Poached Pears

We got fancy with our FHE treat this week. Poached Pears. Mmmm. Seriously good, easy, and looks impressive (that is if you are better at drizzling the chocolate than I was :)). Even Boz, who doesn't like pears, really enjoy this one.

Poached Pears
courtesy of Karissa Winkel (THANKS Karisa)

Bosc Pears (one per person you are serving, any firmness, stem intact)
1 bottle cranberry juice
juice of a lemon
1/2-2/3 cup sugar
White chocolate chips
Cinnamon sugar

Carefully peel pears, leaving stem on. Trim the bottom slightly so that the pear sits upright. Combine cranberry juice (enough to cover the pears), lemon juice and sugar. Add pears and boil together for about 30 minutes or till the pears are soft. If boiling uncovered be sure to turn the pears often. Chill for 2-24 hours (we didn't have time to do it that long, so really whatever works).

Just before serving, melt chocolate in a double broiler (we probably should have added a bit of butter to get a better "drizzle" effect?). Stand pears upright on plate and cover in chocolate. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and ENJOY!

Petite Peas - A Hidden Jewel Amongst a Crowd of Crappy Green Vegetables

I don't know if this is common knowledge or not, but I thought I would share a piece of information with everybody to try to make the world a better place, becuase that's what I do.

I grew up hating peas, naturally. This is because everybody hates peas. Everybody hates peas because they are nasty. So far I have said nothing that isn't known by everybody. But here is the news. There is a type of pea called petite peas. These look just like regular nasty peas, just smaller. But the major difference is that they don't taste gross.

I know you are thinking to yourself, "This is impossible. A pea is a pea is a disgusting food." I thought the same thing the first time Maegan told me they were different. Well at some point I must have given in and tried them, because today I can testify to the fact that petite peas actually do taste good, and do not taste like regular gross peas (Don't get me wrong, they don't taste like Pixies Stix, but they are still good).

I know nothing I can say will convince you that there really is a difference, so I ask that next time you go to buy peas, if this ever actually happens, don't reach for the same crappy peas you always buy. Try a bag of petite peas. They aren't even any more expensive. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Friday Night Pizza

Its our little tradition to eat pizza while watching a movie (rented or one we own) every other Friday night. We always make the pizza, oh wait with the exception of a Digorno frozen pizza once, because homemade is just cheaper, MUCH tastier and quite easy really, plus we like to try all sorts of different stuff. This Friday night we made BBQ Chicken pizza. We've made different types of BBQ pizza before, but this one we've done twice now and its by far the BEST! So we'd thought we'd share the "recipe" (if pizza really needs a recipe that is).

BBQ Chicken Pizza- Serves 4-6 (or 2 really hunger adults and 2 toddlers)

1-2 cooked chicken breasts- shredded (we barbecued ours since it was easiest at that time)
1/2 to 1 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce (we like Famous Dave's Rich and Sassy)
Half a medium red onion-chopped (got to be red, they are the best on pizza)

2+ cups monterey jack cheese (I recommend a mix of cheeses, more flavor)

2 TBS fresh cilantro

I mix about 3/4 of the shredded chicken with the BBQ sauce, then spread it over the dough. Add more BBQ sauce if you'd like, but as a warning, too much makes for very soggy pizza. Believe it or not, less is more on the particular pizza. Sprinkle most of the red onion on next. Then add the cheese. Next, add the remaining chicken and onion. Finally, sprinkle the cilantro on top.

Bake at 425 for about 20 minutes (varies by size and type of pan)

Pizza Dough

This is the pizza dough we like best (so far). We let the bread maker do the work, but its just as easy to make it yourself

1 1/2 cups warm (borderline hot) water
2 TBS olive oil
2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
4 cups flour
1 TBS seasonings of your choice (garlic always, and oregano are what we do usually, this time I added a little cilantro to go with the BBQ pizza)
4 tsp yeast

Add in order to bread maker and set on pizza dough cycle.

-If making it yourself, moisten yeast in 1/4 cup of the water. Put remaining water with the oil in bowl. In a separate bowl, mix salt, sugar, flour and seasoning. Add dry ingredients to the water and oil. Mix well, then add the moistened yeast mixture. Mix well. Knead on floured surface (bout 10 minutes, more or less depending on how vigorously you knead). Place in greased bowl, turn once and loosely cover. Let rise 30 minutes in warm place.

