Tag Archives: food

“Since You Asked” The Recipe for the Best Sandwich in the World

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Okay, since I’m cooking this, I can guarantee four things.

1. It will be as easy as possible.
2. It will be flavorful.
3. It will be cooked in a crock pot.
4. It will feed a party of 8, at the very least.

 

Ingredients:

4 or 5 large stalks celery 
One pork loin or tenderloin
4 or 5 scrubbed potatoes, skin on. (If you wish, you can omit the potatoes.)
4 or 5 whole scrubbed carrots with each end cut off. (If you wish, you can omit the carrots.)

1 medium-sized onion, diced
Garlic powder
Kirkland 21 herb saltless dry seasoning mix
Pepper
KC Masterpiece Kettle Cooked Barbecue Sauce

Shredded cabbage (I buy already shredded.)
Shredded carrots (I buy already shredded)
Balsamic vinaigrette
Sweet Chili Sauce (in oriental seasoning aisle)

Bolillos or other large dense rolls.  Ciabatta would work, or French rolls.

Method:

Wash and cut the ends off the celery. Place in the bottom of the crockpot to form a “rack” to cushion the bottom of the pork loin. Rub the pork loin with the garlic powder. seasoning mix and pepper and place over the celery.  Sprinkle the onions on top, reserving a few.

Place the carrots and potatoes around and on top of the meat and sprinkle the rest of the diced onion over the top.  Sprinkle with the seasoning mix, garlic and pepper.

I use a rectangular crockpot with a removable cooking receptacle.  If you are using a regular round crockpot whose receptacle can’t be put on the stovetop, there is no need to brown the meat and veggies first as is described below.  Just put everything in the crockpot on high, then reduce to medium after it is well heated.

If you have a crockpot with a removable pot that can be placed on the stove top, place lid on crockpot and put on top burner of stove . In a few minutes, when you can hear contents begin to sizzle, turn to medium and allow to cook until well heated, then place on heating unit of crock pot. Turn to medium and allow to cook until potatoes and carrots are tender and meat can be shredded with a fork.

Remove potatoes, onions and celery and place pork on a cutting board.  Shred and then cut shredded pork into into 1 to  2 inch portions. Or, slice into 1 to 2 inch slices and then shred.  Place back in crock pot covered with bottled barbecue sauce to taste.  I use KC Masterpiece Kettle Cooked Barbecue Sauce and use quite a bit as I like my barbecue zesty.

Put carrots and potatoes in the fridge to be reheated as a side dish. I add them to give moisture to the meat and because they pick up the flavor of the pork and can be used on their own as part of a different meal or to accompany the heated up pork that isn’t made into sandwiches.  Cook the meat for another hour or two until well blended, then store in refrigerator.

I think barbecue has a better flavor cold or at room temperature, so I cool it off in the fridge, but if you prefer it hot, you could make the sandwiches immediately or reheat the meat before making sandwiches.

Cut the shredded cabbage and carrots into 1 to 1 1/2 inch pieces and mix.  Combine balsamic vinaigrette and sweet chili sauce to taste.  I use 1/3 portion of chili sauce to 1 portion of vinaigrette.  Pour over slaw mixture and blend well so the cabbage and carrots are well-coated but not soggy.  

To make sandwiches, cut bolillos or long buns in half lengthwise and remove some of the soft interior of the top part of the bun.  Butter the inside sides of the bun and place on a warm griddle or frying pan.  Press down with something weighted to insure all surfaces touch the griddle and allow to brown.

Spread a generous portion of the barbecue pork over the bottom of the bun, top with the oriental coleslaw mixture, Put top of bun on top and enjoy.  The mixture of hot and cold, soft and crisp, sweet and vinegar is to die for.  Hope you agree.  Let me know what you think. 

 

 

My Excuse and I’m Sticking to It!!!

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Click either photo to enlarge both

I had a marathon cooking day yesterday.  I’d been shopping, and bought a kilo of hamburger, four Italian sausages and two huge chicken breasts. In addition, I had 1/2 a roasted chicken I’d bought the day before along with vegetables that needed to be used, a bag of pearl barley and a variety of condiments.  If I’m going to mess up the kitchen, I’d just as soon cook as much as possible and freeze it, so in about 4 hours, I made a Chinese sweet and sour chicken/peanut casserole, the beef and sausage tomato sauce for a lasagna to be made later, stuffed green peppers, a big pot of cooked barley and a heavenly chicken salad.  Most of these I froze. The unfrozen stuffed pepper I intend to have for dinner tonight, but there was a little bowl of chicken salad—just enough to make into a sandwich, and although I’m trying to cut down on Diet Coke, a large open liter bottle that would just go flat if I didn’t drink it soon.

