dish.

Return to your stuffing and bring the onion innards with you!  Chop up the cooked onion that was leftover from creating our shells, and mix it into the stuffing mix.  Saute on medium heat for only a few more minutes, and then spoon the mixture into the onion shells in your baking dish.  You will have to use your fingers to really get as much stuffing in there as possible, so watch out for burnt fingers, and try to be as careful as possible so you don't split your shells.  Layer any leftover stuffing on top and around the stuffed onions.  Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown and getting a little crispy.

I put the onions and my sweet potatoes and turnips into the oven at the same time, since they both needed around the same amount of time to cook.  I had chopped my sweet potato and turnips before, lightly brushing them with olive oil and seasoning them.  When you put the veggies into the oven, add a 1/2 cup - 1 cup of water to the bottom of your glass baking dish to ensure the veggies don't dry out during their cook time.  Cook them for 40 minutes on the center rack of the oven (right next to your onions!)

To prepare your chicken, you will need your meat tenderizer.  Lightly tenderize the chicken thighs with the smooth side of the tenderizer.  Set the chicken aside, they are ready to be seared.  In a large pot, pour the milk and Marsala wine together.  Add the butter, tomato paste and seasoning, and bring your sauce to a simmer, stirring often.  This will simmer the entire time you cook the rest of the meal.  You'll be dropping your seared chicken into the sauce as well, letting them infuse with flavor and in turn, help flavor the sauce.  When it was time to add the chicken to the sauce, I separated a small amount and kept it apart to keep it vegetarian for our guest.  If you aren't serving vegetarians, you can omit that step.

To cook the chicken, I took my largest pan and heated up some oil.  I sauteed some celery, scallion, garlic, and mushroom in the pan to get it all flavorful, then I tossed the sauteed veggies into the pot with our simmering Marsala sauce.  I seared my tenderized chicken thighs on high heat, adding oil as needed, and flipping them a few times to make sure they got nice and brown on each side.  

It was at this point that I separated out some of the sauce and put it in a smaller pot to continue simmering.  I placed my seared chicken into the larger pot with sauce, allowing the chicken to finish cooking in the sauce.  Add to both pots some potato starch to help thicken the sauce a bit.  I added a teaspoon to the smaller pot and a tablespoon to the larger pot.  I let the chicken and both sauces continue to simmer on lower heat for around 20 minutes until my meal was all set to be served.  During that time I used my griddle pan and some olive oil to cook the rosa bianca eggplant steaks.  Season the thick slices of eggplant lightly and brush them liberally with olive oil.  Cook on medium heat, turning every so often, for around 15 minutes or until the eggplant is soft to cut and golden brown on the edges.  When it is time to serve then, pour the Marsala sauce all over the eggplant steaks. Garnish both sauces with green onion.

This meal was so great, we scraped all the dishes clean!  Enjoy!!

Wahoo in Garlicky Lemon Butter

We hung out with some great friends and watched the Michigan game this afternoon at a nearby bar, but when it was all over my husband was HUNGRY and I needed to make him something fast.  Fish is always a good idea because it cooks so quickly.  I got this meal plated and served in around 35 minutes.  When I need to, I can turn on the steam, but the meal still tasted awesome!

The Meat

- 3 fillets of Wahoo fish

- bacon grease for the pan

- salt, pepper, lemon juice to taste

The Sauce

- 3 tablespoons butter

- 1/2 shallot, thinly sliced

- 3 cloves garlic, sliced thin

- 3 teaspoons lemon juice

- dill, salt to taste

The Veggies

- 1/2 eggplant, sliced then cut into quarters

- 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into small pieces

- 2 small turnips, cut into small pieces

- dill, basil, seasoning salt to taste

- 1 tablespoon of olive oil

- 1/2 cup water

- 2 summer squashes, sliced

- 1 tomato, mostly crushed

- 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil

- 1 teaspoon lemon juice

- 1/4 cup water

- salt, pepper, dill to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Chop up the veggies into small pieces, so they'll cook faster.  Throw together the eggplant, sweet potato, and turnip and generously season it.  Pour in the water and brush the olive oil over the tops of the veggies.  Cook for 30 minutes.

Sautee up the squash with the tomato, oil, lemon, and water.  Season it and cover it with a lid.  Let it cook on medium high heat for 25-30 minutes. 

Melt the butter with the lemon, garlic, and shallot and let it cook on low heat, stirring every few minutes.

On a griddle pan, turn your heat to high and cook your seasoned wahoo fish.  Flip it every 3-4 minutes. It should be done after 10-12 minutes.  You want the fish to be opaque, white, and flaky.  

When all the components are ready, plate the veggies and toss the fish in the butter.  Put the softened garlic and shallots on top of the fish and feed your hungry selves.

