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!

Grilled Swordfish In Creamy Mustard Sauce

This swordfish dish is really good, especially after last night's heavy meal!  The sauce goes really well with the fish, squash, and cauliflower.  

The Meat

 - 2 fillets of swordfish

- salt, pepper to taste

- 2 teaspoons lemon juice

The Veggies

 - 1 zucchini squash, sliced

- 1 summer squash, sliced

- 1 yellow heirloom tomato, chopped

- 1/2 head cauliflower, chopped

- 1 cup water

- 1 tablespoon olive oil

- salt, pepper, dill to taste

The Sauce

- 1/2 cup Greek yogurt

- 2 tablespoons whole grain mustard

- salt, pepper, dill, red chili flakes to taste

Chop and season the veggies.  Steam the veggies in a pot with high heat for 20 minutes.  It doesn't get any easier to make delicious veggies!  





Grill the swordfish fillets on a griddle pan with a little bit of lemon juice squirted over the skins.  Season the fish with the salt and pepper and cook it on high heat, skin down, for 5-6 minutes and then flip the fish and grill up the other side of the fish. 





Mix together the sauce by stirring the mustard into the Greek yogurt and adding the spices.  Smother your cooked fish and veggies with the creamy smooth sauce and serve yourself something awesome! 

Lomo De Cerdo Al Horno...with Roasted Salsa Sauce!

Our wonderful friend is in town and staying with us this week, so I made a few awesome meals to make her feel welcome and loved.  This meal is based off the Puerto Rican Pernil Al Horno, but I didn't have a bone-in pork shoulder to roast, nor did I have 6 hours plus a day in advance to prepare something that tasty.  I had a pork tenderloin and a whole lot of heirloom tomatoes, Padron peppers, and summer squashes from our weekend trip to the farm.  This worked out better than fine, the meal was fantastic and we all really enjoyed it.

The Meat

- 1 1/2 pound pork tenderloin

- salt, pepper to taste

- A few slices of Port Salut semi soft cheese

- 2 green onions, diced

The Veggies

- 2 summer squashes, cut into large chunks

- 1 large zucchini squash, cut into large chunks

- 1 large sweet potato, cubed

- dill, salt, pepper to taste

- 1 tablespoon of olive oil

- 1/2 cup water

The Sauce

- 3 large heirloom tomatoes, cut into really large chunks

- 1 slicing tomato, cut into really large chunks

- 1/2 red onion, cut into pieces

- 10-12 Padron peppers, stems and seeds removed

- 1 jalapeno pepper, stems and seeds removed

- 3-4 cloves garlic, peeled

- 1 tablespoon lemon juice

- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

- chipotle habanero sauce to taste

- chili pepper flakes, chipotle pepper powder, black pepper, paprika, dill, cilantro, salt to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Using a strong blender or food processor, blend together the sauce ingredients until everything is mostly smooth with a few chunks of tomato still intact.  Play with the taste of the sauce - if you like it spicier, add more spice, or keep the jalapeno seeds in your mix.  If you want it milder, omit the jalapeno pepper, chipotle powder, chili flakes and chipotle habanero sauce.  

Salt and pepper your meat, put it in a deep enough baking dish to contain both the meat and your sauce, and slowly pour the spicy tomato mixture over the whole tenderloin.  Stick it in the oven and cook it for an hour to one hour and fifteen minutes.  Make sure the internal temperature is at 145 degrees to ensure your food is properly cooked through.

Put the large chunks of squash and cubed sweet potatoes in a glass baking dish and sprinkle with dill, salt and pepper.  Brush the olive oil on and pour the water into the bottom of the dish.  Cook for 35-45 minutes on the same rack as the pork. 

When the tenderloin is all done, the sauce should have thickened and darkened a bit.  Slice up the tenderloin and spoon the sauce back over the top of the meat.  Layer some of the delicious semi-soft cheese on top and let it melt for a few minutes before you serve it.  Sprinkle on the green onions and present your food!  I put some fresh green grapes and some full fat Greek yogurt on the table as garnish - the sweet grapes paired great with the smoky, spicy flavors, and the Greek yogurt soothed our slightly burning tongues from all the delicious spiciness.  You could also use sour cream if you wanted, it's all about your preferences and palates.  

