Pork Chop Tuesday

Well, we’ve survived back to school!
I have had a little more time to try out some new recipes this week. So, I thought I would try some things I have pinned on my Pinterest board. However, I did not take any pictures. I wasn’t really planning on blogging about these, otherwise, I would have taken pictures.

I really like Pinterest. I like seeing and saving all the fabulous ideas out there. Unfortunately, a lot of the recipes that folks seem to rave about have been duds, in my book. But, I try more anyway.

The first one is a Chicken Tetrazzini recipe. I actually pulled this one out of a Southern Living while cleaning out some magazines. I did a quick search on the SL website, so I could add the recipe to my Pinterest board. Yes, I actually threw away the magazine page . It felt so good!

I liked this. I thought it was a little bland though. I think next time I’ll add a little more salt and possibly some more white wine. Everyone else seemed to like it just like it was. The kids even asked for it in their lunches.

Critics’ Corner

Chip: The spaghetti tastes like chicken.

Megan: More please.

Katie: The chicken was great! It’s got to be one of my favorite dishes.

I pinned this recipe for Beef Negimaki because I really liked the idea of cooking everything together in a little packet on the grill.

Well, I didn’t use the grill my first time out on this one. The recipe calls for instant brown rice. I already had slow?(what is the opposite of instant?) brown rice. I cooked the meat in the oven. One of the ingredients is hoisin sauce. I’ve never used hoisin sauce. Our little Walmart sure didn’t have any. I had to look up a recipe on-line. Basically, I mixed together soy sauce, honey, peanut butter, garlic, olive oil, rice wine vinegar, and sesame seeds. How much? I don’t know. Until it looked right. I guess I did okay  because it tasted yummy!

Critics’ Corner

Chip: Excellent! Meat is good food.

Megan: This is a highly acceptable addition to our Chinese Buffet.

Katie: Awesome, awesome, awesome! The meat roll was awesome! Did I say it was awesome?

I have to admit I have never thought to put ribs in the crock pot.

They were so tender! The meat just fell off the bone. That was good and bad. Good because it was so tender. Bad because it was kinda’ hard to get out of the crock pot to put on a broiler pan. It was also a little hard to pick up to eat. Don’t get me wrong, we ate it just fine! I may have gotten the wrong kind of meat. I may have let them cook a little too long. Oh, well, they were delish! I’ll tell you what I really  liked about this recipe. You know how when you cook meat in the crock pot you almost always have to brown it first? This one called for the browning after the cooking! I really liked that. I mean, usually the whole reason you are using the crock pot to begin with is to save time on a busy night. Who wants a busy morning of browning meat?!

Critics’ Corner

Chip: The most tender BBQ I’ve ever eaten. So tender I couldn’t hold it without it falling apart. True story.

Megan: A tender meat candy.

Katie: The barbecue was phenomenal! What more can I say?

Well, that’s what new at the table this week!

I have a Pinterest board for Pork Chop Tuesday items. I call it My Own Stuff. I may rename it to Pork Chop Tuesday. Anyway, you can check it.

Have you Liked the PCTuesday Facebook page yet? Be sure you do that. There is more there than what is on the blog!

Wow! Look what I made! Okay, so I need to work on my rolling technique a little, but still!

To be honest, I don’t think it would have mattered at all how it looked. It tasted soooo yummy!

This is an old Pampered Chef recipe.

If you have ever seen on of their cookbooks, they tell you exactly what pan, cutting board, and scraper to use. They are, after all, trying to sell you their stuff. I said all that to say this, there are a couple of specialty items you will need for this recipe. Do they have to be Pampered Chef? No.

Luscious Lemon Angel Roll

Ingredients:

1 package (16 ounce) angel food cake mix

3/4 cup powdered sugar, divided

1 jar (11.75 ounces) strawberry ice cream topping, divided

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

1 lemon

7 drops yellow food coloring (optional)

1 container (8 ounces) frozen whipped topping, thawed, divided

Powdered Sugar

whole strawberries and lemon slices for garnish

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F.

Cut an 18-inch long piece of PARCHMENT PAPER. Do not leave this part out! It is important!

Press into bottom and sides of a Stoneware Bar Pan. In non-Pampered-Chef-speak this means a jelly roll pan, approximately 10×15.

2. Prepare cake mix according to the package directions.

Pour batter over prepared parchment, spreading evenly.

Bake 30-35 minutes or until top springs back when touched with fingertip. Or do that toothpick thing.

Remove from oven to a cooling rack.

3. Sprinkle  1/2 cup powdered sugar over the cake.

Place ANOTHER sheet of parchment paper over the cake. Place ANOTHER cooling rack upside down over the parchment. Carefully turn the cake out at once.

Remove pan and parchment from the bottom of the cake. Sorry, no pictures of me flipping the cake! That would have been quite a trick!

