Recipe Review from 6/21/08

Is it possible for a Monday to start on a Sunday? I think it is...BOTH my dogs got nailed by a skunk Sunday night at 8:30p. Oh, did it stink! I had some Nature’s Miracle Skunk stuff on hand, but I’m fairly certain this jug was at least 4 years old and not as potent anymore. Poor pups were confined to the kitchen hallway for the duration of the night and morning. If the mosquitos hadn’t been so horrible I might have put them in their outside kennel, but the ‘squito’s are absolutely awful and I couldn’t subject the hounds to that.

While I gather the ingredients for de-stinking my dogs, here’s some recipes from last week:




BBQ Baked Beans and Sausage (Eating Well, July/Aug 08, pg 30) 4.0
We really liked this recipe. Lightly saute kielbasa or sausage of choice. I used a turkey kielbasa. Remove and set aside. Onions and Swiss chard (substitute for collard greens) are sauteed until lightly wilted. Toss in a can of white beans and barbeque sauce that’s been augmented with tomato paste and seasonings. Bring to temp and add back in the sausage. This was tangy, sweet and filling. I didn’t add anything as a side as it was plenty for us for the meal.

Citrus Berry Smoothie (Eating Well, July/Aug 08, pg 54) 4.0
A mixture of berries, orange juice, plain yogurt, powdered milk, toasted wheat germ, honey and a splash of vanilla are blended together for a really tasty drink. I like my smoothies a bit thicker than what this makes, so I added a frozen banana. The husband likes his on the thinner side. Recipe said this makes one smoothie - I thought it made two nice sized ones, especially after adding a banana. Nice thing about this recipe is it is easily adaptable to what you like.

Mexican Pulled Pork (Cooks Illustrated, May/June 08, pg 13) 4.5
The Husband helped me make this one: a cubed pork butt roast is slowly baked in a Dutch oven in a mixture of onion, orange slides, orange juice, water, bay leaves and salt and pepper. Recipe called for two hours, but mine was nicely done after one and a half. Pork is removed from the liquid and shredded. The onion, bay leaves and orange halves are removed and the liquid is reduced to a thick glaze.

This is where we ran into problems. We had A LOT of liquid. I did some serious boiling down on the stove and even then transferred it to a different pot to finish the glaze. The glaze is then tossed with the shredded mixture (which the Husband did a great job of pulling all the fat out of) and briefly boiled to obtain a lovely caramelized texture and color.

Good? Oh yes. We got 3 meals out of this, and the leftovers were just as good if not better.




[Multi grain] Waffles (Ckng Lght Ann 01, pg 135) 4.0
We wanted waffles on Sunday morning and forgot to wake Harold up the night before (for those of you who might just be tuning in, Harold is our sourdough starter). I did a quick perusal of my cookbooks and found this recipe. This was a keeper! Light, fluffy and full of wholesome goodness: regular white flour, whole wheat flour, wheat germ, ground flaxseed, eggs (I used whole eggs, not egg substitute as called for), milk, canola oil, and vanilla. I added blueberries on a whim. Yum yum! We’ll be making these again.