Caramel Pork Ribs and Scalloped Potatoes with Blue Cheese and Roasted Garlic

I made my husband very happy. He said, "this is the best meal we've had in a long time!" That's a compliment, not an insult to the other things I've been cooking. I knew what he meant :)

 

I received two cookbooks for Christmas. This recipe is from my boyfriend's, I mean David Lebovitz. He never fails me.

 

The recipes both take longer than average so it was perfect for one of my winter break days. Or maybe a lazy Sunday in the future. The caramel pork ribs start with a nice carmelized sugar, and then a quick douse in beer and bourbon. Mmmmmm. Throw in a few more ingredients and the ribs and then slow roasted for 2+ hours.

 

I was worried, even though the recipe said to expect this, when the sugar seized up and hardened with the addition of the beer. It ended up fine, of course, just like my boyfriend said. Our house smelled delicious. Who needs bottled BBQ sauce?!

The scalloped potatoes start with some roasted garlic, so that needed to smell up the house for 45 minutes. And then some cream, some mandolined potatoes, and all that layered with chives and crumbled blue cheese. Baked in the oven for a bit more than an hour, alongside the ribs.

 

 

 

 

 

P.S. to my friend Katy. I used Rush River beer. I didn't know which kind of beer DL meant in his recipe so I chose a beer that I wouldn't mind drinking after I used just 3/4 cup of a bottle :) IPA it was and I got to support my Bakko brewers!

 

Here's the top picture again but with no filters. I take the quickest pictures at our dinner table even though I know I should take pictures with better light. I hate to ruin the dinner mood and brighten up the whole joint. I also get embarassed that I take food pictures sometimes. I think Jim knows me by now though :)

 

 

 

We couldn't get over the sauces, on both foods. The sweet caramel with a hint of ginger. Mmmmmmm. And the blue cheese creamy goodness!

 

I think my little sis would say this entire dinner was "slap yo momma" good. I know I should have included a vegetable too but it was a busy day here with three 8 year olds running around (play date) and then with all the extra steps with two new recipes.

 

My little sis also provided the wine for this meal. I looked up BBQ ribs and wine and Google suggested a syrah. Yup, had that! Wine is good food. I felt so grown up today.

 

 

 

Click here for the stolen recipe for David Lebovitz's Caramel Pork Ribs. This blog has awesome pictures of the caramelized sugar, the beer addition, etc.

 

Click here for the stolen recipe for David Lebovitz's Scalloped Potatoes with Blue Cheese and Roasted Garlic.

 

 

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Crockpot Asian Pork with Mushrooms

Good job, Self, for planning a crockpot meal on my first day back to work. Better yet my wonderful husband did all the prep work in the morning and it was cooking away when I got home! Nothing is better than coming home and smelling dinner prepping!

 

Well, okay, it gets better when your husband remembers there is a bottle of wine in the fridge and he pours you a glass. Ahhhhhh!

 

I've made this recipe once before but I guess I did not blog it.

We used a pork tenderloin instead of a roast. No reason, it's just what I bought at Costco. I think it should not cook for the entire 8 hours then, and my husband wisely saw this and set it to warm early. He seared up the pork this morning, mixed up the spices and ingredients and let it bubble.

There's a sweet spiciness to this, with a bit of ginger. I didn't ask if he added more ginger than the recipe states (I usually do to any recipe) but I think he did.

So delicious flavors, easy to make, and even better if someone else cooks it!

P.s. The recipe states that you can prep this the night before, searing and all, and then just turn it on in the morning! See recipe directions.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Crock Pot Asian Pork with Mushrooms.

 

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Crab Cakes with Ginger and Lime, with Triple Pork Fried Rice

The rice is from yesterday's meal but I was happy to have it to round out tonight's meal. My husband is crazy for anything ginger so I immediately bookmarked (or pinned) the crab cake recipe when I saw it.

Crab cakes are kind of indulgent for my summer budget and then I had to have a nice wine to with it, so this meal was an unexpected yayyyyyy! (Rosè wine not pictured.)

 

Yesterday I posted this pretty picture to Instagram and titled it "Bacon is pretty."

It was a lot of bacon but my husband digs it. He actually is drawn to the smell of bacon cooking...he comes into the kitchen to nibble it and I usually scold him.

The Triple Fried Rice called for bacon, ham, and chopped pork chops. I had canadian bacon so I called that close enough to ham.

The finished fried rice. Everything was cooked in small amounts of bacon grease. Yum.

 

I also posted this picture of the dirty dishes. I watched an interesting video yesterday about the lost art of cooking. So many Americans don't take the time to cook and instead rely on easy, processed foods. The average amount of cook time is 15-20 minutes, mainly to boil water or reheat proceeded food. That uses about a pot and very few other dishes, so the average time for dish washing is four minutes.

