Roasted Sweet Corn

My daughter's love corn, and I believe it was my husband's idea to round out our meal with corn tonight.  This is a really easy recipe, super easy.

 Look at that, you should make this meal.  Of course you can have the corn with another meal.

Preheat oven to broil setting, crumple piece of aluminum foil and place foil ball between oven 

door and oven to wedge open door.

 Ingredients for this recipe are: Frozen Corn (I used this Organic super Sweet Corn I found in
 the freezer section of Costco), Olive Oil, and Salt & Pepper.

 Brush olive oil on sheet pan and add frozen corn, as much as your family will eat.  Add more
olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Broil until golden brown, yummy!

Enjoy!

Mashed Potatoes

I really love mashed potatoes.   I think they are my favorite way of preparing and eating potatoes.  They don't get a lot of praise.  They end up being treated like the third wheel in a fancy dinner in my opinion.  I have made mashed potatoes in a variety of ways, this is just one way to do it.  You most likely have a secret family method of making your mashed potatoes.  You may go about your business and ignore my way.

 I love mashed potatoes!  They are my favorite comfort food.

 Start with some potatoes.   These are Eastern potatoes.  If you look in the back of the bunch, you
will see the pale looking potato?  That is a rock I found in my bag of potatoes.   Yes, you heard me.
 I rinsed my potatoes and found a rock in the bunch.  I weighed the rock and it was 10.2 ounces.
Now that you have heard my crazy story, lets talk mashed potatoes.  Rinse potatoes and peel them,
and rinse again.

 Cut potatoes into uniform size, about 2 1/2 inches.  Place potatoes in a rice cooker, on a rack if you
have one (I used the one from my pressure cooker).  Yes, that is correct, I said a rice cooker.  You
could boil them too if you want too.  Salt the potatoes and pour a little olive oil on them.  Add
1 1/2 inches of water.  Set the rice cooker to the steam function for 25 minutes.

 We now have perfectly cooked potatoes.

 Pour 1/2 cup milk and 1/4 cup butter to a mixing bowl.  Attach beater.

 Add the potatoes.

 Mix on low until it looks like mashed potatoes.  These mashed potatoes will have chunks, if you
want smooth mashed potatoes I suggest a potato ricer.  I had a really wonderful OXO brand potato
ricer that made the most wonderful, perfectly mashed potatoes, but I don't have a potato ricer now. 

Spoon the mashed potatoes back into the rice steamer pot, add another bit of butter and place in
 steamer set to the warm function and close.  The potatoes will stay warm until ready to eat.

Enjoy!

Pork Gravy

You made the pork roast, right?  Now let's make some gravy!

 Golden delicious sauce for taking your pork roast to the next level and of course for those
 mashed potatoes coming up next.

 Place a fine mesh sieve over a bowl and pour pork roast liquid (recipe found here) into sieve.
Press the fruit/vegetable mixture with back of spoon to release more flavor into the bowl below.

 Pour liquid into sauce pan over medium heat.  Make a roux with 1 tablespoon potato starch and
2 tablespoons water.  Only add enough to thicken to your liking.  This stuff is very good at
thickening, a little will go a long way.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pour gravy into a serving vessel.

Enjoy!

Pork Roast

This week as a family we made a food calendar so I would know what they want for dinner.  Our Chinese teenager asked to have his meat not mixed with anything and to have rice.  Well I said I had a pork roast we could have, and my daughters and husband said they wanted mashed potatoes and corn. I was looking in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" for some inspiration and came up with my own version of pork roast tonight.  Pork roasts can be cooked in a pressure cooker in so much less time than in a Slow Cooker and in the oven, so of course that was the way to go.

 Dinner is served, old fashioned pork roast.  As my husband pointed out, "how boring."  This is
what our teenager wants, why not indulge him every now and again.

 Ingredients for this recipe are: 1 Pork Roast (Get a size that will feed your family.  Mine is 3.2 lbs),
 Salt & Pepper, Olive Oil, Yellow Onion, Apple (I used Gala), 2 Bay Leaves, and 6 cloves of
peeled garlic.

 Preheat a saute pan to medium-high.  Liberally salt and pepper the pork roast.  Add two
tablespoons of oil and then pork to your pan.  Sear all 4 sides.

 Look at that golden delicious flavor!

 Everything shall be sliced!  Also remove the core from the apple, and the skin from the onion.

 Put half the apple, onion, garlic and both bay leaves on the bottom of a pressure cooker pan.
Place the pork on the vegetables/fruit and then place the rest of the fruit and vegetables on the
roast.  Look we're playing hide and seek with the pork roast, "Where's the pork roast? Peek a
Boo."  Add 1 1/2 cups of water.

