Carnitas

Carnitas are basically just Pork Roast tacos. I don't claim that this is authentic, but its still tasty.

Leftover Pork Roast or BBQ
cilantro, chopped
onions, chopped
hot sauce to taste
corn tortillas

optional:
radishes
lettuce


Warm the pork and shred it, putting it on top of two warmed corn tortillas. The pork really likes to bust through tortilla walls. Top with cilantro and onions and hot sauce. It is an easy leftovers meal.

The grill

As spring arrives, don't underestimate how much better an easy gas grille can make your life. I don't have time to deal with charcoal after work, and so many grilled things are wheat free because breading doesn't do so well outside of its deep fried haven...

Filing away until I have time

I ran across both of these recipes today and wanted to save them here until I had time to try them myself.

First off is guajillo-dressed sweet potatoes from Scott Belan at Needs More Garlic. I had to google guajillo peppers, but it turns out they are those black leathery ones. His criticisms of Mexican Everyday actually make me want to read it more. My kitchen is being renovated, and I haven't had a full working kitchen in a few years.

Second is Pad Thai from Helen Jane. I often order Pad Thai and end up wishing I had ordered something different. I feel like its too oily, or the tofu is overcooked, or something is missing. I'm hoping if I make it myself I can overcome these problems.

Brunswick Stew

I have recently come around to the side of Brunswick Stew lovers. For a long time, I thought it was a waste of stomach space that should be reserved for barbecue. But then I had it at work for a company luncheon and I was swayed to the other side. I asked for the recipe, and got a great one. Unfortunately it made 18 (18!) quarts so I had to kind of reduce it down. I have a giant slow cooker and used that, but you can use a large electric roaster or a big stockpot. This recipe makes 6 quarts.

Because my crock-pot is 6 quarts I had a little trouble stirring the stew, which wasn’t a big deal, it just meant the bowls were different at the bottom of the pot than the top.

But being able to prepare this means I can now make a big pot of it when I am expecting guests but not really sure how many or when they are coming.

If you make it for lunch I would start the night before or plan on waking up early in the morning. Obviously, leaving out one of these ingredients is not gonna kill the taste, but it is nice to have so many things in it cause it kind makes every bowl a surprise.

Ingredients:

½ to 1 lb chicken cooked (I pan fried two chicken thighs) chopped
1 lb beef cooked (I browned stew beef) chopped
1 lb pork cooked (I browned some breakfast sausage, but I guess leftover bbq is more traditional) chopped

1 can crushed tomatoes
2 cups ketchup
1 onion chopped
1 can diced potato
2 T. Worcestershire sauce
1 can pork & beans
1 can corn
1 can lima beans
1 can green beans
1 can mixed vegetables
1 cup uncooked rice (I used brown rice cause I had it on hand and it didn’t cook all the way. I’ll use white rice next time.)
1 T. chili powder
salt & pepper to taste
1 can june peas
1 can baked beans
1 can northern white beans
1 can butter beans

Combine, cook for 4 hours

Slow Cooker Stuffed Peppers

I had never made stuffed peppers before, and wasn't sure whether I was going for a Mexican or Italian version here, and it kind of ended up both. But good!

Ingredients

1 pound Ground beef
Onion
garlic
Worcestershire sauce
Cheese
Tomato sauce
6 Green peppers
beef broth
rice
salt/pepper


I didn't have a recipe in front of me, and called my mom to tell me what I needed to cook before putting it the slow cooker. I think she got the recipe out of a Fix it and Forget It book. I have no idea which version, but I guess this is an adaption of that.

Cooking part

Cook one cup of rice. I started this in the rice cooker first.
Chop the onions and brown them with the ground beef.
Cut the top off of the peppers (By the way, when did they get to be 2$ a piece? Next time I'm buying them at the market.) and take out as much of the white and seed part as you can.
Then the recipe said to parboil them, which I didn't have time to figure out exactly, so I boiled them for about 5 minutes and them plunged them in cold water. Since there were 6 of these peppers in the pot, there was not a lot of water going around them.
Mix the ground beef with the cooked rice. Add some salt and pepper and some minced garlic.
Carefully spoon the mixture into the peppers.
Lay the peppers in the bottom of the crock pot. I just got a giant one for Christmas so they all fit, but I imagine that layering them would work fine.
Sprinkle cheese on top. I used mexiblend and mozzarella.

Mix a cup or two of tomato sauce with a couple of good shakes of Worcestershire sauce. Pour that over the peppers.

At this point I realized I had some stuff in the fridge that would probably taste good with the rest of it and through in some mushrooms and roasted red peppers and half jars of stuff in the fridge. The mushrooms worked out the best as an add on, and I can see them being really good inside the pepper.

Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

They were better than I thought they'd be.