Asparagus

Again, apologies for the lack of posts but recently life and a lack of appetite has been getting in the way of cooking! Not much new to report here - most of you may know that Brian's niece was recently diagnosed with osteosarcoma. Prayers and positive energy would be appreciated. She's such a trooper and I'm amazed at her strength and courage.

This is a quick and easy recipe that one of the SSCC gals (shout out to Jenn) passed on to me! It's one of our favorites!

1 bunch fresh asparagus
butter
salt
pepper

Melt butter in a fry pan. Add asparagus, season with fresh ground pepper and salt to taste. Fry to desired crispness (or keep it soft, depending on your taste). Serve immediately

Liss's BBQ Pulled Pork

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, but I just got back from Houston where I ate more Mexican food than I should have. I almost popped a button of my jeans this morning, I'm not kidding! It was so nice to be home, warm weather, seeing my dad and friends and best of all, spending time with Shelby. She's the cutest baby and is just so completely happy all the time. I can only hope that our babies will be half as happy as her!

One food I miss from Houston, well besides Mexican obviously, is good BBQ. There are a couple places up here that are comprable, but we rarely go out to eat for BBQ. I've been searching for a good pulled pork recipe andMelissa came to the rescue with this one. I also used her BBQ sauce recipe that she used when she made ribs for the SSCC annual cook out! But if your pressed for time you could also use your favorite bottled BBQ sauce, but you know how I feel about that. Thanks Liss!

Pulled Pork Recipe:

Boneless Pork shoulder (any size) – untrimmed (or any boneless round cut of pork)

1 large vidalia onion

2 cans of low fat/low sodium beef broth (I used three cans)

Cut Vidalia onion in 6 slices, put a layer on bottom of crock pot, sit pork on top of it, then put another layer of onion on the pork, then pour in beef broth till it hits ¾ way up the crock pot. Cook on high for about an hour then turn it down to medium and let cook about 3 or 4 hours. Once cooked, pull meat out, trim off any excess fat and shred. Drain crockpot, then put shredded meat back in, pour bbq sauce over and let simmer.

BBQ Sauce:
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 onion, minced
4 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 cup root beer (do not use Dr. Pepper, if will give it a medicinal flavor)
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup dark corn syrup
½ cup molasses
½ cup tomato paste
½ cup ketchup
2 tablespoons brown mustard
1 tablespoon hot sauce
½ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon liquid smoke (optional)

Heat oil in saucepan over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Whisk in remaining ingredients, except liquid smoke, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until mixture is thick and has reduced to 4 cups, about 1 hour. Stir in liquid smoke, if using. (Sauce can be refrigerated in airtight container for up to 1 week.)

And just for proof that Shelby is the cutest:

The cowgirl loves her horsie:

Asian Beef with Snowpeas

Sorry it's been a while since I last posted. I've been sick. Serves me right, as I've been bragging to everyone how I've made it this whole season without catching anything, while everyone around me has been sick two and three times. Damn you winter!

Chinese food is something I rarely get to eat because Brian doesn't care for it. I've never really made any Asian flare dishes so I'm stepping out of my comfort zone. I have to say this recipe was pretty good, although Brian liked it a little more than I did. However, this is a great quick and easy week night recipe. I think next time I'll use sirloin steak because the top round can be a little tough. I found this recipes on allrecipes.com, and added the red peppers to give it more color and flavor.

Ingredients:
3 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs rice wine
1 tbs brown sugar
1/2 tsp brown sugar
1 tbs vegetable oil
1 tbs minced fresh ginger root
1 tbs minced garlic
1 lb beef round steak cut into thin strips
8 oz snow peas

In a small bowl, cobime soy sauce, rice wine, brown sugar and corn starch. Set aside.

Heat oil in a wok or skillet over medium high heat. Stir fry ginger and garlic for 30 seconds. Add steak and stir fry for 3 minutes or until evenly browned. Add the snow peas and stir fry for an additional 3 minutes. Add the soy sauce mixture, bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Lower heat and simmer until the sauce is thick and smooth. Serve over white rice.

Mexican Sausage Wontons

These little bites of heaven are in high demand. This recipe was given to me by Brian's sister and I've passed it on to many more people as someone is always asking me for this recipe. Watch out though, they are very filling. When I made them for SSCC, we were literally in a food coma by the end of the night because we ate so many of them.

Ingredients:

1 package of regular Jimmy Dean Sausage

1 8oz bottle of Hidden Valley Light Ranch

1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

1/4 cup of pickled jalenpenos, diced

1 package of wonton wrappers (usually found in the produce section near the tofu and packaged veggies)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray non stick cooking spray in a muffin pan. Insert wrappen into muffin pan so they form cups. Bake for 5-6 minutes and then remove the wrappers from the pan onto a baking tray. Continue until all wrappers are cooked.

Fry the sausage in a frying pan, breaking it apart with a spatula. Cook until no longer pink. Drain sausage (I usually let it sit on a paper towel for a good 10 minutes to adsorb more of the grease).

