Dijon and Dill Pork-splosion!!!

This was so easy to make and so good.  It started when I remembered that I've forgotten all about using fresh dill in my cooking.  I used to use dill to make a lemon-dill chicken recipe found here:

http://www.tasteandtellblog.com/cookbook-of-the-month-recipe-roast-dill-scented-chicken-with-leeks-and-potatoes/

When I tried to find the recipe I remembered originally getting it from the PBS show New Scandinavian Cooking with everyone's favorite host Andreas Viestad (kind of a cutie!)  I made the chicken recipe many times and it was always perfect and buttery.  You have to put the dill butter under the skin of the chicken, it's SOOO good!

So back to the pork.  What I made was a variation on a recipe I found here online:

http://www.angiesbigloveoffood.com/2011/09/mustard-dill-pork-tenderloin.html

The way I made it was with the butter added, like I used to do with the chicken.  I baked it with some veggies, here's what you need:

• generous amount of fresh dill
• pork tenderloin 
• lemon
• onion
• Adobo
• black pepper
• garlic powder
• dijon mustard, from the jar is what I used
• celery
• bok choy
• red potatoes
• BUTTER

So to get the pork ready I mixed together dijon mustard, butter and dill in a bowl.  Then I put some salt, pepper and garlic powder on the meat, followed by the delicious messy buttery dill and onion slices.  Set that aside and chop your veggies for the mix.  Here's the pork in the marinade mode, it was awesome!

Chop up the potatoes, celery, onion and bok choy and put some Adobo on there.  Then you add slices of lemon to the mix with dill.  Butter on top of the veggies too!  Put your pork pieces on last, over the veggies, cover and put this in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes.  Then uncover it and cook it until your potatoes are soft and the meat is cooked throughly.  Squeeze some more lemon over everything when you take it out of the oven.

The key is to use tons of lemon and dill and it turns out great...  mmm

I have to MEOW about this other gal's blog.  She's all about locally grown food and fancy Southern cuisine!  It's got professional grade recipes that you won't find here.  It's very inspiring.

http://www.angiesbigloveoffood.com/

Meow MEOWS Angie!!!

The First Snow and Snow Cones Project for Kids

I was so excited to see the first snow fall last week, I had to get my tablet and take a picture of it... don't have a regular camera for now, but this works for capturing the memory.  Here's a not so clear picture of the snow falling at night:

Here's what it looked like the next afternoon, the sun did her job melting most of it away:

So what does this have to do with cooking?  Absolutely nothing.  To make it have something to do with cooking I started researching snow cone recipes.  Of course most of them, pretty much all of them had something to do with high fructose corn syrup, so I searched for natural recipes.  I found one that looks like a lot of fun for kids, it has a whole kinda project that goes along with it.  Check it out:

http://www.superhealthykids.com/healthy-kids-recipes/all-natural-no-dye-rainbow-snow-cones.php

Frozen treats in winter... that's kinda weird but worth a try!

BBQ Meatloaf... Yep, That's Right

I unearthed a recipe that I had not yet shared with you, but turned out very yummy for BBQ meatloaf.  Why BBQ you ask- do you really make this on the grill?  No grill, although you could try it that way, it would be an interesting touch!  The reason it's made with BBQ sauce is simple, KETCHUP IS SICK!!!

OK, here's what you need for your meat:

• about 1/3 of a white onion
• 1/2 a green pepper
• 1 Idaho potato
• 1 little tomato (just because, remember no ketchup in this)
• basil
• oregano
• garlic powder
• Adobo seasoning
• Stone Mill Poultry Seasoning found at Aldi
• Trader Joe's Bold n Smoky KC BBQ Sauce
• hot sauce, whatever kind you like
• bread crumbs or crackers

As for the meat you choose, I guess meatloaf is usually pork and beef, I think.  I'm a believer for those who don't eat red meat, it's always ok to use ground turkey!  If I remember correctly I think we used a low fat ground beef, possibly ground sirloin, which is very low in fat.

You can begin by seasoning the meat with the powdered/dry ingredients.  For this recipe we used somewhere around a pound to a pound and a half of ground beef.  The dry ingredients for the meat are as follows: garlic, oregano, basil, poultry seasoning (good on beef too), and I know we must have put in some cracked black pepper.  The poultry seasoning contains salt so you're good there, as does hot and BBQ sauce and the crackers.  I don't like it when food accidentally becomes too salty when you don't consider all the salt in your ingredients.  Mush these into your meat and keep it refrigerated while you do the other stuff.

The other stuff you're going to do is to sauté the potato, green pepper and onion in a pan with Adobo added for a little bit of salt in veggie oil so the potatoes brown a bit- no raw potatoes here!  Of course these ingredients are roughly chopped.  At the very end of the sauté process add the chopped tomato in just to heat it up and get it going together for the flavors to do their thing.  You can add some herbs to this also.

