Smoked spare ribs with roasted veggies and potatoes

Posted on July 21, 2011 by ben

Ribs

Date: July 16th, 2011

Ribs recipe: http://www.thesmokerking.com/page1b.html

Modifications: I used the same rub we use for our pulled pork: http://www.crumblycookie.net/2008/05/30/crockpot-pulled-pork/. I didn’t use a mop or a spray for the ribs, just smoked them for two hours, wrapped them in foil and smoked for another hour. The rack I had was 2.65 pounds, and following the “one hour per pound” rule worked perfectly.

Veggies recipe:

  • 1 head of cauliflower
  • 1 head of broccoli
  • olive oil
  • salt and pepper
Cut up the broccoli and cauliflower and toss with the olive oil and salt and pepper. Wrap in foil and put on a hot grill for 20-30 minutes, until the veggies are tender.
Potatoes recipe:
  • 3 large russet potatoes
  • 8 oz cream cheese
  • 1 stick butter
  • 0.5 cups sour cream
  • salt and pepper
Cut the potatoes into fourths and boil for 20 minutes, until potatoes are soft. Drain the water and add the cream cheese, butter, salt and pepper, and sour cream. Stir (don’t even need to mash) until all the ingredients are worked in and the potatoes are broken up and creamy.

Time to table: 3 hours smoking, 40 minutes for the potatoes and veggies, while the ribs were smoking.

Servings: 4 adults, 2 toddlers, with a little leftover potatoes. The ribs were gone.

Ben: LOVE

Erin: Like

Annie: Love

Notes: We made the food and then ate this at our neighbors with them and their daughter. The ribs were heavenly, and incredibly easy to make. Smoking food is easy as long as you have the time to do it, and the food comes out so awesome it’s unbelievable. Erin tricked Annie by combining the cauliflower and broccoli with her mashed potatotes, and she ate them. It’s not lying though, because Erin TOLD Annie she was doing it! 🙂

Ribs

Ribs, pre-rub

Ribs

Ribs, post-rub, mmmmmmmmm

Ribs on the smoker

The ribs were nearly too long to fit on the smoker

Roasted veggies

Roasted broccoli and cauliflower

Mashed potatoes

Mashed potatoes

Annie's meal

Annie with her meal, making good progress on her potatoes with hidden veggies!

 

 

Posted in broccoli, cauliflower, cream cheese, csa, pork, potato, sour cream | 1 Comment

Salad with smoked chicken

Posted on July 20, 2011 by ben

Salad

Date: July 16th, 2011

Recipe:

  • 8 large lettuce leaves, chopped
  • 0.5 lb cut up chicken
  • 2 carrots grated
  • 3 green onions, diced
  • 0.5 cup grated cheddar cheese

This one is pretty easy, just take all of the ingredients, mix them together. Add your favorite salad dressing and toss to combine.

Time to table: 15 minutes

Servings: 2 adults

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Notes: This was made with the remaining smoked chicken. The other ingredients were from our CSA box we got on Thursday, it’s always a little daunting when you unpack the CSA box and you have a fridge full of produce that needs to get used in a timely fashion; salads are a great way to use it  up.

Posted in carrot, cheese, chicken, csa, green onions, greens, lettuce, lunch | Comments Off on Salad with smoked chicken

Chard pizza

Posted on July 19, 2011 by erin

Grilled Chard and Garlic Pizza

Date: July 5th, 2011

Recipe: http://eggsonsunday.wordpress.com/2009/06/28/csa-week-3-plus-pizza-with-kale-roasted-garlic-four-cheeses/

Modifications: Used chard instead of kale, since that’s what we got from our CSA. We used the same pizza dough from the Mexican Pizza. I also only used mozzarella and white cheddar cheese since that’s what we had.

Time to table: Total of 1 hour – prepping pizza tough, roasting garlic, sauteeing the chard – but if you do a lot of that in advance it goes quickly.

Servings: 2 adults, 1 toddler, 1 slice leftover

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: Again, this pizza dough is a bit tough for Annie to eat, but she would bite off the top part with the toppings so that’s fine. Still just love this pizza dough! Great that it makes 2 so you can freeze one for later use. We have made this pizza before, a few years ago.

