Six Sisters Monte Cristo Sliders

 I saw an Instagram post for THESE sliders and thought they looked delicious- even if the ingredients sounded like they should not go together... 

When I served it for dinner, the initial results were mixed, ha. My middle could not gag down cheese and jam in the same bite. My youngest picked off the parts she liked and just ate that. However, I continued to make it (ha!) and now people eat it willingly, on occasion. It is now a favorite dinner for my youngest. So, thanks, family, for trying something new taht looked bizarrely tasty to me! 

Ingredients: 

12 Hawaiian rolls (I actually get them from Sam's so I use a pack of 16)
1/2 cup raspberry jam

1/2 lb deli turkey (I buy sliced!)

1/2 lb deli ham (again, pre-sliced)

6 slices Swiss cheese

1/2 cup butter melted - divided! 

1 egg, beaten

1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 Tbsp mayonnaise

Powdered sugar for garnish

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325*

Spray a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray. 

Slice rolls horizontally, keeping them as connected as possible. Put the bottom in the baking pan.
Spread jam on the open bottom half of the rolls. 

Layer turkey, ham and cheese over the jam. I start with whole slices and then cut halves to make sure the whole thing is covered in all three.

Whisk together 1/4 cup melted butter, egg, Worcestershire sauce, mustard and mayo. Spread that mixture on the top of the open rolls. Place the roll tops on the meat and cheese, to make sandwiches.
Brush remaining 1/4 cup melted butter on top of the rolls.

Bake 15-20 mins, or until the cheese is melty.

Remove from oven, sprinkle the tops with powdered sugar and cut into individual servings.

I usually don't use all of the egg-mustard mix. I have put the rest in the fridge, but I don't ever make a second batch soon enough to use open egg... 

 

Swedish Meatballs from Scratch

Fantastic recipe for Swedish Meatballs. Found it on a website called Damn Delicious. Here is the link to the original post on the website. Family loved it and it makes plenty for a family of five. Made a slight change from the original recipe by adding the dried parsley directly to the gravy instead of using it as a garnish.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 pound ground pork
• 1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

FOR THE GRAVY

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 cups beef broth
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley leaves

DIRECTIONS:
Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, and cook, stirring frequently, until onions have become translucent, about 2-3 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine ground beef, ground pork, Panko, egg yolks, allspice, nutmeg and cooked onion; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Using a wooden spoon or clean hands, stir until well combined. Roll the mixture into 1 1/4-to-1 1/2-inch meatballs, forming about 24 meatballs.

Add remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil to the skillet. Add meatballs, in batches, and cook until all sides are browned, about 4-5 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.

To make the gravy, melt butter in the skillet. Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in beef broth and cook, whisking constantly, until slightly thickened, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in sour cream and then the dried parsley; season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Stir in meatballs and cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through and thickened, about 8-10 minutes.

Serve immediately by themselves/on buttered egg noodles with a salad or other vegetables on the side.

Sweet Pork Chili

This is one of those, "let's see what's in the fridge to make dinner with" kind of recipes that worked out well and tasted quite good.

So this picture is the version without the beans added in.
That is a mistake. The beans are really needed here as they
add substance and help to slightly thicken the end soup.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs Boneless Country Style Pork Ribs trimmed and cut into 3/4" cubes
• 4 tbsp oil
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 Green Bell Pepper chopped
• 3 stalks of celery chopped
• 1 healthy Pinch of Salt
• 2 tbsp minced garlic
• 1/2 to 1 tbsp of chili powder (depending on your level of heat tolerance)
• 1 tsp onion salt or 1/2 tsp of salt with 1/2 tsp of onion powder
• 1 tsp granulated garlic
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp curry powder
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 3 oz of tomato paste
• 14 oz of diced stewed tomatoes with juice, not drained
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 15 oz drained and rinsed red kidney beans
• 1/4 cup brown sugar

Instructions
Before beginning to cook, be sure to prep everything and have it ready and waiting next to the stove. When cutting up the County Style Pork Ribs trim off excess fat and any silver skin that you find. The silver skin does not break down in the cooking process and is really inedible. If you don't know what silver skin is, just google it. Turn your oven on and set it to 350.

