Sloppy Joes and Roast Potatoes

Today's blog is a mix of days. I try to take pictures every time I make something. I found I was making such simple things that didn't require a lot of photos so I am going to combine two of those right now.  I didn't make these for the same meal but I totally would if the mood struck me. I also want to say that I ALWAYS add veggies to my sloppy joes. There is just something wrong to me about a ton of meat, sauce, and bread. These are way too filling to pair with much of anything else so the most logical thing, to me anyway, is to load up the meat with veggies. I do warn against adding green peppers unless you really love green peppers. They tend to overpower all the other flavours and it just doesn't taste quite the same.

This is a pretty typical mix for me. One large onion, 1/4 or more of a pepper and a couple stalks of celery including the leafy tops. This all goes in with about 500g of ground beef. The leaner the better as this can get unsightly if there is too much fat floating around. Not to mention, unhealthy.

Now, this is why this is such a photoless recipe, it's so simple! A spice packet and can of tomato paste plus about a cup of water. Follow the packet directions. I do find that I like to add a bit more water to keep the saucy mess from sticking in my pan and becoming like paste.

Once the sauce has thickened it's ready to serve. I generally have homemade buns around and serve these on a buttered toasted bun.

As the weather has been getting warmer I have been finding any excuse to fire up the BBQ. These are a favourite of ours. Mine, because they are so easy to make, Phoenix's because he get's his own package, and they are just so tasty!

If you are making these for a lot of people you can do up a couple big packets and go from there instead of making one for every person. There are only three of us in my house so it was easy to make one for each of us.  

I find that we can eat about 6 new potatoes each or 1 medium potato worth each. Cut the new potatoes in half or thirds if necessary. Try to get them all the same size so they cook in the same time. Chop some onion and throw some in each package. Mushrooms and garlic are also welcome additions. Each person could season their own package too if they really wanted to get fancy. We don't, lol.

Now season liberally with salt and pepper. Dob some butter or margarine on top. It will help them cook and make those potatoes so good. Substitute olive oil, coconut oil, anything you want really.

Now seal up the package. These will be getting turned on the BBQ so be sure to seal the ends well to keep the butter from leaking out and causing flare ups, plus lost flavour! (oh no!)

We have this handy tray for the BBQ that I throw all the packages on. If you don't have one of these, don't worry just put the packages on medium high heat for about 30 minutes. Turn occasionally so nothing burns. These are best kept warm on a top rack in the BBQ when the steaks go on so they cook all the way through. They can also be done in the oven at about 400 F.

We enjoy these with sour cream, green onions, chives, bacon bits, pretty much anything we have on hand.

Kitten And Grilled Chicken Sandwich

So, I've been a really bad blogger lately. I've been taking pictures sporadically but I haven't had the motivation to get on here and write about it. No worries, I have been cooking as much as usual just not translating to the web.

Also, I have been having a war of sorts with my bread making. My bread recipe has changed slightly because I have been making buns with a new recipe. When I tried to make it into bread (because I love the recipe so much) it didn't work. I have reverted to my old bread recipe that I love. The bread turned out great but STUCK in the pan GRRR!!! So much frustration! The only thing that I have found that will release my wonderful bread is to use liberal amounts of butter. Real deal butter. This is fine because I use butter in my bun recipe so I have it on hand. That's not the point. The point is that suddenly my stupid bread won't come out of the pans and it's *&%ing me off. Anyway...

I have wanted to get a recipe for hamburger buns but haven't been happy with previous attempts. While they have been nice bun recipes they weren't soft enough, they were really crumbly, or they turned out really dense. I think I have finally perfected the bun recipe. I basically make this hoagie recipe that I get from here. BUT, this time I added an egg for softness. They were PERFECT! So good. I grilled burgers to go with these wonderful buns and it was heaven!

Now I have these heavenly buns to eat, what do I do? Make a hot sandwich I guess. 

Let's take a moment to talk about our new kitten though shall we?

Her name is Skittles and we rescued her from the Mississauga Animal Services. She was 8 weeks old when we got her. We figured her birthday out to be around the time of my son's birthday. We don't know her exact birthday so we just say it is the same as Phoenix's for simplicity. She is so cute, sweet, cuddly, and CRAZY. 

You know that moment when you trip over a kitten, your foot is in the air, you have forward momentum and you now don't know where to put your feet to avoid stepping on the kitten freaking out underneath you now because you tripped on her?? No? Well you probably do if you have ever been around cats because they have this stupid habit of walking RIGHT in front of your feet while you walk. Kick the kitten, cue kitten scramble, cue fear of squashing scared kitten. Ugh! Luckily, it didn't happen on the stairs yet.

She LOVES to sleep on our shoulders or just lie across our shoulders. It will be a sad day when she is too big for her favourite spots. And by sad I mean painful because she will probably try, fall, and scratch us as she tries to catch herself. Much like she does now when she makes bad decisions and gravity corrects her.

Anyway, back to the food. I was going for a cornmeal sprinkle on these buns. It was a bit of a fail since I didn't wet the dough in anyway so they barely stuck on and just fall off ALL OVER THE DAMN PLACE. They are messy but I digress.

