Skillet Pork and Peppers

Day 9-I’m still not feeling excited to cook. I want to feel excited. I want to feel passion. I want to feel anything other then exhaustion and defeat. I’d like to note for everyone that this was meant to be a daily blog. Obviously it hasn’t always worked out that way. The planets have to align a certain way and then you might get a daily blog again. This meal (Day 9) was cooked on Wednesday. Oops. I did watch MasterChef Tuesday night and so far I’m not impressed. I’m assuming it will get better once they pick all the contestants. So we will just have to wait and see. After watching it though I now believe Anthony should try out next year and not me. There is no way I would be able to stand in front of two famous chefs (and that other guy) and serve them something I made. I would be so nervous. I probably would just speak a bunch of gibberish and stand there shaking. There is no way that I want that to be my first Gordon Ramsay meeting. I love Gordon Ramsay!

Tonight it was either cook the pork tenderloin or starve. I cooked; I can’t go more then 2 hours without putting some kind of food in my mouth. That raw pork tenderloin did not look very appetizing to me. (Okay that link makes it seem even less appetizing) I tried to stop thinking about it and move on. Raw meat does not appeal to me. I find it gross to hold it and trim. Every time I have to handle raw meat I ask myself why I’m not a vegetarian. If I never had to see meat in its raw form I wouldn’t have any problem with it. But I do and it’s not pretty.

I prepped the vegetables: widely sliced peppers, thickly sliced onion, sliced pepperoncinis, and smashed garlic. I decided to make brown rice with the pork. Anthony doesn’t love brown rice, but it’s healthy so we have to eat it! So I started the rice. Then it was time to trim and cut the pork. Ick. Ok no problem, I’ve got this. I trimmed off all of the fat that came off easily. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to trim off the fat that wasn’t easy to get to. So after poking at it for awhile I just left it. Fat helps gives meat a good flavor anyway, right?

I did learn the other night when I made the pasta dish with the red pepper, that Anthony doesn’t really like red peppers either. How can you not like red peppers? He says they are too sweet. This recipe has whatever color you want peppers in it, so I chose orange and yellow. I’m not really sure how Anthony feels about orange and yellow peppers. Guess we will find out. The list of foods he doesn’t really care to eat is growing: cherry tomatoes, blue cheese, cilantro and red peppers. He did clarify with me last night that the only one he will NEVER eat is blue cheese. If the other things are already in something that he has to eat he will eat it. Good to know. Although to be kind I will try not to make recipes that include the items he will eat if forced, that’s not enjoyable.

Overall this recipe is pretty easy to make. I’m enjoying using one pan for everything. Once the peppers and onions are cooked you take them out of the pan and put the pork in and sear that. Then the pork comes out and you put in the garlic, pepperoncinis, chicken broth, wine, sage, and tomato paste. Once that makes a sauce, you place the pork in a single layer on top of the sauce with the peppers and onions on top of that. Sprinkle parmesan on the top and pop it in the broiler for 4-7 minutes. Done!

Final Product:

My thoughts: I thought this dish tasted good. I didn’t have any problems with it. Anthony said the dish wasn’t his taste, but couldn’t explain why. He did comment on the peppers and the tomato paste sauce as being things he wasn’t terribly fond of. He did however say the pork was cooked perfectly! Score! I will definitely continue to make pork tenderloin, but probably not use this recipe.

Totals: 15 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking time, 1 large skillet.

I will surely have anther post for you about Sunday’s dinner. Now I just have to come up with what that will be. Any ideas??? (I hate that part!)

Skillet Pork and Peppers

Mexican Pita Pizzas

Day 8-I was sick yesterday and was home from work. I wasn’t completely sure if my stomach was going to behave itself enough for me to eat dinner. Luckily, my stomach felt better closer to dinner time, so I decided to give it a go. I originally was going to make the pork tenderloin and peppers, but I was confused as to which wine I should use (dry and white was needed, but I wasn’t sure which of the whites we have were dry and cheap). Anthony was too wrapped up in homework to help me figure out the wine issue. So I put all the pork tenderloin ingredients away and decided to make something I know how to make. Mexican Pita Pizzas. Besides my love of seafood and Indian, I also really love Mexican. Now obviously what I was going to make, isn’t authentic Mexican food. It still has some yummy ingredients though and it’s the closest to Mexican I was going to get last night.

