You want me to eat what?

Brussel Sprouts, yup you heard me right Brussel Sprouts my friends. Those soggy, mushy gross smelling little cabbage like things you were forced to eat as a child. See the thing is those are the B.S. of yester year. What if I told you you could make delicious, crispy, savory morsels of goodness, you'd want to try them again right? Growing up we never ate Brussel Sprouts. It was not until I met my husband and he expressed his love for the small green orbs that I started experimenting with them. This is one of my favorite ways to eat them. I do keep the frozen ones around to microwave when I need a quick veggie, but they taste nothing like fresh ones.
The first thing you want to do with a fresh Brussel is cut a bit of the stem end off.

Then remove the first few leaves as these can sometimes be a little tough. Cut them in half and you are ready to go.

I made these on the stove top because I had other things cooking in the oven, they are just as delicious roasted in the oven. Start out with a heavy bottom skillet. Add in 1/2 cup of water and steam the sprouts for about 4 minutes. At this point most of your water will be evaporated, this is a good thing. Add in a knob of butter, a splash of balsamic vinegar and some salt and pepper. Let them cook over medium heat stirring occasionally.

The sugars in the balsamico will start to caramelize and work there sweet and yummy magic. You do not want to over cook these, no more than 10 - 12 minutes. The Brussel Sprouts will let you know that you took them too far if they start to get a sulfuric smell.

I served these with a turkey burger, they are a great side with just about anything.
If you have never been a fan of Brussel Sprouts be adventurous and try them out cooked like this. I bet the good ol' sprouts will have you on their side in no time.

Penne with Vodka Sauce

When we go out for Italian food John always orders the "Penne alla Vodka". Recently we have been cutting back on the amount of eating out we do. With buying the house and planning a vacation it is a luxury that we cut out that saves us allot of money. If you order this from a restaurant the cost is around $12. - $15.00 easily. "Penne alla vodka" looks like it is hard to make but in reality it is very simple. Stay home and impress your hunny on a date night or invite some company over and have a dinner party. The best part about this, it is so inexpensive to make! You can feed 4 people for under $10.00, that is less than 1 meal if you were eating out. I guarantee you'll have most of the ingredients already in your pantry. And anyone you make this for will be majorly impressed and sing you praises.

Penne with Vodka Sauce
1 small onion diced
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 pinch of red pepper flakes or to taste
1 tbsp EVOO
1 tbsp butter
1 14.5 oz can Hunts fire roasted diced tomatoes (I really like the taste of these tomatoes, I keep cans in my pantry at all times. It is so much cheaper than buying jarred pasta sauce and tastes home made, you can use any kind of diced tomatoes in sauce that you like)
1 heaping tbsp tomato paste
1/4 cup vodka
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp fresh parsley, plus some for garnish (optional)
1/2 lb penne pasta
Cook your penne in boiling salted water for about 9 minutes, make sure to remove while al dente because you will finish cooking it in the sauce. **Reserve a small amount of the pasta water.
While waiting for the pasta water to boil add EVOO to a skillet. Saute onions, garlic and red pepper flakes until translucent about 4 minutes. Add in tomatoes and paste mix well. Add in vodka and let simmer for about 5 minutes. (All of the alcohol in the vodka will cook off and you will only be left with the flavor so no you cannot get drunk off this and yes it is OK to feed to a child.)

Add the heavy cream and let the sauce simmer and reduce for additional 5 - 10 minutes. When pasta is almost done add the cheese, butter and parsley to the sauce, mix well.

Add your pasta and let it cook in the sauce for a few minutes. If your sauce is too thick add a small amount of the pasta water to thin it.

I recommend serving this with some crusty bread and a simple side salad dressed with oil and vinegar. You can also bulk this up buy adding grilled chicken or shrimp. One of John's favorite versions has sausage in it, so you can be creative and add what you like.

There are a million different recipes around, this is the one I came up with after doing allot of research and I honestly think it tastes better than anything you will get at a restaurant.

Enjoy!

Stuffed Pork Chops

Wednesday was a pretty interesting day for the Maple household. I was elected April's employee of the month at the hospital that we work at and they were having a celebration with all of the big wigs, my co workers and my family. Things did not turn out how they were planed however. Some time Wednesday mid-morning the McAfee virus software on all of the hospitals computers updated and made all of the computers crash in all 5 of the Lifespan hospitals. Apparently McAfee had a corrupted file that said a vital part of windows was a virus... Yes the virus software people created their own virus. To make a long story short the celebration was rushed along with plans to reschedule for sometime next week. And my husband was stuck up in the Lab "putting out fires" and running around like a chicken with his head cut off. He ended up putting in a 15 hour day and I knew he would be really hungry when he got home. I had defrosted some nice thick cut pork chops and wanted to try something new so I went to my tried and true allrecipes and decided on this:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Stuffed-Pork-Chops-III/Detail.aspx
Here are the modifications I made:
2 thick cut pork chops
1/4 cup seasoned panko bread crumbs
1/2 of a small onion diced
approximately 1 tsp of melted butter
garlic powder, salt and pepper
I had not planned on blogging this, once I saw how delicious the chops looked I knew I had to though, so I don't have any pictures of the stuffing process but it was not hard. Just make a slit in the center of the chop big enough to stuff but not all the way through, stuff with about 1/8 of a cup of the filling and close with a few tooth picks. I did not sear the chops in butter like the recipe called for I used evoo. Brown the chops on both sides and then add in the beef broth. I used 1 tsp of "better than bouillon" with 1 1/2 cups of water.
(This is a great product to have around, I buy mine at Shaws. You can read about it here:
http://www.superiortouch.com/retail/products/better-than-bouillon/premium-bases/30/beef-base )

