Georgina's '32 Hour' Spare Ribs

12 pork spareribs

Sauce*: 

1 cup sharp apple juice

1/4 cup maple syrup

2 tbs veg oil (I used sunflower)

2 tbs coconut aminos (or soy sauce)

1 cinnamon stick

2 star anise

6 peeled garlic cloves

1) Put ribs in a large freezer bag or bowl

2) Add all the remaining ingredients, squelching or tossing everything together and then seal or cover.

3) Leave to marinate in the fridge overnight or up to two days - we prefer 32 hours ;)

4) Take dish out of fridge and preheat the oven to 400F

5) Pour all the contents of bag/bowl into large roasting pans. Make sure chicken is skin side up if doing chicken.   I prefer a large pan that gives ribs plenty of room.    

6)Cook for about 1 hour (sometimes it takes 1.5 hours)   Turn if finishing in oven.    Pull from oven without turning if finishing off on grill.

Everything should be sticky and glossed chestnut brown when done. 

* The recipe I usually do also has 12 chicken thighs skin and bone still on.   When I do the chicken I double the sauce ingredients above.   

Asian Ham Salad

Just the title alone should not turn you off of this recipe!  Yes, it sounds a little weird.  Looking at the list of ingredients may also make you question my sanity (and the sanity of my sister and mother, who made me this recipe last week when we were all together in Texas).  It's delicious though, and I bet you could try this with either cooked chicken or beef to give it a different twist.  It was still good the next day straight out of the refrigerator.

For the life of me I can't remember what my mom served as a side dish, so when I made it for Corey last night I just told him to hush when he asked what else we were having.  He quieted down when he tasted the salad, and the two of us devoured this entire recipe in one sitting.  We figured that the ice cream cones we had for dessert got us the dairy food group to make it a complete meal.  Yes, there are a lot of asterisks after the ingredients, but the recipe was pretty vague and I wanted to let you know how I interpreted each instruction.  The original recipe called for only one cup of rice, but my mom and I thought that was too skimpy.  It was also my idea to add the cilantro to the recipe because I'm pretty sure just about every recipe could be improved with cilantro.  Okay, maybe not brownies, but you get the idea.

Here is a photo of the salad as we made it at my mom's house.  Those are her gorgeous granite countertops -- not mine!

Asian Ham Salad

Salad:
2 cups brown rice, cooked*
1 cup shelled and cooked edamame**
1 cup chopped ham steak***
6 sliced radishes****
2 thinly sliced green onions
handful of cilantro leaves*****
crushed peanuts******

Dressing:
2 Tbs. vegetable oil
2 Tbs. rice vinegar
1 tsp. sesame oil
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes*******
salt and pepper to taste

Cool the rice and edamame to room temperature.  Whisk the dressing ingredients together.  Just before serving, toss the salad ingredients with the dressing.

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* This means to have about 2 cups AFTER cooking.  If you cooked 2 cups of uncooked rice, you would have 4 cups of cooked rice and that would just craziness.

** I steamed my edamame in the shells and then shelled them, but my mom boiled already shelled edamame, I think.  Both tasted great.  Yes, I hate beans but like edamame.  I have to pretend they are not beans.  Please don't tell me I'm wrong.  DON'T SPOIL THE ONLY FORM OF LEGUME I WILL VOLUNTARILY EAT, OKAY?

*** I got this near the cold cuts, but I bet it would be even better if you got it from the butcher and chopped it yourself.  I also want to try this with chicken or beef, because I bet it would be awesome.

**** I chopped up about 4 radishes because they're not my favorite veggie.  I really couldn't taste them in the salad, but Corey said he could.  They add a nice crunch if they're sliced instead of chopped, which is how my mom made it.  Next time I make this, I want to add sliced celery, because I bet it would be terrific.

