BBQ Pork Tenderloin with potato salad and baked beans

Lately there has been a great influx of pigs jumping of cliffs, running in front of cars, and hanging themselves or other means of suicide. Due to this terrible tragedy, prices on large cuts of pork tenderloin have dramatically dropped at the grocery stores. I mean really dropped....1.50 a pound kind of dropped.

So, to do my duty as a good, sympathetic citizen, to aid the ranchers in their time of mourning over the loss of pigs to suicide, I have been regularly purchasing said cuts of meat.

What the hell do you do with a 15 pound pork tenderloin?

So there I sit (or really, stand, because sitting in front of the freezer on a stool the tall is just silly), staring at this long, tube-like thing in my freezer, wandering a) Do I have a pan big enough for this thing b) how do I season it and cook it and c) do I have a platter big enough to hold it when its done.

Well...hmmm...its still nice outside...the grill is huge so could do that...I could season it like I do ribs and such, and make potato salad (which, btw the way the roommates were beside themselves excited about...), baked beans and devilled eggs and we could have ourselves a big ol' barbecue. Hell, I may even invite my friend from across the street, because goodness knows, there is enough for half the neighborhood...(and between my house hold and hers, we do, have, literally, half the neighborhood)

Now for the pan...how am I to lay this thing out and actually get it seasoned...?

Oh yes! That's right. Granny bought me that set of baking sheets and one was ginormous...you know, the size you use when you don't want to make 47 trips to the oven to bake cookies so you use the largest pan available and squeeze the cookies as close as you dare to try to get the entire batch on one pan.

Don't act like you don't know what I mean. I know better.

So... what do we need?

Seasoning:
Brown sugar
Salt
Garlic powder
Cumin
Oregano
Coriander
Thyme
a little olive oil

Glaze: 

Bbq sauce -  ok we have to get into this discussion. Bbq sauce is like...wine. Some good, some great, some amazing, many different flavors, and some is well...just don't buy it. Like Kraft... Get a good bbq sauce. If you need to do cheap, do cheap well like KC masterpiece, or Sweet Baby Ray's. Locally made tends to be the best. My personal fave is Cookies. 

Yes those cookies too, but Cookies is one of the few that has NO corn syrup, just good old-fashioned ingredients, and boy can you taste it. Jack Stack is another fave, but its a midwest local only. Teag's is good as well as Jack Daniels. No matter what you choose, please, for the respect of the pigs who committed suicide, do not use 98 cent or less bottles of bbq sauce. That's just, well, not yummy. 

liquid smoke
garlic

Potato Salad:- The link here will give you the portions and recipe. 

Potatoes

Sweet pickles (I use 14-day pickles mom makes and sends to me)
Hard boiled eggs (funny, we are going to make those too)
Onion
Mayo ( I use either half real, half miracle whip, or use miracle whip's olive oil mayo which tastes about like half and half)
Apple cider vinegar
Sugar
Dill
Garlic

I have a weird thing for crunchies in my potato salad, therefore, no celery or peppers. Add them if you are not odd like me. It's all the better.

Beans:

I am lazy most days, and buy Bush's Beans, Homestyle 'cause they are sweet and need little doctoring.

I do have a recipe for the real deal, but in the essence of time, canned is ok here. 

To Doctor pork n beans or other canned beans...(trust me on this, no canned bean is perfect out of the can, and if you think so up to now, just try it my way and then make judgement!)

Brown Sugar
Ketchup
BBQ sauce
Onion
Sweet Peppers
Garlic
Chili Powder
Bbq sauce

Deviled Eggs:

Eggs
Mayo
Mustard
Salt
Pepper
Apple cider vinegar
Sugar

Whew! Lots of stuff, but most should have these things on hand. Let me know if I should do a mini post on what spices to keep in your cabinet or basics to keep on hand. I try to aim this blog to the not so proficient in the kitchen all the way up to the usual home cook. I am sure restauranteurs or pro's look to, but doubtful. They have their own vibe.

Let's start

Mix the dry rub ingredients together (see below for measurements)

Place loin on giant pan and drain off the liquid. Trim off any overly excess fat. You want some for tenderness.

Rub the loin down with olive oil.

