Pork Belly Tacos

For B's birthday, I bought him a butchering class at Underground Butcher on Willy Street.  When I tell some people that, they think it is really strange but he loved it!  The class was 6 guys and they paired off to butcher a hog.  At the end of the class, not only did he gain great knowledge, but also pork chops, a tenderloin, a roast and pork belly.

The goods he got to bring home! 

Now B LOVES pork belly but I have been a little reluctant because of how fatty it is.  So I put him in charge of preparing it.  One Sunday when I was out of town, I came home to a house filled with the smell of bacon.  Here is the recipe he used.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/782637/threehour-pork-belly

I will have to admit, the pork belly is delicious!  I try to stick to the crunchy and meaty pieces but the fat just melts in your mouth.  Well now that we have this huge slab of cooked pork belly, we had to do something with it.  We landed on Pork Belly Tacos to start.  And oh my! were they good.  I could eat them every week.  We topped the tacos off with cilantro, goat cheese, pickled onions and salsa verde.  Here is the very simple and quick recipe I used for the pickled onions.

http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/quick-pickled-onions

Pork Belly Tacos

Num!  I can't wait to come up with more things to do with this slab of meat.  

Baby Shower Part 2: Mason Jars and Ribbon

Well, one cannot live on assorted baked goods alone!  We also had to have a main dish and dessert at the shower.  Being that it was brunch and bunch of lovely ladies, quiche just seemed the most appropriate.

Soup, Salad, Fruit and 2 types of quiche

QUICHE
For the quiche, I again, wanted variety so I made 2 types; Spinach Mushroom and Tomato.  I used the same basic recipe but just changed the filling.  The recipe below only calls for spinach and shallots.  I like the addition of mushrooms just to add another dimension.  For the Tomato quiche, I omitted the spinach and added halved cherry tomatoes and julienne sun-dried tomatoes.  Just a caution on the recipe, it is written to make 2 quiches.  Also, I upped the amount of cheese because, ya know, we live in Wisconsin.

http://www.marthastewart.com/336904/spinach-and-gruyere-quiches#Favorite%20Quiche%20Recipes%7C/275606/quiche-recipes/@center/276953/brunch-recipes%7C336904


SWEET POTATO SOUP
My other co-host, Kelsey, brought this amazing soup to the shower.  It tasted rich but its actually good for you.  I loved the smokiness of the adobo and bacon.  She was also telling us that it can be made with squash instead of sweet potato, if desired.  I can' t wait to make some of this on a cold fall evening and cozy-up with a bowl on the couch.

http://www.plaidandpaleo.com/2013/10/paleo-spicy-sweet-potato-soup.html


Finally dessert!  A balancing act of cookies and crisps!  We decided to make the dessert the favor as well so I individually wrapped everything.

A tower of desserts -- crisps and cookies!

CRISPS
I got the idea to make the crisps in mason jars from a friend in Milwaukee that makes desserts in jars as a side job.  I thought they would be a perfect sweet fall-ish treat for everyone to bring home.  Plus fruit crisps are one of my favorite desserts.  :-)  To make crisps in jars, make sure to fill them up very full with the fruit filling because it will shrink after it bakes.

APPLE CRISP

2 lbs sliced apples

3/4 cup sugar

2 Tbsp flour

Topping:

1/4 cup oatmeal, uncooked

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup shortening

1/4 cup flour

Mix apples, sugar and flour together and put in a greased 9-inch pan.  Mix topping ingredients until crumbly, and spread over apples.  Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes

Cherry Crisp -- I used sliced almonds instead of slivered almonds

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/cherry-almond-crisp-recipe.html

COOKIES

Cookies are my favorite dessert!  I actually have one everyday with my lunch.  I am assuming this is something I learned from my mom because we were never without cookies in our house.  Plus she is known for her Christmas cookies (she makes 12 different kinds!).  So naturally, the recipes I used where her's, though I am not sure where she got them from.  

OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIES

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)

1 cup raisins

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Beat together butter and sugars until creamy.  Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.  Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Stir in oats and raisins; mix well.  Drop by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet; remove to wire rack. 

