BBQ Pork Lettuce Wraps with a Cabbage/Radish Slaw

BBQ Pork. Lettuce Wrap. Cabbage/Radish Slaw. It's pretty much the perfect marriage. A little bit sweet, a little bit spicy with both a crunch and a melt-in-your mouth creaminess. It's what's for dinner.

BBQ Pork

Ingredients

3 1/2 - 4 lb pork shoulder roast

1 sweet onion, peeled and sliced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

8 cups, two boxes, of chicken stock

Your favorite sweet BBQ sauce

Sugar, salt, and pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 450. Let pork rest outside the fridge for 30 minutes. Pat dry with paper towel. Season all over with sugar, salt and pepper. Pour BBQ sauce in hand (about 4 TBSP) and rub all over meat. Layer sliced onions on the bottom of a heavy, oven safe Dutch oven. Add minced garlic. Coat with 2 TBSP off BBQ sauce. Place pork roast on top of onions.

Roast for 15 minutes at 450, to seal in juices. Turn heat down to 325. Add 8 cups of chicken stock to pan. Liquid should almost cover roast. Roast for 3 1/2 hours. 

Remove from oven. Reserve 1 cup of cooking liquid, and all of the onions. Place roast in large bowl. Remove any ties, and shred meat with forks. Add cooking liquid, onions, and 1 cup BBQ sauce to bowl. Stir.

Cabbage/Radish Slaw

Ingredients

1 large head of green cabbage, core removed and shredded

6 radishes, sliced thinly

1/2 bunch of Italian parsley, leaves diced

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 TBSP sugar

In a small bowl wisk sugar into vinegar until dissolved. Stream in vegetable oil while whisking. Set aside.

In a large bowl toss shredded cabbage, radishes, and parsley. Pour dressing over and toss. Let sit in fridge for several hours.

Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients

Butter lettuce, leaves removed and intact

BBQ pork

Cabbage/Radish Slaw

Directions

For each cup take one lettuce leaf, add heaping spoonful of pork, and top with slaw.

Sub"lime" Cake Bar

I am a self proclaimed horrible baker. Horrible. I have a half dozen desserts that I can do well, and I make them anytime I need to make dessert. For someone, like me, who is organized, specific, and loves to plan; baking should come easily.  Baking is about following directions, precise measurements, and sticking to the original. You know, everything I aspire to in everyday life. So it's shocking, honestly, how bad I am at it. And, conversely, how much better I am at cooking off the fly, ignoring recipes, and "feeling out" what ingredients work together.

All that being said, I got a bug to try a dessert recipe on my own. It's a little bit cookie bar, a little bit cake, and a whole lotta bit easy. I cheat a little bit and use a cake mix for the base, but that's how I bake, so bear with me.

Ingredients

1 box yellow extra moist cake mix

4 eggs

8 tablespoons (1 stick) melted butter

8oz cream cheese, softened

4 cups powdered sugar

4 tablespoons butter (1/2 stick), softened

Zest and juice of 4 limes

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Butter the bottom and sides of a 13 x 9 pan.

Whisk two eggs in a bowl. Add cake mix and 8 TBSP melted butter. Combine. Batter will be thick and sticky. Layer batter in the bottom of the 13 x 9 pan.

Using an electric mixer, combine softened cream cheese, and softened 4 TBSP butter. When fluffy, add remaining two eggs, lime zest, and juice.

1 cup at a time, add powdered sugar. Spread mixture on top of cake batter. Place pan on the middle rack. Bake for 45 minutes. Cake should still jiggle in the middle when you pull it out. 

That's it! Enjoy!

Chicken Apple Sausage and Artichoke Pizza with Roasted Tomato Sauce

As some of you might know, I'm obsessed with Specialty Produce. For those of you who don't...I'm obsessed with Specialty Produce. Like a CSA, without fees, and without a single farm produce limit, Specialty Produce provides you with fresh, organic, and locally grown fruits and vegetables each week. You can also add on meats, cheeses, eggs, butter, local/sustainable fresh caught fish, pasta, breads, chocolate, coffee, jams, local honey... you get the idea. All local, all vetted, all delivered to my door once a week. It's amazing. Plus, since I love to cook, I like being surprised by what was picked that week, and coming up with a meal to make out of it. (And, have I mentioned that we can feed our family of six for the week for less than $100?!?!) 

