Uncoventional Thanksgiving

Most people who celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday, did so with a roasted turkey and all the trimmings. Not this family. We had pulled pork and cole slaw sandwiches! Boy, were they D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S!

Side note: we celebrated our Turkey Day the week before, due to family being out of town. 🙂

http://genxfinance.com/crock-pot-bbq-pulled-pork-recipe-for-under-15-easy-and-frugal/ < awesome pulled pork recipe.

So I thought I would share the love with the recipes I used with the things I did different. 🙂

First, lets start of with the pork. I used a pork shoulder for my pulled pork. I thawed it the day before and seasoned it with Weber roasted garlic and herb seasoning. Honestly, you could use whatever seasoning and be fine, as the recipe from genxfinance states. Then, I  rolled it up in saran wrap and threw it in the frig overnight…

Things you need for pulled pork:

• 5-7 pound whole pork shoulder
• 1 medium to large onion
• A few cloves of garlic
• BBQ Rub Seasoning
• Liquid Smoke
• BBQ Sauce
• Salt and pepper

The next day, I pulled it out , unwrapped it, and tossed it in the crock pot. Ok, before I did that, I cut up my onion into 8ths. Tossed those in. Coarsely chopped up the garlic. Tossed that in. THEN put my piggy on top of that.

I added the liquid smoke, salt and pepper, and water to the crock pot last. Oh, and the liquid smoke I used was Colgin Liquid Smoke natural hickory, and I only used 2 tsp as opposed to the 1 TBSP the original recipe suggested. A little goes a long way when it comes to liquid smoke.

I set my crock pot on low for 7 1/2 hours. BOOM! done for the next 7 hours. 🙂

Flash forward to 7 1/2 hours later the pork is done and falling off the bone. I pulled it out and chopped into large chunks to be placed in my kitchen aid to be shredded. Yeah, betcha didn’t know that! You can shred chicken and pork in your kitchen aid mixer. Just use the all purpose paddle on a low-speed. While the pork is shredding I emptied out the contents of the crock pot and put the shredded meat back in, so I could add the final ingredient….. Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce. oh yeah! One whole bottle of sauce and mix it up good!

Ok, now for the awesome cole slaw for the sandwiches.

http://www.lindasyummies.com/cajun-slaw-by-ayesha/ < awesome slaw recipe.

I will say that, I have NEVER made cole slaw before, and yes, I KNOW it’s not hard, but, one: I am not a big fan of just regular slaw, and two: I didn’t want to screw up dinner with my inexperience of making slaw, so I was a little nervous.

Well, let me put your worries aside and tell you, it turned out AWESOME! I ate some right out of the bowl and my youngest ate some as a side on his plate.

Things you will need:

(note: I am listing ingredients I used, you can check the link above if you want to see what the original recipe used)

1 head of cabbage

1 red onion

2/3 c. mayo

1/2 c. sour cream

2 TBSP sugar

2 TBSP lemon juice ( bottled)

2 TBSP dill pickle juice( from your jar of pickles)

1 tsp Franks Hot Sauce

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Chop up cabbage and red onion into long thin slices. Mix cabbage and red onion in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whip the remaining ingredients with a wire whisk until smooth. Pour over the cabbage mixture and mix until well combined. Chill. serve, and enjoy!

After all is said and done, this is the masterpiece you are left with. Your welcome.

Oh, and HAPPY THANKSGIVING.

Canning Crazy!

I have been trying to round up as much as I can from the garden and canning like its no one business. Below, is a list of everything I have canned so far. Let me know if any look interesting or you would like to try and I will dig through my recipes and post for you. 🙂

These are only one jar of each item I have canned. Imagine each one with multiples….. 🙂

The List( in no particular order):

cinnamon rhubarb jam

caramel apple jam

strawberries and cream jam

honey lavender peaches

sweet cherry jam

spiced apple butter

rhubarb-beer jam

carrot cake jam

applesauce

butter spiced nectarines

black pepper-rosemary apples

spiced apple chutney

my way marinara

sweet Riesling radishes

sweet hot caramelized onions ( the only way Handy Husband likes his onions)

jellied cranberry sauce

apple butter

roasted garlic pizza sauce

dilly beans

lemon curd

blackberry honey thyme jam

Recipes: Strawberry Pizza

I haven’t gotten much done in the trailer lately, but I have been cooking up a few things in the kitchen. Canning season is just around the corner, and I have already canned a few things to put on the pantry shelf.