It makes enough for 2 crusts (or 1 crust and some breadsticks :), I often freeze half the dough for later. When the dough is done, divide in half. Roll half out on lightly floured surface to make pizza. Grease the pan or whatever you'll be using (we don't actually have a pizza pan or stone, so we just use a cookie sheet) and sprinkle with cornmeal. Transfer rolled out pizza dough to pan and add toppings (if we want a softer crust at the time, I let it rise for a bit longer before adding toppings)

Cafe Rio's Pork Barbacoa

I do like variety when I eat out, but when I find something I really love I can't help but get it every time I go. Thats what happened when I had Cafe Rio's Pork Barbacoa Burrito (enchilada style) . Its all I ordered there and I started to crave it when not there. I've tried other places, but what ever Cafe Rio did for their barbacoa it hooked me. I poked around for copy cat recipes, but never tried making my own. Now with miles between us, I got serious, did my research and the results were AWESOME! Seriously tasty!!! Now Boz and I will have to master Brick Oven Root Beer and we'll be set. So, here's what we did for the pork (a combination from online sources I found, and my own tweaking)

Pork Barbacoa

2 lbs pork (we used pork loin)
1 cup Dr. Pepper
1/4 cup water
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt

Add all ingredients to slow cooker. Let cook on low for about 8 hours, then shred pork. (You may also want to drain some of the liquid, depending on how runny you want it). Then add the following to the cooked pork:

3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1 (4 oz) can mild diced green chilis
2/3 c salsa verde (green chili sauce) - we used La Victoria's Chunky Medium Salsa Verde
garlic powder and salt to taste

That's for the pork. Now, these measurements are guesstimates :). I originally put 1 cup of brown sugar in, but then I'm thinking the recipe I read maybe didn't intend for people to assume that brown sugar should be packed cause it recommended 2 cups. So I had to adjust for that, but the above is about right proportionately.

To fill the burrito:

Black Beans (or whatever kind you like)- we cooked our beans with some sugar, salt, and onion powder (more due to lack of dehydrated onions on hand). Measure about 1 cup of beans before cooking or use 2 cans of black beans for that much pork.

Rice - We threw some chicken bouillon, lemon juice, and fresh cilantro in with the rice in the rice cooker before cooking.

Monterey Jack Cheese and more of the Salsa Verde

First, preheat oven to 350, lightly grease a 9x13 pan and put a thin layer of salsa verde on the bottom of the pan. Fill tortillas (we used the partially cooked ones from Costco) with pork, rice, beans, cheese, and a little bit of salsa verde (or whatever sauce you want). Close and put seam side down into the pan. When finished, top burritos with salsa verde and cheese for enchilada style...mmm.

We used a little over a third of the pork and made 4 good sized burritos, so I imagine you could make 10-12 burritos with 2 lbs of pork.

Serve with:

Lettuce
Fresh Salsa - Tomato, onion, jalapeño, cilantro, lemon/lime juice, salt, and garlic powder

To garnish:

Orange Slices - of which Elyette ate almost all 4 oranges worth. If there's gonna be a garnish it better be tasty!

Our Modest Valentine's

So, if you know us at all, you probably know we are pretty cheap, I prefer to call it thrifty and resourceful :)... so naturally Valentine's day is low key around our house. Since flowers are ridiculously priced, we skip out on that tradition (though if you know Boz, I'm not sure I have much choice in the matter anyway... he has more creative ways of expressing himself that is). When is comes to candy, we get some the day after, when its just as good, but half the price. Boz also got me a cookbook at half price that I wanted. As far as eating out goes, if you don't have reservations it can be a nightmare. So we started the tradition of making a yummy dinner at home. For gifts, Elyette and I were busy making Vday treats for Boz, that we put in a box we decorated.

Treats include:
-Strawberry rice crispy treats with messages on them
-White chocolate dipped pretzels with red sprinkles
-Chocolate chip cookies with pink, white, and red chips

For our dinner we made:
- Focaccia bread with oil and vinegar,
- A fresh tomato and basil pasta dish we like to make,
- spinach salad
- Martinelli's
- Oh and, even Jack got in on the fun... mmmm, rice cereal



We made valentines for each other and put them at our place settings, and later we had vanilla pudding and strawberries for dessert (which Elyette called frosting).


Elyette had fun putting hearts on the wall that we made for FHE earlier in the week. So, as you can see, we had a modest, a but totally fun Valentine's Day!