The Birthday Boy's Bourbon Country Style Ribs

Tony loves meat.  I mean he really loves meat.  I think if he were pressed to answer,  pork would come first, beef second and then everything else just because. 

I knew for his birthday he would want some meat.  As luck would have it I found some very reasonably priced boneless country style ribs when I was shopping.  Lucky Tony!

I made the marinade the night before and added the meat to it in the morning.  Once we tasted it I realized this marinade would be perfect for just about any meat that is being grilled. 

Can't wait to try it on some pork chops and chicken thighs! And I think this long weekend is just the time to try!

Bourbon Marinaded Country Style Ribs

Ingredients

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 Tbs molasses
• 2/3 cup bourbon
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 4 cloves garlic
• 3 pounds country style pork ribs

Directions

1.   Combine brown sugar, molasses, bourbon, soy sauce, and garlic in a food processor or blender to mince garlic with other ingredients. Pour over ribs, and marinate for several hours in the refrigerator.
2. Preheat an outdoor grill for medium heat, and lightly oil grate.
3. Place ribs on grate, and cook ribs until cooked to your liking.  When finished, the internal temperature of the ribs should be 160 degrees F (70 degrees C) when taken with a meat thermometer.
   
   
   

 

Bacon and Egg Breakfast Cups

I am ALWAYS on the lookout for a quick, healthy and easy breakfast to feed the girls.  Our mornings are sometimes a little (lol!) hectic and having some thing made ahead or that is fast makes it oh so much better.  Usually they get these really tasty breakfast sandwiches but when I saw these on Kristen’s blog (Dine and Dish) I knew I would have to try them.

They were a real hit.  I ended up changing it and using bacon that I cooked up the night before because I didn’t have any ham.  The kiddo’s loved them.  Lauren will eat 2 of these at a sitting.  Easy to make a dozen and heat them up over the next couple of days…

Bacon and Egg Breakfast Cups (Dine and Dish)
Ingredients:

• 12 eggs
• 1 cup chopped cooked bacon
• 2 ounces shredded cheddar cheese
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. Spray a muffin pan generously with Pam cooking spray
3. Crack one egg into each hole of the muffin pan, using a fork to gently break the yolk.
4. Sprinkle each egg with bacon, salt, cracked black pepper and cheese.
5. Bake for 20 minutes.
6. Pop out of muffin tins and serve.

What We Ate with links and recipes…

So I posted a teaser the other day of all f the food that we ate over the Memorial Day weekend but right after that my computer developed a virus and it took me until Friday of last week to get everything figured back out.  I was so lucky and ended up not losing anything but some of the files are different and I had to reinstall some things.  Anyway as promised…

Starting from the upper right hand corner and going clock wise and finishing up in the middle:

  Tzatziki sauce – this is typically used with souvlaki and gyros but we used the leftovers all weekend sometimes even as a salad dressing!!!

 Greek Salad – Really simple dressing that is fresh and quick to make.

 Marinated Shrimp Salad – So simple and the best thing is you make it the night before and allow it to marinate all night.  Then just take it with you the day of the party.

Watermelon infused with watermelon Vodka:  Simply take a whole water melon and cut a hole in the skin just large enough for a funnel to fit in.  Do this about 12 hrs before serving.  Fill the funnel with watermelon vodka and allow the watermelon to absorb it.  Keep doing this until the desired amount is in the watermelon.  Chill and slice immediately before serving.  Place a cork in the whole for transporting to the party!

 Pork Souvlaki:  This is the souvlaki recipe that I got from my friend Peter over at Kalofagas.  It is the best I have ever tasted and made by me at home!

Bread – We bought it from our favorite German bakery and brushed it with garlic infused olive oil and grilled it…

 
Michelob Ultra – Yummmmmm!

Summer Berries with berry reduction and whipped cream (recipe to follow in a day or so)

Happy Summer!!!

Pork Roast in a Crockpot

Sounds simple huh?  And something that you should be able to find a recipe for easily right?  WRONG!  Almost all of the recipes that I came across when searching for a recipe were sweet.  One thing Tony hates is sweet pork.  Sadly I am sure the rest of us like it but just never get to eat it…

This recipe came from about 10 different sources that I put together.  I am claiming it as mine and it is delicious!  I may have over cooked it a bit this time but trust me on this the first time I made it perfectly!  I will be making this again and again!

I used a pork sirloin roast. The one in the mesh cotton bag. I am sure any one but the tenderloin would work, would be too dry.  The picture below is only one of the 2 pieces in the bag.

