First Dinner!

Hi all!

If you are friends with me on Facebook you will know that the past week has been crazy with us moving into the new house and finally having all of our stuff after 10 months in 2 storage units.

Overwhelming is an understatement.

My mom has been a huge, huge help the past few days helping me unpack, clean, and organize the new kitchen. It's still a total mess, so I'll show you photos in upcoming posts.

But, for now, I just wanted to share our first dinner "officially" cooked in the new house.


A pot roast with all the fixings.

I'm ashamed to say it has been a very, very long time since I really cooked. We moved around 3 times in 6 months, got married, and were house hunting. I didn't have any of my kitchen stuff, and in the last rental house we were living in, the fridge froze everything. And I don't mean a thin sheet of ice on top of a pitcher of juice. I mean, solid frozen ice.

There's been lots of take-out. Lots of eating out. Lots of frozen meals (with the freezing fridge and all..). Barely any grocery shopping, no cooking, and no creativity.

I'm very, very excited to have a beautiful, huge, new kitchen to show you guys and get creative in again. Thanks for hanging in all these months!

Pepperocini Beef Roast + House Progress!

Swistle has been blogging, tweeting, and shouting from the rooftops lately about how good this beef recipe is. Apparently it's been making its way through the blog world like wildfire. Which is news to me, because I never saw it until last week, despite being an avid reader of A Year of Slow Cooking and even own the cookbook!

So I picked up the two ingredients necessary. Yes, two. 2.

2-3 lb. beef roast
16 oz. jar of pepperocinis

Put the beef in the slow cooker and dump the whole bottle of pepperocinis on top (liquid and all). Cook on low for 8 hrs. or high for 3-4 hrs. (The beef can even be frozen.) Shred the meat with two forks and serve on your choice of bread, topped with cheese and condiments if you wish.

I had already eaten 3/4 of mine before I remembered to take a pic. So I got this quick shot of my dad's sandwich (Biz will appreciate the crushed red pepper flakes!)

It was really, really good. The meat was tender and was reminiscent of a pulled pork BBQ with the prominent vinegar taste. It had a really nice kick to it from the pepperocini. I'm not usually a spicy person, but this was a tasty spicy, so it was great!

In the future I think I'd like to try it with hot giardiniera pickled vegetables. That way there's a nice spicy variety in there to chomp down on, not just the pepperocini.

(Source)

For those of you keeping track of the house update - there's been a ton of progress made!

Downstairs has been taped, spackled, sanded, and primed.

The fireplace is done being framed out.

The downstairs' bathroom is drywalled and the shower is tiled (not yet grouted).

I removed the wallpaper and trim from the upstairs' bathroom.

The outside patio, sidewalks, driveway, and windows have been pressure washed to remove all of the dark grey/green mold and mildew stains.

And I managed to get J's dream tile (granite) down from $10.99/sft to $7.55/sft using my Italian bargaining skills. This saved about $535 in materials and tax!

Sausage and Beans

I still haven't gone grocery shopping yet. I know. It's been a really long time. My list is made and my coupons are sorted, it's just hard to get the final nudge to tackle errands when it's freezing and snowy out.

So these beans came from the pantry and the sausage came from the freezer. Always nice to make up meals with things you have on hand.

To be honest, I wasn't sure how it'd turn out because I haven't worked with dried beans a lot, and never in the slow cooker (unless you count split peas).


3 small onions, roughly chopped
2 cups dried Northern white beans
1 package Johnsonville beer brats (sooo good)
4 cups stock (*see note below)

Begin by chopping the onions and placing them in the bottom of your slow cooker. Place the beans in a colander and pick out any odd looking ones. Rinse really well, using your hands to move them around so they all get a good rinse. Add to the slow cooker. Lay the sausages on top of the beans and add the stock. Cook on high for 4 hours.

Easy peasy. It smelled delicious and was really good. One note - it was a tad on the salty side for my tastes. In the future I would probably do half stock, half water.

Mexican Shredded Pork in the Slow Cooker

Last year I made traditional pulled pork sandwiches from Make it Fast, Cook it Slow. The pork was some of the yummiest I ever made, so naturally when I took a 2 pound boneless pork loin from the freezer I thought of making it again.

Only, I didn't have anything to put pulled pork sandwiches on and there was some soon to expire chorizo in the fridge. So, I decided to get creative with my stash of Red Gold tomatoes and go Mexican! I sprayed the slow cooker insert and threw in the following ingredients in order, then crossed my fingers it'd work out! Thankfully, it did!!

