Maple Glazed Pork Loin with Creamy Polenta

Maple Glazed Pork Loin
1/2 c. syrup
1/8 t. cinnamon
pinch cloves
pinch cayenne
2-1/2 lb. pork loin
salt and pepper
2 t. oil
Sear roast in oil, remove from heat. Mix syrup and spices and roll loin in mixture. Roast at 325 degrees until thermometer reads 135 degrees (about 35-45 minutes), turning twice. Transfer to carving board. Allow syrup to sit 5 minutes to thicken up and pour over roast. Let sit 15 minutes. Slice and serve.

Creamy Polenta
5-1/2 c. water
1 c. milk
salt
1-1/2 c. polenta
4 T butter
1 garlic clove, minced
2 oz. parmesan grated
Boil water and milk, add 1/2 t. salt and slowly pour in polenta, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring often until liquid is absorbed (20-25 minutes). Remove from heat, add butter and garlic. Top with parmesan and broil briefly.

German Onion Cake

3 large onions, coarsely chopped

2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
4 teaspoons baking powder
5 tablespoons vegetable shortening
3/4 - 1 cup milk
1 egg, well beaten
3/4 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons poppy seeds
14/ teaspoon paprika (optional)

In medium skillet sauté the onions in butter over low heat until they just begin to brown, about 15 minutes. Season with dried marjoram, pepper and 1/4 teaspoon salt.
Preheat oven to 450°.
In a bowl mix flour, cornstarch, baking powder and remaining salt. Add shortening and cut in until mixture resembles soft crumbs. Add milk and mix quickly to form a soft dough.
Oil 10" round cake pan and lightly use fingers to spread dough out evenly. Spread cooked onion over top.
Beat egg and sour cream together and spread over the onion, right to the edge of the pan. Sprinkle with poppy seeds and paprika.
Bake for 20 minutes. Cool slightly, then cut into wedges.

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Not a difficult recipe at all, and full of flavor. A good side to any hearty soup or stew. Enjoy!

Cornbread is what we'll eat in heaven

I'm sure of it.

Cornbread made from scratch (no Jiffy mixes please!) and baked in a cast iron skillet for that perfect golden crust and tender crumb, lightly kissed with butter and served piping hot. Or at room temperature. Or even cold (have you ever enjoyed a dish of crumbled cornbread with buttermilk?).

What I'd call cornmeal is sold here as polenta. Which is also a tasty dish but not the object of our focus today.

Recently while making cornbread I was inspired to take photos, thinking it would be fun to post a pictorial along with the recipe. Only problem is, my kitchen is like a cave. There is a window but since it looks out onto the covered patio, little sunlight actually penetrates the room so every photo I've taken in there looks sickly. No problemo! I moved my production out to the patio where I set up shop on one of Ivan's little wooden work tables (an unfinished wooden work table that I covered with a blue towel because I'm fancy like that). But at least the cornbread isn't a sickly shade of gray, which is how it photographed in the kitchen.

Anyway, I just wanted you to know all the trouble I went to just to bring you this if-you-squint-you-might-think-this-was-a-professional-tutorial.

CORNBREAD
1 cup flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon double-acting baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk, at room temperature
1 egg, at room temperature
3 tablespoons butter, melted (I've been known to use more of this particular ingredient)
more butter to brush on cornbread after it's done

Optional:
(in whatever amounts you care to add)
chopped onion
chopped bell pepper (any color)
chopped jalapeño pepper
grated sharp cheese
fresh chopped herbs of your choice
cooked, crumbled bacon (and use the bacon grease in place of the butter!)

Set oven to 400°, put butter in cast iron skillet and set skillet in oven to preheat.

In one bowl whisk together the egg and milk.

In a second bowl combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix well. Add any of the optional ingredients you've chosen to use (I've been throwing in some red bell pepper, onion and cheese lately).

Mix wet and dry ingredients together lightly with a fork just until combined.

Add melted butter (or bacon grease) and incorporate into batter. Pour batter into hot cast iron skillet. Enjoy the sizzle it makes!

Spread batter evenly. Bake at 400° for 18-20 minutes until golden. When you take it out of the oven, spread another tablespoon or so of butter over the top. Cool slightly and cut into wedges.