4. Starting at one short side, roll up cake IN THE PARCHMENT. Cool completely.

You are going to cool it in the roll.

5. After cooling completely, unroll the cake on a cutting board. Throw away the parchment paper. Spread the cake with 1/4 cup of the ice cream topping.

6. In a bowl combine cream cheese and remaining 1/4 cup powdered sugar.

7. Zest the lemon. I know what you are thinking, “I’m not going to zest a lemon! That is just fancy stuff!” USE THE ZEST! It really does make a big difference.

Squeeze the lemon to get about 1 tablespoon of juice. Add the zest and the juice to the cream cheese mixture. Whisk it all together. Add the food coloring if you want.

8. Fold in 1 cup of the whipped topping.

9. Spread over the ice cream topping to within1 inch of the edge; re-roll the cake.

10. I was not going to be serving my cake until that evening, so I stuck it in the fridge.

11. Sprinkle the top with more powdered sugar. Add your fancy garnish.

Sorry I didn’t get a cross-section picture. That would have been cool. But people had arrived and I didn’t want them to have to wait while I took yet another picture!

12. Serve with extra strawberries and whipped topping. I had extra strawberry syrup available too, just in case.

Everyone loved it!

Critics’ Corner

Chip: The cake has a great firm texture that goes great with the smooth lemon filling. Nice and cool. As Guy Fieri would say, “This is out of bounds!”

Megan: Glad my braces don’t prevent me from having this!

Katie: The lemon was a bit too much for my taste. But other than that, I loved it! Not to mention that strawberry on the side! : )

Yes, another bean recipe. Hey, they taste good and are good for you!

I made these to take to a ladies’ luncheon. Everyone loved them. They would be great for all those tailgate parties coming up!

This recipe comes from this cookbook…

I love the chili-cheese crust.

Chili-Cheese Crust

1 1/4 cups flour

3/4 cup yellow cornmeal

1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese with peppers

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper

————————————–

1/2 cup cold butter, cut into pieces

1 large egg, lightly beaten

2 tablespoons ice water

•Combine first 8 ingredients (that is down to the dotted line-your welcome!) in a food processor; pulse until blended

•Add egg and ice water; process just until the mixture forms a ball.

•Divide dough in half; shape each half of dough into 16 (1 inch) balls. Press balls into lightly greased mini muffin pan.

•Bake tartlet shells at 450˚ for 8 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove shells to wire racks to cool completely.

•Spoon 1 tablespoon of Black Bean Salsa into each shell; garnish, if desired.

Serve at room temperature.

Makes 32 appetizers

Black Bean Salsa

1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained

2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, minced

3 green onions, chopped

1/2 cup finely chopped sweet yellow pepper

1 plum tomato, finely chopped

1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro-I left this out because I can’t stand the stuff! Sorry.

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

•Mix it all up

•Chill at least 1 hour

You might want to have a little bowl of sour cream to go with these. You could even put a dollop on top of each one and fancy it up with some green onion or, if you must, cilantro.

There will be plenty of salsa, so be generous. I had some that wouldn’t fit in all the cups. The leftovers got eaten with tortilla chips. That was yummy too!

Enjoy!

When having lunch this summer, the girls and I would plop ourselves down in the den to watch the News at Noon while dining on our PB&Js. Yes, I know it is not exactly the thing to do. So, please, no lectures on eating in front of the TV.

After we had seen the weather report (which was usually the same 0% chance of rain, 110˚) we would flip over to the Food Network or the Martha Stewart Show. If neither one of those was too interesting there was always Bugs Bunny!

This particular day we watched 10 Dollar Dinners with Melissa d’Arabian. To be quite honest, I had never watched her show before. I always kinda’ thought, ” $10?! What’s the big deal? I do that every night!” We watched anyway.

She was making Cannellini Beans. I had heard of them before but had never had them. They are pretty much white, Italian kidney beans. You can find out all in the world you ever wanted to know about cannellini beans on this website. That’s right, they have their own website!

The recipe looked yummy so we tried it.

The recipe calls for herbes de provence. I had never had that either. You buy a bottle of it over on the spice aisle. I’ll tell you now, so you don’t freak out at the store, it is not an inexpensive item. It makes this dish so delish though!

The white wine is also a key ingredient, I think. We don’t keep wine around, so I used cooking wine. It was still very yummy–just in case you prefer to go that route as well.

Ingredients

• 1/2 sweet bell pepper, finely chopped
• 1/2 medium onion, diced
• 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1/2 cup chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 teaspoon herbes de provence
• 3 cups cooked cannellini beans
• 1/2 baguette, sliced and toasted, for serving

Directions

I just learned that today is National S’mores Day!