With your fingers, take take a handful of the spice rub and rub it into the meat, pushing down gently. Rub it all over front, back, sides and ends. Cover and toss in the frig for a couple of hours to get happy.

Cut and boil your potatoes. Boil your eggs, peel, and devil them. They are better when they have set and mellowed for about 30 minutes or so. While everything is boiling cut the necessary amounts of onion, pickles etc into your bowl for the taters and for the beans too, in another bowl.

Eggs: Let cool so you can handle them. Room temp is good. Cool by dousing in ice water (which also makes for an easy peel, and stops the cooking which causes the yolks to turn that funny color on the outside). Cut in half and gently squeeze out yolks into a bowl. Squish them to crumbles with the back of a fork or a pastry blender. Add, for every dozen eggs, 2 Tbs mayo, 2 teas mustard, a pinch of salt and pepper, and a teaspoon each of vinegar and sugar. Mix together and taste. You want it to have a zip but slightly sweet and slightly savory.

Dump taters into bowl and throw in frig to get cool.

Go...do laundry. Or whatever.

In a couple of hours, start the grill. Get it all happy.

Happy=gray and ashy but red coals. For non coal users, shame, shame, shame. Not the same. But nevertheless, use your temp gauge thingy on the grill. Wait till its about 450.

Drag out your loin and olive oil. 

Spray, brush or otherwise lube up the grill. Caution: spraying with mister will cause flammage, and where it is pretty and cool to look at, just be careful k?

Lay loin on the cooler part of the grill, not directly over the coals. We will do that later. Right now we want to cook it, not burn it. Close the grill lid.

Go back inside and mix up the bbq sauce with some liquid smoke and garlic. If you are using the cheap stuff like we discussed not to, add a couple tablespoons of brown sugar, a pinch of cumin and coriander too.

After about mmmm...8-10 mins, go flip your loin and glaze the cooked side with bbq sauce.

Go assemble the rest of the potato salad. Get the beans to heating. Saute the onions, garlic (yes real garlic) and peppers in a little olive oil. When onions are translucent, add the mix to the beans then (for large cans or 2 cans of pork n beans) add 2 Tbs brown sugar, 1/4 c bbq sauce, 2 Tbs ketchup, 2 teaspoons of chili powder. For the ketchup, I just give the bottle a hefty squirt. Trying to get it out of a measuring spoon is...fun.

Go flip the loin again and coat the other side. (about 8-10 mins)

At this point the loin should be cooked through. Sear it directly over the coals on both sides for a minute then take off grill and let it set for 5 or 6 mins to let the juice inside stay inside. If you cut it straight off the heat, all those yummy juices will come spilling out and we want yummy juices.

Mix the sauce up for the tater salad. Its always best fresh. Pour over and mix gently! Potatoes break easy and we don't want squished potato salad. That is another recipe :-)

Slice the tenderloin into thick slices. 

Take your hard work to the table and enjoy!

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Recipes

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Pork Tenderloin:
10-15lb Pork Tenderloin
Olive oil

Seasoning - 2 T brown sugar
1t each garlic, cumin, coriander, thyme, pepper and oregano
1 T salt

Glaze - 1 bottle of barbecue sauce
1/2 t liquid smoke
1 t garlic

Mix seasoning ingredients together. Drain liquid from pork loin and trim of excess fat leaving a thin layer. Place on large pan and rub with olive oil. Massage spice mix into loin flesh by gently pushing and rubbing. Cover all sides. Wrap and set aside for a minimum of 2 hours.

Heat grill to 450 or until coals are gray and ashy. Brush olive oil on grill and place loin over indirect heat. Cook 8-10 mins on each side, depending on size of loin.

Mix Barbecue sauce with garlic and liquid smoke. Glaze loin after each turn.
When cooked through, place over direct heat to sear for 1 minute. Remove from grill and let rest for 5-6 mins. Slice.


Potato Salad - click link above.

Deviled Eggs:
12 eggs
2 T Mayo
2 t mustard
1 t apple cider vinegar
1 t sugar
pinch of salt and pepper

After eggs have cooled, halve and squeeze out yolk. With the back of a fork or a pastry blender, crumble the egg yolks. Add rest of ingredients and mix. Stuff eggs. Garnish with paprika, chives, dill or parsley. 