1 onion, halved and sliced
1 tube (about 1 cup/8 oz.) of chorizo *see note below
2 lb. boneless pork loin (mine was still a little frozen)
14.5 oz. can of Red Gold diced tomatoes with green chiles

This cooked on high for around four and a half hours (you could also cook it on low for 8-10 hours) until I removed it to a big bowl and shredded with two forks. Return to the crockpot and mix with the sauce, sausage, and onion until everything is incorporated.

*Note on chorizo: I did not pre-cook and drain my chorizo this time, but will in the future. I was able to strain off a lot of the fat with a spoon, but felt it could have been healthier.

We served on warmed tortillas and it was shockingly delicious. Seriously, one of those meals where I'm sitting there, chewing in disbelief that my own two hands created it!

And, trust me on this, add a dollop of sour cream and it brings the flavor up a million notches. I can't explain it, but just that one, simple topping knocked this one out of the park. Both Johnny and I absolutely loved it as is, but were rolling our eyes back in foodie ecstasy once the sour cream was added!

You can win some Red Gold products of your own! Just enter my giveaway before Wednesday, February 17th!

Split Pea Soup

When my Dad made sausage, he had the meat ground at a local butcher here. He bought several pork shoulders, which they weighed and then cut the meat off the bone and ground. Because the shoulder is weighed before the meat is cut off the bone, you pay for the bones too and receive them in a small bag with your order.

I saved them in my freezer to make stock or soup with, and I pulled them out yesterday to thaw for the split pea soup. I roasted them in a 400° oven for about an hour beforehand. This gives the soup depth and flavor, but I can pull them out and the finished product is meatless. (Note: I said meatless, not vegetarian!)

Into my crockpot went:

16 oz. bag of dried split peas (no need to soak)
5 roasted pork shoulder bones (or you could use the traditional ham)
1 large onion, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
5 stalks of celery, chopped
1 32 oz. box of beef broth (*see note below)
1 cup water

2 cups broth
seasoning, to taste

Place the first seven ingredients into the crockpot in order. Cook on low for 8-10 hours, or high for 4-6 hours. I chose to cook on high for six hours. At about hour four I checked on it and it had lost a lot of liquid so I added 2 more cups of broth.

After six hours I removed the bones, tasted and seasoned to our tastes using about 1/2 tsp black pepper, and turned it to warm.


*The broth is a brand my Dad found at the Dollar Tree, believe it or not. It's all natural with no MSG and is free of any cholesterol, fat, gluten, and lactose. They sell beef and chicken in 32 oz. cartons. I usually use vegetarian bouillon cubes in everything, but since this is dairy free it's safe for Johnny and gives me the option of using ready-to-use broth sometimes.

Blogger Potluck

A handful of my favorite bloggers don't live too far from me, we have a nice little cluster here in the Chicagoland area. While emailing back and forth with a couple a few weeks ago I thought "I wonder if they'd be up for a potluck at my house?" and asked their thoughts on it. Surprisingly they all immediately said YES!!! without a moment's hesitation!

I've seen pictures of blogger meet-ups at restaurants and events, but I thought it'd be really cool to have a potluck because we all read and follow each other for our cooking and recipes! I decided to just make it simple - meet at my house at the set date and time and bring whatever you wanted! No expectations, no limits, because I wanted them to just cook whatever they felt like, without having to be pinned into "you need to bring a dessert." Thankfully, none of us cooked any repeats and it was a super well-rounded spread!

Biz of Biggest Diabetic Loser arrived first. I was so nervous and excited beforehand with the anticipation. I knew these people from their blogs, but I wasn't sure if we'd get along in real life too, but thankfully Biz has a really strong personality that burst forth within 20 seconds of meeting her and I felt like I'd known her for years! Within a few minutes Mara of What's for Dinner? arrived with Michelle from Lucky Taste Buds. Again, it was like we'd known each other for years once we started assembling the food and "talking shop."

Biz brought us each a jar of her made from scratch tomato sauce that I can't wait to try! I've never canned home-made sauce, just made extra and frozen it. I think that's a terrific idea to have some easily on hand! Then, she got to work making her famous no-rise pizza dough pizza! I've made her pizza three or four times before, but seeing her make it in person was great and she had a few little tricks that made it taste so much better than my versions! The basil shreds really made this!

Mara came to the door with a crockpot full of her Chicken Chili Blanco and also assembled her addictive (and unpictured) buffalo chicken dip within minutes of unpacking her bag! After everybody left Johnny came downstairs hungry and attacked some of the leftover chili I snagged! He really liked it, so I'll have to make this easy recipe in the future - so much flavor from so little ingredients! That's my kinda dinner!