Put a large oven safe soup pot or, preferably, a dutch oven on the stove over med high heat. Heat the 2 tbsp of oil in the pot until shimmering and then add the pork. Let the pork just start to brown and then add the 3 tbsp of soy sauce. Stir it all together until all of the pork chunks are browned, but not necessarily cooked all the way through. Take the browned pork chunks out the pan and set aside for the moment. Just in case you didn't know, absolutely do not clean out the pot before the next step. Leave any browned bits in the pot.

Turn the heat down to medium. Add 2 more tbsp of oil into the pot, let it heat up, then add in the chopped onion, celery, and green bell pepper (also known as the trinity) to saute. Add a healthy pinch of regular salt and saute the vegetables until they are softened, the onions are translucent, and are fragrant. It is also okay if they are browned a little too. Add in the minced garlic, stir to combine, and cook for about 30 seconds. Add in the spice mix of chili powder, onion salt (or the regular salt and onion powder), granulated garlic, cumin, curry powder, and red pepper flakes. Stir this to combine and cook for 30 seconds which will give the spices a moment to bloom and get fragrant. Now add the 3 oz of tomato paste, stir it in, and cook for about 2 minutes. This will caramelize the tomato paste and build flavor. Don't worry if it starts sticking to the bottom of the pan, just don't let it burn. Dark brown on the bottom of the pan is fine. Black is not so great.

After the mixture has cooked for about 2 minutes, add the chicken stock, 14 oz of diced stewed tomatoes, 15 oz of Dark Red Kidney Beans, and the 1/4 cup of brown sugar. Stir all up until it is combined, making sure that you scrape the bottom of the pot to get up any browned and caramelized tomato paste goodness. Add back in the pork chunks, cover the pot with foil and put on its lid to create a tight seal. Put it in the 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. Be sure to scrape the sides of the pot when you take it out and do your final stir before serving.

Serve with whatever you like with your chili. Eat it straight or with a dollop of sour cream to mellow it out a bit.

Cheesy Chicken n' Ham Soup in a Bread Bowl

Ingredients Bread Bowl:
4 Cups White Bread Flour
3 Cups Stone Ground Wheat Flour
1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon dough enhancer
2 1/2 cups warm water
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
some butter to coat the hot bowls fresh out of the oven
grated Parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top of the buttered bowls

Soup Meat:
1 Ham Steak or 1 lb chopped cubed ham in 1/4 cubes
2 or 3 large chicken breasts (about a 1 1/2 lbs)
1/4 lb bacon for rendering and flavor

Soup Sauce:
1 onion diced
1 1/2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cup chicken broth or stock
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup apple or white grape juice
3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup sour cream, light or regular

Feeds 8 people one full serving. 6 out of 7 family members really liked it.

Sunday Dinner!

Tonight, we tried two new recipes, and this is what my dinner looked like:

That would be Apple Cider Glazed Pork Chops. Click the title for the link, but I am going to also copy the recipe here because we liked it enough to keep it.
First, thaw the pork chops. We have boneless chops, which works much better for us. Get the glaze started before you bother doing anything else at all...
Glaze: 
1 1/2 cups apple cider
1/4 cup maple syrup
Tbsp Dijon Mustard
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp salt
Combine in small sauce pan and let it simmer down to a glaze consistency...mine took around 20 minutes to reach that point...
In the meantime, rub your chops down with the spice rub:
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Mix together with a fork, then add 1 Tbsp olive oil to make the rub a paste. Completely rub each chop with that paste, then set on grill. I used a grill pan on the stove, since it's February, haha. Cover in glaze and allow to cook 10 or so minutes, then flip and cover with more glaze, and allow to cook another 10 or so minutes. Flip it a third time and add more glaze. Cook until the chops reach 145* internal temp. Then remove them from the grill and allow them to rest about 5 minutes before eating.
These are flavorful and! not dry! Yeay!

Then, I don't know what the name is for the potatoes, but it's been going around on facebook for a lonnng time, and I found it on Pinterest HERE.
I sliced them, and let me tell you, that is not a fun sport!!! Do you have one of those friends you can vent at, no matter what crosses your mind or how you happen to feel? Oh yeah, my friend got a screaming text when I was in the middle of cutting these potatoes!!! In a perfect world, I would have had a half inch dip in the middle of a cutting board to set the potato in, and just sliced to that. This is not a perfect world, this is the real world, so I just tried hard to remember not to cut thru...and I didn't do terribly well. OH WELL! hahaha.... I drizzled them with olive oil, sprinkled them with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. And 20 minutes was not quite long enough...30 would have been better.

