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Pan-Seared Pork Chops with a Shallot and Sherry Wine Pan Sauce
Pan seared pork chops with a shallot and sherry wine pan sauce may sound pretentious and fancy, but this dish is anything but. It’s just seriously delicious, down home, casual, quick cooking at its best. I had the grandkids all weekend, and by all weekend, I mean Friday through Sunday afternoon. TSM works all day long until late into the evening every Saturday for one of his part time jobs so I was on my own with Little Master C. and Little Miss B. I think we watched every DVD we own and I spent way too much time in the kitchen prepping food for our weekend meals. My plan was to rush…
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30-Minute Mondays– Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken and Broccoli
Wow! It’s already the first full week of May. This year is more than a third of the way over. Can you believe it? We had a small cold front move in last week which meant I was in the mood for comfort food. One of my all-time favorite dishes is Fettuccine Alfredo. I love a tasty white sauce. And if it has cheese in it, even better. This is a simple recipe that is full of flavor, tender chicken and beautiful green broccoli. This is one of only two or three ways that The Stud Muffin (TSM) will even eat broccoli. It’s the Will Wheaton to his Sheldon Cooper. This dish…
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30-Minute Mondays– Pan Fried Pork Milanese
Pan. Fried. Pork. I could leave it at that, post few photos and you’d be salivating while you run to the freezer to see if you have any pork chops you can thaw out. Is there anything better than breaded, pan-fried pork that’s been pounded thin and seasoned just perfectly? Probably, but at the moment I can’t think of anything better. 30-Minute Monday almost didn’t happen this week. Some poor planning on my part left us without the ingredients to make the next dish I had on my list. The recipe, from start to finish took me a wee bit over 30 minutes because I had 8 pork chops to fry (they were…
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30-Minute Mondays– Maple Soy Salmon
One of the things that I love about cooking, and photography for that matter, is that it keeps me humble. According to The Stud Muffin, I need to keep my ego in check, so he’s pleased that I’ve found things that challenge me and keep me humble. The reasons that cooking (and photography) keeps you humble is the moment you think you’ve mastered a technique, ingredient, or a certain dish or recipe, something happens, call it misaligned stars, faulty human, bad ingredients, Murphy’s Law, humidity…whatever, but something happens and for whatever reason epic failure doesn’t even begin to cover how badly the end results were. As a food blogger and someone who develops recipes I…
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30-Minute Mondays- Beef and Bean Enchiladas
Mexican food is one of my top 4 favorite cuisines. I suppose if I were to be honest, there is actually a three-way tie between Mexican, Asian and Italian cuisines for second place with French being my #1 favorite to cook and eat. There is just something about the fresh flavors, the spice, the heat, and simplicity of Mexican food that I really like. I do tend to Americanize my Mexican dishes for the blog, but some day, I’ll break out the authentic stuff taught to me by some of the line cooks at the restaurants where I worked. I simply have no idea where I packed those notes when we moved last…
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30-Minute Monday–Red Lentil Coconut Soup with Garam Masala
Spicy, exotic, hearty, filling, luscious, vibrant, unique- these are words that I would use to describe this soup. It’s a celebration in your mouth. You may even violate the spoon because you’ll wanna get every.last.drop off it when you take your first bite. Yeah, it’s *that* good. You may be surprised to learn that I don’t care for Indian food. Back when I used to do home mortgages and worked in a bank, we would have a big potluck once a month. We had the sweetest banker who was from India, but every single time I ate the dishes he brought, I’d get super sick. For some strange reason I tend to avoid…
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30-Minute Monday- Speedy Pork Pozole
Today’s recipe is really yummy. There is something about a rich, spicy, pork and hominy stew to get the taste buds revved up and bring a smile to my face. I typically make this dish over several hours in a Dutch oven and I buy some red chiles and make a sauce with them to enhance the flavor of this stew, but in this rendition, we’re short on time, so a few teaspoons of adobo sauce from a can of Chipotle chiles will have to do. This is one of the first 30-Minute Monday meals that TSM (The Stud Muffin) did not like. At all. He’s not a big soup/stew guy and apparently…
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30-Minute Monday- Pan-Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Maple-Mustard Sauce
Welcome back to another fantastic 30-Minute Monday! I’m seriously enjoying this series and I hope that you are, too. The Stud Muffin (TSM) has enjoyed trying new recipes, and I’ve enjoyed the extra time I’ve had because dinner isn’t taking as long to prepare. It’s a win-win for everyone! The first time I made this dish I set off three smoke detectors in the house. The second time I made this dish I did NOT use the amount of fat called for to pan sear the tenderloins which helped exponentially to reduce the amount of “smoke” coming from my oven. I was also able to open some windows, just in case. Thankfully, no…