I simmered the chops in the broth on low heat for about 15 minutes per side. While they were simmering I made some roasted sweet potatoes and onions that I seasoned with a dash of cinnamon and a sprinkling of sea salt.

For something so simple to throw together these pork chops were so tasty, juicy and delicious!
The most important part is John really enjoyed coming home to this meal after a long day of work. I will definitely be making these pork chops again soon!

Chicken Tacos

If you are a fan of South Park like me now is the time to sing the “Jennifer Lopez, Taco flavored kisses” song. Go ahead, I’ll wait... taco taco burrito burrito… Now that we got that out of the way lets get to the good stuff ~ Chicken Tacos! Up until a few years ago the only kind of tacos I ever made were the out of the box kind. When we went to California to visit Johns family his Grandma taught me how she makes tacos. Since Grandma is the kind of cook that throws in a little of this and a little of that (there is nothing wrong with that) I took the basics of her taco seasoning added some stuff and made it consistent. Most of the time I make this with ground beef, today I used chicken. The first thing I did was boil a chicken breast. Mine was large, almost 1 lb, and still frozen so I cooked it for about 1/2 hour. When it was cooked through I let it cool down for about 10 minutes, then shredded the meat. Add it to a pan with 1 cup of water and the taco seasoning. Cook on low for about 10 - 15 minutes and you will have some pretty killer chicken on your hands.

Amy's Basic Taco Seasoning
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp seasoning salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)
1/2 bouillon cube (I use Goya chicken tomato because that's what Grandma does)
You have some decisions to make with your taco shells. You can use the boxed kind. You can use flour tortillas if you like soft tacos. Or you can go the Grandma way and use "fresh" corn tortillas. You can find these in the ethnic food section.

Add enough oil to the pan to cover the bottom (corn, canola, vegetable something neutral NOT olive oil). Put your burner on medium high and let the oil heat up. Add the corn tortilla let it sit for about 10 seconds, flip it over and fold it in half. Be very careful not to splatter oil on yourself.

I would start out with 1 tortilla at first and when you get the hang of it you can do 2 at a time. You cook the shells depending on how crispy you like your tacos, I usually do mine for about 30 - 45 seconds per side. Never walk away from the stove unless you want them to burn. It will take 10 minutes max for you to cook all of the shells. Once you have your desired crispness remove the shell from the pan and place it on a plate covered with paper towels. I prep my toppings while the meat is cooking so as soon as the shells are done we are ready to eat. You should not make these in advance as they are best served right away, letting them sit will make them soggy. I like sour cream, cheese, lettuce, onions and hot sauce on mine, the great thing is you can just set out the toppings and everyone can make to them to their liking.

Its defiantly worth the few extra minutes it takes to make these tacos from scratch. Trust me when I say that everyone who eats them will be very grate full :)

Hot Wieners, a New England tradition.

Right down the street from our new house is a little wienie joint my dad used to take me to when I was little. I can remember sitting at the counter, watching the cook in awe. If you have ever been to a wienie joint you will know exactly what I am talking about, the cook will stick his arm out and line up wienes to his elbow. Then he'll ladle on the meat sauce plop them down on some parchment paper throw on the fixings and wrap them up all in the matter of minutes . If you don't live on the East Coast you might not know what a hot wiener is. Picture a steamed bun with a thin grilled hot dog, the kind that probably has ingredients you don't want to know about in it. Smear the dog with yellow mustard and top it with a flavorful meat sauce, kind of like a bean less chili, and you have a hot wiener. Ask for one "all the way" and get diced onions and a sprinkling of celery salt added.
This weekend I had some spare time and a big package of ground beef so I decided to try my hand at making homemade hot wiener sauce. Finding a recipe is not that easy since each different joint has their own top secret version. I decided to try this one from allrecipes: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/New-York-System-Hot-Wiener-Sauce-I/Detail.aspx

The few modifications I made were because I did not have allspice or ginger root. I just substituted 1/4 tsp of cinnamon and ginger powder.

This was allot easier to make than I thought, all you do is brown the beef, add in the seasonings, ketchup, soy, Worcestershire and cook low and slow. I cooked my wienie sauce for a little over 2 hours.
The verdict: It was really good! I used a all beef hot dog and that was the one thing that stood out to me as different. The sauce pretty much tasted exactly like something you would get from a joint. I portioned the left overs into containers and froze it. I figure it will be something great to take to a BBQ or have handy when we have company.