And, a classic favorite around here...the roasted broccoli....which I haven't written out on this blog either!
It's better with fresh broccoli, but today I used frozen. Make sure it's dry (as possible...). Cover a cookie sheet in foil. Lay broccoli out in a single layer all over cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle salt and pepper (and garlic cloves if you have them). Bake 20-25 mins at 425*. Then when it's done, drizzle with lemon juice, and sprinkle on lemon zest and Parmesan. YUM. But...my kids don't love the lemon, so sometimes we leave it off.

Bacon Wrapped Chicken

Have you seen this one on facebook yet? My husband decided we needed to try it and it was a hit! I'll let him type it:

Bacon Wrapped, Cream Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts-Burt's Version:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 block (12 oz?) cream cheese
1 bunch of 12 green onions, chopped up
1 tbsp. of onion powder
1 tbsp. of granulated garlic or garlic powder
1 tbsp. of sour cream
2 tbsp. of chives
2 strips of thick sliced bacon

Directions:

Pound out each chicken breast so they are about 1/4" thick or less than a 1/4" thick. Be careful not to make chicken pate. Not the point. You may need to trim the chicken pieces a bit so that they have a semi uniform shape that will be easy to roll.

Whip together using a electric hand mixer the cream cheese, green onions, onion powder, garlic powder, sour cream, and chives until it has taken in some air, is lighter in consistency, and is easily spreadable.

Taking great care to not contaminate the cream cheese spread with raw chicken, put a good size dollop of the mixture on one side of chicken breast and spread it so it evenly coats the one side. Then roll up each flattened piece up to look like a log or a pinwheel as best you can. You may need to use toothpicks to keep them rolled up. Which is fine because you will use the toothpicks with the bacon anyways.

You should have some of the cream cheese mixture left and it will be really good with crackers, so long as you don't poison yourself with salmonella by getting raw chicken juice into the rest of it.

Take each piece of bacon and wrap it around each chicken log in a way that makes the most sense to you. The bacon should be raw and if you use a good thick cut type of bacon, you can even stretch out each piece a little so that it will wrap easier.

Put in a baking dish and cook at 375 for 30 minutes, then turn your oven to broil and cook for another 5 minutes. There is no need to pull the pan out of the oven when you do this. The broiling will help make everything crispy and yummy.

Someone said on the internet that you can sub turkey bacon for the bacon, and a low fat cream cheese to make this healthier, but I think that is just cheating. One other note, there was quite a bit of liquid in the pan after the chicken was done cooking. As I look at this, those drippings probably could have made a really killer gravy if I'd thought of that at the time. Chicken, cream cheese, and bacon drippings. Yes, really killer gravy.

The rest of the meal included sautéed green beans:

1 16oz package of frozen green beans
1 cast iron frying pan (my favorite cooking pan of all time)
Olive Oil, enough to coat the bottom of the pan
1 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. margarine (yes use both if you have them)
Whatever seasoning you would like to use with the green beans. Lemon pepper would work great.

Put the pan over med high heat. When it is hot, put in the oil, butter, and margarine. Let them melt completely and wait until the butter starts to turn brownish. It should have a nutty smell to. Be careful here, because browning butter turns to burned butter quickly. Add the frozen green beans. Toss around so they get coated. (You can pretend you are a chef on Food Network.) Add your seasoning. Add a little more than you think you need. The beans and heat will absorb and mute the flavors. Cook, tossing and stirring continually, until the beans have thoroughly cooked through and even have little black strips on a few of them. That is flavor, not burned bits. A lot of black strips would be burned. Taste them as you cook. When they taste good to you stop cooking them.

And the really good spinach salad that Tanya made:

I just bought a bag of baby spinach leaves and dumped that into the bowl. I hulled and thinly sliced 10-12 strawberries and sprinkled them in, and chopped up a tomato too. Then we chopped up some honey roasted peanuts and sprinkled that over it. We have some Litehouse Huckleberry vinaigrette that we served with it and it was very tasty.

Some craisins, cut up grapes or any other berry would be great with it. Any fruity vinaigrette would go well with this salad.

YUM!

Pork Chops!!