It wasn’t until I’d eaten two bites  of the sandwich and was about to have my first drink of Coke that I remembered a happening from the day before. Yolanda was mopping the floor in another part of the house and I was sorting out kitchen drawers yet another time, trying to put the things I used most in the top drawer, removing to the outside bodega some seldom-used implements, and consigning the rest to a lower drawer.  When I got to the plastic bag of  saved wine corks, bottle tops and the rubber plugs to reseal wine bottles, I picked out a little flapped pourer to put in the top of a wine bottle, wondering if I’d ever use it. Then I noticed the fixture at the bottom that indicated it was meant to be screwed into something and suddenly remembered that it was actually the top to a long aluminum finger filled with liquid that was meant to be kept in the freezer, then when needed, to be screwed into the capped pourer part and put in an opened bottle of white wine to keep it cold between pourings!  It had been a gift from a friend and I kept the bottom part in the door compartment of my fridge freezer, but unscrewed the top and put it in the drawer because it didn’t fit in the compartment.

Then I suddenly remembered that three days before, I’d put just the metal part into a 2 liter bottle of Diet Coke that I was taking to a pot luck dinner!  And remembered I’d thrown that empty bottle away when I got home!  And the trash can was empty!  I called out to Yolanda and asked if the garbage truck had come yet.  She said no and as we started to rush out to see if the vital element of my wine cooler was in the trash bag she put on the curb, it suddenly occurred to me that surely I would have noticed the long metal rod in the empty bottle.  I then remembered pouring the remains of a 1/2 empty bottle into another bottle, opened the fridge and found a full bottle of Diet Coke.  I shook it and heard a clunk!!!  When I poured the bottle out into a pitcher, I could see the comforting flash of aluminum and recovered what I had thought was lost!  RELIEF.  I funneled the Diet Coke back into the bottle, cleaned the aluminum shaft and restored it to it’s compartment in the freezer. All was right with the world.

So it was that when I made my sandwich today and spied the opened Diet Coke in the door of the fridge, that I decided I’d better drink it before it went flat.  And so it was that I filled a glass, added ice, grabbed my sandwich and made off to my desk and computer.  Bite of sandwich.  Check a few blogs.  Another bite of sandwich.  Long pull on that glass of Diet Coke. Surprise!!!  Only then did I remember that before I left for the potluck, I had laced the bottle of Diet Coke with anejo rum!! Easier than taking two bottles and mixing them there.

And that is how I came, at 1 p.m. on June 5, to be an early drinker. Tasted pretty good with the chicken salad.  I wonder how it will taste with one of the chocolate chip cookie brownies I made last night?

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Midnight Supper

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The thing about a midnight supper is that it’s gotta be good but it’s also gotta be fast. This means raiding the fridge to see what can be easily and quickly thrown together. Tonight it was a bowl of Mama Memorial Goulash and a Rootie Tootie Margarootie. As good as they are pretty. Lovely glass is courtesy of friend Patty who won a set along with a basket and bottle of tequila in a silent auction to benefit Operation Feed, a local charity that provides food, clothing and scholarships for about 500 people in our village.

If you want my slapdash recipes for the goulash and margarootie, you’ll have to beg. If I get 7 requests for them, I will comply. (A shameless bid for comments.)

Late Night Hunger: Nothing in the House to Eat

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Nothing in the House to Eat

I pined, I whined, I opined I’d nothing here to eat.
No soup or chips or waffles. No ham or other meat.
I’d used up all my popcorn. I never buy baloney.
But looking in the freezer, I found some pepperoni!
When I went searching through the fridge, hidden back so far
that I could barely see it, I found a little jar.
Hidden behind the pickles, some pizza sauce that I
surmised was just enough to make a little pizza pie!
Some frozen cheese to top it, and some pita for the crust.
It seems that it was fated that a pizza was a must.
The toaster oven was just right for melding it together.
I dived once more into the fridge, intent on seeing whether
I had stuff for a salad, and I found some veggies shredded.
Fresh carrots and fresh cabbage—which were most swiftly wedded.
Balsamic and some blue cheese and olives from a jar
made a so-so salad only slightly below par.
The pizza cooked so quickly that I was quickly fed.
And now that I am sated, I think I’ll go to bed!

