Pork, Sweet Potato and Apple Sauté
I haven’t posted anything in a while. We went home to my parents house in Windsor for Easter and ended up staying there over a week because my daughter became so sick, we didn’t feel comfortable travelling with her in her state. She ended up being diagnosed with pneumonia, was put on the right medication and was finally able to sleep through the night without spiking a temperature of 104 F.
While we were there, my sister and brother-in-law somehow convinced both my parents and my husband and I to join them in doing the Whole 30 program. It’s basically a 30 day plan to help reset your system and help people identify foods that may be affecting them negatively. So, that means, no dairy, gluten, legumes, grains, soy, or alcohol. FOR THIRTY DAYS!!! What’s left? Lots of eggs, meats, fish, nuts, vegetables, and fruit. Day 8 starts tomorrow, and while things are going pretty well, I miss my wine and cheese.
I’ve learned with this plan that planning and creativity in the kitchen are important or deprivation will set in. So, I began to think of some recipes that might work with the ingredients I can use. This recipe, I’ve made many times in the past. It’s very satisfying and kid friendly, which is a bonus. The original recipe calls for butter, which I can’t currently use while on Whole 30. But, I can use clarified butter, or ghee. We didn’t notice the difference. It was exactly what I needed on a night where I was craving sugar! The natural sweetness of the sweet potato and apple in this recipe worked to curb my cravings! Here’s what happened…
You want to start by getting all of your ingredients sliced, cubed and diced. Salt and pepper your pork medallions at this point as well.
In a large skillet, over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon each butter (or ghee in this case) and oil and add your chopped sweet potato, so that they are all in one layer. Don’t stir them too much, as you want them to crisp as much as possible. This step will take about 10 minutes. After that, put 3 tablespoons of water in the pan and cover with a lid to finish cooking.
When the sweet potatoes have cooked through, remove them from the pan and add another tablespoon of butter and olive oil. Add the apple and onion together and season with a bit of salt. About 1/2 teaspoon. Cook until both have browned slightly. Stir in grated ginger*. Add 2 tablespoons each water and apple cider vinegar to the apples and onions and then remove them, adding them into the bowl you have set aside with the sweet potato.
*Ginger lasts longest in the freezer and grates really easily with a microplane. Peel the skin of the ginger with a spoon, and place it in the freezer until you need it. Grate it when frozen and put it back into the freezer till the next time.
Add another tablespoon each butter and oil to your pan and now add your pork medallions. Cook a few minutes, each side.
It should look like this. Remove the pork from the pan. Add 2 more tablespoons each water and apple cider vinegar and scrape up all the bits of goodness left on the bottom of the pan.
Return the sweet potato, apple and onion mixture into the pan and heat through.
My picture isn’t the greatest. But, this dish is worth the risk! It’s yummy!
Don’t be taken by the butter and olive oil in this dish. This is a nicely balanced, healthy dish!
If you have any parsley, use it to add a punch of color to this dish.
Here’s what you need to do:
Pork, Sweet Potato and Apple Saute
1 Sweet Potato, peeled and cut into cubes
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 apple, cubed (any apple will do, recommended: Golden Delicious)
1 medium pork tenderloin
salt and pepper for seasoning
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1 inch piece of ginger, grated
4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons parsley (optional)
Cut up your pork, sweet potato and onions and set aside until ready to use. Season your pork medallions with salt and pepper.
In a large skillet over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon each butter and olive oil. Add sweet potato in one layer and season with salt and pepper. Sauté until potatoes begin to crisp, about 10 minutes. Add 3 tablespoons water to the pan and cover to let the potatoes finish cooking. Uncover and transfer to a bowl.
Raise heat to medium high and add another 1 tablespoon each butter and olive oil. Add both the onion and the apple together and season with a little salt. Cook until slightly browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in ginger and cook for another minute. Pour 2 tablespoons each water and cider vinegar, mix into apples and onions and remove and place mixture into bowl with the sweet potatoes.
Add another tablespoon each butter and olive oil and add the pork medallions. Cook for about 2 minutes a side or until they are lightly brown. Transfer the pork to a plate. Carefully pour the remaining 2 tablespoons of water and cider vinegar and scrape up all the bits of goodness left on the pan from the pork. Return the sweet potato mixture into the pan, and heat through. Serve with 2 or 3 pork medallions.
Enjoy!
(Source: Fine Cooking One-Pot Meals Winter 2013)
Marshmallow Easter Pops!
The first time I made these was for my daughter’s 3rd birthday, this past year. I knew she would love them because she’s crazy about marshmallows! She actually thought these were her birthday cake, until her amazing Octonauts themed cake arrived. I’ve made these marshmallow pops many times, for different reasons. They’re tedious, but worth the effort. Here’s what happened…
This is an oasis. Florists use these for bouquets, which I’m sure you already know. My husband has always been good about sending me flowers and this is from one of those moments. For my last birthday, he sent me a bouquet that looked like a cake! I saved this oasis because I knew I could use it for something just like this! If you don’t have an oasis, you can use a styrofoam cake form.