Pork Roast in a Crockpot

Peel some garlic and pierce the roast with as many holes as you have garlic and push the garlic into the holes. I do about 3 or 4 cloves in each piece of meat. (the garlic will be pushed out during cooking, see pic, but the flavor is still there)

Make a mixture of:

1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried sage
1/4 tsp rosemary
1 tsp lemon zest
dash of ground cloves

rub this all over the meat and place in the crockpot.

Add 1/2 cup of water around the side and cook on low for about 6 hrs.

Thicken the juice with some flour to make a gravy to serve with the egg noodles you will really want to have with this!!!

***As a rule we only eat “Happy Meat” but happy pork roast is hard to come by here.  I did break the rule on this one and used CAFO pork *hanging my head in shame* but my family really wanted pork…

Chili Verde for the Crockpot

It was cold yesterday.  At least by Southwest Florida standards.  I think we reached a high of about 60F for the whole day.  I’m not complaining.  I live for the cooler weather but I knew that I needed something to warm us up for dinner.  Knowing that we would be at The BMX Track after the sun went down was pretty motivating too!

I pulled out my trusty Crockpot and went to work. 

Chili Verde

6-8 Servings

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds of pork (this time I used pork steaks and cut them down to bite sized pieces.  Could use Pork Butt or Shoulder Roast)
• 3 Tbsp All-Purpose Flour (seasoned with a small bit of salt and pepper)
• 1/2 Cup water
• 1/2 Cup Tomatillo Salsa
• 2 Tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 medium onions, thinly sliced
• 1 (7 ounce) can of chopped green chiles, rinsed and drained.
• 1 small jar of pimientos (or 3/4 cup roasted red pepper strips)
• 1 (15 ounce) can of black beans, rinsed and drained

Directions:

• In a large bowl toss the pork with the seasoned flour until evenly coated.  Stir in the water , salsa, cumin, chili powder, oregano, garlic powder, salt, onions and 1/2 of the green chiles.  Mix well.
• Cover and cook on low heat for about 6 hours (or on high for about 3 or 4), or until pork is tender.  Stir twice if possible.
• Stir in the remaining green chiles, the red pepper strips and the black beans.  Cover again and cook on high 20-30 min. longer until heated through and bubbling again.

Will I make this again?  Definitely.  This will be a go to winter meal for us.  I wanted to try not browning the pork in this recipe and I am really pleased with how it turned out.  Truth be told I ran out of time and needed to get this on.  Worked to my advantage.  The meat was spoon cutting tender.  Everyone in the house loved it. 

Sausage Gravy and Biscuits

We are still in Pennsylvania visiting T's family until tomorrow. As we were sitting around the huge pan of lasagna last night our conversation once again turned to food. We started throwing out ideas for breakfast and someone mentioned sausage gravy and biscuits. My FIL's eyes went real big! This would be a huge hit in the morning. Funny thing is this is such a simple meal to make. Who knows why we don't have this more often!

Simple Biscuits (no idea where I got this from. I have been using it forever!)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1/3 cup shortening
• 1 cup milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Cut in the shortening until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Gradually stir in milk until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.
3. Turn out onto a floured surface, and knead 15 to 20 times. Pat or roll dough out to 1 inch thick. Cut biscuits with a large cutter or juice glass dipped in flour. Repeat until all dough is used. Brush off the excess flour, and place biscuits onto an ungreased baking sheet.
4. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges begin to brown.

Now onto the sausage gravy. This is T’s deal. For some reason he has always been the cooker of the gravy!

Sausage Gravy (T’s recipe)

Ingredients:

• 1-1.5# loose breakfast sausage
• Flour
• Milk
• salt & pepper to taste
• Fresh Sage

Directions:

1. Fry sausage on medium high until cooked through. Add flour (estimate same amount of flour to grease produced by sausage) reduce heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes.
2. Start adding milk a cup at a time stirring until thickened then add another cup of milk until after 10 minutes of cooking gravy is not getting thicker.
3. Season with salt, pepper and fresh sage.

Serve the sausage gravy over the fresh baked biscuits and enjoy. This is one of our favorite breakfast and is always requested by guests!

As Always…

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Tourtiere or French Canadian Pork Pie

The other day T. and I were running errands and talking about food and things that I haven’t made in a while. He mentioned Pork Pie. This has to be one of our favorite meals. Funny though, it’s been well over a year since i have made it. Don’t you hate when that happens???

This is one of those incredibly fast and simple meals that really comes together in no time at all.

I usually make my own pie crust but this time I was kind of tired so I used store bought. Should have made my own…it was just a little too sweet to go with the savory pie. Lesson learned!

