Pork Belly Tacos - Makes 6 tacos

Ugh, TUMBLR! I had this entire post written out and when I clicked post, it deleted all the text. THANKS!

You need:

Pork Belly - about 1/2 lb, chopped into small pieces.
Chipotle Sauce - 1/4 cup
Achiote powder (optional, sub cumin if you cant find it)
Garlic powder - 1tbs
Salt - to taste
Pineapple - I used canned; cut into small pieces for garnish, reserve the juice for deglazing the pan.
Cilantro
Onions
Limes
Corn tortillas

Mix the chipotle sauce, achiote powder, about 1tbs of pineapple juice, garlic powder, and salt into the chopped pork belly. Heat up a pan, and cook the pork belly for about 8 minutes on high heat - you won’t need any oil to start the pan since pork belly is so fatty.

When you’ve got about a minute left on cooking, heat up the tortillas in a different pan, about 1 minute for each.

Chop the cilantro, onions, and pineapple for garnishing the tacos.

Deglaze the pan with about 1/4 cup of pineapple juice, let cook for another minute, then you’re done.

Serve the tacos with pineapple, cilantro, onion, and lime.

Okay, I know this post is by no means a full interpretation of a recipe, but considering this was just a bunch of stuff layered in a pot, a recipe seems silly.

In any case, this was 3-4 medium sized potatoes, mashed with garlic and butter.

On top of that is a layer of flash-sauteed kale with freshly-grated garlic (about 3/4 of the bunch, but if I were to make it again, I’d do the whole bunch because YAY KALE).

On top of that is a layer of caramelized onions (I used 1 medium-sized onions) and sauteed cremini mushrooms (baby bellas, 1 16-ounce package, chopped).

On top of that is a layer of sliced Polish sausage.

And on top of all that is shredded sharp cheddar cheese.

Since everything except the sausage and cheese is already cooked when layered into the dutch oven, all you basically have to do is throw it into a 350-375 degree oven until the cheese is nice and melty, about 15 minutes.

It makes a whole bunch of food. I made this on a Thursday night for dinner, shared it with my boyfriend, then ate it for lunch and dinner on Friday, then lunch and dinner on Saturday. It’s delicious with a few splashes of Frank’s Red Hot Sauce. A+, would make/eat again (and again and again)

haha, kind of a strange request, but i *do* do it every morning anyways, so here i am, just-woke-up. and yes, that coffee cup does have ice cream cones on it. i know, pretty great.

Pumpkin-Pie-esque Breakfast Smoothie

Okay, let me really quickly preface this by saying that I am not the kind of gal who puts green things into drinks (unless it’s mint and I’m making a mojito, which…well, we did it once, a few summers ago. ANYWAYS), so I was a bit weary about doing this, since I was scared I’d be able to taste the spinach.

You can’t.

At all.

It’s thick (thanks oats!) and tastes like … kind of like liquid pumpkin pie. And it’s really pretty good for you. So you should make it.

Blenderize:

1 banana
1 cup yogurt — I used maple because we had it, but you could just as easily use plain and a tbs or so of maple syrup
1/3 c pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
2 tbs oats
2 handfuls of spinach
A few ice cubes.
A few dashes of cinnamon, and a few dashes of cloves

It’s seriously REALLY good.

It makes 12-14 oz (depending on how vigilant you are about scraping out the blender) and is 308 calories — not too shabby for a breakfast.

I’m living back in Chicago — FINALLY! It’s something that had sort of been in the works since, well, the day I moved to Florida. Tampa never really grew on me. I left a job I really liked and some wonderful people, but it’s absolutely wonderful being home and I love love love that I came back.

Today’s lunch: Grilled cheese (American) with a quick homemade roasted red pepper/tomato soup that I wasn’t super thrilled with — a bit too gritty, couldn’t nail down what was “off” with the flavor (I basically just used a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes, half a jar of roasted red peppers, some garlic, powdered onion, parmesan, pepper (black and crushed red), salt, sugar, and a splash of red wine… but still something was missing and I couldn’t put my finger on it).

In any case, I put everything in a pot, warmed it up, then put it in the blender, then heated it some more and adjusted spices. Pretty decent but nothing I’d want to serve to someone else YET.

I recently celebrated my 25th birthday…After bar hopping with some friends, I was in serious need of some greasy, unhealthy food. We went to a pizza place that offered buffalo chicken, and in my alcohol-hazed brain, that seemed like a great idea. It was delicious, but unfortunately was SO SPICY that I could barely eat it. I decided I needed to recreate it at home with a little less fire. Here’s what I came up with…it’s really, reallllly good.