Michelle made a delicious pasta salad that she presented beautifully with lettuce leaves around the bowl. I might have had two servings of this! She said she only used about a tablespoon of mayonnaise in it, and it made it so light and refreshing, not bogged down like other pasta salads! She also presented me with my huge bag of goodies from winning her giveaway a few weeks ago and an adorable little treat bag with a sweet note in it! I've already broken into both! She was also the only one to bring a sweet item! A delicious (and unpictured) banana bread with cashews (!!!) and chocolate chips. I enjoyed a slice last night for a snack and it's so moist and flavorful. I'll have to add cashews to baked goods more often!

We were all talking and having so much fun I totally forgot to take pictures of US. I also meant to ask Johnny to grab a group photo of all of us with our cameras, but only remembered after everybody had already left. Here's a small idea of what the spread looked like (with Mara on the left and Michelle on the right) - this was before everything was even put out! We ate for a good solid hour until we were all stuffed!

Here's the dishes I brought to the mix:

White wine sangria. (post forthcoming)

Pioneer Woman's bacon-wrapped jalepeno poppers. (post forthcoming)

Veggie tray with unpictured dip

Croissant-wrapped baked brie with crackers (post forthcoming)

...and finally the secret family recipe of zucchini pie!

Thanks again Biz, Mara, and Michelle! I sent them each home with some homemade sausage I made during my dad's visit in these adorable foodie Dollar Tree bags! I can't wait to see what they cook with them!!

Check out Biz's recap and Mara's recap for their take on yesterday's fun with pictures!

Pot Roast

I could have sworn I had a pot roast post, but alas, I do not.

Maybe I was confusing the slow cooker roast beef?

No worries! I made pot roast last night!

2 lb. chuck roast (or other budget cut that will benefit from a long cooking process)
4 small potatoes, chunked
1 medium onion, chunked
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 or 4 carrots, chunked
3 or 4 stalks of celery, chunked (include some of the delicious leaves!)
~5 cups water
1 vegetable bouillion cube
salt, pepper, spices to taste
bay leaf

Begin by chopping and chunking all the vegetables. I literally just chunked mine up - it's a rustic, homey dish, so I wasn't concerned about beauty.

Spray the inside of your crockpot and toss all the vegetables in the bottom. Next, season both sides of your meat with spices of choice, salt, and pepper. Place over the vegetables.

Pour enough water to cover the vegetables and fill half of the crock pot. Mix in one bouillon cube for extra flavor and throw in a bay leaf. Cover the crock pot and put it on low for 6-8 hours.

The fat in the meat will render down and a lot of the moisture will come out of the vegetables, so about half-way through the cooking process the liquid should cover most of the meat. I usually come take a peek at this point to give it a quick stir and to flip the meat over. It's not necessary to do this, but I just feel like somehow it's making it "even."


When it's time to eat I remove the meat, remove the large pieces of fat, and chunk the rest into manageable bites. Then I put the meat back in with the vegetables and broth to keep it moist.

You can now choose to serve this on a plate with meat, vegetables, and potatoes strained, as most restaurants serve it. But, since we're dining at home I choose to just scoop everything into a big bowl with a little bit of the broth.

There are tons of leftovers, which I store together in the broth. I think it keeps everything moist and flavorful. If we do not finish the leftovers on their own, I will definitely be using them for a beef pot pie. Just reserve the broth, thicken it with some cornstarch, flour, and reducing, and use that as the gravy!

Another Freezer Meat Challenge victory! Have you checked out my progress lately? I've made quite a dent and my freezer seems so neat and clean now!

Blogger Secret Ingredient (BSI) this week is being hosted by Guilty Kitchen. You have until this Sunday, August 30th to turn in your Fig recipes!

BBQ Pomegranate Ribs

Crossing things off my Freezer Meat Challenge list I realized that I hit all the safe and easy things first. I have been avoiding the larger items like racks of ribs and whole chickens because they just seem intimidating to me.

Throwing caution to the wind, I thawed the pork spare ribs, drawing inspiration from this month's copy of Taste of Home magazine. Slow cooker ribs are on the cover and I've cooked them before successfully, and gosh dang it I could do it again!

I won't even bother posting their recipe because the only things I did similiar was use barbecue sauce and something fruity, that was all the boost I needed to get me started down the creative path of dinner prep.