Along with the produce and fruit, this week I also ordered some fresh chicken/apple sausages, and fresh pizza dough. I had some tomatoes that were starting to soften and needed to be used, so pizza was the perfect vehicle.

This was by far my favorite homemade pizza I've done.  To quote the kids, "this pizza tastes expensive... I bet you could get $100 a slice!"

I used pre-made, but raw, pizza dough from Specialty. If you don't have access to the dough from Specialty, you could make your own dough...I have a recipe that I use.  But, to be honest, I find that Trader Joes and/or Whole Foods make an acceptable substitute, and cut down on the time it takes to make. If you want a recipe for your own, let me know and I'll get you mine.

Roasted Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

8 Roma Tomatoes, quartered

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed

12 tiny basil leaves (I used the tops of my basil plants I headed to stop them from seeding)

6 large basil leaves

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt and Pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 450. In a parchment lined jelly roll pan, toss tomatoes, tiny basil, and garlic in enough olive oil to coat. Salt and pepper.

Roast for 30-40 minutes, until tomatoes just start to brown. Empty tomatoes, basil, garlic, and juice into a bowl. Add fresh basil. Using an immersion blender, purée. Set sauce aside.

Steamed Artichokes

Ingredients

4 cups of chicken broth

3 limes, halved

4 cloves of garlic

Large handful (or a bunch) of fresh dill

4 artichokes

Directions

Bring chicken stock, dill, garlic, and 2 of the limes to boil in a large stock pot.

Meanwhile, remove stems of the artichokes and trim the top off.  Remove majority of outside hard leaves. Rub cut edges with the remaing lime. Place artichokes in the boiling liquid, bottoms up.

Turn heat to low, cover, and let simmer for 15 minutes. Test for doneness by sticking a knife in the bottom. It should be easily pierced. 

Remove artichokes from liquid and cut the heart from bottom. (If you were me, you would use this opportunity to scrape and eat all the artichoke yuminess from the leaves with your teeth, as you won't be using them on the pizza). Make sure to remove all the spikey choke from the hearts. Chop artichoke hearts and set aside.

Sausage

3 uncooked chicken and apple sausages, casing removed

1 T of olive oil

Heat the olive oil in a pan on medium high. Add loose sausage meat, and crumble while cooking. When browned, remove from heat and set to rest on a paper towel to drain the excess fat.

Pizza

Ingredients

Pizza Dough

Artichoke Hearts, diced

Chicken Apple Sausage, cooked and drained

2 cups of shredded mozzarella 

Directions

Preheat oven to 400.

Stretch pizza dough on a parchment-lined cookie sheet or directly on a pizza stone if you have one. Spoon tomato sauce onto the dough. Sprinkle artichokes over sauce. Cover pizza with cheese. Top with sausage.

Bake on bottom rack for 10 minutes. Bake on top rack for 5 minutes, or until cheese starts to get golden brown.

Roasted Turkey Breast

Having cooked Thanksgiving for the past 17 years, I consider myself quite the turkey expert. I have cooking the whole bird down to a T. This past Thanksgiving, Jamie and I were remarking that for a family who is as large as ours is, and who loves turkey as much as we do, it's surprising that we only have turkey once a year. On Thanksgiving. We could quite easily roast a smaller bird, and eat it, throughout the year, but we just never do it.

Yesterday I was at the grocery store, tracking down snack items for Buggys class, when I ran across a bone-in, skin-on Turkey breast, and thought...why not? It's got the bone and the skin for flavor- one of the reasons I have been against cooking just a breast...Really, what good is turkey without all the built-in flavor enhancers?!? So I brought it home with me and cooked it.