Tonight, I made strawberry pizza for dinner. I found the recipe in the sunday paper a few weeks back and it sounded interesting, so I thought I’d give it a try. I am adventurous….at times. The handy husband was sceptical…. all in all, I think it turned out pretty awesome and kudos to whoever submitted to the newspaper. 🙂

Strawberry Pizza

1/2 c. orange – ginger stir-fry sauce ( I used Kona Coast Polynesian Orange Teriyaki, found at my friendly neighborhood Walmart in the condiment section)

1 TBSP olive oil

1 TBSP strawberry jam

1 sliced and cooked chicken breast ( about  1lb)

3-4 oz of feta cheese ( original recipe calls for goat cheese, but I don’t do goat cheese)

1 cup of hulled and sliced strawberries

fresh oregano

unbaked pizza crust ( you can use store-bought or make your own)

I use my recipe for homemade crust and I sub the basil in the recipe for oregano>https://nwgreengirl.wordpress.com/2012/06/29/homemade-pizza-well-pizza-dough/

preheat oven to 450F. Mix together stir-fry sauce, jam, and oil. Set aside. Make the pizza dough. If not making pizza crust, proceed to next step….

Spread on stir-fry sauce. Top with chicken breast, cheese, and strawberries.

Bake for 10 -15 min or until crust is golden brown. Pull out of oven and season with fresh oregano.

now mow down! you’re welcome.

Garden Fresh Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins (almost)

So, the other day, I was really jonesing for some rhubarb after I went out in the garden and saw it starting to make its debut for spring. And what goes better with rhubarb, than STRAWBERRIES! Problem was, that spring is just starting and the so the rhubarb is just sprouting and the strawberries don’t even have flowers on them yet. 😦

Luckily, my freezer saved the day! I happen to find some frozen strawberries and rhubarb from last summer. I know, I know, it’s not fresh, but it’ll have to do…for now. At least it was rhubarb and strawberries from MY garden. 🙂

Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins

2 1/2 C. Flour                              1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder                   1/2 salt

1 1/4 C. packed brown sugar    1/2 C. vegetable oil

1 egg                                              1 tsp Vanilla extract

1 C. chopped rhubarb                1 C. chopped strawberries

1 C. butter milk *                        1 TBSP melted butter

1/3 C. Sugar                                 1 tsp ground cinnamon

* A lot of times I don’t have butter milk on hand so, try this:

put 1 TBSP of lemon juice or vinegar ( I like lemon juice though…) into a measuring cup. Then add milk until you reach one cup. Let this stand for about five minutes, and voila! instant buttermilk.

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Either grease two 12 cup muffin pans or line with paper cups ( your choice).

Get a medium bowl and stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt ( your dry ingredients).

In another bowl, beat the brown sugar, oil, egg, vanilla, and “buttermilk” until smooth( you can either do this by hand, or electric mixer. Might I say, electric mixer is much easier, but hey, to each his own)

Pour in the dry ingredients and mix by hand ( no choice here) just until blended. Stir in rhubarb and strawberries.

Spoon the batter into the prepared cups, filling about 2/3 the way full.

In a smaller bowl, stir together the melted butter, white sugar, and cinnamon ( should be kinda crumbly). Sprinkle about 1 tsp of this mixture on the top of each muffin.

Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes. cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing. This SHOULD make 24 muffins, but I only get between 20 to 18. What?! I like big muffins. Dont judge!

Enjoy!

My stash of 18 muffins in two days.

Recipes: Red Velvet Cookies

At the urging of a friend, I am posting these SUPER easy, SUPER yummy cookies. 😉

You’ll need:

1 box of red velvet cake mix
1 cup of flour
1 cup of butter = 2 sticks
1 egg
2 cups of white chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together in a bowl your butter and cake mix until soft and fluffy. Little bit at a time, add the flour into your mix of butter and cake. Once all the flour is combined into mix, add egg and mix completely. Now add in the white chocolate chips and mix well, so that they are uniform through out the mix. From dough into one inch balls. note: I like to use a little cookie dough scoop. Its kinda like an ice cream scoop but smaller and it gives you uniform dough balls. 🙂 Place in the oven for about 8 to 10 minutes. Should make about 24 cookies.

