What To Cook....What To Cook!!!!

Headed to the freezer on Sunday to see what was in there....what did I have to cook?  My oven has been broken so I'm limited to stovetop meals!  That could be a dilemma with a family as large as mine!

Also, one of my biggest fears came true the other day, I put my hand in the sink to wash dishes and cut my hand open on a glass in the pile!!!  Maybe a couple of stitches should have been had, but I hate needles and stitches (coming from a woman that has had 8 kids) so butterfly band aid to the rescue!

Cooking the next day was difficult, I needed that hand!  So my entire meal was planned around a cut hand and no oven......

Now back to what's in the freezer??  I found some pork....a loin and some other cuts that I bought from Costco, didn't look very familiar to me, but edible, and that's all I wanted.  BINGO there were a couple of bags of small creamer potatoes and an eggplant...and wow, just WOW, there were some still edible summer squashes in there...again BINGO!  and BAM!!!  I had dinner....

So this is how it all happened....I browned my pork pieces in a hot pan with some olive oil and butter along with some sautéed onions, garlic, and bell peppers....got them pretty brown then set them aside to get them all ready for the stock pot full of wonderful liquids.  I started again with more olive oil and butter, then some more onions, garlic and bell peppers, added some lemon zest (with the amount of pork I had I used three large lemons, zested them and then juiced them)  I love the flavor that lemon adds to your food, it brightens it all up and adds some additional flavor that you truly don't expect.  Then I added a decent amount of white wine. I let all of that cook down then added back in my pork.  I did put a good bit of water in there to make sure I had enough liquid for the pork to get nice and tender.  This ends up making a great pork stock too.

Now onto the eggplant and squash, all I did for this was cut up my veggies into similar sizes...this is to ensure one does not cook faster than the other, then I sautéed them up in...YES you guessed it!  More olive oil, along with more garlic and more onions, added some salt and pepper to taste, and yes a bit more lemon...I don't know if you can tell, but I like lemon.  And there you go...not hard at all, and as yummy as it comes!

Now for the incredibly difficult mashed potato recipe ...I always use either small creamer potatoes or small yukon gold potatoes, and I always leave the skin on, it has some nutrients and a ton of good for you fiber, boil the daylights out of them, (giggle), ok not the daylights, but boil them in salted water until you can easily slide a fork into them, then drain them, but leave just a tiny bit of water in the bottom maybe about 1/2 inch, this helps make a smoother and creamier mashed potato.  Now I add sour cream, to taste, salt, pepper and tons of butter, let all of that melt together then hit it up with either a traditional potato masher or a mixer, whatever is your preference!  Now you've got amazing mashies that I promise no one will turn down.

Put this all together with a very simple butter lettuce salad with some walnuts and an equally simple olive oil and lemon dressing and you've got what appears to be the most gourmet dinner you've every cooked!!! And best of all it's very pretty on a plate!

Happy Dining!!!

  

Do NOT Fear Food: Beer Braised Pot Roast/Wilted Greens/and Carameliz...

Do NOT Fear Food: Beer Braised Pot Roast/Wilted Greens/and Carameliz...: Yummy Yummy Yummy!!! Beer braised pot roast..so very simple!  Brown your pot roast, any kind you would like, but I prefer one with som...

Beer Braised Pot Roast/Wilted Greens/and Caramelized Onions

Yummy Yummy Yummy!!!

Beer braised pot roast..so very simple!  Brown your pot roast, any kind you would like, but I prefer one with some marbling to it, and by that I mean FAT!  Makes for a better meat, and it falls apart in the beer.  After browning your roast, make sure you season it up a LOT...beef has a tendency to not pick up a lot of flavor.  Then all I do is roughly cut up an onion and throw it on in there with that meat and let them cook up together like an old married couple!  Long and slow!!!  Until it all falls apart...maybe 3-4 hours depending on the size of your roast!

Now comes my personal favorite, the caramelized onions....thank goodness for spell check or you would have had something more than caramelized onions!!  Just cut up some sweet onions very thin, and throw them in some butter and olive oil (or in Rachel's terms EVOO) and let those guys just cook and cook and cook until they are beautifully browned and ready to eat!  I usually add some parsley since I love the freshness of it all, but if you have an aversion to parsley then leave it out, all up to you!  Remember this is all about TRY it out and see what happens! 

Not a very good picture of my onions, but when all you have is steam coming up from that hot pan, then what can you expect???

My next step is so simple it's almost ridiculous....buy some greens, like spring greens, or kale, or baby spinach or just something all mixed up and through it on your plate...this is where the wilting comes in...the hot juices and the hot meat and the hot onions WILT those greens and waaa-laaa you've got something that sounds so gourmet your friends will envy you....WILTED GREENS!!!  Sounds impressive right?  It isn't  :)

There they are....hard right?

Now put it all together on a plate, and serve this up with a great wine, and you've got what most people think you slaved over for hours and hours...make sure to spray your face with some water, and heat it up over the steam so it looks like you've worked your buns off to do this for them....

I usually pair it up with some veggies...in this case, some steamed corn and edamame all dancing together in one big pot.

Isn't that pretty?  and OMG is it yummy....lip smackin' good!!!  Don't forget the sweat, you really don't want anyone to know that you were doing your nails all while this was cooking!

Have fun and remember DO NOT FEAR THE FOOD!