Life changing. I kid you not. Turkey, pan gravy, and all the thanksgiving yuminess in no time. I served it with steamed zucchini and artichoke risotto. Perfect family meal. Life changing. Guess what we will be having for dinner regularly? I can't wait to play around with flavors, now that I've nailed the cooking technique. And trust me when I say this... It's easy. 

And have I mentioned... life changing?!?

Ingredients

4 - 5 lb turkey breast, skin-on, bone in

1 cup of butter (2 sticks), softened 

2 sweet onions, peeled and sliced

Handful of Italian Parsley

8 stalks of fresh Thyme

4 stalks of fresh Rosemary

1/2 cup of Chardonnay

1/2 cup of chicken stock

3 T of flour

1/2 cup of milk, warmed 

2-3 cups of chicken stock (separate use)

Salt and pepper

Instructions

Preheat Oven to 450.

In a stove-top safe roasting pan, layer onions on top of each other in center of the pan. Top with fresh herbs. Rub softened butter all over turkey breast, under skin, in cavity, and under the bone. (If you don't plan on making gravy, you can coat the breast in olive oil instead). Salt and pepper the breast, top and bottom. Lay breast skin side up, over onions and herbs, using them to create a natural roasting rack. The flavor will infuse the breast, and also flavor the drippings for pan gravy. Pour liquid into the bottom of the pan.

Roast at 450 for 25 minutes. Lower heat to 375, basting turkey with pan liquid when you do so. Continue to cook for one hour, basting every 20 minutes. Using a meat thermometer make sure breast has reached 165 degrees. 

Remove turkey to carving board and tent with tin foil. Let rest 20 minutes before carving.

While turkey is resting, make gravy. Place pan on stove top, and turn heat to medium. Add flour 1 TSP at a time, whisking vigorously several minutes between each addition. Once pan drippings and flour have been combined, whisk in warmed milk. Add chicken stock in 1/2 cup increments, whisking every time, until mixture is slightly thick. 

Serve gravy over sliced turkey.

Boneless Rib Roast...quick, easy, delicious.

If you are a carnivore, Prime Rib is beyond tasty; and for my family, usually the staple of our Christmas dinner. But I (and by I, I clearly mean all of us) don't always want to wait to have it. On these days, I go hunting for a standing, boneless, rib roast. Just as yummy, less intimidating (because it doesn't have the bones), and slightly more affordable for a "normal" family dinner. In fact, Costco carries a great one.  As I've gone on about before, roasting is one of my favorite perks of cold weather...minimal prep, oven lag time where I am not in the kitchen cooking, and delicious, slow baked flavor. It doesn't get much better than that. And this? Well this, is a great way to add a different roast to your resume that is sure to impress and satisfy anyone... Including the family.

Ingredients:

Approx 3lb rib roast, boneless

Unsalted butter, slightly softened

Salt

Pepper

Granulated garlic

Directions

About 1 hour before roasting, remove roast from fridge. Unwrap and place in a heavy bottomed roasting pan. (If you intend on making beef gravy, make sure you use a pot that can go from oven to stove top).

Rub entire roast with butter. You aren't trying to coat the roast with butter, like you would with your Thanksgiving turkey, just adding a little extra flavor, fat, and a vehicle for a crispy, browned outside.

Liberally sprinkle salt, pepper, and granulated garlic on all sides of the roast. Remember this is a large cut of meat, and your are seasoning the whole piece of meat here... 1/4 teaspoon is nowhere near enough. Rub into meat.

Preheat oven to 450. After roast has sat out for an hour, place in oven.

Bake for 30 minutes and then turn the heat down to 350 degrees. Since I have little kids at home, when I am cooking a roast for the fam. I cook to medium well. Slightly pink in the center, browner on the outside. For this, I will continue to roast for about 1 hour and 45 minutes. 145 on an instant read thermometer. If you prefer a slightly less done meat, or are cooking for company, or Christmas dinner, try an additional 1 hour 15 minutes for medium rare, or 1 hour and 30 minutes for medium. However long you cook it, once you remove the roast from the oven, remove it from the pan, set it aside, and let it sit. For thirty minutes. No joke. This seals on all the juices that keep your roast tender, and flavorful. If you cut it too early, they will all seap out. Let it sit. 