Honeyed Apricot-Peach Cream Cheese Tart

Yesterday I kept toying with the idea of whether I was really in the mood to make something or not. I have these lovely apricots and peaches and pears I bought last week at the produce market that are in need of being used before they go bad.

Gorgeous right?

So, this morning, I made a tart for breakfast. With scrambled eggs and sausage of course, because, well, it's Saturday which means I have to make a decent breakfast before running off to work. Any other day of the week would be an egg on toast. Weekends, working or no, I feel the need to make breakfast.

Maybe I should have waited until Sunday. I'm off Sunday. Oh well.

Assemble thine ingredients:

Fruit (I ended up using 3 apricots and 2 peaches very thinly sliced)

flour

sugar

1 stick butter

1 block cream cheese

honey

ginger

coffee. It's saturday morning. Coffee is a necessity.

Get out your handy dandy food processor. Attach normal blade that can take off your fingers and the flat top with the hole in it. Grab the cap too, because we are playing with flour and well, the whole kitchen does not need to be dusted...unless of course you want the family to think you slaved all morning, then by all means, dust away.

 Throw in butter(cold) and 1 1/4 c flour and 1/3c sugar. Keep the butter wrapper. 

Why?

Why, why, why. SO many questions!

Prepare for history lesson... commencing in 3-2-1...In the depression era, there was little money and little food. You had to *gasp* make use of every tiny part of the things you had because there was no room for waste. Think pinching pennies to the max. Using things like the part of veggies you trimmed off for broth, water for boiling used for bread or other meals, and butter wrappers are excellent for lubing up pans and dishes before baking in them. 

Keep you butter wrappers in a plastic baggy and use them, instead of a cooking spray to lube up your bakeware. Not only are you saving money, but the environment (less waste).

..End of lecture for today...

Turn on food processor and make lots of noise until it is blended and crumbly looking and the butter stops clunking around. No clunking is usually a good sign.

 Turn off noisy machine. Add water through the top hole 1 Tbs at a time, pulsing between each. Wow. That sounded dirty.

Keep adding water until it just barely comes together to form a dough.

Drag out a small baking sheet or jelly roll pan. Lube up with butter wrapper. NOW you can recycle it. It is paper after all.

Turn dough out onto pan and scrape together and fold once or twice, just enough to make it into a solid dough. 

You are supposed to chill the dough for an hour before using it. I spread it out onto the bottom of the pan and threw it in the freezer for 10 minutes while oven was heating.

If you have some extra butter (or wrapper), baste over top of dough. Toss in oven for 5-10 mins just enough to get the dough to harden a little. The butter will make it a pretty pale goldenish color.

While dough is in oven, thinly slice your fruit. And I mean thinly, or it will take too long to cook and you'll have burnt dough and raw fruit. No good.

Nuke your cream cheese in a microwave safe bowl for about 30 seconds. Enough to make it squishy enough to work with. Add 1 Tbs honey and 1/8t (pinch) of ginger. Mix.

Pull dough out of oven and dump on cream cheese mix. Spread evenly over crust with back of spoon. Layer on your fruit slices in whatever arrangement is aesthetically pleasing to you. 

I did rows... because I did. 

Toss back in over on TOP rack for 15-20 mins or until fruit is starting to shrivel a little. Using your fancy basting brush, baste honey (heated works best) over top about 10 mins into cooking.

While in the oven, scramble your eggs and fry up your sausage. And have more coffee. We need coffee.

And you are done. This one takes about an hour start to finish, so if you are working, make sure you start it more than an hour before work so you actually get some. 

Damned computer. Always get sidetracked...

Boneless Fried Chicken, Corn Casserole, and Mashed Potatoes

Today was a comfort food day. I'd been hungry for good, deep fried, rib-stickin' yumminess for a couple of days and finally after much pestering from the 12-year-old, I gave.

It was all his fault. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Let's start with the corn casserole. It will take the longest to make. Yes I know, it is tempting to jump into the chicken part because... mmmm... who can resist fried chicken? (Other than veggie people?)
But we must do this in order to make it come out on time and hot, right?

Stop grumbling at me and just listen. Yes you could snack on the chicken while you make the rest but then not only will you jot have enough to feed the masses but it'll be all soggy and cold by the time you're done.

Ok. See. I told you.