***** I chopped my leaves, but I bet they would be good whole, too.

****** The recipe didn't specify how much of these, so I crushed about a half cup of dry roasted peanuts (I probably should have used regular old peanuts, but I wanted to have better-tasting ones left over for snacks!).

******* I used red cayenne pepper because that's all I had and I wasn't sure how it was different.  I also probably used more like 1/8 of a teaspoon because I'm a huge wimp when it comes to spicy things, but I don't think the salad was spicy when my mom made it with the properly-measured amount.

Bow Down Before Me For I Have Made Pulled Pork Sandwiches!!

All I can say is this was pretty easy and it was damn good! Demetri ate 3 sandwiches and Zoey ate 1.5!!!!! Plus, it uses the CROCK POT!!!!!

Ingredients

1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 (4 pound) pork shoulder roast
1 cup BBQ sauce
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon prepared yellow mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 extra large onion, chopped
2 large cloves garlic, crushed
8 hamburger buns, split
2 tablespoons butter, or as needed


1. Pour the vegetable oil into the bottom of crock pot. Place the pork roast into pot; pour in the BBQ* sauce, apple cider vinegar, and chicken broth. Stir in the brown sugar, yellow mustard, Worcestershire sauce, chili powder, onion, garlic. Cover and cook on High until the roast shreds easily with a fork, about 6 hours.
2. Remove the roast from the crock pot, and shred the meat using two forks. **
3. Spread the inside of both halves of hamburger buns with butter. Toast the buns, butter side down, in a skillet over medium heat until golden brown. Spoon pork into the toasted buns. Add BBQ sauce* to taste.

* I put Kraft honey BBQ sauce in the crock pot but then topped the sandwiches with KC Masterpiece - Original. The guy at the meat counter suggested I do this to sweeten the meat.
** The original recipe suggests putting the pulled port back into the juices in the crock pot. We did this with some of the meat and found that the juices were too oily and also made the buns soggy. And no one wants to eat wet bread (Hi Corey!!!)

Ham Asparagus Strata

I was perusing my BHG cookbook for dinner ideas, and I suddenly remembered that Andrew and I both love breakfast for dinner. In fact, we have been known to parrot my dad's frequent comment whenever my mom made breakfast in the evenings: " I LOOOOOOOOOVE breakfast for dinner!" Anyway, I looked through the "eggs" section of the cookbook, and on the last page, I saw this "strata" thing. What in the heck is a strata? Well, according to Wikipedia, it's a layered casserole dish most commonly made with eggs, bread, and cheese. YUM! Plus, the prep time is only 25 minutes (perfect) and you actually MUST make it ahead of time (at least 2 hours if not an entire day ahead). So, I gave it a whirl, and this is now one of our favorite dishes. The first couple of times I made this strata, it turned out a teensy bit watery, so I modified the recipe a bit.

******

Prep: 25 minutes
Chill: 2 to 24 hours
Bake: 50 minutes
Oven: 325 degrees

4 whole-wheat English muffins, torn/cut into bite-sized pieces
1 cup (6 oz) cubed fully-cooked ham
1 cup (5-6 oz) asparagus cut into bite-sized pieces
6 oz swiss cheese (either grated or sliced & torn into small pieces)
4 beaten eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup sour cream
2 Tbsp finely chopped onion (or 1 tsp dried minced onion)
1 Tbsp Dijon-style mustard ("Pardon me sir....")
1/4 tsp caraway seeds
1/8 tsp pepper

1) In a greased 2-quart square casserole dish, create a layer of half of the English muffin pieces. Top with layers of the ham, asparagus, swiss cheese, and then spread the remaining English muffin pieces on the very top.

2) In a bowl, mix the eggs, milk, sour cream, onion, mustard, caraway seeds, and pepper. Pour evenly over top of the layers in the casserole dish.

3) Cover and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours, but no longer than 24 hours.