Apparently the Girl Scouts of America are the ones to thank for this fabulous snack! The earliest record of a s’more recipe is from a 1927 Girl Scout handbook.

Wow! Who knew?

Oh, to have one of those delicious treats right now.

I’m a bit of a s’more snob. To me, s’mores are meant to be eaten around a campfire. Yes, if you are desperate, you can make them in the microwave.

Yes, I have been desperate.

I am also particular about my chocolate. Only Hershey’s will do! I don’t like to use the individually wrapped treats. The chocolate is too thick and doesn’t melt enough. Chocolate must come from a large bar that has been broken.

I came across a recipe for S’more Cups on Pinterest a while back. So, I went to the Texas Cottage blog to investigate.

These were going to be easy and yummy!

Katie helped make these late one night after a shower.

Make your graham cracker crust. Put it in a mini muffin tin. Bake for a few minutes.

Put a half of a marshmallow in each baked cup. Back into the oven for a couple of more minutes.

Once cooled, spread melted chocolate on top or dip tops into chocolate!

Now, if you don’t have a campfire, this is the way to have a s’more!

I don’t think I took comments from the Critics for some reason. I may just have to make them again, so they can comment.

We spent our last night at Nana and Bud’s playing a rousing game of bocce ball! This was my first experience with bocce ball. Click here for How to Play.

Nana was inside fixing dinner while we played. I was actually the score-keeper the first round.

We had Bubba Burgers for dinner. Have you ever tried them?

They were no Nana Burgers, but they were pretty tasty.

We had a fantastic time on our trip to Nana and Bud’s house. I hope you enjoyed our vacation with us!

Sorry for my absence lately. I have had Olympic Fever! A terrible thing, that Olympic Fever. I hear it has been going around. Things to watch for…trouble sleeping (staying up much too late to see the gold medal round), screaming fits (Come on! Come on!), hallucinations (Wow! I think I could do that!).

Back to the blog.

Our next adventure was to Williamsburg, VA. No, we didn’t see historical things there. (We did that a couple of years ago.) In fact, we did something very different. Nana and Bud took us to The Great Wolf Lodge!

Nana and Bud got us all checked in and ready for fun!

We each got little ID bracelets, sorry no picture. The bracelets were our passes into the water park AND our hotel keys! Very cool!

The girls played checkers in the lobby while we waited.

Let me say something about the rest of the pictures. First of all, we were just using a small pocket camera, something that could be shoved under a towel really fast if needed. Second, the rides were a blur of splashy fun! Not the best for photography. Third, we were having too much fun to bother with picture-taking. Sometimes you have to do that on vacation! Last…WE WERE IN SWIMSUITS!

Ok, we weren’t in swimsuits here. This was after our fabulous breakfast buffet! The waitress even gave the girls wolf ears to wear!

After letting our food settle for a little while, it was off to the main attraction!

See that big bucket on the top that says “Great Wolf Lodge”? Every so often, once it was full, that thing would dump GALLONS  of water down on whatever crazy kids (or poor mother) was standing under it! Squeals of delight/terror were unmistakable.

The wave pool was great. It wasn’t too terribly deep. This picture was taken while waiting for the waves to get going.

Megan tested out the surfing. It was harder than it looked. You had to wait a really long time for your turn, so she only tried this a couple of times.

Here is Katie enjoying some fountain stomping!

The pictures from the lazy river, the lily pads, and the slides were not really pictures for the world to see–especially the lily pad pictures!

I’m begging you to go to the website to see this place! It was great!

Katie loved the slides that you just sit down and swoosh into the water. Megan loved the bigger ones. You had to use a raft for those.

Chip and Bud rode the Howlin’ Tornado. I had no plans to ride that thing! Then my big mouth went and got in the way!

Bud showed up on day 2 in street clothes. I was giving him a hard time for not playing with us again. I told him I was planning to ride the tornado with him.

HE CALLED MY BLUFF!

I couldn’t back out! He went and suited up. Chip, Bud, MEGAN and I rode the tornado!

Now, I am not really a thrill-seeker. I do good on the lazy river-type things. You know, float around observing.

This was the BIG ride! My heart was pounding! (That might have been from climbing the 88+ stairs to get to the ride!)

Chip said my face looked something like this…

Megan screamed the whole way! That girl has got some lungs! Nana and Katie, who were waiting at the end of the ride, heard the screams and just laughed and laughed!

Once we got past the major drop I did okay! The swooshing back and forth was fun. I’m telling you, check out the website.

Here is our victorious exit from the tornado. My arms are in the air. I am trying to remember if that was a double fist pump or a hallelujah!

There are 11 different Great Wolf Lodge Waterpark Resorts. I saw that Woman’s Day magazine is giving away a trip to the resort. Their offer ends 8/15/12. Hurry, maybe you’ll win a trip!