Onward to corn casserole. You will need a stick of butter, a can of corn, a can of creamed corn, a box of cornbread mix, a tub of sour cream, and 2 eggs.

Melt the butter and dump into and 8x8 or 9x13 pan.

Mix corn bread mix with creamed corn, corn, 1/2 tub (8oz) sour cream, eggs and mix. Pour into pan.

Throw into oven at 350 for about an hour. 

Now would be a good time to chop your taters for mashed potatoes. I generally use 2 potatoes per person as we are mashed tater-aholics. Boil them in water infused with chicken bouillon, 1 tbs butter and a couple of garlic cloves.

Now you can start on the chicken.

Start your oil heating up. Or Crisco. Crisco is even better. If you have some bacon grease, mmmmmm.

Ok. So I have this weird thing about chicken. I can't deal with veins, dark meat, tiny bones and tendons. I grosses me out. I buy boneless breasts in giant bags at Costco. They are clean and require nothing but a tiny bit of trimming and de-thawing.

This recipe requires boneless chicken breasts, about 4 large ones, into 1-2" sized pieces.

You will also need two additional containers. One with 2 eggs slightly beaten, and one with 1c flour, 1/4 c bread crumbs, 1/4 c cornmeal, pinch of salt and pepper, dash of garlic, dash of chili powder.

Dredge the chicken first in the egg.

Then through the flour mix.

The into the pan with HOT liquid cooking lubricant.

Cook each 4-5 mins per side. Wait until the oil reheats between batches, you want it hot to get crispy chicken. Set the finished pieces onto a plate lined in paper towels or a cloth towel you don't mind being dedicated for this particular task. 

Drain the potatoes as soon as they are done, or keep the liquid and freeze for things like soup or bread. 

Squish them with some milk and butter and a pinch of salt. 

Check on corn casserole. Throw in next batch of chicken.

You chicken should be done about the same time as the casserole. Take it out and let it sit for a few minutes. 

Dinner is done. Proceed to serve to the masses.

Fried Chicken

1c flour

1/4 corn meal

1/4c bread crumbs

1Tbs garlic

pinch of salt and pepper

4 large chicken breasts

2 eggs

1 bar of crisco or vegetable oil for frying.

Heat oil or crisco in heavy skillet. Mix dry ingredients. Cut up chicken into 1-2" pieces and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Beat egg slightly. Dredge chicken in egg then coat in flour mix. Fry 4-5 mins on each side until cooked thoroughly and brown. Drain. While warm, sprinkle again with a little salt or seasoned salt. 

Corn Casserole

1 box corn muffin mix

1 can creamed corn

1can kernel corn

1 stick butter

8 oz sour cream

2 eggs

Melt butter in bottom of 8x8 or 9x13 pan. Mix rest of ingredients together and spread evenly in pan. Bake at 350 for 1 hr for 8x8, 35-40 mins 9x13.

Mashed Potatoes

2 potatoes per adult. 1 per child, cut into chunks

3 Tbs butter

3 teaspoons chicken better than bouillon or 2 cubes of bouillon

4-5 cloves of garlic

1c milk

Boil potatoes in water with bouillon, 1 tbs butter and garlic. Drain. Heat butter and milk. Mash potatoes. Add milk and butter and mash some more. 

Penne with Pesto Cream sauce and Stuffed Mushrooms

I have made a decision regarding the food blog.

I originally started posting as meals, because everyone usually makes a meal. Then I went to the individual recipe thing as that seemed to be the format many liked. Then I realized that everyone who writes a blog is doing the same thing as everyone else. They are either copying the Pioneer Woman's format on their food blogs or just post individual recipes.

I have decided that most of us make more than just one thing when we cook, and a good majority of people who look at recipes and new ideas are women or parents or people who cook for more than just themselves.

This makes things easy on me as well as my readers. You guys get a one page meal with multiple recipes and how to get everything ready in sequence, AND I don't have to make a million posts for individual recipes. This saves us both time in our busy, hectic lives.

There is a search option, so I am guessing people will use that if they are looking for something specific.

That being said, here is the next meal-like recipe. Jill, I made the stuffed mushrooms just for you so I could fulfill the request for the recipe :-)

I needed something to go with the Stuffed Mushrooms and pasta or steak is always a good option. As steak is not in my budget, this became a vegetarian meal.