A Trip To The Farm Means Twice Baked Zucchini

Our friend has a small plot of farmland up in Petaluma, and he brought us up there yesterday to weed, seed, and harvest some amazing heirloom vegetables.  We were so impressed with his bountiful crops and we truly enjoyed spending the entire day weeding, learning, and picking some fantastic vegetables.  We were lucky enough to get to bring some of the veggies home to make, including THE BIGGEST ZUCCHINI SQUASH I HAVE EVER SEEN.  It was two feet long (!!), and I had to get creative to cook it.  Much like you can make twice baked potatoes, I made a twice baked zucchini, and it was superb!  

We have a dinner party with some family every Sunday night, and we love to go to The Fatted Calf and get some of their special made crepinettes.  This week we had lamb patties wrapped in their signature fatty netting, with pine nuts and figs.    

The Meat

- 7 lamb crepinettes from The Fatted Calf

The Veggies

- 2 large turnips, cubed

- 8-10 cloves garlic, peeled

- 1 gigantic zucchini

- butter, salt, marjoram, pepper, garlic powder to taste

- 3-4 figs, chopped 

- Parmesan cheese, to taste

- 6-10 Padron peppers, diced

- 1/2 red onion, sliced

- 4 tablespoons of olive oil, divided

- 2-3 medium sized sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

Preheat your oven to 380 degrees.

This meal took around an hour and a half of prep, so try to time out your cooking times so you don't have food sitting and getting cold waiting for the other parts of the meal to come together.

I cubed and roasted the sweet potatoes with a tablespoon of olive oil, half a cup of water, and salt and pepper in my glass baking pan for around 45 minutes.  I had the pan ready to go and just popped them in when it was around 50 minutes before serving time.  

Cube and boil the turnips with the garlic until they are tender, around 20 minutes on medium high heat.  Drain them and then mash the turnips and garlic together and set them aside to add to the zucchini later.

Look at the size of this zucchini next to my bread knife.  When I cut it open, the seeds were big enough to be mistaken for pumpkin seeds!  I scooped out the raw innards and kept the skins to become my "bowls".  The skins got dolloped with butter and brushed with olive oil, and then I liberally salted and peppered them.  Then they got popped into the oven to roast for 30 minutes.  

I took the "meat" of the zucchini that I had scooped out and put in a saute pan with the cooked turnips and garlic.  I added butter and olive oil, plus some garlic powder, salt, pepper, and marjoram.  I sauteed the mixture until the zucchini was soft, around 15 minutes on medium low heat, then used my masher to really blend everything together.  I added a few teaspoons of tapioca starch to the mash to thicken it a bit.  

While the zucchini was sauteing, I also softened some red onion and the Padron peppers we had picked in a small pan with a little olive oil on medium heat.  I moved everything around in the pan pretty often, and after around 10 minutes they were ready for the next step.

Next it was time to remove the roasted zucchini skins and spoon the mash into them.  I sprinkled chopped figs, parmesan cheese, and the sauteed Padron peppers and red onion on top of the mash and then put the whole shebang back into the oven for 15 more minutes.   

I grilled the lamb patties on my Griddler and then put everything on platters to serve.  This dinner party menu went over really well, everyone loved the way I presented the giant zucchini! :)

Buttery Marsala Cream Chicken

This dinner was sooo good!  While it took some time to cook, it was easy to prepare and we gorged on the creamy Masala wine sauce.  I chose to make this sauce because I had some leftover cream from this weekend when I made cupcakes.  The figs made the sauce naturally sweet and tapioca starch thickened it up yet kept the meal gluten free.  

The Meat

- 2 chicken legs and thighs, meat removed in chunks

- thyme, rosemary, bay, coriander seed, salt, pepper, dill, crushed red pepper to taste

The Sauce

- 1 cup heavy cream

- 3 tablespoons butter

- 1/2 cup Masala wine

- 4-6 fresh figs, chopped into pieces

- 2 tablespoons tapioca starch (to thicken the sauce)

The Veggies

- 1 turnip, cubed

- 1 cup green beans, tips trimmed and beans cut

- 1/2 small eggplant, sliced into quarters

- salt, pepper to taste

- bacon grease for frying

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Debone the chicken and layer it in the bottom of you baking pan.  Add the chopped figs and season everything well.  Mix together the other sauce ingredients and pour it all over the chicken.  Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.  

In a 3" deep pot, cover and boil the turnips and snipped green beans for around 25 minutes.  While they are cooking, grease your saute pan and cook the eggplant slices until they are soft on each side.  Use a wooden spoon to keep the eggplant moving in the pan, and re-grease as necessary to keep the eggplant from burning or drying out.  When the turnip and green beans are done, I tossed them together with the eggplant and seasoned all of them together. 

I layered the veggies on the bottom of the plates and poured the chicken and sauce all over the top.  Serve this dish with a spoon - you'll want to savor every last drop of the delicious, creamy sauce!