Now the meat and veggies come together!  Your going to knead everything together with bread crumbs or crackers.  You also add in your BBQ sauce and some hot sauce to taste.  Then your creation goes into a loaf pan and then an oven around 350 until the internal temperature is 170.  During this process you can add BBQ sauce to the top of the loaf, of course in the place of ketchup.

You can do all kinds of things with meatloaf, there's a great restaurant near my house that serves a cajun meatloaf that is really good.  Here's a link to a page about some meatloaf tips:

http://homecooking.about.com/od/beef/a/meatloaftips.htm

Happy meatloafing and remember ketchup is EVIL!!!

Halloween's Coming... Bitchez B Bakin'

Ok, I'm not going to pretend that I came up with this recipe or that these cookies require any preparation other than separating them into squares (they're scored so you don't even have to measure the squares) and putting them on a cookie sheet!  I don't even eat cookies or cakes, this was my neighbor's doing!

Here's what you start with:

That's it- follow the directions on the package and you have instant Halloween fun!  Meow Meow BOO  There you go...

I also went on a little pre-trick or treat walk in the neighborhood because the weather was so warm and sunny today!  Oh, and of course I had to take a ride over to Trader Joe's to stock up and made a discovery with the help of an incredibly helpful TJ staff girl.  I told her that it's disappointing that TJ's Pesto doesn't have pine nuts in it!  Being a lover of pesto also, she said that is disappointing.  She recommended that I check the jarred TJ Pesto to see if it is possibly made with pine nuts. She was sure that its made differently because it's in a jar, not the fresh kind with a sell by date.  To both of our delight, the kind in the jar is in fact made with pine nuts and cashews as opposed to almonds like the other variety.  It was a good find!

Unrelated to cooking, but very festive, I'm going to share with you some photographic evidence of some spooky things to come in the neighborhood...

I thought the Tibetan Prayer Flags were an interesting touch.  Bitchez b crazy about Halloween too!!!

Kittenz B Hungry

Given the fact that the bitchez often "meow-appetite" we should not forget about the the kittenz!

This is my happy and apparently always hungry cat bitchin' to be fed... after eating some of my flowers- that's how he is.

Some days its tuna mixed with his regular cat chow, sometimes canned chicken.  Occasionally I give him nibbles of lunch meat.  It's the highlight of his day!

In thinking of my kitty, I decided to read up on how other people decide to make their own cat food.  I used to treat my cat to the canned cat food, but even the most expensive, claiming to be the healthiest, still looks like it's already been chewed or went all the way to the poop shoot!  All that gooey stuff in it makes me think of hoofs... I could go on and on.  Dog food looks even worse.

So this website I found has some pretty good tips on how to feed your cat a natural raw diet of meat:

http://www.catnutrition.org/foodmaking.html

Of course that cannot go without controversy from a cat food company namely Hill, makers of Science Diet.  You know, the food your cats love to hate!  Here's what they have to say about your cat eating raw meat:

http://www.hillspet.com/cat-care/homemade-cat-food-raises-concerns-adt.html

Insane to think that a feline would eat the meat of the animals they kill without cooking it!

Wait, it gets even better... this very cute and albeit amusing slide show claims that your cat  (ominous)  don don don ...will get addicted to canned tuna!  Really, this link is a must see for cat lovers:

http://pets.webmd.com/cats/ss/slideshow-foods-your-cat-should-never-eat

Almost as scary as people WebMD.  I really don't get too involved in my cat's diet, I just want him to be happy and I don't want him to be eating weird looking crap (aside from the kibbles).  Here's his current favorite dish, chicken with cat chow:

As Lidia says, "Tutti a Tavola a Mangiare!"  (loosly translated "kitties to the table to eat!")

Pesto Chicken... in a casserole of course!

I've realized that I make a lot of casseroles!  Not necessarily because I like my veggies mushy enough so I don't even have to chew- they don't come out that way all the time... I think sometimes it's just easy when you're cooking for friends to throw everything in a pan and walk away.  That gives you time to chat and drink I guess!

So this pesto chicken idea started with a package of pesto chicken pre-made from Trader Joe's- see I don't do all my shopping at Aldi.  The thing I realized about Trader Joe's pesto, this includes the pesto in the chicken and the pesto you can buy in a tub, TJ's pesto doesn't have pine nuts in it!  It's made with almonds, which is cheaper- why it's affordable, but it just isn't the same as when it does have pine nuts.  That's why you're going to add pine nuts to this dish!  Ironically, you're also going to add almonds.  Ok, here's what you need:

• The TJ's Pesto Chicken
• carrots
• spinach or green of your choice
• pine nuts
• slivered almonds
• extra pesto!

As simple as every casserole is, you're going to basically just dump all these ingredients in a pan.  There isn't a lot of extra pesto with the chicken when you buy it, that's why you need a little bit more to go on the veggies in here.  You could easily also include potatoes in this, or really any kind of veggies you happen to have at the time.  As for the nuts, the pine nuts are to help the pesto taste more like pesto, and the slivered almonds are for crunching!