Cornbread is great with so many things! White Chicken Chili and cornbread make a wonderful supper in the fall or winter. Last night we had creamed chicken over cornbread -- muy delicioso! [Note: I prefer this recipe for cornbread over the one I posted last April but both are tasty.] And of course what southern girl doesn't love soup beans and cornbread? But it's equally great with baked beans or green beans or...

Really, there's not much that cornbread doesn't go with. It's just a nice side to just about anything. So go ahead, make yourself some pan de maiz.

SCORE! -- Success with No Bakes At Last!

Yes, it's true. On the SIXTH try I finally succeeded with the No Bake Cookies. Woot!

I'd just like to thank all those who stood by me in these previous difficult weeks. My success is due to you, faithful friends. Without your support I wouldn't be standing here today.
[holds up large silver award and waves it at the audience]
I want to thank the public library system for all the cookbooks that taught me to feed my family edible food, sometimes even really good food.
I also want to thank my family for eating the many a few less than spectacular meals.
But most of all, I want to thank the internet. It was you that provided the final recipe that spelled success in the form of AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS No Bake Cookies.
It is you that I can always count on, to come through with just the recipe I'm looking for.
Internet, you ROCK!

[pumps award high in the air]

[snaps back to reality]

I think ultimately success was due to using really good quality ingredients. Ivan made a trip into Cordoba Friday morning and was kind enough to do a Walmart run for me and he brought home Quaker oats. (Thanks honey!) That, plus replacing the cocoa with a dark chocolate bar cut into chunks, did the trick.

So for all those other No Bake Challenged Interwebbies out there, I bring to you a recipe that is almost sure to succeed. (Hey, if it worked for me after FIVE FAILS, it just may work for you too!) I've altered the name a little to reflect the product more accurately.

No Bake Chocolatey Goodness Cookies

4 oz. butter

1/2 cup milk

2 cups sugar

1 cup chocolate chips

(I used a large dark chocolate bar cut into chunks instead)

3 cups oats

Mix the butter, milk and sugar in a medium size pan over low-to-medium heat and stir frequently until it comes to a boil and boil exactly 1-1/2 minutes. Remove pan from heat, add chocolate chips and stir until melted, then add oatmeal. Mix until all the oatmeal is well incorporated. Use a large spoon to scoop cookie mixture onto wax paper or tin foil. Allow to cool and store in airtight container. Resist the temptation to hide the airtight container in your lingerie drawer so nobody else can have any. That's not kind and God will smite you for it. Of course you'd die happy and in a state of chocolate bliss.

Note: Sugar is in the container with the blue lid, in case you haven't surmised that. And you don't see any milk with the other ingredients because we drank it all while eating cookies last night. I didn't have the bright idea to include photos until this morning :-)

Note #2: I did not use either vanilla nor peanut butter which seems to appear in 99.2% of the recipes for No Bakes. While I do believe chocolate and peanut butter are an excellent flavor combination, I didn't want any peanut butter fighting with the chocolate in this instance. I just wanted that pure, rich deep dark chocolate. *sigh* These are, in my humble opinion, the best No Bakes I've ever had. Seriously.

Oatmeal Pancakes

Here's a hearty autumn recipe for those of you in the northern hemisphere. Although those here in the south would enjoy them too.

OATMEAL PANCAKES

*Note: Must start these the night before!!!*

2 c. old-fashioned rolled oats (i.e. NOT INSTANT)

2 c. buttermilk, plus a bit more

1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 c. whole wheat flour

2 t. sugar

1-1/2 t. baking powder

1-1/2 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

2 eggs

1/4 stick butter, melted and cooled

vegetable oil for frying

Partially prepare batter the night before: in a small bowl, combine oatmeal and 2 c. buttermilk. Cover and refridgerate overnight.
The next morning, sift together dry ingredients and set aside. In a larger mixer bowl beat the eggs until frothy. Add butter and blend, then add oatmeal mixture. Quickly blend in flour mixture. Batter will be very thick so you may need to add buttermilk -- CAUTION: one tablespoon at a time until it's the right consistency.
Fry pancakes, using heaping tablespoon of batter for each cake, and flatten to about 3/4" thickness. Pancakes will puff when turned over.
Serve however you like: with syrup, sauteed apples, powdered sugar...or WHATEVER. They're your pancakes; eat 'em how you want!