Now, before you run off, adding steak or chicken is a cinch and is very yummy. That makes this meal easy for split households as well. Cut your meat up into strips and saute with some olive oil and garlic and serve over the top of the noodles. Or grill/fry/bake your meat of choice and serve off to the side. The steak with blue cheese butter is a good meat dish to go with this.

Looks totally yummy right?

So... Grab your ingredients. You'll need 8-10 large mushrooms, frozen spinach, bread crumbs, an egg, cheese of choice,  medium sized onion, noodles, alfredo sauce, pesto sauce and capers if you have them. Also grab some chicken or vegy bouillon or better than bouillon if you have it. 

Ok. Now. Micro-nuke the spinach. My 8 mushrooms took about 1/2 c of thawed spinach. 

Stem the mushrooms and clean out the fluffy white flesh the stems leave on the inside while the spinach is getting de-icy. Chop 1/2 the onion and the mushroom stems into tiny bits. 

Get out your cheese and shred if needed or in my case, using goat cheese...

I crumbled it. 

Like this. Amount is up to you. I used about 1/2 c.

Mix the ingredients together. Spinach, onion, stems, cheese, 1/4 c bread crumbs, 1 egg, 1 tbs garlic powder and a pinch of basil. 

Oh yeah, forgot to mention those. 

Spoon stuffing into mushrooms and mound. Yes, your hand will get dirty 'cause you have to kinda mold the stuffing to the top a bit, but its ok. That's what sinks are for. 

Mushrooms stuffed, pop in oven at 350 for maybe 20 mins.

Meanwhile, as the mushrooms are getting all happy boil some water and get the pasta going. Pop in a couple of teaspoons of bouillon to make it taste even better.

Mix half the pesto and half the alfredo together in a microwave save thingy.

Get a salad made or whatever veggie you intend on making.

Check the mushrooms. Now top with some more cheese, and put under broiler for about 2 mins. 

When they come out they should look like this. Ish.

When the noodles are done cooking, drain them and nuke the sauce.

And then you are done. Plate the noodles, top with sauce.  

And see what the beautiful mushrooms look like inside... MMMMMM.

Stuffed Mushrooms
8-10 large mushrooms
1/2 c spinach, thawed
3/4 c goat cheese crumbled or mozzarella shredded plus 1/4 c.
1 Tbs garlic powder
1/4c bread crumbs
Mushrooms stems, minced
1/2 onion, minced
1 egg

Stem the mushrooms and clean out cavity or any remaining stem parts. Mix together rest of ingredients except 1/4c of cheese. Spoon into mushrooms and mound slightly over top. Bake at 350 for 15 mins. Top with other 1/4 c of cheese. Broil until cheese melts and is slightly browned. 

Penne with Pesto Cream Sauce
1 lb Penne
Jar of pesto
Jar of alfredo sauce
3 Tbs capers

Boil pasta. Mix 1/2 jar pesto with 1/2 jar alfredo. Drain pasta. Add capers. Top with sauce. 

Serve with salad, bread or other vegetable. 

Mango-Chipotle Chicken Burritos with Black Beans

I cheated.

No.

I did.

I was craving some really fresh, summery, yummy mexican-ish type food.

I had chicken. I had tortillas. I had.... hmmmm....

Oh yeah. That random bottle of salad dressing my mom shipped to me along with the other 42 bottles I have. Something by Kraft called Mango-Chipotle. Hmmmm.

Chicken. Mango-Chipotle.

This works.

So...maybe a put it together yourself burrito?

As you can see it was kid approved.

Yup. That'll work. And we could totally use that dressing for a marinade/cooking sauce for the chicken. Oooooh! And we have an entire gallon bag of black beans, so we could make mexican style black beans.

OMG. It's healthy too! So much protein!

We like protein. Protein is good.

So let's get started

3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts, cleaned and laid out in either a glass pan or jelly roll pan lined in foil.

Smother chicken with dressing, slice up some onion and toss it in, and cover with another piece of foil. Seal the foil. This is important. It will allow steam to be captured which results in fabulously tender chicken cooked relatively quickly.

Throw in oven for 20 mins or so. Baste with dressing every 10 mins.

So that's twice. You'll be ok. It's easy to remember. Twice.

That's it?