I'm kinda proud to tell you that my husband spends about 15 minutes doing the many dishes that I dirty- cutting boards, prep bowls, food processor parts, multiple pots and pans, etc.

Poor Jim!

 

I mixed the lump crab meat, cilantro, grated ginger, panko breadcrumbs, lime zest, green onions, mayo, and hot sauce about an hour before I wanted to sauté them.

 

I showed my son that these are made just like his beloved chicken sandwiches- dipping in flour, egg, and panko, but with crab. No go. He tried a bite and liked the crunch but not the crab. More for us?

One or two minutes per side in a bit of olive oil and butter and they were done!

We really enjoyed these. I could probably add a bit more ginger and hot sauce to kick these up a notch in flavor.

 

Click here for the stolen recipe for Crab Cakes with Ginger and Lime.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Triple Pork Fried Rice.

 

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Repeat- Pork Medallions in Mustard Tarragon Sauce

I made a few improvements since the last time I made this.

 

My searing technique was much improved- the pork had a lovely brown sear and stayed very moist.

I whisked the heavy cream with the mustard so that it was thickened slightly when I added it to the leeks, wine, and broth. The sauce was much smoother and thicker than last time.

I used fresh tarragon instead of dried.

And this was served over mashed potatoes instead of roasted potatoes on the side.

"Better than a restaurant," said the hubby.

 

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Pork Medallions with Tarragon Mustard Sauce

This dish was inspired by a dinner I had in Paris. That meal was divine.

My dish was great! I really liked the whole grain mustard texture. It was tangy, and savory, and the tenderloin was melt in your mouth!

 

To make it kid friendly I added simple roasted potatoes and steamed green beans. My James loves his beans! (He even saved one bean, asking if we can plant it for a magic beanstalk!)

This was my Paris plate. The inspiration.

 

My sauce ended up a bit thinner but just as flavorful. A pretty good attempt!

 

I feel like Pioneer Woman with the next few action shots! The pork tenderloin searing in butter and oil...

 

The leeks and garlic getting happy in wine and broth...

 

The meal was so successful that my husband cleaned his plate!

 

I found the recipe online, after a simple google search of "French mustard seed pork". I love google! I think the recipe was pretty darn close. I think I would tweak it to make the sauce a bit creamier, but really it was good as is.

It was French night for sure, I even bought a bottle of Cotes du Rhone wine, but it sure didn't cost me 3 euros!

 

Click here for the stolen recipe for Pork Medallions with Tarragon Mustard Sauce.

 

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Slow Smoked Spareribs with Sweet-and-Sour BBQ Sauce

My husband is loving his grill.  I am loving that he is liking to help with dinners!

He followed a recipe in his Weber's Way to Grill book but he used a different technique than slow smoking.  He followed the directions for "stacking" the ribs, which took about 2 hours less time.

Lots going on with these ribs.  There was a dry rub.  There was a "mop" (like a baste?)   There was a BBQ sauce.  Good work, Jimmy!

We found this recipe in one of our grilling cookbooks but the recipe is online too-

Click here for the stolen recipe for Slow-Smoked Spareribs with Sweet-and-Sour Sauce.

Repeat for Lisa

 I was telling my teacher friend Lisa (Lisa T's rock!) that we were having these pulled pork sandwiches tonight for dinner.  I thought I'd make it easier for her to search for this recipe (:

Notes:  I didn't buy a full 6-8 lb roast.  I think mine was darn near 4 lbs.  I still used the full amount of spices.  Extra yumminess!  

Click here for the stolen recipe for Crockpot Pulled Pork.

Brown Sugar and Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin

Another crockpot recipe! Jim did make this one on his own. All of it. It turned out wonderfully! The glaze was awesome- sweet, flavorful, and a little sour from the balsamic? Again, I'm trying to remember details from too long ago (11/4).

Click here for the stolen recipe for Brown Sugar and Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin.

Soy Lime Pork Tenderloin

Easy easy meal. I followed this recipe and let our pork tenderloin marinate overnight. The marinade was just a matter of dumping a bunch of ingredients in a ziploc with the tenderloin. Done!

The rest of the meal was kid friendly. Our little boy has been under the weather and barely eating enough to keep a bird alive so I was pretty confident he'd eat his beloved macaroni shells and "little trees".

Anyway, back to the pork... It was extremely tender and delicious. I don't know if a lot of the flavors made it through the grilling but the blackened crust held on to a lot of the flavors and every so often a bite would be packed with lime or salty flavor. We agreed that we would make this again, with no changes.