Combine cooked sausage, ranch and cheese in a bowl. Fill the wrappers with the mixture and place a small piece of jalepeno on top. I don't put jalenpenos on a couple for those who don't like them. Cook them for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is bubbling. If you are brining to a party, just prepare the filled wontons and cook them before you are going to serve them as they are best right out of the oven.

Chicken Piccata

I struggle with posting some of my recipes because when I cook it's usually a little of this and a little of that. I rarely measure anything unless I'm making it for the first time. So when I made chicken piccata the other night I made an effort to watch how much of each ingredient I was using. This recipe was passed on to me by my mother. It's absolutely delicious but the way she makes it clogs your arteries just looking at it. So I've scaled back on the butter and oil a bit, however, it's still not considered "light" by any means!

This recipe is great for dinner parties as well. If I make it in advance I'll use cut up chicken breasts instead of cutlets and I'll reserve the sauce until I'm about to serve it so it does not get dry. I serve it over penne or ziti.

Ingredients:
1 package of chicken cutlets, washed and patted dry
1/3 cup of flour
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tbs olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup lemon (usually two lemons)
1/2 cup of white cooking wine
1 cup chicken broth
1 tsp dried parsley
2 tsp capers (optional)
1 tsp butter

Wash and pat dry the chicken cutlets. Mix flour, salt, pepper and paprika. Dredge chicken in the flour and shake off excess flour. Heat oil in pan. Put cutlets in pan and sautee until brown, about 4 minutes each side. If you don't have a pan big enough to fry all the cutlets at once, fry them in batches. Place cooked cutlets on a cooling rack (prevents them from getting soggy) or a plate.

Add a little more oil to pan and sautee garlic until lightly brown. Pour in chicken broth and scrap up the brown bits from the pan with a fork. Add wine and lemon and bring to a boil. Add parsley and capers. Let sauce simmer for 1-2 minutes or until thickens. If you want to thicken sauce more wisk in cornstarch a teaspoon at a time. Add the butter. Simmer for another 3 minutes or until butter is melted.

Plate the cutlets over rice or pasta and spoon sauce over.

The House Salad

I make a salad pretty much every night of the week not because I don't know what else to make but because I love salads. But not any type of salad, I love my salad, or should I say my Nana's salad. And it's so simple and fresh. I'm kind of a snob when it comes to salad, I don't do bottled dressings and I don't like salad from a bag. I mean I'll eat it if someone else is serving it but I can taste the difference. My salad spinner gets more use than any other tool in my kitchen - although my microplane grater is a close second. There are a couple basics about salad.

1) Don't reach for the bagged lettuce - sure it will save you some time but you'll definitely sacrfice in flavor. My favorite lettuce is red leaf, romaine being my second choice. The only lettuce I'll buy bagged is spinach. And you'll never see a head of iceburg lettuce in my house!

2) Toss those bottled salad dressing - I hate pretty much any bottled salad dressing. I normally just use red wine vinegar and olive oil, or at least start with this as a base and build from there by adding shallots, garlic, lemon, etc.

3) Red onions - I don't eat red onions and neither does Brian. But they're essential to the flavor of the salad. Once my salad is washed, I'll put the lettuce in the bowl with a couple slivers of red onions and let it sit for a couple minutes before I dress the salad!

4) Sea salt - not regular salt, not kosher salt, SEA salt is a must. Not much, just a little to give it that extra flavor. I have been known to use Crazy Janes salt, which is basically sea salt with additional herbs.

5) Toppings - typically the O'Neil house salad has one topping, FETA CHEESE. When Brian is not looking I'll put goat cheese in there instead to spice it up. But really there are tons of things you can add to this salad - my favorties being avacados and home made croutons.

6) The bowl - it really does matter what bowl you serve your salad in. It might sound crazy but my salad tastes different depending on what bowl I use. The typical salad bowl I use is shallow, which allows the dressing to be evenly distributed, instead of all running to the bottom of the bowl.

I warned you I was a salad snob.

Stuffed Peppers

I'm trying my hardest to reduce the amount of meat Brian and I consume, but let me tell you, it's hard. Brian is very much a meat and potatoes type of guy - and me, well I'm a carb lover. Now that the winter months are coming to an end (hey, a girl can hope, right?) those bikini and speedo days are in sight. So we're back on the wagon, the diet wagon that is.

This stuffed pepper recipe is very versatile. You can add chicken, ground turkey or no meat at all. You can add any type of cheese, feta, goat or mozzarella. I've adapted this creation from a recipe I found on allrecipes.com.

Ingredients:
2 cup water
1 cup uncooked Arborio rice
2 green bell peppers, halved and seeded
2 red bell peppers, halved and seeded
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
1 pinch ground black pepper
1 can of diced tomatoes
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet.

In a medium saucepan, bring water to a boil. Stir in the rice. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat, and set aside.

Place the peppers cut-side down on the prepared baking sheet. Roast 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until tender and skin starts to brown.

While the peppers are roasting, heat oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the onions, basil, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper in oil for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, and cook for 5 minutes. Spoon in the cooked rice and cooked chicken, and stir until heated through. Remove from heat, mix in the feta cheese, and spoon the mixture into the pepper halves.

Return to the oven for 5 minutes. Serve immediately.