You have got to be kidding me

I'm watching Paula Deen cook away fiercely on tv as I get ready for a long night of work and I am simply horrified. She is complaining of having no time to cook with a busy work schedule, so her solution was sautéing cabbage in bacon grease and  a stick of butter, then crumbling in corned beef from a can. It popped out of its container like a jello molded egg for Easter and held its shape so well then she has to break it apart like she was clawing at the last piece of meat on the planet. Are you kidding me? Now we are all very, very busy with work but I doubt that the solution rests in cans of spam and "potted meats" as she described so fervently on her program today. So we shall focus on a popular yet traditional meat dish as well, that has not yet been ruined by excessive sodium, sugar, and fluid overload that probably takes less time to prepare as that cabbage thing she calls a recipe.

Recipe of the day: Mini BBQ Meatloaf

1-1.5 lbs 85% ground sirloin
3 ribs celery, finely chopped
1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
S&P
1 egg
1 cup Honey Bear BBQ Sauce (see recipe from post on 5/27/11), divided
1/2 cup Italian breadcrumbs

Place the ground beef, chopped celery, chopped onion, salt, pepper, egg, half of the BBQ sauce, and the breadcrumbs. Use your hands to mix until well combined. Divide the meat into six equal parts, and form each into an oval shaped mound. Place mounds on a baking sheet covered with nonstick aluminum foil, spaced equally apart. Place in a 350 degree oven, and bake 8 minutes. Remove from oven and coat each meatloaf with a small amount of the remaining BBQ sauce. Place back in the oven for another 5-7 minutes, until the juices are running clear out. Remove from oven, and coat in BBQ sauce one more time prior to serving.

I served this with frozen peas and quick mashed potatoes for a true 30 minute meal. Enjoy!

Quick, sweet, and to the point

I'm quickly becoming even more of a leftovers fanatic. As mentioned yesterday, I made pasta salad as one of the side dishes to have with the grilled pork over the weekend. It is very difficult to turn pasta salad into anything besides just that, but I think that the recipe itself should count as a repurposed recipe because it combines pasta salad, which on its own can be very bland and boring, with broccoli slaw similar to the "stolen broccoli slaw" recipe featured earlier this year. Combining these two ideas together created something I had never really experienced before in one bowl. And for those who were sitting at the table that evening hopping on the "I don't like fruit in my salad" train, pooh on you because you don't know what you're missing. And after having tuna sandwiches for dinner last night (no, I couldn't bring myself to blog about that. Next you'd see a recipe on the blog for peanut butter and jelly with a glass of milk and I don't need to stoop to that level yet at this point in my cooking life), the tuna salad and this pasta salad came together in the same bowl to make the perfect 'run out the door to go take care of the Chicken Nugget kindergarteners' kinda meal. The sweetness of the cranberries is really what makes this unique, and will make a great side salad all summer long.

Recipe of the day: Broccoli Slaw Pasta Salad

 

1/2 pound bowtie pasta, boiled in salted water to al dente
Half of a 10 oz. bag broccoli slaw
3/4 cup mayo
1 tbsp honey
4-5 dashes Frank's hot sauce
1-2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (enough to thin out the mayo but not make it too soupy)
S&P to taste
2-3 handfuls dried cranberries
1 package of plain ramen noodles, flavor packet removed (crush the whole bag, and put half of the contents into the salad)

While the pasta is cooking, mix up the dressing. Combine the mayo, honey, Frank's, cider vinegar, and S&P in a bowl and whisk until smooth.

Drain the pasta. Add the pasta back into the bowl, and add about 2 tablespoons of dressing to keep the pasta from sticking together. Place in refrigerator to cool.

Once cool, add remaining dressing, broccoli slaw, dried cranberries, and stir to combine. Place back in refrigerator to cool until ready to serve. Once ready to serve, add ramen noodle crumbles, toss to distribute and serve. Leftovers keep for 3-4 days in an airtight container. You can also add sunflower seeds for an extra crunch, though I did leave them out of this version because I didn't feel like going back to the grocery store for a third time.

A Fig Tree for the Blog's Birthday

The blog turns one today...I feel awful that it's taken me more than two months to write again but I can't believe how crazy busy I've been and how time really flies when you're having fun. So for a few updates and then a very quick recipe or two that I can't really call recipes at all, more so than guidelines to really good and really fast not-deep fried (most of the time) food.

The Garden:

 

Enough said.

The new fig tree:

 

And you say to yourself, who actually eats figs? I said that too until we were standing around at the family reunion at about 11:00 at night absolutely starving after eating what they called chicken for dinner in the dining hall. Maybe it's like having a cup of ramen noodles at 3am when you're in college, or warm cookies and milk as a preschooler, but slices of french bread with brie and fig jam is probably my newest obsession and the greatest thing that more than a few of us experienced that weekend:

Grocery shopping:

Yeaaaa not going that great either (can't say I bought 2/3 of those items either but I am fortunate enough to have a very loving, understanding family including a boyfriend who just shakes his head, goes to the store so we don't starve, and says we are going to add it to the "things to work on" list of goals along with vacuuming which I hate because of the dreadful noise-still waiting on that Swiffer btw ;) ).

I think it's pretty safe to say that all of the rest of my successful time spent is devoted to work, so I'm trying to develop something similar to Sandra Lee's Round 2 recipes where food can be repurposed so you're not eating just plain old leftovers. This past weekend, I made grilled Asian pork tenderloin, broccoli slaw pasta salad, and grilled vegetable salad. In a hurry before work yesterday, I threw together a pork stir fry that tasted incredible and it only took about 15 minutes. So to celebrate the blog's birthday, and getting back to cooking that fits within a crazy busy work schedule, that's what shall be featured! Enjoy.

Recipe of the day #1: Grilled vegetable salad

• Whatever vegetables you'd like: (I went with onions, red peppers, green peppers, asparagus, and zucchini)
• Ken's Creamy Balsamic Dressing (feel free to make your own, but you don't have to)

Preheat the grill to about 300. Place pieces of aluminum foil over the grill grates to cover. Slice all of the vegetables in half-don't cut them in the shape you see above until the very end or they will be too difficult to flip over. Place the vegetables on top of the aluminum foil on the grill and cook until the vegetables have charred edges and they are soft enough to tear with your hands. Remove from the grill and allow to cool in a bowl in the refrigerator. Cut into equal sizes and serve with dinner!

Repurposed recipe: Pork stir fry

• leftovers from grilled pork tenderloin (if you have leftovers of another protein, go with what you have), cut into bite sized pieces
• leftovers from grilled vegetable salad
• 1/2 pound spaghetti, boiled and drained and sprinkled with sesame oil to prevent sticking
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup sesame oil
• 1/4 cup chicken broth

Place the pork and vegetables into a hot skillet. Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, and chicken broth and stir until pork and vegetables are heated through.

Add the boiled spaghetti, and toss with tongs to distribute sauce onto noodles. This can be served hot, room temperature, or cold.