I’ve made these pizzas numerous times. I’ve never tried to make an actual pizza with these same ingredients, but now that the idea is in place I’m putting that on the list. This recipe is a Rachel Ray oldie but goodie. It is supposed to be faster to cook then the way I made it last night (30 minute meals are her specialty). I wanted to make my own refried beans. I didn’t use lard. Sorry people! I have an issue with actually having lard in my house. Ick! I’ve made refried beans before, but I was a bit distressed from the change of plans and wasn’t really focused. I ended up draining the can of pinto beans, which you are not supposed to do. It’s better to mash it all up together. Oops! Then I didn’t cook the onion and garlic long enough. The garlic was fine; it was the onion that was a little crunchy still. Once I put the beans in with the onion, garlic, salt, and pepper that’s when I realized that I drained the beans. So I added ¼ cup of water. I figured its just water nothing bad could come of it. I also decided to give the beans more flavor (I’m not sure what is in the part that I drained) and added some Sazon seasoning. The refried beans were still tasty even after the mishaps.

You can totally omit that step and just open a can of refried beans. Most of the time I do that, but I do love fresh refried beans. The rest of the recipe is super simple. Toast some pita bread. Once it is cooler (I don't wait very long), spread the beans on, add a couple tablespoons of taco sauce, sprinkle a generous amount of shredded cheese, and add diced tomatoes, chopped scallions, and diced jalapeño and you are good to go.

Put the pitas into a 400 degree oven for 12 minutes and you have dinner! Love it! I also made instant rice (gag me), because it was the easiest rice I had to make. I put some Sazon seasoning in the water with the rice. Once it was cooked, I added garlic salsa and some shredded cheese to give it a little something more.

Final Product:

I love these things. They are super easy to make and they taste good. What more could you ask for?!

Totals: 10 minutes prep, 12 minutes cooking time, 1 pot (no pots if you don’t make your own beans), 1 baking sheet

Mexican Pita Pizzas Recipe is from: Veggie Meals: Rachael Ray’s 30-Minute Meals

Pasta With Broccoli and Artichokes

Day 7-Still counting the days. I feel less depressed today even though I don't feel well. Let me just state for the record, I do not believe my food is the cause of my illness. Anthony eats all the same things as me and is as healthy as a horse. (Apparently horses are very healthy!) I'm hoping there will still be cooking happening tonight, but I will just have to wait and see how I feel.

Onto last night. I felt the need for redemption. After that terrible excuse for a pasta dish-Pasta Ponza and let's not forget the Pasta Nests-I really felt like I needed to redeem myself. I'm not creating these recipes (I haven't gotten to that stage yet), but I'm assuming they work out perfectly when the recipe creators make them. Maybe it's my lack of skill and finesse in the kitchen. I won't give up that easily. I refuse to believe that as an Italian, I can not make a good pasta dish. Plus I make really good lasagna and that's pasta! That's why I decided to make Pasta With Broccoli and Artichokes. I'm not quite sure why the title of the recipe is what it is. There is more in the dish then broccoli and artichokes, such as red peppers, onions, and black olives. I guess the name would have been ridiculous though if it were, Pasta With Broccoli, Artichokes, Red Peppers, Onions, and Black Olives.

As we all know I am not good when it comes to cutting food products. This recipe was daunting. Here is a picture of all the items I needed to cut, plus parsley is omitted from the photo.

Yikes! I was up for the challenge though, all I wanted was for the dish to look like the picture in the cookbook and to taste good. I chopped the broccoli up (most likely not correctly) and put it on the stove to steam. I did have to review with Anthony how to steam veggies. I know I steamed green beans earlier in this blog, but that was before vacation. Also I'm super proud of myself for using fresh broccoli. The recipe only calls for 1 cup of cooked broccoli, chopped. I could have used frozen, but I didn't want to take the easy way out. I then sliced the red pepper (definitely not the proper way! Glad Anthony didn't walk in!) and onion (I'm getting a little better at those) and put them in the skillet to cook.

I had to mix a couple of opened boxes of pasta, a ziti and penne. It didn't look like enough with only the one, although looking back it would have been. I wanted to cut the recipe in half, because I didn't want to be eating this all week again. Since I cooked a bit too much pasta though, I think it screwed up the ratios of everything else. Oh well. You can't win them all and I am slowly losing the battle with pasta. The rest of the recipe was easy enough, slicing artichokes wasn't a big deal and chopping olives takes awhile, but was doable. I did have to substitute red wine vinegar for sherry vinegar since I didn't have that. In another recipe I cooked recently you could substitute one for the other, so I assume that's common, but I don't really know.

