Sweet Mustard Pork Roast

I found this blog recently when searching for new crockpot recipes. The funny thing is about two days after I found the blog, the writer was a guest on Rachael Ray. I've grown more in love with the idea of cooking dinner in the crockpot since my youngest was born. It seems like right at 5 o'clock when I'm ready to start cooking is when the baby wants to eat and my toddler wants attention. So crockpot days go by so much easier. I can throw things together during naps or breakfast and not have to worry about it much for the rest of the day.

Bacon Mac and Cheese

Here's the next in my series of mac and cheese recipe. I was looking for inspiration and noticed some recipes with bacon in them. I also decided to change up the cheese a little and did a combination of swiss and cheddar. It was definitely a good idea. When I went to make dinner I realized of all things I forgot to buy macaroni! I did have some pasta wheels in the pantry so I thought I'd try those. It was actually a good mistake because I loved how the cheese filled up the little holes in the pasta. Yum-o! We had this with breaded pork chops and some roasted green beans. It was a comfort food feast.

Roasted Vegetable Meatloaf with Balsamic Glaze

Another one of my quests lately is to find yummy meatloaf recipes. I never really liked meatloaf much until I tried this recipe. It made me realize that it can be pretty good with the right ingredients and flavors. This is a recipe I found from Bobby Flay and it was so worth the time I spent reading recipes and looking for the right one. It calls for the traditional mixture of ground beef, pork, and veal. First of all, our store never has ground veal and ground pork is pretty hard to find. I substituted a pound of pork sausage for the pork and veal. It worked perfectly. I think the key to good meatloaf is having vegetables in it to give it moisture. The kids scarfed this one up and, even though mine aren't too picky about their veggies, it's a good way to sneak them in there. Also, I don't think you can ever go wrong with a little balsamic. We had this with mashed potatoes and roasted broccoli. Definitely satisfying!

Italian Mac-n-Cheese

The next in my series of mac and cheese recipes, I've yet to find someone who doesn't love this when they try it. It is sooo yummy! It satisfies so many cravings: cravings for mac and cheese, comfort food, Italian food. The best part - it's a 30 minute meal! Everything is cooked before hand and all you need to do is pop it under the broiler to brown it. Another great thing about this recipe is that it freezes very well. You should definitely make a double batch and pop one in the freezer. This was one of the recipes I froze during my last pregnancy so that we had home cooked meals when the baby came home. It was delicious and might taste even better than the first day. I have to thank Rachael Ray for yet another yummy but quick and easy meal.

Shepherd's Pie

Shepherd's Pie has always been a favorite in my family. I loved it growing up and now we love it in our family. I think it's a great family recipe because you can put what your family likes in it. I've made a lot of versions of this dish. The original dish is made with lamb but we often use ground beef. I've also made it with ground turkey and topped it with mashed sweet potatoes. This dish is also a great way to use leftover meat. Some of our favorite shepherd's pie has been made with leftover roast pork loin. This recipe is the basic one I use when we have shepherd's pie, but feel free to change it up. Use whatever veggies your family likes. This time I added some carrot and it was yummy!

Turkey Chili with White Beans

You can't get much more comforting than a bowl of chili. Add some cornbread and it just gets that much better. Unfortunately the cornbread gets put on hold when you realize your kids have drank all the milk. So what do you do with 2 sticks of butter that you have already melted? Make some chocolate chip cookies! So it all works out. Anyway, I love trying out new chili recipes. I'm a fan of regular old ground beef chili. I also make a turkey chili without tomatoes. I even like to make a white chicken chili. I was searching for a recipe the other day because I wanted something to make with some ground turkey. I thought of chili but I wanted to do something new. I found this recipe from Bon Appetit and was intrigued by the use of cinnamon and cocoa. I'm so glad I tried this recipe. It was really tasty. The cilantro on top is a must. It adds a flavor that you can't get from anything else. The only change I made to the recipe was to use half the amount of chili powder because spicy foods are not agreeing with my nursing infant. It still had a wonderful flavor.

