Can't go wrong with Pork!

The heat has invaded again, well temporarily anyway.  Tomorrow is supposed to cool down again.  In the meantime I’m ready to mix up some magic in the kitchen!  Today’s offering is BrownSugar & Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin. It is luckily for me done in the crock pot!  So minimal house heating!

Put your spices in a small bowl to mix

Open your pork loin and rinse it

Rub with the spices

Put it in the crock pot with 1/2 cup of water

Cook 6-8 hours!

About an hour before the time is up combine the remaining ingredients in a sauce pan and stir and heat until thick. It will have a syrupy consistency.

Brush the loin 2-3 times during the last hour with the glaze.

I’m serving with fresh cast iron rolls, mashed potatoes, and leftover sauce as the gravy!

ENJOY! 

Bacon in that recipe? I'm on it!

Any recipe that starts with frying up bacon has me interested. I'll try any recipe once.

I don't remember where I came across the recipe for Bacon, Gruyere and Green Onion Scones, probably on Pinterest. I find a lot of recipe ideas there.  This one seemed fairly simple.  And I'm in the mood to cook! Of course I made more bacon than what the recipe called for, mostly because I would have ended up with 3 random pieces of bacon, and they made for good snacking while I worked in the kitchen.

After getting out the ingredients I would need for this recipe I started grating the cheese and chopping the green onions and put them in bowls for later.


Mix up or sift the dry ingredients together then it's time to cut in the butter. This is best done by hand, I tried to use the mixer, no go...

Once the butter has been cut in, toss the bacon, cheese, green onions and pepper in

Mix it well

Add the buttermilk.

Mix it till it forms a dough and shape it into a round and refrigerate for 30 minutes or so.

My oven doesn't take long to preheat, so I didn't turn it on until the 30 minutes were up.

Roll the dough out to about 1/2 inch thick (this was a pain as the dough wanted to stick to the rolling pin...but I managed...) and you can cut it into rounds, or as I decided to do triangles, I don't know why but when I think scones I think triangles...

I don't use parchment paper, I put my scones on my silpat mats...and then brushed them with the heavy cream.  Good thing I made ice cream the other night...I have leftover heavy cream for this!

Into the oven they go for 20-25 minutes watching for that perfect golden brown.

Once they are done you can serve them warm with some honey butter, or whatever you want.  If you make them in advance just warm them up for a few seconds in the microwave.

Warm, flaky, a bit spicy...and totally yummy!  Enjoy!

Every day is a good Pizza Day

Freezer meals are all the rage right now.  So I have my own recipe to contribute! Pizza Casserole!

You will need:

Mostaccioli Pasta, or whatever you want to use

1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce

Diced Pepperoni

8oz shredded Italian cheese

8 oz fresh mushrooms sliced (or slice whole mushrooms)

Can sliced olives

1/2 sweet onion

2 bell peppers

2-3 strips of bacon chopped (yes really)

Glad Ovenwear (or something like it)

Chop up the onion and mushrooms, these go in a bowl together off to the side

Then chop up the peppers and put them in a separate bowl

Chop up the bacon and throw it in a skillet over medium-high heat

In the meantime get some water boiling and get the pasta cooking!!

Once the bacon is crisp move it to a bowl (leaving the renderings in the pan) and set aside for later.Toss the Onions and mushrooms in the skillet and stir them up a bit, reduce heat to Medium. Add Italian Seasoning.

Cover with a lid and let it simmer for 5 minutes then add the peppers.

Once the pasta is done, rinse well with cold water, also rinse the pot with cold water because you will be mixing everything up in it.

Mix the "toppings" with the pasta

Add the sauce and stir well.

Throw in most of the bag of cheese, reserving some to top the casserole and then mix it up!

Divide the casserole between two Glad Ovenwear dishes, top with remaining cheese.

Freeze until you are ready to eat!  Then thaw and put it in the oven at 350 until bubbly.  Or you can always microwave it until bubbly.  Enjoy!

It's an all day thing

Pork was on sale yesterday, so I got a nice big roast, and  I remembered making a delicious BBQ roast years ago so I dug out the recipe.  Low and Slow BBQ Pork Roast is a delicious alternative to a crock pot meal, although it does use the oven...today I don't care.

Preheat the oven to 250

Gather the spices and the roast

Get the rub measured out, and the mixed together, set it aside and deal with the meat

I rinsed my pork roast and patted it dry before putting it on foil and covering it with the rub

Wrap it tightly with foil, adding as much as needed to make it tight and "leak proof" you want the juices to stay inside.

This next step takes hours, so set a timer for 4 or 5 hours and walk away to do something else...

Once the timer has gone off, you are ready for the next step towards dinner! Remove the roast from the oven and make a slit in the top so you can drain the liquid.

Bump up the temperature to 350.

Get out your favorite BBQ sauce

And spread it on top of the roast!

Put it back in the oven and continue cooking for another hour and a half, checking to make sure the top isn't getting too dark (if this happens, put foil over the opening.)

Let it rest a bit while you are pulling the rest of dinner together!  We are having scalloped potatoes and green beans with ours!

Enjoy!

"Ice cream is happiness condensed"

Jessi Lane Adams had it right with that quote.  There is nothing like Ice Cream on a hot day.  My DH and I were fortunate enough to receive a ice cream maker at our wedding shower.  And now I'm going to put it to use and actually make some!  It was his idea, he asked about it on our way to the grocery store today so I looked up a basic recipe for ice cream, and added the ingredients to my list.  So tonight I am going to make Caramel Macchiato Ice Cream, which also happens to be one of my favorite beverages!  It is definitely an ice cream for coffee lovers!


This recipe is nice and simple, no tempering or heating so you can get to freezing it sooner!  As always, gather all your ingredients...

Whisk the milk, coffee, sugar and salt together till the sugar is dissolved,  then add the heavy cream and stir.  Cover and put in the fridge for 2 hours...simple!

Once the 2 hours is up time to put the mixture in the ice cream machine.  Just follow the directions for your maker and let'er rip!

While the ice cream is freezing it is time to make the caramel sauce...I'm microwaving it because it is waaayyy to hot to fire up the oven...which is the other reason the ice cream recipe works so well...no heating!

Pay close attention to the size of the bowl, timing and stirring directions, you don't want burnt caramel. And using too small of a bowl will result in the caramel boiling over...I speak from experience. Now I must caution that this process takes a lot of muscle, and patience, lots and lots of patience.

Done "cooking" time to whip

Ohhhh, that doesn't look good...

Ah wait, there it is...nice and smooth

Aaaaannnnd...because it started to seize up, I added splashes of the leftover heavy whipping cream to it until the consistency was back where it needed to be!

After the caramel is done, and the ice cream is done (waaaaayyyy longer than 20 minutes) layer and swirl the caramel into the ice cream and put in the freezer for at least 2 hours, overnight is better!

Don't forget to lick the caramel bowl!  Enjoy!