ENJOY!

dont blame the extra “winter insulation” on me. 😉

Recipes: Goldenrod

With the on set of fall, and the coming of winter, I start to crave some comfort food. Growing up, my mom used to make a real simple dish called “Goldenrod” and although it’s, I think, considered a “breakfast” food, it was probably one of my favorites for dinner.

So here is the recipe, and I hope, all enjoy! 🙂

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup flour

salt and pepper to taste

2 cups milk

4 slices of bread, toasted

4 hard-cooked eggs

pinch of paprika

Melt the butter in a sauce pan over med-high heat. Once melted whisk in the flour. Keep whisking for about 5 min. The flour/butter makes a paste like mixture.

Next, whisk in the milk, and bring to a simmer, whisking constantly. Reduce heat to a med-low and continue to cook for another 10 mins. Make sure to stir occasionally. 🙂 Then, season to taste with salt and pepper.

 

Separate your hard-cooked egg whites from yolks. Chop up egg whites and mix into the white sauce. Take your toasted bread and place on a plate. Layer the sauce on top of the toast and add a pinch of paprika. Get the egg yolks and crumble them up in another bowl ( I like using my hands). Take some crumbled egg yolks and sprinkle over the sauce and toast. Enjoy!

Canning: Dilly Beans

‘Tis the season for green beans here in the great northwest!

My bean plants have EXPLODED up my windmill, and this year I have decided to really give canning a try, since I know we are not going to be able to eat all those beans before they go.

 

 So I got my canning jars together, cleaned and sterilized.

I found a recipe for canning dilly beans or dilled beans. Since this is going to be the first time out the gate with this recipe I really don’t know what to expect….

here is the recipe I used:

4 cups of cider vinegar (5% acidity)

3 Tablespoons pure kosher salt

5 sprigs fresh dill (learned there is a difference between “sprigs” and “head”. if it calls for a head of dill, you want the WHOLE head of dill, if it calls for a sprig, you just use a single piece from the head)

5 cloves garlic

5 or 10 dried hot red chiles

2 lbs crisp green beans, ends trimmed about 4 1/2 inches long

To prepare for water bath canning wash jars and keep them hot in the canning pot.Put the flat lids in a bowl where hot water will be added  later on.

In a wide 6 to 8 quart pan, combine vinegar, 4 cups of water, and salt. You will bring to just a boil, stirring occasionally to dissolve salt. Ladle boiling water from the canning pot in the bowl with the lids.This will help warm up the “waxy rings” to help with a good seal. Using a jar lifter or tongs, lift jars out of canning pot, pouring hot water carefully back into the pot. Place them upright on a counter  I place towel underneath). Drain water off the jar lids.Try to work as quickly as possible and put a sprig of dill, a clove of garlic, 1 to 2 dried chiles into each jar. Pack the beans into the jars, making sure they are upright. Ladle the vinegar mixture into each of the jars. leaving 1/2 inch head space. Use a damp towel and wipe the edges clean, then put the flat lids  and rings on top of all the jars. You only tighten to about finger tight.

Return the jars to the water bath making sure at least 1 inch of water covers the tops of the jars. Bring to a simmer and process for 10 minutes. Remove jars and place back on the counter/towel and do not disturb for 12 hours. after about an hour check to see if the center of the tops are sucked down. If you can push it down and it pops back up, then it’s not sealed, place in the frig immediately. label and store.

Note: this recipe is supposed to make about 5 pint jars, I got about 4. Oh, and next batch I am going to try using distilled vinegar to see if there is a difference in taste…. 🙂

 

Adventurous Blueberry Pancakes

Good weekend to all!

Today we decided to take a trip up to the Washington peninsula, to a small town known as Sequim. Just so happens, this weekend is the lavender festival, and I (in all my 25 years living in WA) have never been to experience the purple flower ” goodness”. The weather was great, and by great, I mean it was over 60 (still cloudy) and not rainy, versus the 80 degrees and sun we got today in Tacoma.