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! :)

Roasted and Stuffed Chicken

This meal is doubly good.  Make sure to get boneless chicken breasts that still have the skin so you can create this meal properly.  Instead of stuffing the meat, which would require slitting the chicken breasts, this time around I stuffed all the goodies in between the skin and the chicken.  As it all roasted in the oven the juices from the cheese, tomatoes, and bacon ran down and soaked through the meat, making it completely moist and flavorful.  My husband loves crispy roasted chicken skin, so cutting open his meal and finding all the fun, baconful surprises inside was an extra win for him. :)

The Meat

- 2 boneless, skin-on chicken breasts

- 1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

- 2 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled

- 2 tablespoons of olive oil

- parmesan cheese, dill, basil, garlic salt, pepper, marjoram to taste

The Veggies

- 1 large zucchini squash, cut into large pieces

- 1 cup green beans, trimmed and cut

- 1 cup broccoli

- 1 cup water

- 1 tablespoon of olive oil

- salt, pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 385 degrees.

Fry up your bacon in a griddle pan using high heat, and turn them once after 2-3 minutes.  While the bacon cooks and then cools, chop your veggies and set them aside to cook later.  Once the bacon is cool enough to touch, crumble it into bits.  Take the bacon, parmesan cheese, and the sliced cherry tomatoes over to your chicken, and make little piles of each.  Setting up your station like this will make it easier to contain your mess, and keep you from spreading too many germs from touching the raw chicken.

Gently separate the chicken skin from the center of the chicken breast with your fingers.  You wan to have a little flap so you can stick stuff in it.  Put in equal amounts of the tomatoes, bacon, and cheese.  I did the cheese first, laying it flat against the meat, and then mixed in the bacon and tomatoes.  Take the extra cherry tomatoes and sprinkle them all around the chicken in your baking dish.  Drizzle the olive oil over everything and season liberally.   Pop the dish into the oven and bake it for 40 minutes or until the juices run clear when you cut into the meat.  

When the chicken is around halfway cooked, dump the veggies in the water and olive oil in a medium sized pan and cook them with high heat, around 20 minutes.  When they are done, season them with some salt and pepper.

Put the veggies on the plate first, and then layer the chicken on top.  Drizzle any pan drippings and the baked tomatoes over the top of everything.  Enjoy. 

Creamy Chipotle Pork Chops

This meal is a total winner.  The sauce is creamy yet spicy, and the chunky salsa and shredded smoky paprika cheddar go excellently on top of the thicker pork chops.  

The Meat

- 2-3 thick cut pork chops, with around 1/4 inch thick fat

- bacon grease for frying

- salt, chipotle pepper, cilantro, celery salt to taste

The Veggies

- 3 small zucchini, sliced

- 1/3 head cauliflower, chopped

- 1/2 cup water

- 8-10 stalks asparagus

- salt, pepper to taste

- 3 medium slicing and heirloom tomatoes, chopped into large chunks

- 1/2 green bell pepper, diced

- 1/3 red onion, diced

- chipotle habanero sauce to taste

- 1 tablespoon lemon juice

- 1 tablespoon lime juice

- salt, pepper, chipotle powder, cilantro to taste

- 1/3 cup shredded smoked paprika cheese

The Sauce 

- 1/2 cup heavy cream

- 2 tablespoons butter

- chipotle habanero sauce to taste
- 1 tablespoon tapioca starch

- chipotle powder, cilantro, crushed red pepper to taste

Slice and chop your zucchini and cauliflower and put them in a saute pan with the water.  Cook on medium heat for around 15 minutes until the zucchini is soft.  Lower the heat and put the sauce ingredients into the pan.  Mix it together well and let it simmer for around 10 more minutes.

You can cook the asparagus and chops together on the same griddle pan.  Grease it well with bacon grease before hand, spice your meat, and lay out your food so it all has even cooking surface to cook on.  Flip the pork chops every 3-4 minutes until the centers are cooked through, approximately 12 minutes.  The asparagus will take less time, only around 7-8 minutes to finish.  Make sure to turn those at least twice as well to prevent charring.

Chop up all the tomato, pepper, and onion, and mix them with the lemon and lime juices.  Season liberally and add the chipotle habanero sauce to make it a little spicy.  Feel free to add jalapenos or habanero peppers to it if you'd like it to be even spicier.  Shred some smoked paprika cheese on top.

I put the veggies and sauce on the bottom of the dish and lay the pork chops on top, making to spoon a little bit extra sauce on top of them.  Then I smothered the whole plate with the salsa.  Dive into the spicy, smoky, creamy flavors that explode in your mouth throughout this tasty dish!