After all the cooking is done everything gets mixed together. The pasta dish looked like the picture to me and I cooked everything right, but where the heck was the flavor. I found it really bland. We put some Romano cheese on it, but I don't even think that helped much. Hmm...peculiar.

Final Product :

My thoughts: I would add some spices or more Italian herbs to this dish. It needs something. I was even thinking maybe balsamic vinegar instead of red wine vinegar. I'm not going to rush to try this again, but if I can't come up with enough meals one week I might make this and tweek it.

Totals: 10 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking time, 2 pots, 1 skillet, 1 steamer basket

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This recipe is from Cook's Encyclopedia of 30-Minute Cooking.

Sour Cream Curry Shrimp and Coconut Rice

Day 6-Six? That’s it?! I guess that’s what happens when you take a week off of cooking for vacation. I just felt like I was further through this torture. I’m wondering if I should continue to keep track in days or if that will just depress me even more. First day of cooking back from vacation, was not something I was ready for. Have you ever had one of those days when you just think every item in the kitchen is stupid? The refrigerator door was stupid, the butter holder, the butter, the counter, the pot, the onion, the green pepper. I wanted to smack all of those items. Not that it would do much good as they are all items without feelings. Sigh.

I was actually really excited to eat what I was cooking. I got a brand new cookbook for my birthday, Seafood Secrets Cookbook.

I couldn’t wait to use it! If you haven’t already guessed, I’d rather eat seafood then almost anything else in the world. I found a recipe for Sour Cream Curried Shrimp. This recipe would combine my love of Indian flavors with seafood. YES! Things were going okay at first. I decided to make coconut milk rice with the shrimp. So I started that. My version was using Basmati rice, 2 cups of water, 2/3 cup of coconut milk, and some salt. Bring it all to a boil, add the rice (1 ½ cups) and cook. Simple. The coconut milk gives the rice a little sweetness, which goes well with curry dishes. I chopped the onion, got the shrimp ready (already deveined again, got to love Wegmans!). Then things went bad. I had to take 3 tablespoons of butter and melt it in a sauce pan. Apparently even this is too hard for me. I didn’t realize you could burn butter. But I did. All 3 tablespoons of it! Yuck! The smell was bad. I had to take it out of the pan, clean out the pan, and start over. So by now I’m in a super mood! (Yes, that is sarcasm.) This is when I started thinking everything in the kitchen was so stupid!

Got the butter started again and turned it down really low, which means it took forever to melt. Then I was ready to start cooking all of this stupid food. I added the onions and garlic to the pan; that’s when I realized I forgot the stupid green pepper. UGH! So at this point I’m rushing to chop half the pepper up and get it in the stupid pot. Anthony comes in and once again decides that I am going to lose a finger. I told him I understand how to chop now, but there is no time for thinking at this point!! I’ve got to get this pepper in the pan!! That was really the only two incidents I had this time around. Not bad. Of course I’ve already had experience cooking shrimp once during this blog already. I know how to cook shrimp, like I know all the lines in My Girl. (I recently watched My Girl again on television one day and realized I still remembered all the lines in it. Sad.)

You add the sour cream (I used light), curry, ground ginger, lemon juice, salt, and pepper and it becomes a creamy delight. Yum! Next you put the shrimp in and let them cook in all that creamy goodness. Spectacular! I heated up some pita bread and called it a meal.

Final Product:

I will be cooking this again. Anthony really liked it too. I’m so excited I found a new recipe that can become a regular addition to my weekly menus. Thanks Linda and Sheldon for the cookbook! I think coconut rice was a great paring with the curried shrimp. The sweetness really does help make the dish. Yum! Please Sir, may I have some more!

Totals: 10 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking, 2 pots

Vacation

I refused to cook while on vacation. If I’m going to be blogging about food (blogging is a bit like work, fun work, but work) then during my time off from my real job, I need to be off from blogging too. Of course this probably cost us more money then I really wanted to spend, but oh well. I only take vacation once a year! Got to live it up!

What did I eat on my vacation? We went to Sakura Home for dinner on my birthday. It’s a Japanese restaurant with Hibachi. I was really craving Hibachi. I ordered the scallops and lobster. Anthony had the filet and lobster. This was a very good meal. The chef was fun too!