BBQ Pomegranate Ribs in the Slow Cooker

1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 18oz. bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's Hot n Spicy sauce
2 8oz. bottles POM Wonderful pomegranate juice
~2 lbs. pork ribs

First, I sprayed the crock pot (this is very helpful in the cleaning process). Then I dumped in the onion, garlic and black pepper. I found the barbecue sauce in the fridge and dumped it in after tasting a small bit on my finger to see if I liked it. By the time I'd dumped it in, the heat on my tongue had started to grow and have a little burn to it. That's when I noticed it was the Hot n Spicy sauce. Eeep! How to tone it down? I didn't want to use cherry preserves like the magazine recipe, so I grabbed the beautiful POM bottles! I dumped the first one in, tasted, and it was much improved. The 2nd bottle I dumped in the barbecue bottle and shook to rinse it out and get all the flavor out. I whisked everything together and the taste was fantastic! Still a nice kick from the barbecue sauce, and a delicious fresh, tart burst from the POM.

Last, I trimmed the pork ribs of excess fat and cut them into individual rib sections and threw them in the sauce. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, until meat is tender.

I cooked mine on low for about 6 hours and they were juicy and tender. Unfortunately, I turned it on high for an hour with the lid off to try and thicken up the sauce, that had become pretty watery, and the meat dried out a little bit. I'd recommend just sticking to the low and slow method, ignoring the sauce because it still coats all the ribs and gives them DELICIOUS flavor.

Johnny and I almost finished a whole ~2 lb. rack ourselves, despite them being a little dried out. The sauce was really tasty and I would have never thought to add something fruity to hide in the background, but now I think it'll become a habit of mine! Cooking in the crockpot kept them juicy and eliminates the fear of the sugars in the BBQ sauce and POM from catching fire on the grill and charring too much.

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

If you haven't already, please go vote for my brother! This is an amazing job opportunity to help further his career. He's already worked so hard towards the proper cooking and wine schooling - this would help jump start him in the right direction! Thanks so much!

Also, don't forget this week's BSI, being hosted by Maggie of Say Yes to Salad!

Tonight's dinner is another crockpot meal, courtesy of A Year of Crockpotting. Boy, she's great! I love how the meals are divided on the left into categories - makes it super simple to go directly where you need.

I had a 2 pound boneless roast defrosting, so I headed over to pork. I'd already made the peanut butter pork and know it's delicious, but wanted to try something else! I settled on pulled pork BBQ because we always go out for that, but I could make it cheaply at home with some yummy sides.

By the way - I've re-introduced nuts back into my diet and I'm fine. Lordy, there would have been a problem if I found out I was allergic to nuts. I couldn't even think about it too long, made me feel all panicked - "NO nuts for the rest of my life?!" I started craving Reese's peanut butter cups and cursing myself that I should have savored the last one literally like it was my last one!

Ok, ok... back to pork, sorry! Stephanie's recipe called for 4 pounds, but I had 2 pounds, so I cut the rest of the recipe in half. It still made TONS, though!

2 pound boneless pork shoulder or roast
1/2 onion, sliced in rings
1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup warm water
1/8 cup apple cider vinegar
1/8 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco (I left out)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Trim meat, place in crockpot. Add sliced onion. Squeeze in the ketchup, then pour the warm water in the ketchup bottle and shake. Pour the ketchup-y water into the crockpot. Add vinegar, brown sugar, Worcestershire, Tabasco, and salt.
Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours, or until meat shreds easily with a fork.

I cooked it on low for almost 9 hours and it was yum! Johnny moved the pork into a big bowl and shredded it easily with two forks and then put it back in the crockpot with the sauce and the onions. We served right out of there with tongs onto toasty buns!

Served alongside the sweetest, juiciest 19¢ per ear corn in the world and baked beans. Oh - and a big ole glass of sweet tea!

Chicken and Brown Rice Casserole

As you know, I have to cook whey-free for Johnny's sake. I've already battled that and now it's second nature to me. But, now I have a whole new list of things to avoid. I've been getting hives here and there, so the doctor gave me a list of common allergens to avoid and then re-introduce them to see if it sparks another outbreak. Amongst them are any nuts, any shellfish, certain spices, hot soups (they'll aggravate the hives), and tomato based things. This put a huge damper on dinner plans, especially since I'd planned out most of the menu and shopped around that.

Last night I searched around A Year of CrockPotting until I found a recipe that would avoid all of the ingredients on my list and not have whey. Phew, it took some time, but I found one!


A healthy version of that old favorite Campbell's "cream of" casserole with rice and chicken. This version is made in the crock pot and uses brown rice and no soup. I adjusted her posted recipe, so I'll list mine below.