(dont my kids look excited?)

After inhaling enough of the wonderful lavender to last us a year, we wandered over to the blueberries, grabbed up a bucket and started plucking away.

We had a little extra help picking blueberries….

…and we filled that bucket full.

Then I started thinking…..you know what would sound REALLY good tonight for dinner? Some pancakes….even better…BLUEBERRY pancakes. So we packed up our lavender and blueberries and made the trek back home. I mention the farm we visited? oops. sorry. They are called Graysmarsh Farms in Sequim WA. Very nice farm and nice people. You can visit them online at http://www.graysmarsh.com/, but its best to visit them in person. 😉

ok, ok, we are back home and I whipped up some homemade pancakes with blueberries. Here is the recipe, should you want to recreate this masterpiece. 😉

Cinnamon Blueberry Pancakes

Ingredients

3/4 cup milk

2 tablespoons white vinegar

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 cup of blueberries (you can always add more if you like)

1 egg

2 tablespoons butter, melted

cooking spray

Directions

1.      Combine milk with vinegar in a medium bowl and set aside for 5 minutes to “sour”.
2.      Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk egg and butter into “soured” milk. Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and whisk until lumps are gone. Add in blueberries and stir just until well mixed.
3.      Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and coat with cooking spray. Pour 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the skillet, and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip with a spatula, and cook until browned on the other side.

EAT UP!

What to do with my strawberries and rhubarb?

Up here in the great northwest we are coming to a close on the strawberry growing season. Makes me sad, really. 😦 Luckily, I collected up as many strawberries as I could (I had to contend with a three year old and a two year old sneaking berries off the plants when they could).

I stashed away my berries into the freezer, along with all the rhubarb from this year. Now it’s time to break out the canning jars, so I can savor the flavor all year long. I haven’t done canning in a few years, and to be quite honest, not very experienced at it. Quite recently though, I came acrossed this book, entitled “Canning For A New Generation”. I love it! So many of the recipes look and sound so yummy!

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=canning+for+a+new+generation

Two recipes I found include- rhubarb and strawberry spread and strawberry and lavender spread(sounds interesting, and just so happens, I grow lavender too). I think these will be two I will start off with in my canning adventure.

Pretty sure I will have more than enough rhubarb left over, and with that being said, I plan on making some rhubarb muffins, which the hubby LOVES. The recipe for the muffins will be posted shortly. 🙂

I would love to more ideas/recipes on using strawberries and rhubarb. 🙂

Homemade Pizza (well…. pizza dough)

Due to popular demand, I am posting my pizza dough recipe. I love making this for my family and they love eating it. =)

This dough is really easy to make and delicious! As far as toppings go I tend to throw on what ever is left in the frig. Great way to get rid of leftovers. =) If I have anything growing in the garden, I try to throw that on too.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup of bread flour, 1/4 tsp dried basil, 1/4 tsp garlic powder, 1 (.25 oz) pkg. active dry yeast(note: if you get the jar of yeast….instead of pkgs, then you will need 2 1/4 tsp), 1 cup of “warm” water ( they say warm, I tend to go hot, but not so hot you can’t put your hand in it. about 110F), 2 cups of bread flour, 2 TBSP olive oil, 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp sugar.

 
in a small bowl, dissolve yeast in “warm” water and let stand for about 10 min ( will look creamy). In a large bowl, combine 2 cups of flour, salt, sugar, basil, garlic, olive oil, and yeast mixture(note: I mix all my dry ingred. while waiting for yeast, then add yeast and oil last) Stir well to combine until a stiff dough has formed ( not sticky, also can use hands or spoon to mix) add 1/2 cup of flour if needed. Cover and rise until doubled (about 30 min) ( I put mine on the stove while the oven is heating up; heat will help it rise.) preheat oven 400F. Turn dough out onto a well floured surface.Form dough into a round ball and roll out into a pizza crust shape. Cover with favorite sauce and topping. Bake till golden brown (about 20 mins)

Enjoy!

I would love to here about how others have turned out. I am also open to new pizza topping suggestions?

Oh, if you need a dipping sauce for your crust, might I suggest some ranch dressing mixed with franks hot sauce? Yum!