You’ll want to cover it well with tin foil.
I chose Easter colors for these pops. Not shown in the picture are the very important marshmallows and lollipop sticks! You can get all of these ingredients at your local Bulk Barn, or most cake decorating stores.
If you can, melt all the chocolates you plan to use at once. Will save you time. This step in your marshmallow pop process is fairly important, as you can overheat chocolate pretty easily. These are make-shift double boilers, and they work perfectly. You want to make sure that the water in each pot isn’t touching the bowl that is sitting on it. To begin, turn your heat to medium, to get the process started. Once you see any steam coming out the sides of the bowl, you can remove it from the heat.
This is an example of the pink wafer chocolate I had melting. It’s off the heat at this point, and there is plenty of internal heat in this chocolate to help melt this chocolate down. It’s important to remove your chocolate at around this stage, so that it keeps a loose, velvety consistency once melted. If overheated, it can remain thick, almost burnt. I’ve done this! To keep the consistency where you want it, leave it to sit on a double boiler, that’s off the heat, while you dip your marshmallows. This will keep it from seizing.
First thing you want to do is dip your lollipop stick into the chocolate before you insert it into the marshmallow. The will ensure that your marshmallow doesn’t slip around the stick after being dipped. It sets it. It’s an important step.
Skewer your marshmallow onto the stick until you can feel the tip at the top of the marshmallow, but you can’t see it. You don’t want the stick to pierce the other end of the marshmallow.
Coat each marshmallow fairly quickly. You don’t want it sitting in warm chocolate, or it will begin to melt and its shape will change. This is the tedious part. You will want to make sure enough of the chocolate has drained off before you coat the marshmallows, or you will have a drippy, chocolatey mess.
Next step. Coating. I chose various sprinkles for all of my marshmallows this time around.
This is what you want. It can stand upright and has set enough that it isn’t dripping. It’s good to go!
I don’t know any kid that wouldn’t love the sight of these! Take the time, and make these. Especially, if you have little people in your world!
Here’s what you need to do…
Marshmallow Easter Pops!
1 bag marshmallows
1 cup each, pink, yellow, and purple chocolate wafers
Variety of sprinkles for coating
Lollipop sticks
Melt the chocolates over a double boiler until melted. Coat the tips of each lollipop stick, as you skewer each marshmallow, with the chocolate you will be using for dipping. Dip each marshmallow into the chocolate and tap off any excess. Coat with desired topping.
Enjoy!! Happy Easter!
(Source: Adapted from https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/marshmallow-pops.html)
Hard Boiled Eggs
With Easter around the corner, I thought I would share how I have made hard boiled eggs for years. When I was a kid, I remember boiling the heck out of eggs, so that we could decorate them for the Easter Bunny. I never liked eating them. They were dry and kind of grey. Yuck! I didn’t realize there was actually a method to hard boiling the perfect egg! At least, back then. I decided that I didn’t like hard boiled eggs, until an ex-boyfriend of mine, well, he wasn’t an ex-boyfriend then, but now….you get the picture…gave me a signed copy of one of Ina Garten’s cookbooks. I remember reading in her tips beneath another recipe, how to properly hard boil an egg! I was curious, tried it, and have been making them this way ever since! Here’s what happened…
Start by bringing the eggs to a boil in cold water. You can boil as many eggs as you need. I used two for this because it was for my breakfast! Put enough water in the pot to cover the eggs. Once the water boils, shut off the element and leave the eggs in the water for 15 minutes. Drain water and cool a few minutes or until you can handle them.
This is the result of rolling the egg around on a hard surface to help release the shell. You will need to tap the shell twice before rolling to get the process started.
You can see from this picture that the shell itself came off in almost one piece.
Ta-dah! No grey-ish yolk! Yay!
Enjoy!
(Source: https://www.barefootcontessa.com/recipes.aspx?RecipeID=322&S=0)
Sweet Potato Stuffed Dates Wrapped in Prosciutto
During the holidays a couple of years ago, my brother-in-law, Marty, who is a trained and super talented chef, was making these yummy hors d’oeuvres for us. I instantly loved them and stood watch beside him to learn how to make them! On Monday, I had some friends over to watch The Bachelor Finale and thought these would be a great little bite for everyone to enjoy! Here’s what happened:
This is all you need. 3 ingredients! I love that! Earlier in the day, I roasted off those two lovely sweet potatoes you see in this picture. With a preheated oven, set to 350 F, you can put those little lovelies in there and pretty much forget about ’em for the next 30 minutes or so. It is a good idea to pierce the skin of the sweet potatoes with a fork, so that they won’t burst in the oven. Also, and even more importantly, put a tray on the bottom rack of your oven to catch any juices that may leak from your sweet potatoes or you will have one big mess to clean up!!