Well... uh... ya.

That's it. So easy.

So.... There are several ways this chicken can go. If you are in a tropical mood, make up some mango salsa, cook up some coconut rice, and maybe make a small arugula salad with feta cheese and a vinaigrette.

If you are in a mexican mood, when it comes out of the oven, you can serve over black beans and rice with sour cream and salsa, OR....

Make up some black beans, grab out tortillas, chop up some lettuce, tomato and cucumber, and make a build your own burrito.

I took option 3.

So. I have a gallon bag of black beans in the freezer, mainly because I cooked them, then realized I didn't have any ziploc baggies in less than a gallon.

Sigh.

So. Defrost your beans, about a quart's worth depending on the number of people you are feeding, obviously. Or 2 cans.

Saute some onion bits. Add 1 tsp garlic powder or 4-5 cloves fresh and 1Tbs taco seasoning. Splash in some worcestershire sauce and just a drop or 2 of liquid smoke, if you have it.

Toss in beans and a little water with a chicken bouillon cube or 1 tsp of chicken(or veggie) Better Than Bouillon. Pre-made broth works well too. By a little I mean maybe 1/2 c. Add more if the beans suck it all up. You want the beans to be a little soupy.

Let them cook until heated through and broth is thick.

Meanwhile, check your chicken. If it is done, pull off top foil and put back in oven a few minutes to brown the top just a touch.

Assemble other ingredients on the table.

Cut chicken into pieces and transfer it, and onions onto a plate. Feel free to shred chicken, that works too. I cut mine into large slices and let the creators decide how they wanted to further alter it for their burrito.

To create burrito, layer chicken, beans, veggies, sour cream and salsa. Wrap and enjoy.

As you can see, my son opted for beans on the side and no onions or salsa.

What a bum.

Banana Butterscotch Streusel Muffins

You know those bananas you bought last week, 'cause you were craving bananas? You bought a bunch because it feels weird to buy just one or two, right? And then you ate only one or two and the rest just sat... and sat...and sat...

and now....

They are perfect for banana bread!

But wait! Banana bread so Boooooorrrriiinnnngggg. Snore.

What's that? You have other random baking stuffs in your pantry?

OOOOHHHHHH!

Well then, let's snazz up banana bread, shall we?

Stop licking the screen. You don't know where it's been.

No seriously. Stop.

So, how abouts we do butterscotch banana bread, maybe even with some coconut thrown in?

Yeah, see that's what I thought!

Let's start with those poor pathetic bananas.

They need a little squishing. But, I'm lazy, as we have found throughout our cooking journey together. I let my kitchen aid mixer do the work.

Generally, you should cream the butter and sugar together first, but, I got carried away. Toss the bananas in a bowl, peeled of course.

Now laugh. 'Cause they look like light yellow poop.

See?

Ok. now throw in 1/2 stick of butter and 3/4 c sugar.

Mix to get all mooshy. Don't worry, it'll be liquidy.

While it's doing its thing (if you are using a stand mixer), measure out 2 cups of flour, 3/4 teas baking powder and 1/2 teas salt. Mix together with a fork.

Add 2 eggs to butter-sugar-banana mix as well as 1/3c sour cream and a splash of vanilla, rum or almond extract. Any of the extracts are good, but each brings a different flavor. Coconut extract is yummy too.

Once it is all mixed well, add flour mixture and blend well.

Now add butterscotch chips and coconut if you so wish. I added coconut later, not to the mix, because I have non-coconut lovers in my house.

I know. Shameful.

Anyway. Grab out your muffin tins. These make roughly a dozen small or 6 texas muffin sized muffins. Spray them down with some sort of lubrication. Pam, butter, or whatever is in your misto bottle is fine.

Fill your cups almost to the top, a little more than 3/4 full to get that store-bought muffin top. If you want, sprinkle some coconut in the bottom of some of the cups before adding batter and a little to the top after, to mark which ones you did that to. This is how I got coconut into select muffins for my split house.

Pre-streusel topping.

Ok. Now. Before you put it in the oven, mix 2 Tbs butter, 1/4c oats, 1/4c brown sugar and if you have them, a few sliced almonds or pecan bits.

Note. Almonds are a superfood, so this addition makes the muffins healthy. :-P

Spoon topping over the top mounding it slightly.

