Some Yummy Pork for Cinco de Mayo

Had a pork shoulder, about 2 pounds in the fridge this morning, so 10 minutes before I had to leave to take Sam to school and head to work I tossed it in the crock pot for some tacos later. Here's the recipe.
1 - 2lb pork shoulder (if yours is bigger, make more spice mixture)
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 onion, sliced
1 or 2 cloves garlic smashed
1/2 cup water or chicken broth

Mix spices together in a small bowl.
Rub on pork shoulder.
Put pork shoulder in crockpot.
Put onions and garlic on top
Add liquid, cover crockpot and put on low for 6-8 hours.

Remove pork and onions from liquid. Strain liquid, and let fat settle to top and remove.
Shred pork and onions together (you can leave the onion out if you like, but it's extra yummy with it in).
Add back some of the defatted liquid if you think the pork looks dry. If using for tacos, careful how much you add as your tacos will be too juicy.

Use pork for tacos, burritos or toss into a hot pan with a bit of oil and make carnitas.
Nothing but yum no matter how you use it.

Spanish Rice in the Multi-Cooker

I've been working on my Spanish rice recipe for years it seems. Some days it's perfect, other days stuck to the bottom of the pan or watery. Hmmmm I say, how do I make it perfect every time? My aha moment was after making risotto in the Multi-Cooker one day. Couple of nights later I was getting ready to make Spanish rice and I thought, all the steps are the same, why not try it in the Multi-Cooker. Well guess what? Perfect rice! Tried again a couple of weeks later and once again, perfect rice. In 6 minutes!

I have a Fagor Multi-Cooker, so the process may be different for those of you using other cookers, just check out a rice recipe that sautes prior to adding liquid and kind of follow those instructions for your brand.

Jan's Spanish Rice for the Multi-Cooker

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
1 small onion, finely diced
1 cup uncooked white rice
1 can Rotell tomatoes with green chile (you pick the heat level)
1 can chicken broth (about 1 3/4 cups for those of you measuring from the box)
1 teaspoon chili powder (feel free to use Ancho or Chipotle for some heat here)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (10-15 grinds of the mill)

Instructions:
Set multi-cooker to brown. add oil, heat a minute, add onion, garlic and carrots. saute 2-3 minutes till soft.

Add rice, saute till translucent.

Add tomatoes, broth, spices and peas, stir to combine.

Cover and set multi-pot to rice setting (6 minutes on my Fagor) and let it do it's thing.

When cycle is finished, let sit for 5 minutes, release steam, stir, adjust seasoning and enjoy.

Mothers Day Tribute

 As posted on USA Today Website

http://yourlife.usatoday.com/fitness-food/cooking-recipes/story/2011/05/Honoring-Mom-on-Mothers-Day-Winners-of-USA-TODAYs-recipe-contest/46770912/1

Jan A. Adamczyk, of Pepperell, Mass., regaled us with her tale of her football-loving mother, who always made chili for the game:

To say my mother, Neola Younker, loved football would be an understatement. From August through January, football was my mother's passion. We would awaken to shouts of "Nail him!" from the kitchen below our bedroom, at 7 on Sunday morning.

We lived in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, and in the 1970s football was live, from wherever they were playing, which meant it started really early in the morning in Hawaii. New Year's Day was the best football day of all. Games all day. My dad would get all the TVs in the family room and have all the games on. My mom would make chili and everyone could stop by and eat, just don't bother mom.

The chili was on the stove, the rice in the rice cooker, and that was what we ate all day. Nothing fancy, but it was good chili and my sister and I always put it over rice, because in Hawaii, there was always rice and it went with everything. Mom passed away in 2001, but I honor her and the tradition and make chili and rice every New Year's Day.

Bonus recipe:

Hawaiian New Year's Chili

(Kim O'Donnel's testing notes appear in italics)

Ingredients

•1 pound ground beef (KOD note: Ground turkey or pork make nice alternatives)

•1 pound Italian sausage, hot or mild, casings removed

•2 Tbs. olive oil

•1 medium onion, chopped

•1 medium shallot, chopped

•2 tablespoons minced garlic (KOD note: About 3 cloves' worth)

•2 bell peppers, whatever color you have, chopped

•1 package sliced mushrooms, leave out if you don't like them or dice them up to hide them (KOD: due to an allergy, I omitted)

•2 Tbs. chili powder (KOD note: I am a big fan of the salt-free Chili Powder blend from The Spice Hunter)

•1/2 tsp. sage (KOD note: None on hand, so I omitted)

•1 tsp. cumin

•1 tsp. dried thyme (KOD note: I was out of thyme and substituted oregano)

•1 tsp. kosher salt

•1 tsp. black pepper

•1/2 tsp. paprika (KOD note: I substituted smoked paprika)

•1 cup red wine

•2 cans diced tomatoes, juice and all (KOD note: I used 1 28-ounce can of tomato puree)

•1 can white beans (cannellini or great northern), drained and rinsed (KOD note: I used 1 cup dried cannellini beans, cooked separately and added)

•1 can tomato paste (KOD note: I omitted)

•2 tsp. chopped parsley (fresh or dried)

•1 Tbs. sugar, or more if needed (KOD note: I omitted)

•Cooked short grain rice for serving

Directions:

Brown ground meat and sausage in a large pot until thoroughly cooked. Remove from pan and drain off fat (if using crock pot, drain and put in there).