So first things first, toast the bun. I used my grill, some butter, and HIGH heat until I had evenly toasty buns. Add your veg and sauce. I used just mayo and lettuce at first but added some steak sauce after. So good.

Caramelize some thinly sliced onions. I used salt, pepper, and a touch of sugar. I cheated because I didn't want to wait 20 minutes for my sandwich. Sue me. They tasted great. 

Get some regular shaved chicken lunch meat. Brown it slightly and warm it all the way through.

Stack the onions on the chicken.

Stack that on the lettuce. Tomato would be totally wonderful on this too but I didn't have any big ones, just little cherry ones.

The finished product. It was so good!! 

I highly recommend taking the time to a) toast the bun and b) grill some onions. It totally took this sandwich beyond regular cold cuts to a warm loving embrace.... what? You know what I mean. Enjoy!

Homemade Tomato Soup ~ Jamie Oliver Recipe

Recently, I had a great experience with home made croutons and canned tomato soup. I figured that home made soup would have to be better than the canned version which is loaded with salt, sugar, and whatever else they put in that stuff. So, off to my cookbooks I went and this is what I found. I was surprised to see it called for a lot of veggies. This could only be delicious.

Peel one medium carrot, finely chop two stalks of celery, several garlic cloves, and one onion. Start softening them together with some oil in a nice large pot. Avoid adding salt at this point. Add lots of pepper if that is your thing.

I used my mini food processor for this.

The recipe called for two cups of chicken stock. I used these packets plus two cups of water.

Once your veggies are soft and flavourful, start adding in the liquids. One can of tomato sauce. Organic because why not.

One can of whole tomatoes and juice.

Several ripe tomatoes, quartered. 

It looks like a chunky soup right now. Let is cook the tomatoes and heat everything through.Test for seasoning at this point. Canned tomatoes, tomato sauces and the chicken stock will all have salt. Be sure not to add salt until after these are all added. Plus, I like croutons and cheese on my soup which also add salt so go easy.

Using a blender or a hand blender, completely blend the soup until it is creamy and smooth.

Top with garlic croutons and shredded Parmesan cheese.

This soup is much healthier for you than the canned version. You can completely control the salt, fat, and spices to suit you. Also, you can feed a crowd with this recipe. Don't be scared to make soup from scratch, it is totally worth it!

Homemade Corn Tortillas

Over the past few years I have seriously developed my love of Mexican food. This is a food I have always loved but never tried to make it at home aside from the boxed meals, you know the ones I mean. Chris got me started on making Mexican food from scratch. One important thing I have learned from making more authentic Mexican foods at home is that you can specialize them to your own tastes. Sure, this probably makes them less authentic but 100 times even more delicious. Of course, you might as well make your own tortillas too, why not? Everything is better homemade right?

You will need a special type of flour called Masa Harina. It is ground corn. More specifically it is a corn that has been soaked in lime, dried, then ground. You can find it in the ethnic section of your grocery store.

This dough is super simple, it is just water added to the Masa Harina until a dough forms. It will dry out easily so you need to keep the dough covered while you form your tortillas.

You will need to roll these out by hand unless you happen to have a tortilla press. Be sure to use plastic wrap to cover your press or you will have a mess. One piece each for the top and bottom.

Roll a bit of the dough into a ball and place it more toward the hinge instead of the center. You'll see how the press pushes the dough outward. If you put it right in the center it will smoosh off the end of the press and make a mess.

Now press and there you go, one flat disk of dough.

Now to cook. On pretty high heat, cook until browned slightly on both sides.

There is a nice little stack.

Now for the real reason I made tortillas, quesadillas. I used left over tangy slow cooker pork and cheese. Put that between two homemade tortillas and heat until the inside is hot and gooey.

Be sure to flip.

Top with salsa, lettuce, tomatoes, and avocado. Sour cream would be great as well. These are so tasty and really so easy.

Tangy Slow Cooker Pork

I must say up front that this was not my favourite recipe. It had all the components of recipes I like. It was easy, it built up flavour, and it had familiar ingredients. In the end, it was missing something for me. I would make this again but I would change it up and add more spices. I pulled this recipe out of a random cookbook on my shelf as part of my desire to cook from the books I already. I would say this was a 6/10 for me. My family liked it, however, so maybe it was just me.

Start with a seasoned flour coating for your pork roast. This was just salt, pepper, and paprika.

Heat up a bit of oil in a pan. This is to build the crust.

There is the star. This is a very lean cut of pork, as you can see, and but it takes flavour really well. It is pretty much a blank slate to be built upon.

Cover your roast completely in the seasoned flour.

And start browning. The heat should be high enough that you get a nice golden colour but don't let it burn. Make sure to get some colour all over.

Prepare your veggies. They just get a fine dice and set aside for now.

Keep turning your roast.

Nearly there!

Now for the sauce. Move the roast to the slow cooker and add the veggies to the hot pan. Soften the veggies and add a can of tomato sauce. Slow cook for 5 hours.

After 5 hours, the sauce comes out thick like a gravy.

The meat is very tender.

I served this with mashed potatoes. My secret weapon for mashed potatoes now is to use buttermilk. Do it, you will LOVE the extra zip and creaminess.

I think in the future I would add sugar to the sauce as I found the tomato flavour to be a bit on the bitter side. It was good but not exactly what I was expecting.