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Forgottenman made me post this! I need to learn not to tell him anything this late at night. He always decides it would make a good blog post!!!

Cozy in My Skin

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Cozy in My Skin

I seem to fit my life now, I’m cozy in my skin.
No matter how far out it goes, I always fit right in.
When I gain a pound or two, my skin grows out to hold it,
and when my skin begins to sag enough for me to fold it,
my flesh grows out to fill it in. It’s become symbiotic.
That state of growing me out to my skin’s become hypnotic.

When encountering fresh pastries, a fugue state might ensue.
A box of chocolates empties, though I only ate a few.
Whole pizzas vanish in thin air, to my midnight grief.
They left the box behind them, this culinary thief!
The thought of uninvited guests is not very nice.
I make much of the mystery. Could it be dogs or mice?

Perhaps once more the kittens have discovered a way in
and at night when the lights go out, pursue their lives of sin.
Feasting on my pizza. Gorging on my pies.
Surveying my milk chocolate with their greedy feline eyes.
I spin a pretty fantasy, but the truths of this tale
are revealed to me each morning as I step upon the scale.

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The prompt word is cozy.

Thanksgiving Reflections: Waiting to Be Fed

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IMG_5805Waiting to be fed.

When I was a kid at summer camp, we used to sing a song in the mess hall as we sat waiting for our food to be served.  It went, “Here we sit like birds in the wilderness, birds in the wilderness, birds in the wilderness. Here we sit like birds in the wilderness, waiting to be fed.”  It never failed to amuse us.  For seven years as a camper and two as a counselor, I joined in the refrain and sure enough, the food always eventually came through.

Now, at 2 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, 2017, the strains of that line of music keep weaving their way through my thoughts.  By some strange series of misunderstood communications, I actually have two dates for a turkey meal—both at the same restaurant, but with different groups of friends and at different times––one at 3, the other at 6:30.  I could relate the weird facts of how this came to be, but suffice it to say it wasn’t my fault and that yes, I’ve cancelled one of them.  Sort of. At any rate, I’m saving myself for that meal and although I went grocery shopping this morning, mainly for the cats and dogs, I had unusual restraint in not buying any junk food, no matter how healthy it presented itself to be.  The naughtiest items I purchased were whole wheat bread, low fat thin rice cakes and apples. I splurged on Fancy Feast for Annie, who has been staging a hunger strike since I got home, and got 60 packets of kitten food which should last the other cats a few days and I will probably feed them the Fancy Feast as well, after Annie turns her nose up at it.  I, for one, am fasting until tonight’s meal, doing penance before the act.  Tomorrow I start my new diet.

IMG_2825Also waiting to be fed.

In case you missed it, HERE is my Thanksgiving post from a few days ago of images of Thanksgivings present and past.

 

 

Best for Last

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Best for Last

Just as I’m ready to ingest
the morsel I consider best
and so picked out from all the rest
to be my last bite, savored with zest—
last memory of this gourmet fest—
from north and south and east and west,
descends each winged little pest,
radared in on diabolical quest
as though invited at my behest.
They put my appetite to the test,
settling as though to the nest,
their hairy feet intimately pressed
upon that morsel that I loved best.
I wave my hand over them, lest
they eat too much, then I confess
I guiltily consume the rest.

 

The prompt today is pest.

Our Flavorful World.

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Click on any photo to enlarge all images.

For the travel theme, flavor.

Snackless

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I won’t go into details, but the last thing I wanted to think about today was snacking. Up all night, sick most of the day, finally slept in the afternoon.  Feeling better but still not up to snacking so I had a look at past blogs and came up with this:

Refresh Me

If you hope to make conjunction
with me at your little function,
serve potato chips with dip
and also, I’d appreciate a sip
of Diet Coke or Seven Up
in a waxy paper cup.

No one likes a fete that lacks
sweet or salty little snacks.
Pizza, nachos and popcorn, too,
are appropriate things to chew.
Leave caviar to lords and kings.
I’d much rather have onion rings.

Refreshments are an absolute must.
Without them, parties are a bust.
And any date becomes an upper
when it includes a little supper.
So if you wish to win my heart,
my stomach is the place to start.

The prompt today was snack.

JNWs Halloween Challenge, Spooky: Deviled eggs!!!!

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When I asked Dan and Rhonda to make me some deviled eggs, I guess I should have given more specific instructions!!!!! Note the avocado horns.  Eight o’clock in the morning, and spooked already!

https://jennifernicholewells.com/2016/10/03/jnws-halloween-challenge-spooky/