Add olive oil to pan. add onion and shallot. Cook 3-5 minutes until translucent. Add garlic, peppers and mushrooms. Cook an additional 3-5 minutes until mushrooms begin to shrink and soften. Stir in spices until the vegetables are coated. Deglaze pan with wine and allow to reduce for a few minutes.

(If using crock pot, transfer mixture now, plus remaining ingredients.)

Add tomatoes, beans and tomato paste and meat to pot. Add water if needed, just enough to stir mixture if too thick.

Simmer 2-4 hours, stirring occasionally, or 8-12 hours on low in crock pot.

Check seasoning, and adjust to taste. Add parsley just before serving. Stir, taste and add sugar as you see fit to counteract acid.

Even better when made the day before.

Serve over steamed rice.

Cheesy Orzo with Scallops and Tomatoes

2 cups Orzo pasta
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
8-10 Sea scallops diced or 1 pound bay Scallops
6 slices prosciutto diced
1/2 cup white wine
1 cup grape tomatoes quartered
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup fresh mozzarella diced
8 basil leaves torn into small bits


bring stock to a boil. Add orzo, cook, stirring occasionally until pasta has absorbed water.

Meanwhile, in a medium skillet, cook prosciutto in a dry skillet until crispy, about 5 minutes, do not burn. Remove from pan to papertowel lined plate.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in pan. Season scallops with salt and pepper and add to pan. allow to brown on one side before stirring. Cook scallops through, 3-4 minutes depending on size. Deglaze pan with wine.

When Orzo is done, add both cheeses and stir. add tomatoes, scallops with wine, reserved prosciutto and basil and stir to combine. Adjust seasoning and serve immediately.

It's been too long between postings!

So here is a yummy recipe to hold you over.

Grilled Prosciutto Wrapped Scallops - Serves 8
2-3 pounds medium sized scallops (about 32, I got a big bag at Costco for $20!)
16 thinly sliced pieces of prosciutto (I buy them at Costco too)
Salt and pepper
16 Bamboo Skewers (12" or so, more if you have smaller)
Olive Oil

Soak bamboo skewers in water for about an hour. They will still burn, but not as badly.

Thaw scallops if frozen, drain water. Season with salt and pepper.

Cut each piece of prosciutto in half and wrap around a scallop, overlapping at the end. Put 2 skewers through each scallop (this really helps when you try to turn them over). Repeat until all scallops are wrapped. Drizzle olive oil over skewered scallops.

Heat grill to medium high (400 degrees or so) or heat a grill pan on the stove over high heat. Reduce heat to medium.

Oil or spray grill or grill pan. Place skewers on grill. Cook about 4 minutes on each side until scallops are done. Serve over risotto or some other yummy creamy grain.

Enjoy.

The Third Annual Centennial Soup Swap - A huge success!

Well, I have to say it was a great year for soup! We had 18 Swappers and 19 Soups. Lentils made a huge appearance this year, there were at least 6 lentil soups. I know there are at least 3 in my freezer waiting to be eaten! We also collected 315 food items for the Friends of St. Andrews food bank so it was a huge success.

The Soup Nazi was bribed and cajoled, but in the end it was Vanessa's green chili soup that made his cold better that took home the ladle.  Kyle is going to try harder next year since she was fighting mad about not winning this year!

We had all sorts of drama and intrigue during The Telling of The Soup. There were tales of unrequited lust, viagra and penicillin. Stories of Chinese meatballs, leftover Christmas hams and horse heads in your bed made the rounds, who will tell the best tale of all? The Soup Nazi said it was Jean, it might be because of the viagra, but I think it was the Italian threat...you decide...

Here is the winning Soup Story, a poem by Jean Grech

Amici Soup
Here is my soup - it's the best
Reason why?
Try to digest


Made with such tender care
Each little morsel of flavor to share

Never spicy - Never bland
A perfect taste
To beat the band

Sicily is the place it's from
Makes you feel so very young


I'll make you a deal you can't refuse
Try the soup...
What's to loose?

If you're not happy
Well that's too bad
A horses head
Will be in your bed


Throw Viagra out the door
That's what this soup is for!
Mangia!

Third Annual Centennial Soup Swap

It's that time again. Time to swap some soup!

I love the concept put together by blogger Knox Gardner at http://www.soupswap.com/news/.

1. Make some soup, or buy it and repackage it as your own, we don't care!
2. Freeze in quart size containers.
3. Gather fellow soup makers.
4. Swap some soup.
5. Go home with a bunch of different kinds of soup.
6. Have a great time.

In Centennial we like to have lots of soups. For the past 2 years we have had 17 kinds of soups at our swaps. We only do 4 quarts instead of 6 because frankly most peoples stock pots make 4 quarts easily. We don't want it to be hard, we want it to be fun. Our swap is famous for having a lot of still warm soups on the table!

We also have fun prizes. We award the best tale of the soup, the makers of the first soup gone and the poor last soup left on the table, and the Soup Nazi (Ron) awards his favorite swapper for whatever he feels like they have done to make the soup swap memorable (he is open to all types of bribery and sucking up!)

This year we are going to take on the challenge thrown down by Indianapolis and taken up by Knox's hometown of Seattle and try to collect the most food for a local food bank. We are not competitive or anything (yeah right!).

I hope you all can start a swap in your neighborhood. It's a lot of fun, a great way to meet the neighbors and you get some really great soup out of it.