Cuban Pork Roast and Sandwiches

I'm all for cooking something that will provide more than one meal. I love to fix a big chunk of meat and then use it forty eleven different ways. (Or maybe just a few less.)

We lived in south Florida for almost five years and developed a taste for Cuban food. Especially their roast pork. Delectable. Mouth-watering. Full of garlicky goodness. Cuban pork roast is all that and more. We like to have it the first night with the full complement of rice, black beans, and fried plantains. Then the second day we slice leftover pork real thin and make succulent Cuban sandwiches.

Am I making you hungry yet?

The trick with a really good Cuban pork roast is to marinate it overnight, letting all those spices and seasonings soak deep into the meat so that every single bite is absolutely bursting with flavor.

CUBAN PORK ROAST
4-5 lbs pork roast
3 cloves garlic peeled and slivered
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup lime juice
1 tablespoon oregano, ground
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon salt, to taste
1 large onion, sliced

Trim excess fat from roast (but not all!) and then make tiny slits all over the roast with a sharp knife and insert the slivers of peeled garlic.
Mix remaining ingredients in a zip lock bag, add roast and marinate in fridge overnight.
The next day you have two options: in the morning you can dump it into a crockpot, on low, and forget about it until evening. (Well, forgetting about it isn't technically possible with all the wonderful smells wafting around your kitchen!)
OR early afternoon preheat your oven to 275° and slow roast, covered, for several hours (figure one hour per pound of meat, so a 4 pound roast would take four hours).

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If your family doesn't devour the entire roast in one sitting (which has happened to us a time or two) you can thinly slice the leftover meat and make...

CUBAN SANDWICHES
~ 1 loaf Italian or French bread
(or Cuban bread if you're lucky enough to have a source!)
~ mustard (the original recipe calls for plain yellow but I've used stone ground when it's all I had and it worked fine -- obviously I'm not a purist)
~ thinly sliced leftover pork roast
~ thinly sliced ham (any kind you want; it's YOUR sandwich)
~ thinly sliced dill pickles
[are you getting the idea that things HAVE TO BE THINLY SLICED?!]
~ thinly sliced swiss cheese (okay, so that's not so easy to find where I live now; I've used Fontina, Holland and Havarti -- I don't think it really matters; whatever floats your boat)

Slice the bread horizontally so you create one looooooong sandwich. Smear mustard liberally on both slices. Along the bottom half layer ingredients any old way you want. I like to put cheese on the bottom and top, right next to the bread to sort of prevent it from getting soggy from the juicy pickles which I slap right smack in the middle. I'm sure there's probably some kind of law in Cuba about the order in which to correctly place these ingredients, but I'm a rule breaker from way back. Then put the top piece of bread on and start mashing the whole thing as flat as you can. I am not a small person and I put all my weight into the effort, palms down flat against the top of the sandwich and mash, MASH, MASH.

In my U.S. oven I could take the whole sandwich, put it on a cookie sheet, cover it with a little piece of tin foil and then slam my heavy old cast iron skillet on top. We want this sucker FLAT! Here I have a much smaller oven so I have to cut the sandwich in half and lay the two pieces side by side on the smaller cookie sheet I'm able to fit into the itty bitty oven. Then I pop it in the oven at 325° for about 20-30 minutes until the sandwich is hot and the cheese all bubbly. Remove from oven, take the skillet off the top, slice and enjoy! Preferably with chips of your choice.
Wasn't that easy?

You can thank me later, after you've tried them and see how FABULOUS they are :-)

Chocolate Pudding Cake

1 cup flour
2/3 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the topping:
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon instant coffee granules
1-1/2 cups very hot water
Whipped cream garnish:
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350. Lightly butter an 8-inch round or square baking dish or casserole.
Sift together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Combine the milk, butter, egg and vanilla. Whisk together and stir into the dry ingredients, mixing just until combined. Spread the thick batter in the prepared pan.
To make the topping, in the same bowl combine the sugars, cocoa, and coffee powder. Sprinkle over cake batter.
Pour hot water over the topping and place pan on middle rack of oven. Bake until cake is firm, about 40 minutes. The pudding-like sauce will have sunk to the bottom and will be soft. Cool 15 minutes.
Whip the cream, adding sugar and vanilla, until soft peaks form. Serve the warm cake with chocolate sauce spooned over the top. Garnish with sweetened whipped cream*.