Tourtiere (This recipe is from - Janet is Hungry)

Double 9" Pie Crust:
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup vegetable shortening and butter mixed
5-6 Tbsp cold water

Meat Filling:
1 1/2 lbs ground pork
1 onion, chopped fine
1/4 cup celery, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground summer savory
1/3 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp allspice
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup water
1 small potato, boiled and mashed
1 egg yolk
1 Tbsp milk

Directions:

1. Prepare pastry: Cut cold shortening into cubes. Place butter/shortening in food processor with flour and salt. Pulse a few times.
2. Dump flour mixture out into a bowl and start adding water a tbsp at a time until mixture forms a dough that will hold together. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
3. Make filling: In a non-stick skillet with a cover, cook pork, breaking up the larger chunks.
4. Add onion, celery, garlic and cook until the onions are tender.
5. Add salt, savory, pepper, allspice, bay leaf and water. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove lid and simmer 5 more minutes until most of the water is gone (it should still be quite moist).
6. Add mashed potato and remove bay leaf.
7. Roll out pastry (TIP: I roll my pastry out between two sheets of plastic wrap, when it is the right size, peel one sheet away and use the other to pick up the pastry and flip it over into the pie plate). Fill with meat mixture, cover with second half of pastry and seal edges. Cut a few vents in the top.
8. Brush top with a mixture of egg yolk and milk.
9. Bake at 425F for 30-40 minutes until golden brown.

Youngest daughter was in a skating recital over the weekend. She absolutely nailed it...clever little girl!

As Always…

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Wild Boar Sausage and Peppers!

Months ago I was lucky enough to get my hands on a whole case of organic green bell peppers. No way was I going to be able to use them all up so I froze them. Cleaned them, cut them in half and cleaned out the seeds and plopped them in freezer bags and froze them for later use. I am so glad I did this otherwise I may not have immediately thought of them when Jaden of Steamy Kitchen handed me 2 packs of wild boar sausage and some wild boar steaks!!! I have truly been blessed by Jaden's generosity! Wild boar (her hubby hunted), chicken, noodles, tomatoes, kefir lime leaves, jalapenos and the list goes on.

I got the wild boar when our families met up for the day at the Myakka River State Park. We were heading there anyway as the girls wanted to go fishing and it really is a cool place to go. The alligators are pretty much right beside you and it makes for some pretty exciting photographs...here is an awesome video that Jaden made of her boys first fishing trip with us! Anyway Jaden is about 30 minutes from the park so I suggested that they meet for some fun! Turned out to be a great day. The kids caught some tiny little fish and we went home with a bunch of wild boar!!!


Because of a freezer full of peppers I knew exactly what to do. Thaw out the Italian sausage and the peppers. I always have onions so that wasn't an issue.

I cooked up the sausage in a large skillet, with a small bit of olive oil to prevents sticking. I sliced up the peppers, onions and some garlic and added them to the pan. Seasoned with some garlic powder, salt and pepper. Sometimes we eat this in a bun as a sandwich but for this one we ate it just like it was and was it ever delicious! That wild boar sausage was seasoned perfectly. I cannot wait to try the brats...

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Some great food reruns!

Peter's Souvlaki Recipe on Pork!

One of my favorite things to do when we have people come to stay with us is to make them some of our favorite food. Everybody has one special thing that they LOVE for us to make.

My sister's is anything cooked in T.'s homemade red sauce with anything in it! Sometimes he will stuff a chicken and cook it in there and other times we will make goat cheese ravioli to go with it.

My Mom generally likes to have steak. She lives by herself and doesn't seem to get enough of red meat. We are defrosting some of our grass fed beef for dinner on Wednesday!

The other night though I once again I wanted something fast, easy, tried and true. Peter's Souvlaki recipe!!! Once again it was delicious and incredibly easy to make. Used restaurant bought tzatziki and some crusty bread and it would have been a meal in itself but this time I made a salad.

Doesn't that salad looks great? Pitted kalamata olives, tomatoes, lettuce, red onion and lots of feta cheese!

An incredible Greek salad. I made a simple dressing of lemon, oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and oregano. I was the perfect balance to a delicious meal!!!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Peter's Souvlaki Rocks!

Yummmmm...

I have always loved souvlaki. Growing up in Toronto we had many, many Greeks around us so we were able to get some really good stuff. Since moving here we have 3 Greek restaurants run by 2 different people. Not a whole lot of variety. At one I really like the Greek Salad but their tzatziki sucks. The other one's tzatziki is great but their Greek Salad is bad! And unfortunately their souvlaki is pretty flat. I like mine full of flavor so just imagine how happy I was when Peter of Kalofagas - Greek Food and Beyond, finally posted his Souvlaki recipe!!!