Buffalo-Chicken Macaroni and Cheese

When I was writing my Fried Chicken post, I mentioned my constant quest for yummy mac and cheese recipes. I think I laughed out loud when later that day I opened my new Food Network Magazine (April 2010) and saw that there was an article on just that. When I turned to the recipes and saw this one I knew right away I had to make it. I like buffalo chicken dishes occasionally, but my husband and son LOVE them. I discovered that even my 22 month old daughter does too. She devoured this buffalo chicken dip that I made for Superbowl this year. Anyway, I thought this sounded pretty good. Well, it was delicious! The sour cream gave an incredible texture and left me thinking that I need to be putting sour cream in all of my mac and cheese. One thing I left out was the blue cheese on top. We are just not huge fans and honestly I don't fell like it was missed.  Even though we're not normally blue cheese fans, the blue cheese makes this recipe delicious! The original recipe calls for using a store-bought rotisserie chicken but I just poached some chicken breasts instead. Be careful with this one. You're going to want to eat it all. (Look for more mac-and-cheese recipes to come - I think it will be a series)

A Whole Lotta Comfort Food

Chicken with Cornmeal Dumplings
Dijon Rosemary Potatoes
Glazed Carrots

I love to make chicken and dumplings and I came across this recipe one day in the Gourmet Cookbook. It's not the typical chicken and dumplings recipein that it doesn't have all of the vegetables, but it has a delicious flavor with the addition of shallots and a little white wine. Then there are the cornmeal dumplings. Yum! They don't have a strong "corny" taste but have a different texture than the standard dumplings. The recipe calls for a whole cut-up chicken but I had a bag of drumsticks that I wanted to use. Honestly, you can use what ever chicken pieces you like.

Salisbury Steak with Mushroom Gravy; Creamed Spinach

So one day a few years back I was watching 30 Minute Meals and the theme for the episode was making your own TV Dinner. She was making Salisbury Steak and I thought, "People make that on purpose?" I grew up thinking Salisbury Steak was a mushy, soggy piece of meat covered with not-so-good gravy and always came in frozen meals. As I watched the episode, it seemed like a dish that would be pretty tasty and couldn't hurt to try it. I adapt the meal slightly for my family but it's still delicious. It's a great comforting "home-cooked" meal and is super quick and easy. My entire family loves it!

I serve the Salisbury Steak with mashed potatoes and creamed spinach. The creamed spinach I now make off the top of my head but I got the original idea from my son's Emeril Kids' Cookbook.

Recipe (Serves 4) (You can double the first 4 ingredients for more meat)

Salisbury Steak

1 - 1 1/4 lb ground beef
1 T Worcestershire Sauce
1 T Montreal Steak Seasoning
1 onion, finely chopped or grated
olive oil
1/2 - 3/4 lb cremini mushrooms, chopped or sliced
2 T butter
2 T flour
2 c beef stock

Spinach

2 boxes frozen, chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1 onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced or grated
1/2 t thyme
1 t Essence (I use Emeril's Original or Bayou Blast)
1/2 t salt
2 T butter
2 T flour
1-2 c heavy cream (I eyeball this based on how rich I want it that day)

For Salisbury Steak:
Combine meat, Worcestershire, steak seasoning, and onion. Form in to 4 1-inch thick oval patties. Heat a skillet over med-high heat and add 1 T olive oil. Add meat patties and cook about 6 minutes on each side until outside in browned and caramelized. (for a double meat recipe you'll want to do this in batches). Remove patties to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm. Add an additional T of olive oil to the pan along with the butter. Add the mushrooms, season with salt and pepper, and saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the flour and cook stirring with a whisk for 1-2 minutes. Slowly whisk in stock and cook another minute or so to thicken. Pour gravy over patties and enjoy.

For Spinach:
Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and saute until tender, about 3-5 minutes. Add garlic, thyme, essence and salt and saute a couple minutes more. Add thawed, drained spinach and stir to combine. Sprinkle in flour and cook a couple more minutes. Add the cream, bring to a bubble, and then reduce heat to low. Cook 15-20 minutes (I usually prepare the Salisbury steak at this time), stirring occasionally.

Fried Chicken

Back in 2005 I bought myself some cast-iron cookware. I got a griddle/grill pan (which I love), a 10 1/4 inch skillet (great for cornbread), and a 15 1/4 inch skillet. I've used the large skillet for a number of things (e.g. chicken fried steak). Recently when my mother was visiting she made fried chicken and I realized that I have never made fried chicken in my cast-iron skillet. So this was my first experiment in making fried chicken and I think I may need to tweak a few things.