GIANT GINGER COOKIES -- I received several compliments on these cookies when I brought the leftovers to work.  They are actually my favorite :-)

4 1/2 cups flour

4 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups shortening

2 cups granulated sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup molasses 

3/4 cup coarse sugar

In a medium mixing bowl stir together the flour, ginger, soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt.  Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl beat shortening until softened.  Gradually add the 2 cups of sugar; beat until fluffy.  Add eggs and molasses; beat well.  Add half of flour mixture; beat until combined.  Stir remaining flour in with a wooden spoon.

Using a 1/4 cup ice cream scoop, shape dough into 2-inch balls.  Roll in sugar.  Place on an ungreased cookie sheet about 2 1/2 inches apart.

Well, I must say the shower was a success and I loved throwing it!  I guess it is time to start thinking about the Annual Holiday Party!  Until then, I still have a few more weeks of the CSA and I will continue posting some of the things I have been made.  

Baby Shower Part 1: Baking Frenzy

The last couple weeks I have been spending most of my evenings preparing for my friend's baby shower.  Though my friends and I could have easily taken the easy way and bought pre-made food, that's just not the way I work. I LOVE cooking and baking and any chance I have where I have more than just B and I to eat it, I will take advantage of it.  So, I set out to make a menu for the shower where almost every single thing was homemade.  The shower was planned to be a Sunday brunch so I knew I wanted lots of baked goods.  I also wanted to make sure that I could make things ahead because I wouldn't have much time the day of the shower to cook.

Here is the final menu --

Spinach, Mushroom and Gruyere Quiche
Tomato Quiche
Mix Greens Salad with Toasted Sesame Dressing
Fruit Salad
Sweet Potato Soup with Coconut Milk and Bacon
Assorted Baked Goods

Everything turned out wonderfully!  For this blog I am going to focus on the last 3 words...Assortment Baked Goods.  Seems like such a small thing but, me being me, decided we had to have tons of variety.  For a week, I baked a different item each day and then stored it in the freezer until the day before.

The table with the assorted baked goods

Close up of the plate of goodies!

PUMPKIN MUFFINS with MAPLE GLAZE
I wanted to make sure we had some touches of fall in the assortment.  Instead of oil, I used applesauce to make them just slightly healthy.  Though these were good, they weren't commented on very much.

http://pinchofyum.com/mapleglazedpumpkinmuffins


DRIED CHERRY and WHITE CHOCOLATE SCONES
I love these scones.  They basically taste like cookies.  The original recipe calls for dried cranberries but I like the plumpness of dried cherries instead. This recipe is from my aunt.

SCONES

3 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons baking powder

3/4 cup butter, cold

1 egg

3/4 cup half and half

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1/2 cup nuts

Mix dry ingredients.

Cut in cold butter.

Stir in egg and half and half.

Mix in cranberries, chips and nuts. (I use my hands.)

Divide batter in half.

On lightly floured board, pat each half into a round about 3/4 inch thick and about 8 inches in diameter.

Cut each round into 8 pieces.

Separate the pieces and place on ungreased pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes.

WHITE CHEDDAR and GREEN ONION SCONES

I really love savory things, especially for breakfast.  So I wanted to make sure we had some savory mixed in with the sweet.  I saw this recipe on a friend's blog.  Her blog is fabulous and I highly recommend reading it.  MUCH better than mine with MUCH better pictures.  I fell in love with these scones!  I could eat several day.  They are perfect morning, noon and night -- probably even as a midnight snack.  :-)

http://www.thingsimadetoday.com/2014/01/23/white-cheddar-green-onion-scones/

GRAPEFRUIT YOGURT BREAD

My friend, Anne that co-hosted the shower, brought this fabulous bread/cake. You could serve it for breakfast or dessert.  You finish the bread with a mixture of grapfruit juice and sugar when it comes out of the oven, which it gave it this awesome burst of citrus.

http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2007/01/cake-paradisi/

DONUTS AND POPOVERS

So, I bought the donuts.  Though I have made donuts before with my mom (since my grandma was known for them).  I felt I had to draw the line somewhere and frying up donuts the morning of the shower was where it was at.  As for the popovers, I did make them but I am not going to share the recipe because I don't think it is quite right.  They came out ok, but didn't pop very high.  Other times I have made them and they don't pop at all.  Some day I will perfect the popover and then I will share my success!

Coming soon....Part 2 of the shower with quiches and dessert!