Ben and Annie eating dinner

Posted in chard, cheese, csa, garlic, pizza | Comments Off on Chard pizza

Garlic burger

Posted on July 18, 2011 by ben

Garlic burger

Date: July 15th, 2011

Recipe:

  • 0.5 lb ground beef
  • 1 clove garlic, diced
  • seasoned salt
  • crushed red pepper
  • dry cheddar cheese

Fire up your grill, while grill is heating work some seasoned salt and the garlic into the ground beef and form a patty. Top with a dusting of red pepper. Cook burger to your liking (I do around 4 minutes per side at high heat) putting the cheese on at the end to let it melt a bit.

With garlic in the middle of the burger you run the risk of some not-fully-cooked garlic, which will be strong tasting. Just sayin’

Time to table: 10 minutes prep, 10 minutes cooking time

Servings:1 adult

Ben: Love

Notes: I made this for lunch today while it was pouring rain, so I had to don my ski jacket to keep from getting soaked. The photos don’t capture how awesome this burger smelled, and it tasted just as awesome. This meal also serves as a good use case for having a charcoal grill AND a gas grill. If I didn’t have the gas grill, I would have broiled the burger, no time for charcoal on a workday.

Garlic burger

Posted in cheese, garlic, ground beef, lettuce, lunch | 1 Comment

Pasta bolognese

Posted on July 17, 2011 by ben

Pasta bolognese

Date: July 14th, 2011

Recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/spaghetti-bolognese-recipe/index.html

Modifications: I reversed the amounts of meat: 1 lb ground pork and 0.5 lb ground beef, just cause I like pork better. I also threw in some basil that we had and needed to use up. The directions say to simmer for 1.5 hours, but I liked the consistency after 45-50 minutes, so we went with that.

Time to table: 2 hours, over half the time is just simmering.

Servings: Probably had enough for 6 adults

Ben: Love

Erin: Like

Annie: Love

Notes: This sauce was absolutely delicious. The butter and cream at the end just make it that much richer. At no point in the directions does it say to drain the fat from the bacon, beef, or pork, so this is an extremely savory dish. Annie seemed to like the food very much, but also seemed interested in playing so she didn’t take it down like other dishes she loves. We froze the leftovers because we already have plenty of other leftovers that need to get eaten and I didn’t want this to be wasted.

Pasta bolognese

Annie digging in

Pasta bolognese

Early stages with the bacon (and bacon grease!) and veggies for our base

Pasta bolognese

Finished sauce

Posted in bacon, carrot, celery, cheese, cream, csa, garlic, ground beef, onion, parsley, pasta, pork, red wine, tomatoes | Comments Off on Pasta bolognese

Creamy chicken taquitos

Posted on July 16, 2011 by ben

Chicken taquitos and refried black beans

Date: July 12th, 2011

Taquitos recipe: http://annies-eats.net/2011/04/27/creamy-chicken-taquitos/

Refried black beans recipe:

  • 1/2 onion, diced
  • 1 garlic clove, diced
  • 1 T chopped cilantro
  • 1 can black beans
  • 2 T butter
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 cup shredded cheese
Melt the butter in a frying pan. Sautee the onions until translucent, add the garlic for the last minute or two. Add the beans, water, and cilantro and let simmer until the water reduces to the consistency you want. Add the cheese to melt and serve.

Modifications: I had to use more than 1/4 cup of salsa for the taquitos mix to thin it out some.

Time to table: 40 minutes with cooking time

Servings: 14 taquitos

Ben: Love

Erin: Like (amended to Love after trying this when not in the first trimester of pregnancy and puking)

Annie: Love

Notes: This was a huge hit. Everyone loved the taquitos and Annie even would take bits of tortilla and dip it in black beans and eat it. I had leftovers for lunch today (and will again tomorrow) and they are great reheated. Easy and a crowd pleaser, can’t beat that!