I forgot to take a picture for this next part, but once those sweet potatoes have cooled, cut through the skin and scoop out the flesh. It should be naturally mashed or mushy as you scoop it out, but just make sure there are no obvious lumps.
Next, you want to slice each date vertically, to create a little pocket and remove the seed that is inside.
This is what you should have after you’re done. Next, you will add your sweet potato into each date.
This looks really messy, but don’t worry! You don’t have to be fancy with this part because it will all get covered with the prosciutto. You want to put enough sweet potato that it comes up to the level of the date, but isn’t overflowing. I just used a spoon to do this.
Next is the prosciutto.
You’ll want to slice the prosciutto into strips to wrap around each date. The strips won’t, and don’t have to, look as good as the one I show in the picture. If you mess up a strip, just eat it! Win-win!
Your dates should look similar to this once you’re done wrapping them all. At this point, you can put some saran wrap over top of them and put them into the fridge until you’re ready to bake them off. A great make-ahead!
The finished product! You can’t really tell from this picture, but the prosciutto is nicely caramelized on the bottom and everything is heated through. These were in the oven, at 350 F for about 15 minutes.
Here’s what you need to do:
1 medium sweet potato
12 dates (I used organic medjool dates)
1/2 pound of prosciutto, sliced for wrapping dates
Preheat oven to 350 F. Roast your sweet potato until tender to the touch, about 30 minutes. When cool enough to handle, slice it down the center and scoop out the flesh and place into a bowl. Set aside. Cut into each date to remove the seed and create a pocket. Place a heaping teaspoon, give or take, into each date. Wrap with a piece of prosciutto and bake in an oven proof pan or baking sheet for 15 minutes.
Enjoy!!
Spicy Apricot and Coconut Chicken Skewers
My sister made this recipe years ago. It’s a surprisingly yummy and really easy bite to pull together. I decided it should be part of our Bachelor Finale Extravaganza! Here’s what happened:
First things first, you need to soak your skewers.
This is an important step or your skewers will burn in the oven while your chicken is cooking. You want to let these soak for at least 20 minutes.
In the meantime, cut up your chicken.
I didn’t do a very good job keeping my pieces uniform, but it’s no big deal.
Thread each piece of chicken onto the skewer like an accordion, so that they don’t fall off. Season both sides of chicken with salt and pepper.
Place on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven at 350 F, until chicken is cooked through. The timing will depend largely on how big or small your chicken has been cut. Some of my pieces were in for longer than others, but anywhere from 15-25 minutes.
The original recipe called for Sambal Oelek to be added into the apricot jam, but I didn’t have any, so I used this. It worked just as well.
For the next several parts, I didn’t take any pictures because I’m a space case and forgot. But, don’t worry, it’s super easy!! Let’s get straight to the recipe!
Final product.
Here’s what you need to do:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts cut up into skewer-sized pieces
skewers
salt & pepper
1 cup apricot jam
1 tsp chili garlic sauce (or Sambal Oelek) – more if you like it really spicy
1/2 cup of unsweetened coconut, toasted
Preheat oven to 350 F. Thread each piece of chicken onto a skewer and season with salt and pepper. Bake in oven for about 20 minutes. In the meantime, you will want to toast about 1/2 cup of unsweetened coconut over medium heat until the ends have turned light brown. Set aside. In a pot, stirring frequently, melt down about 1 cup of apricot jam over medium to medium low heat until its consistency is like syrup. Add your chili garlic sauce and stir until combined. Remove from heat.
Once your chicken is out of the oven, spoon or brush the syrup mixture onto each skewer and sprinkle with coconut.
Enjoy!
Banana Crumb Muffins
I have been searching for a really good banana bread recipe for years. I thought I had found one, but it still wasn’t great, and was a lot of work with disappointing results. Greasing the pan alone was a pain. I came across this banana muffin recipe from a blog I follow named, The Girl Who Ate Everything, and I don’t think I will make banana bread ever again! These muffins are quick and yummy and so much more rewarding than a big loaf of bread! I have made several recipes from this blogger’s site. She knows what she’s doing! Check her out! www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com
I didn’t deviate at all from this recipe, except for one minor change, and only because of personal preference. Here’s what happened…
We needed to eat this morning and had no food. I had one egg left, which inspired the making of these muffins!
In the flour, I’ve already incorporated the baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Also not seen in this picture is vanilla, because I’m an airhead and forgot. I have a lot to learn!
This is where I deviated from the original recipe. I prefer to add my dry ingredients into my wet ingredients to avoid lumps. But, I am sure there were no lumps in the original recipe, this is just my personal preference! You can do either method.
