Oven Roasted Pork Chop with Fruit Salsa over Mango-Eggplant Risotto

So really, I have been cooking.  I've just been incredibly slow on the blogging front.  And I started having trouble with some of my photos, which just won't do.  And yadda yadda yadda.  Enough on the excuses.

This recipe I made for me, not for The Husband.  Sometimes he's very adventurous - I was so proud the other day in Charleston when he ate and enjoyed a pesto-based pizza!  But other times, not so much.  Pork chops are one of his boring things.  He thinks they should be grilled with bbq sauce.  Period.  End of story.

Well that just wasn't going to cut it for me.  I had a mango that needed to be used.  I had an eggplant that needed to be used (by the way, expect a lot of eggplant recipes, I'm swimming in them!).  I was going to use them!  And boy am I glad I did!  The meal even got a tolerable "I guess it's okay but BBQ sauce is better" from The Husband as he cleaned his plate.

The mango really added an interesting flavor to the risotto.  The sweetness was subtle, but the way the mango interacted with the chicken stock and the eggplant was - to my mind - quite fantastic.

Ingredients

Fruit Salsa

3 small heirloom tomatoes, diced
1/2 small onion, diced
1/2 bell pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 peach, diced
1/2 mango, diced
1 cayenne, minced
handful of fresh cilantro
juice from 1/2 lime

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.  Let sit for at least 4 hours but preferably overnight.

Pork

Pork chops
juice from 1/2 lime
splash of white wine

Loosely wrap chops in tinfoil with the lime juice and the wine.  Bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes or until cooked through.

Risotto

2 T evoo
1/2 c rice
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 eggplant, diced
1 quart chicken stock
1 cayenne, minced
1/2 mango, diced
1/2 c white wine

Heat the oil in a saute pan.  Heat the chicken stock to a simmer in a separate pan.

Add the rice and garlic to the saute pan.  Stir until the rice becomes transparent.  Add the eggplant and cook for another minute or two.  Add a ladle of hot chicken stock to the pan, stirring constantly.  When the stock is nearly evaporated, add another.  Continue in this manner, always stirring constantly until the rice becomes tender and creamy.  At this point, add the cayenne and mango, and then the wine.  Stir and cook a minute or two more, then serve hot.

Bacon Popcorn

The other night, The Husband and I headed out to dinner at our favorite restaurant in this town; Hamptons.  Hamptons is a fantastic restaurant, and not just because the crappiness of this town makes it look good.  It would be a very, very good restaurant anywhere!  The Husband likes to go so that he can pretend that he's in a nicer place than this town, he says.

The menu at Hamptons changes constantly.  Sometimes this leads to some pretty difficult choices.  This time we ended up with the duck entree, over a sweet corn polenta with dates and bacon popcorn.

Yes, bacon popcorn.  On our duck.  Don't knock it till you've tried it.

Needless to say, like everything we eat at Hamptons, it was fantastic.  After dinner we were talking with our usual server, who makes great recommendations and he explained the recipe for the popcorn so that we could have it at home.  So tonight I whipped up a bowl and it is every bit as good as it was at the restaurant. I'm in love!

This recipe makes the amount of popcorn The Husband and I usually split.  We don't like to eat a ton at once so if you prefer bigger servings, adjust accordingly.

Ingredients

3 strips bacon
1 T bacon fat
1/4 c popcorn kernels
dash dried rosemary
dash sea salt

Cook the bacon, reserving 1 T of the bacon fat.  Set the bacon aside to cool.  Put the bacon fat and the popcorn into your whirley pop (or your usual pot) and heat over medium high heat, stirring occasionally until the kernels start popping.  Then stir constantly until the popping slows and remove from heat.  Pour into bowl.  Then crush the bacon and sprinkle the bacon bits, rosemary and sea salt over the popcorn.  Toss gently and serve!

Chicken and Basil Ravioli with Veggies in a Garlic Sauce

The other day I was able to harvest the first veggies from my garden!  It was a very exciting day!  I got a zuchinni, a handful of green beans, and a handful of basil.  I looked at them, debating what to use them for, and this dish sprang into my head.  I had leftover shredded chicken in the fridge, so all I had to do was make the raviolis - and that really doesn't take long, though I am out of practice and did not get the dough as thin as I would have liked.  I also spazzed out and forgot how to use my ravioli maker, but I muddled through and it turned out delicious in the end!  As a side note, I tried out a new pasta dough recipe and did not like it so in the future it will be back to the old standby.

Ingredients

Pasta dough, rolled out thinly
1/4 - 1/2 c cooked and shredded chicken
4 large basil leaves, sliced
2 T olive oil
handful diced onion
6-8 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 zuchinni, sliced
handful green beans, chopped
2 T olive oil
3 basil leaves, sliced
1/2 tomato, diced

Mix together the chicken and the sliced basil, let sit while you roll out the pasta dough.  Stuff the raviolis with the chicken and basil mix and seal firmly.  Cover and set aside.  Start a pot of water heating for the pasta.  Heat the first 2 T olive oil in a skillet and sautee the onions and garlic until fragrant.  Add the zuchinni and green beans.  When the zuchinni begins to soften, add the remaining 2 T olive oil and the remaining basil.  Cook until the beans are soft, adding more oil as needed.  Add the tomato in the last minute or two.  Meanwhile, once the water for pasta is at a boil, add the raviolis.  Cook for three to four minutes, then drain.  Top raviolis with the veggie and garlic oil mix.  Enjoy!