Toss the pans in the oven for maybe like... mmmmm... 15-20 mins.

Go play on Pinterest or in my case, start dinner while they were cooking.


When the buzzer reminds you that there is something in the oven, remove them and let them sit until you can touch them and not receive 2nd degree burns.

Enjoy your caramelly, butterscotchy, banana-y goodness.

MMMMMMM.

Creamy Coleslaw

Among the summer yummies that we think of is, of course, coleslaw. Imagine KFC style coleslaw or better yet, your favorite BBQ place's slaw. Creamy and melt in your mouth good right? Well, if veggies could melt.

This one is it's match, let me tell you.

And so simple.

Sigh.

So simple.

I promise you will not be able to resist taste testing... multiple times. This ended up being my dinner before dinner. 

And then half the bowl is gone, and you remember you had the family to share with... oops.

Oh, well. Make some more.

So we start with a head of cabbage. One small whole head will feed a bunch of people. Medium for a family reunion. Large for a family reunion plus all the in-laws.

Shred the cabbage however you feel is easiest. I used my handy dandy Cuisinart food processor with the shredding plate for mine. Made it nice and fine, kinda like you'd get at a restaurant. A plain old hand held grater works too, or cut it by hand.

While your shredding, grab an apple, zucchini, 2 carrots, 1/4 onion sliced, and if you are feeling adventurous, some red cabbage or radicchio.

Now for the magic. The sauce.

Ready for it?

Ready?

Mayo, sugar, apple cider vinegar, and a pinch of salt.

Yes, that's it. 

Told you it was simple.

Actually the magic is in the apple and zucchini you put in the salad. A little sweet, a little soft, makes it all the yummier. 

Mix all your ingredients together.

That's it.

No seriously.

Chill it 'till your ready to serve... and to keep from eating the whole thing!

Mom's Famous Potato Salad

This is Mom. Mom and Granny have taught my sister and I well when it comes to cooking. 

Remember those home-ec cooking classes you had to take in middle school? Ya, my sis and I rocked those classes. And we of course owe it all to the 2 amazing women that raised us. Granny has forgone cooking unless it is her famous pumpkin and pecan pies at xmas and on occasion cookies and cake. 

Sometimes biscuits. 

Mom still forges on, always coming up with new alterations to recipes she has tried. This one, however, is an original.

SHHHHHH. Family secret here.

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

GO take the computer into the closet to view this most secret recipe k? Cause once you try it and if the restaurants see it, they will forgo that nasty stor bought crap and go to this. AND then it won't be a SECRET anymore. 

Wait what?

Everyone can see the internet?

Seriously?

No, for real?

Well Shit. Fine. You can leave the closet then. 

So for this yummy-ness, you will need potatoes. 

DOH!

Any type will do. I am cheap today so it's good all russets for me.

Oh! Eggs! You need to start a pan of water and eggs to boilin' 'cause eggs are yummy in potato salad. I use about 2-3 per 5 mid-size potatoes. See above for my idea of mid-size.

Wash all the dirt off of your taters. If you are against skin, then by all means peel. As I said, I'm lazy. That and skin has all the nutrients, so it gets left on.

Chop potatoes into chunks. 

If you are confused about how to get them more or less the same size, I'll post a how-to later. New page and all with how-to basic stuff for those new to cooking. Even size is important so the cook evenly and you don't have half mashed half chunks. 

EWWWWWW.

Drop your chunks into water. 

In a pot. 

'Cause you have to cook them. 

Let them boil until just barely fork tender. This means you use a fork and stick it into the potato. If it goes in easily, fork tender. Get it? 

Good.

While they are getting boily, chop some onion into bits. You can also add green pepper and celery chopped into bits if'n you want. I dislike crunchy stuff in my potato salad so I refrain. 

Also, if you have some sweet pickles, chop those up too. I happened to have some of mom's famous 14-day pickles made the old-fashioned way in a big ceramic crock. So I chunked those up and mmmmmm. They are like candied pickles. So yummy.

If you have only sweet relish, that's fine too. A couple of tablespoons should be enough.

Dump all of the above into a bowl and set aside until the taters and eggs are ready.

Now for the sauce. The all important, bring it all together ingredient in every salad. And my specialty. 

