Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Lessons Learned: A Bunch of Repeats With Changes Applied

So I haven't gotten to write a whole lot on here, since I'm busy with classes, but I've done a lot of recipes that are on here, and I figured that because I learned a number of lessons, I'd share them with anyone who's following my posts.
First, I made penne with Rosa sauce. Normally I put dry white wine in it, but because I didn't have any that I wasn't aging, I decided to instead add a little red wine. It worked well, but it's still missing something. At least I have one piece of the puzzle figured out, right?
The next night, I made risotto Milanese. As I stated before, I didn't have dry white wine, but I did have some Chianti, so I used that instead. It was good, but would have been way better if I had some sauteed mushrooms to go with it.
Finally, I made corned beef and cabbage. Because I was gone all day, I put the corned beef in my slow cooker before going to class. Twelve hours later, I'm wondering why I didn't decide to do this sooner. The corned beef was super tender and Will, who hates fat on his meat, was able to scrape the fat off without any issues. Regardless of whether I'm busy or not, I will make corned beef this way again.
I hope these pointers help you. As always, the recipes are on other parts of the blog; the penne with Rosa is under "Blushing Penne" and the risotto and corned beef are under the same names throughout the blog.

Friday, February 1, 2013

Pan Cooked Pork Chops in Root Beer Coconut Milk Marinade

I had some root beer left over, and decided to make a marinade with it. I had some pork chops from the Omaha Steaks order my auntie sent me, so I decided to make pan cooked pork chops.
Combine about half a cup of root beer, a can of coconut milk, two teaspoons ground ginger, and a quarter teaspoon of lemon zest. Add your pork chops and marinate at least two hours or overnight.
Heat a skillet on medium high heat; add your chops to the pan and cook until done in the center and brown on the outside.
I served this with leftover casseroles. I heated a little of the marinade to see if it would make a good glue for the ham and broccoli casserole. Luckily for me, it did, so I froze the rest of the marinade for the next time I make ham and broccoli casserole.