Of course before dinner we went to Abbot’s Frozen Custard and I had chocolate almond on a cone. It was my birthday. I could eat dessert before dinner if I wanted to. Monday I went to this place in Watkins Glen on Seneca Lake, Seneca Harbor Station. I had mussels in a white wine, scampi butter sauce. Very yummy. The one item on the menu we all agreed we would have liked to try (if we had saved room for dessert) was the Raspberry Bongo, which is cream puffs with mascarpone, cream cheese, raspberries, topped with chocolate sauce and Chambord. That would have been heaven and I might just have to go back for that! For dinner we went to Famous Dave’s BBQ, I had a coupon for a free something on the menu. It ended up being an appetizer which was great, because we love their Smoked Salmon spread. Delicious as usual, except the pita bread had tons more dry rub spice on it then it normally does. That made it a bit spicier then I like.

Tuesday I had gelato for lunch at the George Eastman House. I chose three flavors banana, caramel, and strawberry. I love gelato! We went to Bugaboo Creek for dinner, where I had Grilled Bourbon Marinated Shrimp skewers and a wedge salad. The wedge salads are my favorite salad! Anthony had steak again. I just can’t eat steak. I tried some of his filet at Sakura Home and thought it tasted like liver. I’m weird; you can say it to my face. We went to Niagara Falls on Wednesday and ate at the Hard Rock Café on the Canadian side. I’ve never been a fan of Hard Rock Café’s, but I had the S.O.B. Burger which was actually pretty good. It had a chipotle spread on it and guacamole. Thursday we went to the sushi place in our town, we had a gift certificate from Restaurants.com for $25. We love this place and it’s so close to our house! Yay! We had pork gyoza, seaweed salad, miso soup, sushi with baby octopus (that was a first for me! Might have been a little chewy for my tastes!), eel sushi, a yellowtail scallion roll, and a tempura roll with salmon, crab, cream cheese, and fish roe.

Friday, Anthony and I went to the movies (this never happens!). We saw Inception and we both really liked it. I love movies that keep you wondering. Go see it. For dinner we met some friends at Good Luck. If you haven’t been go. This place has some decent food. You choose dishes to share with the table. We had margherita pizza, ziti with red sauce and eggplant, squash stuffed with zucchini, and the burger. I didn’t read the menu well and ended up ordering a glass of wine that was $10. Oops! Oh well, I was on vacation! That was my excuse for everything last week.

Let's not forget the mini carrot cake! I hate regular cake. There is just nothing appealing about it to me. There are 4 cakes that I will eat and savor: cheesecake, cookie cake, ice cream cake, and carrot cake. We bought a small carrot cake and ice cream cake!!

Can’t wait to start cooking again! (If only you could have seen the expression on my face as I typed that) I’m sure I will get up to even more trouble then before.

The menu for this week includes: curried shrimp with coconut rice, pork tenderloin with peppers, Mexican pita pizzas, and another veggie pasta dish to make up for the last disaster.

Pasta Ponza

Day 5-I was actually really happy to cook last night. I couldn't wait to get started. There were two reasons for my joy, this recipe was super easy and I was trying to put off cleaning the house for as long as possible. This recipe has cherry tomatoes (both yellow and red), capers, olive oil, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, Romano cheese, and ziti

Sadly when picking this recipe I did not take into account the fact that Anthony doesn't really care for two of the ingredients, cherry tomatoes and capers. Since they were pretty essential ingredients, I had a feeling we would not be eating this meal again. The recipe was doomed from the start.

I cut the recipe in half time including the pasta. I'm not making that mistake again, but I did forget to cut the amount of capers in half (oops!). After cutting the tomatoes, you mix them with the capers, olive oil, salt and pepper. Then you sprinkle the breadcrumbs on top and bake for 30 minutes. From the start it just didn't look right to me. I moved on and cooked the pasta; we had to eat!

Once everything was done, you mix the pasta, tomatoes and cheese together. It did not work out. The breadcrumbs were wet lumps. Nothing like what the picture showed. Anthony wanted to know what happened. I told him that I followed the directions exactly, he didn't really believe me. I'm telling all of you that I really DID follow the directions, the only thing I messed up was adding too many capers.

Final Product (not very attractive):

I won't be making this recipe again. It didn't taste horrible, but since Anthony doesn't even like some of the most important ingredients I'm not going to bother trying it again. Oh and it turns out, I don't really like capers either. Oh well, you can't like everything.

Totals: 10 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking, 1 pot, 1 glass baking dish

Pasta Ponza Recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/pasta-ponza-recipe/index.html