You already know my husband is an amazing cook. But when we have pork chops in the freezer, he almost always chops them up into bites and puts them in some kind of stir fry. He says he doesn't know how to make pork chops without them drying out too much. I think my kids have only had Asian/diced pork chops. Which is kinda sad! One of my favorite dinners when I was a kid was pork chops. I have asked my mom how she made them and her answer is "oh its been too long." dang.
So a friend told me how she makes hers, including how to avoid them drying out, and I thought it was definitely worth trying!! Dinner tonight!

Oven Pork Chops - by Rabilin Snow
Thaw the chops. Set the oven to 350* or 375*.
Put a little water in the bottom of a broiler pan, lay the pork chops on the top of the pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper. (both sides) Cover with foil.
If the pork chops are thick, (1/2 inch - 1 inch) bake about 15 mins, and turn to cook on the other side an additional 10-15 minutes.
If the pork chops are thin, 7-10 mins each side is long enough.

This is the only picture I caught, and its "in progress". Our pork chops were quite thick so we did 15 mins on one side, 15 on the other, and back for another 5 on the first side before my husband said that the juices were clear so it was fine to eat. He and I had a little A1 sauce with our pork chop and it was delicious!! Our kids ate theirs plain and enjoyed them too!

When my friend told me how to make it, she also added that my husband would take the basic idea and "perfect it", haha. So, his suggestion is to sear the chops before baking them. I'll let you know if we give that a try! In the meantime, this is a good method!



"Sweet" Pork Barbacoa

Yes, this is extremely similar to THIS recipe.
The meat was done exactly the same, except with 1/4 cup, 1/2 cup brown sugar.

This time we did a black bean mixture.

And the rice was just lime rice....1/2 cup dry rice, 1 cup water, 1 tbsp lime juice, cooked til done!

But this time! We put meat, beans and rice all into the tortilla, wrapped it up burrito style, stuck it in a baking pan, smothered it with about half a can of enchilada sauce and a bunch of cheese! Then we had corn on the side. Quite tasty!

Barbacoa Pork

Sunday was one of those days we'd managed to run out of grocery staples. That meant it was time to get creative for dinner, and my husband did an awesome job!! Doesn't this look dreamy good??

He started with the meat that is wrapped inside that tortilla. Here's what he did....
Thaw 2 lbs of boneless, country-style pork ribs. Put about a quart of water in a large pot and add the following:
2 tbsp taco seasoning
1 8oz can tomato sauce
3 tbsp minced garlic
1 large bay leaf
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar OR red wine vinegar OR apple cider vinegar
1 tsp hot sauce paste OR 1 tbsp liquid hot sauce

Boil/simmer until liquid is reduced to 1/4 volume, and has become a good thick sauce, and pork can be shredded and falls apart.
Remove the meat and shred, then return it to the sauce until meat is completely coated.
So that's the meat filling, which we put into a tortilla, topped it with cheese and rolled/folded it up burrito style.
~~~~~~~~~~
Then he made a side dish of honey lime rice:
Put a pat of butter into the pan and toast the dry rice. Then add the water, boil/cook til the rice is done. He drizzled on a little lime juice and a little honey, and a dash of the rice wine vinegar. Use way less than you think!
~~~~~~~~~~
And a side dish of refried beans.... which are simply a can of refried beans dumped into a pot, and add a tbsp or two of milk and a small handful of cheese, and heat through!
~~~~~~~~~~
The burrito was then smothered in enchilada sauce and some cheese, cheese on top of the beans, and it went under the broiler for about 3-4 minutes. And came out looking like this:

oh yes. it was THAT good!

Fried Rice!

Fried rice is tasty and wonderful. It is also 99% magic because the boys in this house do not like rice...but they will both ask for this. Yep. It's that good!

This recipe originally came from my uncle who served a mission in Hong Kong when I was very young. My dad was usually the one to make this and I will post the instructions he gave me when I was a new bride wondering what on earth to cook. But it seems to me we all cook it differently... and that's okay. Its always delicious!

You will need:

Rice - white or brown is fine.

a bit of vegetable oil

Ham cut into cubes (or spam)

Corn

Egg

Pineapple tidbits

Peas

Chopped Carrots

Soy Sauce

Salt

Pepper

Cook rice a head of time and chill. Pour oil into pan (a wok is great!) and heat. Add any meat you want and brown it. Add an egg or two and scramble it. Add anything of the produce you want to put in your Fried Rice and heat. Finally, add chilled rice. Toss together in the pan until its mixed nicely.
At the table add soy sauce or other seasonings to taste.

Yep, its that easy. And sooo good.