Rhubarb Barbeque Sauce

A super short entry with a super simple but scrumptious thing!   A couple nights ago I cooked some boneless pork chops on the grill.  I discovered that I didn't have any bbq sauce.  So I made some.

1 cup chopped rhubarb (in enough water just to cover)

I simmered that until it was soft (about 10 minutes).

Then I added:
1/4 ketchup (Trader Joe's organic)
1/4 cup brown sugar
a palm of black pepper
5-6 splashes of Frank's hot sauce

I brought it to a boil and then hit it with an immersion blender.

I think I might not be buying bbq sauce anymore!   

Quinoa and Vegetable Stuffed Peppers

Today was one of those non-stop Saturdays.  Early this morning I cooked up a batch of quinoa in my rice cooker and set it to cool in the fridge for this evening's culinary experiment.  (Now I know that not everyone likes quinoa and often it's because they think it looks weird.  Well, it does.  But it tastes yummy and is a good healthy thing to put in your belly.  So...close your eyes!)

Then I headed off to one of my churches.  (Have I mentioned that I am a minister to two small churches as well as a music teacher?)  I spent the morning painting the dining room ceiling...pink.  No, not really pink.  It was this really fabulous ceiling paint that goes on pink and turns white when it dries.  Fabulous invention!  Then it was a race home at noon to run errands like buying the hubby a new gas grill for Father's Day, a new ceiling fan for my bedroom, and all the seeds and seedlings for this summer's garden.  Oh, and groceries. Home again, home again and the garden got almost completely planted.  Will have to finish tomorrow.  

Now this is a cooking blog, so...here's what I made for dinner in Mamma Church's kitchen.  

I had bought two really lovely green peppers at my favorite vegetable stand called The Green Spot on KMD between Oakland and Waterville.  And when I say lovely, I mean lovely!   I cut the tops off and cleaned out the insides.

I diced up:
1 white onion
1/2 red pepper
the tops from the green peppers
a few mushrooms
some garlic

All that was sauteed for a few minutes in some olive oil.  Then I stirred in about half of the quinoa that I had cooked.  It was probably about a cup.  (The rest is in a baggie in the fridge for another adventure.)  To that I added some chopped fresh basil and a bit of Italian seasoning.  This mixture got stuffed into the lovely green peppers, topped with a small can of tomato sauce and a good handful of shredded mozzarella on each one.  The baking dish (yes, it was a vintage piece of Pyrex) was covered with foil and then baked at 350 for about an hour and 10 minutes...about how long it took to finish putting the seedlings into the ground.  

I had also purchased a few bunches of teeny weeny baby beet greens and steamed them for a side dish. 

Dinner was served in my favorite room of the house in the summer...the porch!  A lovely way to dine and a pretty darn tasty (and healthy) meal! 

A cold rainy day and a leftover rotisserie chicken....

It's a cold, rainy, nasty, dreary day today.  (Seriously?  It's June!)  I knew I wanted to make something hearty and warm and delicious for dinner.  An inventory of the fridge left me less than enthused.  But I did find the last of a rotisserie chicken that we'd bought on Sunday.  My husband had been eating off it all week for his lunches...chicken and raw veggies.  (Who is this man and what has he done with my husband?)  So there wasn't a lot left.  Fortunately, I have a pretty well-stocked pantry.  So here's what I did.  I guess you'd call it a chicken and white bean chili.

I put the chicken (bones and all) into a pot and boiled it for about 30 minutes.  This loosened the chicken from the bones for picking and made a light stock.  Probably there was about a cup and a half of chicken.  

I heated a bit of olive oil in my cast iron Dutch oven and added:
1 white onion, thinly sliced
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 heavy TBLS of chopped garlic

I let that cook for about ten minutes and then added the chicken and two cans of Trader Joe's white beans (drained).  I probably added about 2 1/2 cups of of the stock.  I seasoned it with 1 TBLS chili powder, 1 TBLS dried cilantro and 1 tsp cumin.  Then it just simmered, deliciously, on the stove on low for about an hour.  (And it really smelled fabulous.)

Might I say that it tasted fabulous too!  Very filling and satisfying.  I topped each bowl with a spoonful of low fat sour cream.  And there is some left for lunch tomorrow. 

Needing to get back on track....but needing it to taste really good, too!

Well...I've sort of been on a food vacation the last couple of weeks.  Two weeks ago, it was a vacation vacation with lots of vacation food.  Last week, it was just crazy busy with very little time to cook.  So this week...back on track!
On Sunday I purchased a whole pork loin.  It weighed about 7-1/2 pounds.  I cut it up into two roasts and six chops.  

Tonight's dinner was a variation of a recipe I saw on Facebook called Crock Pot Parmesan Honey Pork Roast.  (Tuesday is often a "crock pot" day since I teach until 6:30.)

The recipe called for a 4-pound roast.  (Seriously?  There are two of us!)  So I suspect the one I had was about a 2-pounder.  And this is what I did...

The roast went into the crock pot at about 1:30 on low.  I mixed up a mushy goo made with:
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup honey
1 TBLS dried basil
1 TBLS chopped garlic
1 TBLS olive oil
and a heavy TBLS of low-sodium soy sauce

That got all mixed together and slathered on the roast.  I put the lid on and cooked it until about 7:15 on low.  (So about 6 hours.)

(My poor students.  The smell was really yummy and probably made it hard to concentrate on piano lessons since my teaching space is off my kitchen!)

When the roast was done, I took it out and let it rest on a board under some foil.  I mixed a heavy tsp of cornstarch with a little water and mixed it into the "juice" in the bottom of the crock pot.  Then after about ten minutes, I shredded the pork and drizzled it it with the sauce and served it with a side of Trader Joe's frozen green beans.   It was YUMMY!

 Note:  Remember, please that I am NOT a nutritionist.  I do look at nutrition information on recipes however.  This one said that a 5-ounce serving with about 3 TBLS of sauce would be about 330 calories.  I used about half the amount of honey and olive oil that it called for.  So perhaps it was less.  Regardless, it was a very satisfying way to get back on track tonight.