Pasta with Red Pepper Pesto

Today's post is for the HH6 May challenge:

We're all inspired by someone, whether we know them in real life or just from the tv. Tell us who inspires your cooking and share one of their recipes.


I had a certain something in mind for this post but circumstances made my initial idea impossible.  I am determined to make it possible in the future so I won't spoil it.  Anyway, despite that minor setback, I still have an excellent dish for you.  My inspiration here is my friend Stacey (whose food blog is down, else I'd link).  I met Stacey in the summer of 2008 through a third party who (without permission) invited us to her house for dinner.  Quite rude, but incredibly fortunate as it turned out - who else would I have backpacked the Grand Canyon with, after all?  Anyway, Stacey is an awesome cook and I was newly married and just beginning to experiment on the culinary front.  Seeing what she made really pushed me to be better in the kitchen.  Today I've made a dinner I had at her house last fall.  Salmon, roasted veggies, and pasta with red pepper pesto.

Now, not only is it delicious, but the pasta has the amazing ability to pass The Husband Test.  See, my husband pretty much refuses to eat pasta that doesn't have "red" sauce.  Guess what?  This sauce is red!  If I hadn't told him, he never would have known that he was eating peppers and pine nuts!  As an added benefit, it's delicious hot or cold - bring it to your next summer grill-out instead of the traditional pasta salad!

Side note:  I really dislike the place we are currently living.  There are a lot of reasons for this.  My current reason is that I had to drive an hour to get pine nuts.  I did not buy basil when in the city, figuring that basil, at least, I could obtain closer to home.  Yeah, not so much.  And my own garden basil is not large enough yet.  So I had to use dry.  SOB!

Ingredients

Penne pasta
1/3 c evoo
8 garlic cloves
1/3 c pine nuts
1/4 c Parmesean cheese, chunks or grated
1/4 c asiago, chunks or grated
1 c fresh basil
1 c roasted red peppers

Cook pasta as usual.  Drain and set aside.

Heat the oil in a skillet and saute the garlic.  Add the pine nuts and cook another minute or two.  Combine oil, garlic, nuts, basil, peppers, and 1/2 of the cheese in a food processor.  Process briefly until smooth.

Toss with pasta and top with grated remainder of cheese.

Chocolate Cups with Bailey's Mousse

A few weeks ago, my mom sent me this link for Easter Egg Balloon Cups.  I thought they were pretty cool looking and wanted to try them out.  But there was so much more potential here than to just fill them with little chocolate eggs.  What to use...

Bailey's Mousse.  It's perfect.  Light and fluffy, combined with the crunch of the chocolate, and Irish creme goes so well with chocolate in any setting.

I did have some trouble with my balloons being too large.  I just pulled them out of the junk drawer, but you'll be better off going to get the little water balloons, I think.

For the bowls...

Ingredients

1 lb semi-sweet and milk chocolate
small water balloons

Temper your chocolate. Pay close attention to the temperature of the chocolate, this is important!

Cool chocolate slightly, then dip in balloons.  Two dips should be plenty.  Put balloons on parchment lined tray until set, then refrigerate.

For the mousse...

Ingredients

1 c whipping cream, divided
1/4 c chocolate shavings
1/4 c Bailey's

In a double boiler, stir 2 T whipping cream with the chocolate shavings until melted and smooth.  Cool to room temperature and whisk in the Baileys.  Whip the remaining cream until soft peaks form.  Gently fold the whipped cream into the Bailey's mix, then refrigerate to set, about an hour.  Spoon into chocolate cups and enjoy!

Rootbeer Pork Chops

April's HH6 challenge was to Pick a recipe or dish from a HH6 blogger's blog to prepare.


So I went trolling around on blogs for a while.  With the insanity of my life lately, I needed something easy.  I also happened to have some pork chops in the fridge and a desperate craving for root beer floats.  It all came perfectly together when I found the Root Beer Grilled Pork Chops on Saraplicious! Kitchen.

And then my Traeger broke.

The Husband went out and got a cheapo gas grill the day after I made this to tide us over until I get the Traeger repaired, but that was of no use to my poor pork chops which had to be oven baked instead of grilled.

They were still delicious though!  The root beer gave the chops a delicate flavor.  I'm actually glad I didn't use my Traeger for this - I think the smoke would have overwhelmed the root beer taste.  I made some small alterations, listed below.

Ingredients

4 pork chops
1 can root beer
1 T onion powder

With a fork, poke a bunch of holes in the chops.  Put them in a large ziplock and add the rootbeer and onion powder.  Massage until well combined and marinate 4-8 hours in the fridge, turning once.  Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until cooked through.

Sweet and Sourdough Muffins

I had an extra cup of sourdough starter hanging around and about 30 minutes in which to use it.  The solution?  Muffins!  Muffins are perfect.  Fast, simple, and you can have endless variety.  I went with cheesy muffins this time, but I was very close to doing a cranberry one.  Next week, maybe!

Ingredients

1 c sourdough starter
1 c bread flour
1/2 c sugar
dash salt
1 t baking soda
1 egg
1/4 c oil
1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese.  Or fruit.  Or nuts.  Or whatever your little heart desires!

Combine all ingredients.  Grease muffin tin and fill cups about 2/3s full (this made 9 muffins for me).  Bake at 430 for 20 minutes.