Chicken taquitos and refried black beans

Posted in black beans, cheese, chicken, cilantro, cream cheese, garlic, green onions, lime, Mexican, onion, sour cream, triple love | 2 Comments

Country pork and noodles

Posted on July 15, 2011 by ben

Country pork and noodles

Date: July 12th, 2011

Recipe: http://community.cookinglight.com/showpost.php?s=81ba9f28aeddc732dbe503a323a83f37&p=1129068&postcount=5

Modifications: I was only making a lunch portion of this, so I cut the recipe down. I substituted sweet potato for the red pepper because that’s what I had on hand. I also added some spinach at the end. I also skipped the black pepper and used chili powder, cumin, and paprika.

Time to table: 20 minutes

Servings: 2 adult lunches

Ben: Like

Notes: This was pretty good, but didn’t get as thick as I had hoped. I’ve been making soup for lunches often enough, so I thought that adding 1 tablespoon of corn starch would be enough to thicken it up a bit and add some variety, but I should have added a little more. This was still a good way to use up some of the leftover pork loin.

Country pork and noodles

Posted in greens, lunch, one dish meal, pasta, pork, soup, spinach, sweet potato | Comments Off on Country pork and noodles

Grilled pork loin with chickpea salad

Posted on July 14, 2011 by ben

Pork loin and chick pea salad

Date: July 6th, 2011

Pork recipe:

  • 2.5 pound pork loin
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • cilantro
  • olive oil

Mix the olive oil with the crushed garlic and chopped cilantro and rub over the pork loin. Grill the pork loin until done and let it rest 5-10 minutes.

Chickpea salad recipe: http://goodthymesandgoodfood.blogspot.com/2011/06/cilantro-lime-chickpea-salad.html

Time to table: 20 minutes prep for the salad, 10 minutes prep for the pork, 30 minutes cooking time for pork

Servings: 4 adults, 1 toddler

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Like the pork, dislike the chickpea salad

Notes: I overcooked the pork on the grill, which basically ruined this for me. It still tasted good, but the meat was too dry. I was really looking forward to this too, so I was bummed out. The chickpea salad I made earlier in the day, over lunch, and it was great to have that pre-made so I could just focus on screwing up the pork.

Annie NOT eating chick pea salad

Not so much enjoying her chickpea salad 🙂

Posted in chickpeas, cilantro, garlic, lime, onion, pork, spinach | 1 Comment

Mango salsa turkey burgers

Posted on July 13, 2011 by ben

Mango Black Bean Turkey Burger with avocado cilantro sauce

Date: July 7th, 2011

Recipe: http://www.carascravings.com/2011/06/spicy-mango-black-bean-turkey-burgers.html

Modifications: Instead of actually making the mango salsa, I just sauteed the mango with some jalapenos and onions ont the stove.

Time to table: 1.5 hours, with waiting for the charcoal

Servings: 5 burgers

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: This meal was kind of a pain to put together because you have to make the salsa, the yogurt spread, the black bean mix, and then shape the patties. These burgers tasted good, I just don’t think they’re worth the effort involved. They also didn’t stay together very well on the grill, a common gripe of mine regarding (mostly) veggie burgers.

Annie didn’t really get into this meal but she did enjoy a bun with the avocado yogurt on it.

Annie eating turkey burgers

Posted in avocado, black beans, cilantro, garlic, jalapeno, lime, mango, turkey, yogurt | Comments Off on Mango salsa turkey burgers

Curried turkey with vegetables

Posted on July 12, 2011 by ben

Curried Turkey with vegetables

Date: July 8th, 2011

Recipe: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/curried_ground_turkey_with_potatoes/

Modifications: I was making this for lunch with a leftover half pound of ground turkey, so everything was cut down a bit. I just kind of threw in some leftover veggies we had in the fridge too, no real measuring going on here, cause this was a MAN’S lunch. I used sweet potatoes, red onion, garlic, frozen peas, and cilantro.

I didn’t simmer this for the recommended time because I had a conference call that I was bumping against, so I was in rush mode. I also didn’t have fresh ginger, so I used ginger powder.

Time to table: 20 minutes

Servings: 1 large adult serving

Ben: Like

Notes: I was pretty pleased to use so many leftover ingredients in one lunch. This was actually a bit meaty tasting, I think it would have been better suited with more veggies and then split into two portions. It was a great meal though and easy to adjust for different spice levels.

Curried Turkey with vegetables

Posted in cilantro, garlic, ginger, onion, peas, sweet potato, turkey | 1 Comment