I had some trouble finding pork to do it with but I was finally able to get my hands on some good pork steaks (no hormones or antibiotics etc.). I marinated them all of Friday night and Saturday. T. could not wait to get into this! Can't hardly blame him. It was incredible. The best I have ever had. We had it with some nice crusty bread and tzatziki sauce (bought from the restaurant that has good stuff. I know it's easy but I had no time!).

Thanks again Peter!!! I wouldn't change a single in this recipe it was absolutely perfect!!!


Pork Souvlaki

1 boneless pork butt (shoulder)
1 medium onion, grated
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 heaping tsp. salt
1 heaping tsp. black pepper
1/4 vegetable oil
1 heaping tsp. dried Greek oregano
wooden skewers (soaked overnight)

1. Trim excess fat from your pork butt and cut into uniform pieces.
2. In a large bowl, add your remaining marinade ingredients along with the pork pieces and toss to mix and coat all the meat. Place in the fridge for at least 5 hours and for best results, overnight.
3. Place your wooden skewers in a shallow baking dish that's filled with water. Allow the wooden skewers to soak overnight (so they don't disintegrate when grilling).
4. The next day, a couple of hours before you are going to grill your souvlaki, allow the pork to come to room temperature and then start skewering your meat (it's easier when your meat's at room temperature).
5. Pre-heat your gas grill (or prepare your charcoal grill) and when you have a medium-high heat, grill your souvlakia for 3-4 minutes a side and then keep warm until all the souvlaki are cooked.
6. Squeeze fresh lemon juice on your souvlakia with a sprinkle of fine sea salt and dried Greek oregano.
7. Serve with some crusty bread and Tzatziki.

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

And then he smoked pork butt...

Don't be turned off by the blackness. That is the "bark" and is always fought over!!!

We returned from our 2 week vacation tired, road weary, badly needing some rest but that was just not to be. There were skating lessons to catch up on, karate lessons to make up, groceries to be bought and dinners to be cooked, laundry to be done (thanks sis...I didn't have that much), and bags to be unpacked. We still needed some rest.

T. came home Wednesday night with the big news that his office was have a company luncheon and that he was smoking pork butt. Now this is T.'s "almost famous smoked pork butt". He actually starts it the night before and lets it smoke ALL night long and then into the next day. Until now he has never given me the recipe that he uses for the rub on the pork shoulder, "butt" is just more fun to say!

So off we went to Costco and grabbed one of their mondo packages of *pork butt. They have 2 boneless in a package and we headed home.

*This does not fit into my ethics of only eating meat that is not factory farmed so I did not eat any of this myself. It is impossible here to get pork in large quantities that is not from the big guys out there. Had we had more time and money I could have ordered it but this was not to be! We have used wild boar for this and it is incredible.

Anyway about 12 hours before the rub get "rubbed" into the meat. The longer the better but 12 hours is good.

This was a lucky picture. Some of the "bark" was still in there. It was gone immediately after I took this picture. See how juicy the meat is?

Rub for Smoked Pork Butt

1/2 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup granulated garlic
1/4 cup paprika
2 Tbs cayenne pepper
1/8 cup fresh ground pepper
1/8 cup ground black pepper
1 Tbsp dried oregano
1 Tbsp granulated onion
2 tsp savory

This all gets "whizzed" together in the food processor to blend the ingredients. It is then applied to the pork and placed in the refrigerator for 12 or more hours.

Once this is done the smoking can begin. Now I am not a smoking aficionado. In fact I Never even see the whole process occur. Magically all of the wonderful meat appears before me ready to be pulled. So at this point I will refer you to here!. If you have any questions about it and would like more info you can email me for it and I am sure T. can help answer them.

Don't be afraid to try this if you have never smoked meat before. It is an easy procedure and can be done during the night with very minimal babysitting. It has always been a huge crowd pleaser and is often requested as a meal item!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Is it about the pork steak or the incredible, scrumptious, fresh, early season corn???

See that huge pork steak??? Hardly got touched...but that beautiful corn didn't stand a chance!!!

This post was suppose to be about the incredible pork steaks that I found in the grocery store. They were Publix Greenwise so they contained no antibiotics or hormones. I was pretty excited by them and rushed home and made up the marinade for them: Soy sauce, fresh ginger and minced garlic cloves. Super easy and delicious tasting.

As I said thought I was real excited about them, that is, until I tasted this CORN!!! I got this corn at my local farmer's market at Cape Harbor. We sort of bought it as an after thought when we were just leaving and figured the girls would love it. We did not buy nearly enough!!! This stuff was incredible. Probably the best corn I have had in years. I don't know anything about it but I do know that my MIL loves corn and seeing as we are going up there soon I am going to grab her a bunch and take it up to her!!!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com