Close lid on pressure cooker, set to high for  55 minutes.

 Wait for the pressure cooker to come down on its own.  Do you know the pressure this thing is
 under to cook your food?  The pressure on high is 15 psi (pounds per square inch) and the
 temperature is 250 degrees Fahrenheit.  Completely crazy what we put this thing
through to make us dinner.  Oh wait, I'm talking about an appliance, never mind.

Look how pretty it looks.  Remove roast to a serving platter.  Let rest for 5 minutes before slicing.

 Stare at the roast and enjoy the smell for at least 1 minute and really enjoy it.   Move on.
Time to finish dinner.

Enjoy!

Tilapia en Papillote (Paper)

Did you like my French?  This is a very simple recipe of fish baked in paper.  This is a French cooking technique, so I thought the French name would give an air of sophistication, or maybe not? My ingredients are not very French though.  Anyway, my children love when I bake fish this way.  My friend Whitney was also with us for the day and helped prepare this recipe, along with my husband.  My daughter photographed us.

 Perfectly moist cooked tilapia.

Preheat oven to 400 Fahrenheit

 Ingredients for this recipe are: Tilapia (enough for your family), Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper, Limes,
and peeled Garlic.

 Place fish on a large piece of parchment paper, enough to fold over fish and create a packet.  

Squeeze half a lime onto fish, 1/2 lime per two fish pieces.

 Pour 2 teaspoons of oil on each piece of fish and rub in.

 Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste.

 Press one clove of garlic per pair of fish pieces.  Rub garlic all over fish.

 Fold paper over and begin sealing the packet by folding at an angle small sections at a time.

 Place fish packet on cookie sheet, don't crowd them.

Bake for 15 minutes.

 Remove from oven, carefully open paper.  These are very tender, flaky fish.

Enjoy!

Turkey Enchiladas

This is the culmination of my day, the meal where my previous recipes come together to make enchiladas. Okay, well not the chocolate syrup (I promise).  I really like enchiladas.  My sister Adrienne makes very yummy enchilada casserole, but I wasn't planning on a casserole.  My plan was the rolled up version with my own spin.  In my refrigerator I had some ground turkey thawed and needing to be put into something. 

 Oh my goodness was this delicious.

Preheat oven to 375 Fahrenheit

 Ingredients for this recipe are: Enchilada Sauce (I used homemade, recipe is here), Grated
Sharp Cheddar Cheese, 10 Tortillas (I used homemade corn/flour, recipe found here), Paprika,
Salt, Pepper, 4 cloves Garlic, 1 green pepper, 1 yellow onion, and 2 lbs. Ground Turkey.

 Dice onion, bell pepper, and press garlic. 

 Saute turkey, bell pepper, onion, and garlic together over medium flame.

 Sprinkle salt, pepper, and paprika according to your preference.

 Pour 1/2 cup enchilada sauce and stir.

 This is ready to join with the tortillas.

 Add just enough sauce to cover the bottom of the baking dish.  Use a 9x13 pan if you have one.

  Add 1/3 cup meat to tortilla, a sprinkle of cheese, and roll. 

I made mine with the side tucked in so they would fit in my small pan.  If you have a bigger
pan,  I'm sure you won't need to do this.  Place enchiladas in pan.

 Cover with sauce and cheese.  Bake in oven for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and
 slightly brown.

 They have emerged, joined together as enchiladas.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Syrup

I confess that I don't like the taste of milk on its own.  I like it with cookies, cake, pancakes, and french toast but not really on its own.  I do like the taste of chocolate milk, as do my children.  I have been thinking about making chocolate syrup for milk for a couple months now.  I decided not to buy it from the store.  Plus, a certain Pennsylvania chocolate company disappointed me with the simple declaration on the front saying it was chocolate flavor and of course the High Fructose Corn Syrup listed on the back as a main ingredient.  What is up with that?  This is not a healthy recipe.  Please understand me when I say this is made with cocoa and it is not sugar free.

 That is chocolate milk, the good stuff and I can pronounce the ingredients!

 Ingredients for this recipe are: 1 1/2 cups sugar, 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 cup water,
dash of salt, and 1 teaspoon vanilla.

 Put all the ingredients in a sauce pan.  Gently whisk together, trying not to add air to this mixture.  Turn burner to medium and bring to a boil, stir occasionally.

 Once it has boiled, reduce heat to low and cook for 1 minute.  I use a fine mesh skimmer to
remove the stuff on the surface.

 Pour into a lidded container.   If you happen to have a chocolate syrup bottle or a squeeze
bottle pour into those.  Store in refrigerator.

Add 2 teaspoons to 8 ounces cold milk, stir...

Enjoy!