What you need:

• pizza crust — either make it or buy it premade (I used premade — Boboli.)
• chicken breast tenders (I made small, 6-inch pizzas and used 2-3 tenders each, but if you do a bigger pizza youd probably want 5 or 6 chicken tenders) … cook the chicken, then shred it.
• buffalo sauce — I like Frank’s Red Hot.
• blue cheese or ranch dressing — this is the pizza’s “sauce.” I used blue cheese.
• mozzarella cheese, shredded.
• some onion, chopped (optional)

So first, cook up the chicken tenders and shred them, then put enough buffalo sauce on them to coat it all— saturate them if you want your pizza spicier, use less if you don’t.

Next: Assembly!

Spoon about 3 tbs (for a small pizza, remember, more if you’re doing a regular sized pizza) of your dressing onto the crust.

Next, put the chicken onto the pizza, evenly covering the whole pizza.

Then, put the onions on if you want onions.

Finally, put some mozzarella cheese and (if you want) Italian seasonings on the top of the cheese.

Bake at a nice high temperature like 525°F (or higher if your oven can handle it — I try to mimic what goes on in pizza places — high temperature, short bake time). I think these took about ten minutes to bake.

This is what it looks like when its done…

and cut up!

I’m just going to say it’s coincidence that the crust I bought came in a 2-pack, and THAT’S why I made this pizza two days in a row for dinner… totaaaally had nothing to do with the fact that is was DELICIOUS.

Already by that title, you should be pretty stoked about this…I know I was.

Risotto is a short-grained rice dish that utilizes slow cooking in order to make the rice creamy and starchy rather than dry and, well, rice-y like say, white rice is. You cook the rice over low heat for about 45 minutes, gradually stirring in broth. Towards the end, you throw in your mix-ins and let it meld together. You finish by tossing in some parmesan cheese and devouring it. Its easily made vegetarian by substituting chicken broth for vegetable and leaving out the meat.

What you need (I’m going to list off what I used for this one, but you can add other things/leave veggies out of you want):

• 1.5 cups arborio rice
• 4 cups chicken (or vegetable) broth
• 1.5 cups dry white wine (I used chardonnay)
• 2 tbs butter
• one small yellow onion, chopped
• 1-2 cups chopped baby portobello mushrooms
• 1/4 cup roasted red pepper, chopped
• 1-2 cups chopped asparagus
• 4  strips of cooked bacon, chopped
• 2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
• salt and pepper (and paprika if you like) to taste
• shredded parmesan cheese

I find it helps to start by cooking your chicken breasts, shredded them with forks when theyre done, and setting them aside while the rice cooks. So, do that, thennnnn…

put the butter and chopped onion in a large pan and sautee until they just start to go transparent. Don’t carmelize them.

Next, pour the rice into the onion mixture and let it toast up just barely.

Meanwhile, in a small pan, sautee the mushrooms in a little butter until they’re soft, then take them off the heat and set aside.

Pour in the wine and one cup of broth to start.

Let that cook on low heat until it’s almost all absorbed. When the rice looks like this, you add more liquid.

Add more broth in 1/2 cup- 1 cup increments, for about 40 minutes. Season your rice throughout, tasting a little as you go to see if you need more salt or pepper.

After about 40 minutes, toss in the bacon, chicken, and veggies.

Stir it all up, then add the rest of the broth.

Let this all cook down and let the broth absorb into the rice. When the veggies are soft enough for your liking, stir in a healthy handful of grated parmesan cheese (the real stuff, not the powdery stuff). Put some in a bowl, toss on some parmesan cheese as garnish (I ran out of the real stuff so what you’re seeing here IS the powdery stuff, haha), and enjoy. SO GOOD.

These are mini chocolate cupcakes. Next time you make cupcakes or mini cupcakes, take some frozen Reese’s peanut butter cups, and if you’re making regular size cupcakes, use a whole miniature Reese’s cup, and if you’re making mini cupcakes, use a half, placed in the center and smooshed down a little. These had a peanut butter-vanilla frosting once they were finished baking. I made it by combining a can of store-bought vanilla frosting (hey, now, the cake was from scratch) with about 3/4 cup of peanut butter — you can use more or less depending on what flavor you’re going for.

I made this for work one day, and the very next day made them again so my roommate could bring them to HIS office for a bake sale. Suffice to say, they’re delicious.

I used a yeast dough for the recipe that’s on this blog…bloom the yeast with room temperature water (any hotter and you run the risk of it dying), then add everything else and what not (pretty much just follow the recipe), then let the dough rise for about an hour. Punch the dough down, then let it rise some more, then bake according to the recipe! :)

Generally speaking I cook from scratch… Sometimes I’ll use a base recipe (usually from my mom. Hi mom!) but more often than not what I cook is a matter of “What should we have for dinner… What do we already have?”… As far as baking, however, always always always a recipe, since it’s way more precise.