I got a really good deal on chicken breasts at Costco this past weekend so I only made breasts this time and I split them because they were huge.

First I salted the chicken and let it sit in a bowl while I readied the other ingredients. To the bowl I added about 3 cups of buttermilk, 2 onions - sliced, and some hot sauce. I let this marinate overnight until dinnertime.

In a paper bag I combined about 2 cups of flour, paprika, cayenne, garlic powder and salt. I placed the chicken pieces in the bag one at a time and shook until well coated. I let the chicken pieces rest about 30 minutes before frying. In the cast-iron skillet over medium heat I heated up enough shortening to come up about an inch in the skillet. Then I began frying. This took a while! I think the first batch took almost 30 minutes or more to cook. I was concerned about getting the middle up to temperature while not burning the outside. Also some of the pieces were cooking faster than others and not evenly. I think maybe a lid might help, but unfortunately they don't make one for this size skillet. I also think I may need to play around using both burners to keep the skillet hot all around.

All in all I think it still came out pretty good. The chicken was moist on the inside and crispy on the outside for the most part although there was some unevenness. I served it with homemade macaroni and cheese and corn. I strayed a little from my usual mac and cheese recipe. I used some Dijon instead of dry mustard which was pretty good. I think I'll write a post some time about my search for the perfect, but easy, homemade mac and cheese.

Turkey Meatloaf

Growing up I was never a real fan of meatloaf. To me, it always tasted like a weird, mushy hamburger with a bunch of ketchup on it. A few years ago my mom bought me the Gourmet Cookbook. I saw this recipe for Turkey Meat Loaf with Roasted Red Pepper-Tomato Sauce. It is delicious, healthy, and a great way to "sneak in" veggies for pickier family members. This has become a family favorite and can please both kids and foodies. I like to serve it with mashed potatoes and a favorite veggie (for our family it's Brussels sprouts). Oh and definitely skip the ketchup. This sauce is a must!

Recipe (Serves 6 or 4 plus leftovers)

Meatloaf

1 t olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
1/2 - 3/4 lb cremini mushrooms, finely chopped in food processor.
1 t salt
1/2 t black pepper
1 1/2 t Worcestershire sauce
1/3 c flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
5 T ketchup
1 c fresh bread crumbs (about 2 slices, I use whole wheat)
1/3 c milk
1 whole egg plus 1 egg white, lightly beaten
1 1/4 lb ground turkey

Sauce

1 head garlic
1/2 lb plum (Roma) tomatoes, halved lengthwise
1 large red bell pepper
1 t olive oil
1 1/2 t lemon juice
1/2 t balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375. Cut off top of garlic head and wrap garlic in foil. Arrange tomatoes cut side up on baking sheet and season with salt. Add bell pepper and wrapped garlic to pan. Roast 1 hour.

(Note: I found the best results is to chop each of the vegetables in the food processor. This is necessary at least for the mushrooms, so if I have it out I might as well use it for everything. Just process each ingredient and add it as you go.)

Meanwhile, Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook until onion is softened. Add carrot and continue cooking until softened, about 3 minutes. Add mushrooms, 1/2 t salt, 1/4 t pepper, and cook until liquid from mushrooms evaporates, about 10-15 minutes. Stir in Worcestershire, parsley and 3 T ketchup. Set aside to cool.

Stir together bread crumbs and milk and let stand for 5 minutes. Stir in eggs and then add to vegetables, along with turkey and remaining 1/2 t salt, and 1/4 t pepper. Mix well (mixture will be VERY moist.)

Remove tomatoes, pepper, and garlic from oven. Place pepper in a small bowl and cover with plastic wrap for 20 minutes.

Turn oven up to 400. Lightly oil a baking sheet. (You do not want to use a loaf pan for this). Form mixture into a 9x5 inch oval loaf on the baking sheet. Brush meatloaf with 2 T ketchup (this gives it a sweet glaze). Bake 50-55 minutes.

Peel pepper and discard stem and seeds. Add to food processor along with roasted garlic, tomatoes, oil, lemon juice, vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste. Puree until smooth. Serve over meatloaf.