Use an ice cream scoop that has a release on it to help make your life so much easier. Or, using a spoon will work as well.
You can fill your muffin cups fairly generously. The original recipe called for 10 muffins. I find I can make 12 with no problem. Just depends how big you want ’em!
Now for the ‘crumb’ part of the recipe!
In this, you want to add 1/3 cup brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of flour, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of butter. I tend to be a bit more generous with the butter here. Can’t hurt, right? It’s important your butter be COLD for this.
If you have a tool like this, now would be a good time to use it! Otherwise, a fork will work just fine, or even your hands! You want to achieve a coarse meal, in texture.
Like this.
Now is your chance to get your kids involved…. If I allowed it, my daughter would just take this bowl and eat it as a snack! She’s wild that way.
And this will happen. Guess where that hand ended up? Yup! She was hungry. Can’t blame her. I promise, if I make this for anyone outside of my immediate family…okay, my extended family…I won’t let her eat out of the bowl. Please don’t judge me!
All is done, but you can’t put it in the oven right now, unless you want a horrible, sticky mess to clean up after these babies are out of the oven! If you didn’t have a child helping you with this part, omit this next step.
Brush all that sugar goodness back onto the muffins so it doesn’t stick to your pan!!
Now they’re ready for the oven!! 19 minutes at 375 and you are good to go!!
Mmmmmmm… These are so good. You’ll be happy you made these. I promise.
Here is what you need to do:
Banana Crumb Muffins
1/3 cup melted and cooled butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
3 ripened bananas, mashed
1 1/2 cups flour
I teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
For the crumble:
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon cold butter
Preheat oven to 375 F. Mix together the melted butter, sugar, egg, bananas, and vanilla in one bowl. Blend flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg in another bowl. Add flour mixture to banana mixture and mix until all flour is combined. Fill muffin tins with batter. Next, make your crumble and sprinkle over top of your batter. Bake for 19 minutes. Remove from muffin tin as soon as you can and let cool on wired rack.
Enjoy!!
Milk Choco Chunk Cookies
Seemed appropriate that my first post on my blog be cookies, since I bake so many of them! This recipe is your basic cookie dough recipe, and you can substitute any chocolate or add other yummy additions! Unless you’re adding oatmeal, as you would then need to adjust your flour. In this recipe, I used 2 Dairy Milk chocolate bars because that’s what I had at home. I was going to just eat some of the chocolate with my tea, but with a sick 3 year old napping upstairs, I decided to bake her some cookies to wake up to instead. Here is what happened….
Cut up chocolate last to ensure you still have some left by the time you need to add it into the batter! 🙂 Of course, I added this picture first as a reminder to do it last. Make sense? I thought so.
Mmmmmm…that is all.
If you don’t have this tool, get it. It comes in several different sizes. This one here is the 1 1/2 tablespoon size. The best tool I’ve ever had for drop cookies!
See how perfectly uniform each cookie is? Makes me happy. Note to self: Get silpat in prettier colour.
Unless you need to bake up the whole batch, freeze some for later! Place a tray with parchment or waxed paper, scoop as many on the tray as you’d like to freeze. Place in the freezer to firm up, about 20 minutes. Note to self: Rotate camera.
Ta-da! I only made a dozen and froze the rest. There are only 4 left since I made them yesterday. I know my husband has had none, my daughter has had two, that means…. This is why it’s a good idea to freeze some for later!
Once the risk of each cookie touching the other and sticking together and destroying any chance of future cookies has passed (aka they’re frozen enough), place them in a freezer bag and put them in your freezer for the next time you have a cookie craving!
Here’s what you need to do:
Do your ‘mise en place’ and get all of your ingredients ready before you start. You will thank yourself later. Or, thank me now. You’re welcome!
Milk Choco Chunk Cookies
1 cup softened butter*
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs**
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 milk chocolate bars of your choice cut up into chunks (I used Dairy Milk)
Preheat oven to 375 F. Cream your butter and add both sugars until combined. Add eggs and vanilla and beat about one minute. Next, add your salt and baking soda, which you can combine with your flour and add slowly all together. I’ve added the salt and baking soda separately from the flour, as well. Both work. Make sure all dry ingredients have been added and well mixed before you add your chocolate, which is your last ingredient.
Scoop your cookies onto a lined baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. If making smaller cookies, adjust your time by one or two minutes. Transfer to a wired rack and let cool.
Enjoy!
*I used salted butter in this recipe because that is what I had on hand. This is really a personal preference, in my opinion. If you feel more comfortable using unsalted butter, go for it! I haven’t felt the need to adjust the salt in this recipe.
**Don’t crack your eggs directly into your batter. You don’t want to risk getting egg shell into your batter or possibly a bad egg.
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