Jim reported that the grilling was a breeze. 24 minutes total, turning the tenderloin a quarter turn every 6 minutes.

I did think about boiling the marinade left in the ziploc for a sauce. It's worth a try!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Soy Lime Pork Tenderloin.

Black Bean Soup

It's winter. It's soup time! This was the first of two soups for the weekend. We really enjoyed this soup. I've never used dried beans before, and it was well worth the extra effort.

I also love a soup with lots of garnishes- especially cilantro and avocado. YUM. And some corn tortillas. BONUS.

I had some HoneyBaked Ham in the freezer, so I chopped that up. I do admit that we used more than the 4 ounces the recipe calls for :) We love our ham.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Black Bean Soup. I found the recipe online but I really used my Best 30-Minute Recipe cookbook.

Buttermilk Broccoli and Carrot Slaw & Grilled Pork Chops with Rhubarb Honey Sauce

I cleaned out my refrigerator today and it felt good. I actually know what's in there! So I started to look for recipes that would make use of what I had. I bought bone-in pork chops yesterday that were on sale (buy one, get one free), but I had no idea how to make them. I used my trusty Google Reader to do a search for "pork chops" within my favorite cooking blogs. Sure enough, one of my blogger friends had recently grilled pork chops and the word "rhubarb" popped out at me! I was thrilled. We have so much rhubarb and to find a way to use it in something that is not baked or with lots of sugar- SCORE!

So I set to work on making the citrus mint brine that the recipe suggested. I didn't have orange pineapple juice but I did have orange juice and some pineapple tidbit cups. So I used 4 ounces orange juice and an entire pineapple cup with the juices and fruit. I figured the fruit would add a little extra something something. And lucky me that I had just frozen my fresh mint! It was only $1 for the entire bunch but I hated to waste it. I read one one of my other blogs about how to freeze herbs, and so I was trying it out. I didn't know it would only freeze for a day before I'd use it though.

So as the pork chops sat in the refrigerator, doing their thing, I made this coleslaw. I really just found a recipe for the basic idea of coleslaw. I had a head of broccoli that was beginning to wilt so it was perfect for a slaw. I really really loved this buttermilk dressing! (And wow, I actually had buttermilk in the fridge!) The little bit of cider vinegar was awesome. Who knew that coleslaw dressing is just buttermilk, mayo, apple cider vinegar, and salt and pepper?

Other refrigerator/pantry items that I used: chopped red onion, baby carrots (shredded), sliced almonds.



So I didn't really follow the recipe exactly. Smitten Kitchen didn't use carrots. She also added dried cranberries but I didn't have those.

Back to the chops- I made the rhubarb sauce ahead of time. It was easy enough but it took longer than I thought. It didn't demand constant attention, but I needed to stir it every 4-5 minutes for a total of like 20 minutes I think. I liked the sauce but I think I would take it easy on the cinnamon and allspice if there is a next time.

The porkchops cooking on my grill pan-



Dinner!


Jim and I liked the porkchops but we really liked the slaw. We had second helpings of it!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Broccoli Slaw.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Pork Chops with Rhubarb Honey Sauce.

Tangy Pork with Tomatillos, Tomatoes, and Cilantro

I LOVE this pork dish. My husband? Not so much. He thinks it's the cumin but he's grown to love cumin and spice, so I think maybe the tomatillos? Or maybe he's just so used to saying that he doesn't love it that he doesn't love it. I think that's it.

It's not at all spicy but it's kind of smoky and sweet at the same time. I just love tomatillos! I wonder if I can ever find any fresh ones at farmer's markets? Well anyway, this reminds me of a dish that my Mom used to make for us when we were young. I don't think her version had the cherry tomatoes, and I think it was spicy?

I found this recipe in a Cooking Light magazine waaaaaaay back. I found the recipe online, of course, because it's a great recipe.

Click here for the online recipe.

Crockpot pulled pork sandwiches

Updated to include a picture! We revisit this recipe often. This time my dear, wonderful husband made this recipe and it was waiting for me when I got home from a long day at work. The smell was wonderful when I walked through that door!

Now I didn't get a picture of the finished product but I remember taking this picture in November and thinking that even the spices look pretty! And they naturally just looked like a heart so I stopped to take the picture. And then I didn't take any more pictures. Oh well. (Never fear- there are great pictures on the blog site linked below!)

We've made this pulled pork recipe a few times now and we love it. It makes TONS and it freezes well. It's very easy to make, and ahead of time! That's the best- being organized and thinking things out ahead of time. I love when I'm organized like THAT.





Click here for the stolen recipe for Crockpot Pulled Pork.