3) Uncover the dish and bake for 50-55 minutes in a 325 degree oven or till a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. If you have reached an hour and the knife still doesn't come out clean, go ahead and take the dish out-- you're just stuck with slightly watery strata. It's still really yummy! Let is stand for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

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This theoretically makes 6 servings, but it's pretty heavy and a little goes a long way, so for once, this "yield" is pretty accurate, no matter how hungry you are! Leftover strata keeps really well in the fridge and is great either cold or re-heated.

Oh, by the way, the first time I made this, I somehow missed the part about the asparagus being cut up. I baked it with a layer of long asparagus spears. Not that it affected the taste in any way, but it was a bit hard to serve. WHOOPS!

Here's a picture of the strata I made two weekends ago for my in-laws, who were visiting from the Dallas-Fort Worth area:



The chef and her strata! (picture taken by my father-in-law)


On a related note, can someone else please tell me that they, too, didn't realize that ham came from a pig until way later than most people figure it out? I mean, ham bears no resemblance to and tastes nothing like pork in any way (I guess it's because of the curing process).... Boy, between Niki's recent admittance of her "yield" confusion and my late epiphany about ham being from pigs (it happened in college, I think), you'd think the Evans twins should be barred from the kitchen for the greater good....

"Oven-Fried" Pork Chops

I asked Andrew what he considered to be his favorite dish among the ones that make up my limited dinner repertoire, and he answered "'Oven-Fried' Pork Chops" with no hesitation. He then mentioned that he thinks we should have it at least once every other week. Seeing as how it's so easy & fast, I have no problem whatsoever with that! I found this recipe when I was scouring my BHG cookbook for dishes that fit my preparation requirements. As I alluded to before, here are my requirements for such a recipe:

1) Easy (novice chef alert!)

2) Can either be prepared in less than 30 minutes far ahead of time and refrigerated before being popped into the oven, or can be prepared right before eating in less than 30 minutes (so I can just make it once Andrew gets home at 6:45pm and takes over the "put the kid to bed" duties)

3) No weird vegetables (My 16th birthday present from my parents was to never have to eat vegetables again if I didn't want to.... I might die of scurvy, but that's something I'm willing to risk.)

4) No need to do a bunch of steps during the hour before serving (I'm busy feeding and changing Sonia during the 45 minutes before Andrew gets home, and I want us to eat within 30 minutes after he gets home)

I'm picky and demanding! Not a lot of recipes fit the bill.... But "Oven-Fried" Pork Chops does! Here is my adaptation of that recipe:

Prep time: 10 minutes
Bake time: 20 minutes
Oven: 425 degrees

Ingredients:

4 pork loin chops, cut 3/4 inch thick (these are pretty standard fare in most grocery stores)


2 Tbsp margarine or butter, melted
1 beaten egg
2 Tbsp milk (or heavy whipping cream or buttermilk)
1/8 tsp pepper
1 1/4 cups herb-seasoned stuffing mix, crushed


Tip: Make sure you have 1 1/4 cups of crushed stuffing-- not 1 1/4 cups of stuffing before you crush it. Also, if you have a mortar and pestle, bust that thing out to do the crushing (if not, use the bottom of a pot). I asked for the mortar & pestle in the picture for Christmas this year specifically because I make this recipe so much!

1) Pour margarine/butter into a 13x9x2-inch casserole dish. Combine egg, milk, and pepper. Dip chops into egg mixture and then coat with stuffing mix (be generous with the stuffing!) and place in dish on top of melted margarine/butter. Take any leftover crushed stuffing and dump it on top of the chops. You'll thank me later! Here's what it will look like before you stick the dish in the oven:


2) Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Quickly take dish out of oven, turn chops (use a fork or tongs), and put dish back in oven. Bake about 10 minute more or till no pink remains and juices run clear. Makes 4 servings, but only if you have substantial sides to serve with the pork chops. Here's the finished product:


We usually have either rice or barley as a side dish, and Andrew scoops out the burnt stuffing crunchies from the pan to dump them over the rice or barley. YUM!!!!