I always plan what time I will be eating, and count backward from there. Dinner at 5:30? 30 minutes to sit. 1 hour and 30 minutes at 350. 30 minutes at 450. 1 hour out of the fridge. 3 and a half total hours. I pull that roast out of the fridge at 2pm, and go from there.

Company Carrots

This recipe has been in my family as long as I can remember.  If you've attended a Lister Family soirée or been a guest at one of the 16 Thanksgivings I've hosted, chances are you've not only tasted this dish, but have asked for the recipe by name...repeatedly (Andy, Jenn, Wendy, Marta, I'm looking at you and know I've totally slacked).

I don't know why it's called company carrots, other than it was always a dish my grandmother served for large dinner parties where inevitably, company was present.  Over the years that I've been making it, I've updated and (I'd like to think) improved upon it. I use more fresh ingredients and put it together in a slightly different way, while still maintaining the flavor and integrity of the dish that made it the beloved favorite that it remains today. 

Ingredients:

5 lbs of carrots, julienned

       (I use packaged baby carrots-- yes, I know they are not really baby carrots-- for two reasons. 1)    

       They are already peeled- and it saves extra work. 2) The length is the perfect size (which again

       saves extra cutting work) for julienning, all you have to do is slice them in half, and then in half 

       again one or two more times. And before you ask, yes... julienne is that important to the recipe. 

       It's what allows for the sauce to trickle down and flavor all the carrots, making each bite better 

       than the last.  I did it with whole carrots one time, only one time. The extra work is worth it. Trust 

       me!)

                            

3/4 cup of the liquid the carrots cooked in

1 cup Mayonnaise

3 TBSP prepared horseradish 

2 TBSP Dijon mustard

1/4 cup white onion, minced 

Salt

1-2 cups of panko breadcrumbs

1/2 cup of butter, melted

1 bunch of Italian parsley, leaves removed and diced

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Butter the inside of a 9x13 baking dish.

Bring a large stockpot of water to boil. Once boiling, add in carrots and cook until easily pierced by a fork. Approximately 10 minutes. Drain carrots, reserving 1/2 cup of cooking liquid. When carrots are dry, pour into baking dish.

In a separate bowl combine cooking liquid, mayo, onion, horseradish, mustard, and a pinch of salt. Mix with a fork until ingredients are combined. Spoon over carrots. 

Toss panko, parsley, and a pinch of salt. Sprinkle mixture gently over the top of the carrots. You aren't trying to create a thick crust, instead just a layer similar to a dessert crumble. Drizzle melted butter butter over the top.

Bake 30-45 minutes, until panko is a golden brown. 

Turkey Stock

I typically don't make my own stock. Ever. Even though I know how incredibly easy it is to do, I still find it easier to pop open a box top. Always.

Except when it comes to Thanksgiving. The key to my pan gravy is the flavor, and part of that key is making my own, fresh, homemade turkey stock. 

Which I do religiously, every Thanksgiving Eve.  Jamie comes home with the fresh turkey, and I make stock. Like clockwork.

Ingredients:

Turkey neck and giblets (I don't use the liver, but you? May feel free to do so if you choose)

8 cups of drinking water

3-4 carrots, lightly peeled and chopped in 4-6 pieces

4 celery stalks, chopped in 4-6 pieces

1 rosemary sprig

2 thyme sprigs

1/2  bunch of Italian parsley

1 bay leaf

1 TBSP whole black pepper corns

Large pinch of salt

Directions:

Place all ingredients in large stockpot. Bring water to boil. Turn heat to low and let simmer 2 hours.

Strain ingredients using cheesecloth or other fine sieve. Refrigerate liquid overnight.