1 1/2 cups brown rice
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups milk, divided (2% or lower, OR milk alternative - she used soy)
3/4 cup flour
1/2 yellow onion, diced
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 cup fresh green beans, cut in thirds
1 lb. thin sliced chicken breasts
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp paprika

Combine the chicken broth and 1/2 cup of milk in a sauce pan and heat over medium heat on the stove. In a separate bowl, whisk the remaining 1 cup of milk with 3/4 cup flour. When the broth and milk have begun to boil, reduce heat, and slowly stir in the milk and flour mixture. When everything is fully incorporated, set the pot aside to cool.

Spray the inside of your crockpot with cooking spray. Add the rice and seasonings. Chop up the onion, celery, and green beans and add them to the crock pot. Stir in your broth, flour, and milk mixture. (This is important because I forgot to stir and my spices were all clumped together in the end!)

Lay the chicken pieces on top. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours, or low for about 8. When you take the lid off of the crockpot, stir the rice. If the rice is fully cooked and you have extra liquid, keep the lid off for about 15 minutes and the extra liquid will absorb quickly.

Stephanie (the Crockpot Lady) said she cooked hers on high for 4 hours, and kept it on warm for another 2 hours. She also said that it needed quite a bit of salt. Maybe my crockpot runs hotter than hers, but I cooked mine on high for about 3 hours and 45 minutes and it was over-done. The edges were really dried out, and the rice was overcooked and the chicken on the dry side. Along the edges and the bottom, the rice actually started to brown and crisp up. I'd try more liquid (maybe 1/2 cup more) in the future, or cook it on low, instead of high. Also, I added more spices than she called for, hoping that would accomodate for the lack of salt seasoning, but it didn't. I'd add 1 tsp of salt from the get-go, because it really could use it.

Overall, it was a GREAT recipe to learn. I love, love, love the idea of making your own "cream of" soup with milk, flour, and bouillon. Campbell's soups all have whey, and even if you're DF you can make these with a milk substitute and still re-introduce all of those beloved Campbell's meals back into the kitchen! I used to love making this chicken and rice bake, the enchiladas, etc. Making your own base from scratch also is a lot healthier than Campbell's soups. Their original Cream of Chicken soup has 120 calories, 8 grams of fat, and 870 mg of salt! And that's just for 1/2 cup, when you use 1 to 2 full cans in some of these casseroles!

Now that I know this trick, prepare to see some experimenting!

Slow Cooker Black Bean Soup

My cousin gave me this Black Bean soup mix for Christmas along with some other Fair Trade items. I used the rest up already, but this mix has been in the pantry for awhile and today just seemed like the day to cook it! I love black beans, so I think I was secretly "saving" it, but I have a bad habit of keeping treasured items until they're dried up, expired, or otherwise unusuable. Which totally negates the point of saving something to use for a special occasion, if you can't ever use it!



I separated the beans, pulling out the shriveled ones and any skin remnants. Then, I dumped them in the slow cooker with:

1 1/2 yellow onion, chopped
~3 cloves of garlic, minced
4 carrots, chopped
included spice pack containing oregano, basil, and cumin
extra spices (garlic and onion powders, pepper, and 2 bay leaves)
2 vegetable bouillon cubes
1/2 cup of tomato sauce/paste
8 cups water
1 package of Johnsonville brats, frozen

I gave it a stir, and put the cooker on low for two hours, but it wasn't really progressing, so then cooked it on high for 6 hours. The picture isn't very appetizing, but I can assure you that it was a really great bowl of hot food to warm the chilly, rainy, windy Chicago weather we're still having!

I also want to spread the news that this week's BSI is almonds! Karen at To be the Whole Package is hosting, so click on over to submit! I think I might use almond butter. Mmm

On the way home today I stopped by a little bakery Johnny and I just noticed two weeks ago. It's only about a mile from our house and next door to the Chinese take-out we always use, so it's funny we never saw it before. I wanted to check things out, and it was really cheap and all home-made with unique items, custom cakes, and all the regulars. I'll definitely be going back, and might even ask for an application!

These day-old bagels were only .25¢ each, I think!

These were called St. Joseph's cakes. Almost like a crueller with bavarian cream inside and a little strawberry and powdered sugar on top. It reminded me of a true ricotta cannoli - more mild, not something you'd describe as "sweet." Very nice, and exactly how I like my desserts because I'm the girl that scrapes off all the icing before eating the cake! They were $1.50 each and maybe about 4" across.

In total, my bill was only $3.60, including tax, for these two desserts and two bagels!