New Direction And 4 New Recipes

So if you subscribe to my 365 Clever Cookbooks blog you may be wondering why no new posts. Well, let me tell you, life got in the way. Simply stated my life in the last three weeks involved 2 great vacations and not a lot of time to cook home cooked meals. But isn’t that the problem with all of us…..too much to do and not enough time. Normally I would just suck it up and get it done however I had a second problem. The second problem was it just wasn’t fun for me anymore. The blogging every day of new recipes, the trek to the library, the cooking because I felt I “had to” just got to be too overwhelming. So I took a break, told my children, announced it on facebook and listened to everyone’s reactions. The most important reaction was from my children, they were disappointed. My youngest and middle, who are the fussy eaters wanted me to keep going. I said, “but you never ate what I cooked”. The response was simple and profound, “but we liked you making it and trying just a bite to see if we liked it”. Wow….blow me over with a feather. I did not expect that at all!

So I have had a week to regroup and this is what I came up with. I will cook like I have always done and just post my recipes. Sometimes you will get photos, sometimes you will not. But the important thing is, I will post recipes that our family loves. What I would love from you is to help me along the way. Do you have some recipes that your family goes ape wild over, if so be a guest blogger for me. Write a blog post and I will post it to share with all my friends. Because lets face it, we all need help in figuring out what is for dinner!

So back to the basics; I am a creature of habit and they way I search for recipes is simple, online. That is the source that I will go back to. It is part of my mission of getting less dependent on recipes found in books and on cards and ones found on-line. I love to search my favorite sites for new and inspiring recipes. So back to my habits of finding a good one online and less on the trek to the library….where frankly I was going to run out of cookbooks!

Here is what I made this weekend with the complete recipes for the ones out of my recipe book and the links from the ones that I found on the internet:

Cafe Rio Pork Salad (my adaptation as I have made it much simpler than the version I had found online)

Cafe Rio Pork Ingredients:

•  pork roast, one that is great for shredding
• 1 cup of chunky salsa
• 1 can coke
• 1/2 c. brown sugar

Directions:

1. Place pork in crock-pot. Mix together ingredients, salsa, coke, brown sugar and put on top of pork. Cook for 6 hours on low. Shred pork with forks, taking out the fat. Leave it on low until ready to serve.

 Creamy Tomatillo Dressing Ingredients:

•  1 packet hidden valley ranch buttermilk dressing
• 1 c. buttermilk
• 3/4 c. of light sour cream
• 3/4 cup  tomatillo salsa
• ¾ bunch fresh cilantro
• juice from 1 lime (about 2 tsp.)

Directions:

1. Blend all ingredients in the blender. Refrigerate.

 SERVING:

 There are two options for this, either serve it as a salad or eat it as a taco. I eat it as a salad and my younger two boys eat it as a taco. For the salad I add whatever fresh vegetables I have around the house such as tomatoes, peppers,cucumbers and avocado. I don’t even add cheese as I think the salad has enough flavor and you really don’t miss having the cheese. For some who are making the tacos, they may like cheese.

 Lemon Thyme Bars

Ingredients:

• Butter, for greasing dish
• Flour, for dusting dish

Bar Ingredients:

• 1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves (I have lemon thyme that I grow every year just for these bars)
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Glaze Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Place an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter and flour an 8 by 8-inch glass baking dish.
2. In a small bowl combine flour, thyme and salt. Set aside. Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together 1 stick of butter and powdered sugar on high-speed until light and fluffy, about 30 seconds. Beat in the lemon juice and vanilla. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the flour mixture. Using damp fingers, press the dough into the prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes until golden. Cool for 30 minutes.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk the lemon juice and powdered sugar together until smooth. Spoon the glaze over the cooled crust. Allow the glaze to harden, at room temperature, for at least 1 hour.
4. Using a metal spatula, remove the crust from the pan. Cut into 1 1/2-inch square bars and arrange on a serving platter or store airtight in a plastic container at room temperature.

The Pioneer Woman Taco Pizza

The Pioneer Woman Red Velvet Cake with The Best Frosting Ever

 

To Joyful, Simplified Living,

MS. Simplicity

 MS. Simplicity, also known as Melissa Schmalenberger  operates her business as I Did it with MS. Simplicity.  She is a Professional Organizer based out of Fargo, ND and her website can be found at http://www.ididit-fargo.com/.