You wanna put this in about a 375 degree oven for about 40 or 50 minutes.  The carrots won't turn to mush if you leave them in bigger chunks.  Uncover it at the end of the cook time.  Oh, did I mention to cover it when you put it in the oven?  This is very very pesto yummy!

Meow-appetite

Lidia's Italy- Pistachio Pesto mmm... Green

I was watching Lidia's Italy a few days ago and when I heard her talkin' about basil pistachio pesto, I had to write myself a note to look up her recipe online.  Here it is:

  http://lidiasitaly.com/recipes/detail/1074

I love pistachios ever since having pistachio ice cream at Christmas time in the Walnut Room in Marshall Field's with my grandmother.  Pesto is another green favorite of mine.  What could be better than the two of them together?  Lidia has so many traditional Italian recipes, I'm sure you could spend time getting ideas on her website!

Mad MAYO Recipies

It all started with my growing obsession with wasabi mayonnaise!  Which is so awesome and you can buy it already made that way, at Trader Joe's for example, or you can make your own.  All you do is mix wasabi powder with mayonnaise.  FYI, Whole Foods doesn't carry wasabi mayo- why I don't know!  At least the one by my house doesn't.  What other kinda mayo you cravin' today?

Sriracha Mayonnaise

Not as fancy or complicated as it sounds.  Here's what you need:

• mayo (I don't make my own from scratch and you don't have to unless you're into that!)
• sriracha chili OR any chili sauce, tabasco- whatever, it's gonna be ok
• lemon or lime juice
• soy sauce
• cilantro, optional and good!

There are some exact amounts to add to this, but I always prefer to use my instincts and taste and add more of what any recipe needs.  The basic way to start is with a few tablespoons of mayo to one tablespoon of chili or hot sauce- whatever you have chosen to fill that requirement.  I think this might be interesting with chili oil, the kind you get from Chinese restaurants, but I haven't tried that yet.  It could be oily and would definitely turn into a different kind of sauce!

For the juice, the recipe I use recommends a teaspoon if you start with three tablespoons of mayonnaise.        If you have it, add fresh cilantro- that makes it have that fancy restaurant taste. You can eat this with anything, but it really adds something special to Asian dishes.

Chipotle Mayonnaise

This is super yummy.  Here's the official start, but I have a short cut you can try too!

• mayo
• adobo sauce (don't confuse that with the seasoned salt stuff)
• one chipotle chili
• minced garlic
• dried oregano

If you start with half of a cup mayo, you'll add two teaspoons of adobo sauce.  Then add your chili, minced garlic to your liking, sprinkle salt as much or as little to taste.  The same is true for oregano.  This is so tasty, but if you wanna take a short cut, here it is!

• mayo
• Weber Seasonings Chipotle Powder
• chopped onion
• chopped celery

Ok, I know the celery and onion have nothing to do with the above recipe, but I like them.  Everything should be added to taste.  You'll enjoy this quick fix to chipotle mayo, it's very good and takes only minutes to whip up before a meal!

What do I eat with this stuff?

I already mentioned Asian dishes- the possibilities are open.  Of course they're going to work on sandwiches, sausages and burgers.  I ate chipotle mayo on Archer Farms Chimichangas from Target and it was the bomb!

I also saw a cooking show which featured Firecracker Tofu.  That's just deep fried tofu with hot sauce all over it, marinated overnight.  The mayo they used as a dip was made with green onion soy sauce and Louisiana Hot Sauce.  I'm sure that combo is good and I'm ready to try the tofu dish myself.

Meow-appetite 

Farmer's Market - food and flowers!

I usually buy my produce at small local groceries, but I happened to be in the Lincoln Park area and they have a farmer's market that is a lot of fun!  Mostly I just like to sample whatever their offering, especially cheeses.

It was a beautiful day to be outside and joy the remaining warn weather and sun while it lasts!

Did you see the BEE?

Annie's Mac 'n Cheese Baked!

To start with you will need Annie's macaroni and cheese, (you know, the bunny pasta) yes the good stuff in the box!  I got the mild flavored blue box kind.  Make the noodles, but only cook them for about 4 minutes and drain them.

Prepare the cheese sauce as instructed on the box, adding a little water to it so the noodles will finish cooking and the whole thing will be moist in the oven.

Put the noodles into a baking dish, or I used a loaf pan actually.  Pour the sauce over it and sprinkle on a shredded cheese blend or shredded cheddar.  As you're doing this add some bread crumbs too.

Now all that's left is maybe half an hour in a 350 degree oven.  My oven doesn't brown anything on top  unless you put it in the broiler, so that was my final step!  This makes already tasty box mac and cheese into something that resembles a macaroni and cheese bake from scratch.  The test kitchen does not recommend trying this with the Arthur inspired version as the little ant eater heads will become too mushy.

Meow-appetite!