Sauces. Sauces are my specialty.

Grab out the mayo, apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt/pepper and if'n you like, some dill. 

For the 5 said mid-sized potatoes and other stuff, you will want about 1c of sauce. 

This is the hard part, because I don't actually measure any of the sauce ingredients, I just dump in what looks right, so, by all means, adjust for your taste. 

Mayo type will alter taste too. I use Miracle Whip's Olive Oil Mayo. It is slightly tangy but not like regular Miracle Whip and is creamy like real mayo.

SOOOOO.... For my mayo...and for real mayo too...

1/2 c mayo

3 T apple cider vinegar

2t sugar

pinch of salt and pepper

pinch of dill.

That's it. Whisk or mix with fork until smooth. Taste. Make sure that it is a good balance of acid and sweet and salt. In other words, your taste buds should sing and you should want to continue eating the sauce by spoonfuls. Yes, it is THAT important.

If you are using regular Miracle Whip, reduce amount of sugar to 1t or add a little sour cream (1 or 2 Tbs) to the mix to make it the right flavors. 

By now your eggs and taters should be done. Drain and rinse taters in cold water. I let them sit with the sprayer on them while I play with the eggs. Drain and cool off eggs with cold water. If you add ice to the water, it shocks them and they peel super easy. 

Chop eggs into bowl.

Add potatoes. 

DO NOT MIX YET!

This is important. The potatoes are in that delicate, if-you-screw-with-them-too-much-they-will-fall-apart stage. We want to mess with them only once, with exception of taste testing... 

repeatedly.

Dump sauce on top, and with a giant spoon, gently mix by bringing the bottom yumminess to the top in an up-and-over motion. Do this on all sides of the bowl until it is mixed evenly-ish. It will never be perfect, but will be darn close. 

And TADA! Potato salad. 

Be warned. It is addicting. You can't get enough. 

And it may not ever make it to the dinner table.

Mine was half gone within about an hour of making it and setting in the fridge. 

Damn gnomes. 

Download Recipe Card Here

Apple Crisp

We went on a trip to Olympia to the only reasonably close orchard that was supposed to be a U-pick place. It wasn't. But the trip was fun anyway and we got a snot-load of apples for super cheap. AND the BEST apple cider I have ever tasted. Holy bananas was it good.

Hang on. Something is bouncing at the bottom of my screen and driving me nuts.

Ok. Back. Why the email needs my password every time it sends something, I don't know.

Olympia is gorgeous in the fall. But then the PNW is in general.

Anyway, we had a snot load of apples to deal with. What to do, what to do.

Apple pie, baked apples, apple bread, apple muffins, applesauce, applebutter, apple...crisp. Oooooh apple crisp. 

We ended up making applesauce too, but apple crisp was a start.

I decided to entice you first. *enter evil laugh here* Mwahahahahaha. 

Slice a bunch of apples. 

I dunno. A few. I think I did 3 of those monsters at the top. 

Put them in a deep dish GLASS pie pan or a 9x9 baking dish.

Cut up 2 tbs of butter into cubes, more or less. Or just pinch it into bits. That works too. Put on top of apples here and there.

Cover in 1/4c brown sugar, 2 Tbs cinnamon, 2 Tbs white sugar

The picture is actually from the applesauce but it shows what it needs to.

Cover with buttered foil...

Yes, butter the foil. Or spray with cooking spray. It keeps the foil from sticking to the sugars.

Trust me on this. This is one of the best tricks in the book.

Cook at 250 for 20-30 mins.

Meanwhile, get out your oats. 

Pour 1 c of oats in a bowl. Cut up another 2 Tbs of butter. Throw in 1 Tbs cinnamon and 1/4 c of brown sugar. 

Use a fork to squish together. 

Stop eating it. 

I said stop.

There won't be enough for the top!

Ok fine. Make some more if you must.

When apples are all happy...

Happy=tender but not squishy

When they are happy, pull out and cover with oat mixture, if there is any left.

Pop back in oven for a few minutes and let the oats get brownish. 

Don't let it cool! Dish it out now and eat while warm. I like mine with a touch of cream or vanilla ice cream... oooh then the ice cream gets all melty with the heat of the apples and it becomes one creamy, caramelly, cinnamony, gooey yummy mess. MMMMMM