• Interested in starting your own Professional Organizing business, visit http://www.mssimplicity.com/ to learn about how Melissa can help you! 
• Need to contact MS. Simplicity privately, you can email her at melissa@mssimplicity.com.
• MS. Simplicity offers monthly classes, click here to find out the latest offerings!
• For daily organizing tips find the MS. Simplicity fan page here.

 

The Pioneer Woman’s Pulled Pork

Day 112: The Pioneer Woman Cooks

April 22, 2011

Pulled pork is something that the whole family will eat and it often is very easy to make. Most pulled pork recipes that I have made are made in the slow cooker. The lovely thing about pulled pork is that the meat is so versatile. I have had it on a salad, I have had it sliced thin and served as sliders, mixed with BBQ sauce and served on a bun and shredded and served on a flour tortilla Mexican style. I feel like it is a little bit like Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham” as I will have my pork served many ways as opposed to the grump in the book with his green eggs and ham.

If you read any blogs….you must already be reading the blog by Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman or as I like to call her, PW. She is a city girl who was a vegetarian dancer who found herself in love with a cowboy and married and had children and fed cowboys, kids, family and animals. She has an incredible sense of humor and leaves be laughing all the time. I have on my bucket list to become friends with her. If you know her, could you drop her a line and tell her what a fun person I am?! Pretty please?! Her cooking is how I cook, to feed a group of starving children. She likes lighter fare but her husband likes red meat and manly food. She has gathered her recipes and her incredible photos in one book. She now will be having her own cooking show on The Food Network. She will be great! In the meantime, I will continue to read her blog and find inspiration from her on a daily basis. Her cookbook is the only one that I have ever found with this many photos. I have never been disappointed by anything that PW has made, and you wont either. The direction to each recipe is written in her funny sense of humor….you will see below in the recipe….enjoy!

The Ruling: Everyone loved it. I mean loved it! I went and tracked down a market that made home-made flour tortillas and that even made it better. This will go in our monthly rotation list! It would work best for a Sunday supper where you have time to turn it once every hour. I did not have that kind of time on a weeknight, so I did not turn it and it still turned out great!

Spicy Pulled Pork, page 94

Ingredients:

• One 5-7 pound pork shoulder
• 1 whole onion, cut into quarters
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 to 2 tablespoons salt, or to taste
• freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• lime wedges
• flour tortillas

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
2. This is a pork shoulder roast. Make friends with it, because it;s a fabulously versatile piece of meat. Go ahead and give it a rinse. I’ll wait.
3. In a food processor, combine the onion, chili powder, brown sugar, garlic, oregano, cumin, salt, pepper, olive oil, and vinegar. Pulse until totally combined.
4. Pour the mixture over the pork. Rub it into every nook and cranny of the meat, tucking it under folds and in crevices. Let no stone go unturned
5. Place the pork into a roasting pan or Dutch oven and add 2 cups water. Cover tightly and roast for 6 or 7 hours, turning once every hour.
6. Check to make sure it’s fork-tender. Increase the heat to 425 and roast uncovered for 20 minutes or until the skin gets crispy. Remove from the oven and allow the pork to rest for 15 minutes.
7. Shred the meat, using two forks to pull it apart. Place the shredded meat on a large platter lined with lime wedges.
8. Pour the pan juices over the shredded meat. THis will ensure that the meat stays extra tender.
9. Serve with warm tortillas.

To Joyful, Simplified Living,

MS. Simplicity

MS. Simplicity, also known as Melissa Schmalenberger  operates her business as I Did it with MS. Simplicity.  She is a Professional Organizer based out of Fargo, ND and her website can be found at www.ididit-fargo.com .  Need to contact MS. Simplicity privately, you can email her at melissa@ididit-fargo.com.  For daily organizing tips find the MS. Simplicity fan page  here.

If you try any of my suggestions, I would love to hear from you.  It helps me to understand what my readers want me to write about and what they think is a waste of their time….thanks for taking the time to help me out.