Grilled Peameal Bacon

Boneless pork loin is a good budget stretching meat as not only is it lower price per pound, it is a very versatile meat that can be used fresh or cured.  Last week I shared how I prepare a boneless pork loin at our vacation home.  Half is cured for peameal bacon, our must have taste of home while the other half is sliced into thick chop for grilling.  If need be, the chops can be cut into slices or pieces for other dishes.

One of the most common questions I get with respect to peameal bacon is "What do you do with it?"  The simple answer is, peameal bacon can be used much the same way you would use a ham.  The texture and flavour differs from ham.  The most common way to use peameal bacon is thin sliced then fried as bacon but it can be cooked other ways.  Thick sliced peameal bacon is quite lovely when grilled. 

I cut the peameal bacon into about three quarters of an inch thick slices.  Thick slices ensure the meat does not become dry while cooking.  I place the peameal bacon slices on a pre-heated medium hot grill.  Once the grill marks form nicely on one side, I turn and grill until the marks form on the other side.  The peameal bacon slices are then ready for serving.  They pair nicely with zucchini and baby carrots, both of which cook quickly on the grill.  Simply cut the zucchini in half lengthwise and brush with olive oil then sprinkle with a little sea salt.  Grill cut side down until grill marks are nicely formed and the squash is tender.  Baby carrots cook quickly in a foil pouch on the grill.  This entire meal can be cooked on the grill in about 20 minutes.  Complete the meal with a tossed salad sprinkled with fresh squeezed lemon juice and sliced watermelon for the perfect low fat and low calorie meal that is sure to please! 

Boneless Pork Loin

We travel by car or by plane to our vacation home for a total of three times a year.  Both modes of transit have their pros and cons with respect to length of time and what we can bring with us from home.  Car trips are less restrictive to what we can bring but take a considerably longer period of time.  Air travel while restrictive as to what we can bring, means we are usually at our vacation home and settled in by late afternoon with a morning flight.  Our mode of travel is determined by flight costs for the desired time using driving as a back-up plan if we can't get a good price but other factors influence our choice as well.

We flew for our spring 2013 trip, May 6 through May 29.  After reaching the airport and picking up our rental vehicle, our first stop is at the Publix near our resort.  We have tried other grocery stores in the area but the Publix is our favourite even though it is a bit higher priced.  The meat and fish counter there is quite nice!  What we really appreciate is the wide variety of organic and natural products available at Publix.

A pork loin roast is always included with our first grocery purchases at our vacation home.  Publix has all natural, fresh never frozen pork loins that have no preservatives or artificial ingredients and are minimally processed.  This is comparable to the quality of pork we buy at home.  We bought a 4.13 lb boneless pork loin for $11.17 ($2.69/lb).

Pork loin is a versatile cut of meat.  A four pound pork loin will comfortably give a yield of five meals for the two of us with left overs.  I cut the pork loin in half.  One half was cured for peameal bacon while the other was cut into pork loin chops.   Pork loin chops can be grilled as is, breaded and baked, or they can be cut into cubes or strips to be used in casserole dishes and stir fry.  Peameal bacon is our must have taste of home, a true southwestern Ontario delicacy.  This versatile home cured meat has a five day cure time so is the first thing to be set up at our vacation home.

I could not find Morton's Tender Quick in the nearby grocery stores so ended up bringing a 2 lb bag with me one trip.  I routinely buy Morton's Tender Quick in Michigan and have never had a problem at the border.  However, airport security did do an extra check even though it was in the original, unopened bag.  Next time I need specialty food products at our vacation home, I will either send them ahead or take them with us when we drive.

We saw the first signs of local asparagus the day we left for our Florida home.  That was enough to trigger cravings for asparagus!  We picked up asparagus along with our other grocery purchases.  Our second home cooked dinner at our vacation home was grilled boneless pork loin chops with baked potatoes and asparagus cooked on the grill.

The chops were grilled on medium heat to form well defined hash marks.  They were generously coated with Sweet Baby Ray's barbeque sauce  then allowed to cook until the sauce started to caramelize.  It was a simple, delicious meal enjoyed on the lanai listening to the sounds of evening setting in.  After dinner we took a ride in the golf cart so capture the sights and sounds of wildlife, chatting about what we would do the following day.  It was a beautiful end to another day in paradise!

Charcoal Grilled Ham Shoulder

Ham is a cured meat that usually is cooked in the oven.  However, we've been hit with back to back heat waves with temperatures in the high 30ºC combined with high humidity levels so using the oven is simply out of the question.  This is where we turn to using the outdoor grill.  An outdoor grill can be used much like an oven so basically anything that can be cooked in the oven can be cooked on an outdoor grill.  We have a Nexgrill dual fuel (charcoal, propane) outdoor grill.  I have been beyond being thrilled experimenting with the charcoal side of the grill.  The results are so much tastier than grilling on natural gas or propane.  Unlike using natural gas or propane though charcoal is a bit more difficult to control the temperature so that does take a bit of tinkering.  The results are well worth it!

Ham is a wonderful sandwich meat but rather than buy over priced pre-sliced lunchmeat we prefer to cook a ham then slice as desired for sandwiches.  Ham is available pre-cooked or ready to cook, smoked or unsmoked, sliced or unsliced, bone in or boneless.  Once cooked ham can be froze if desired.  I like to keep cooked ham cubes (salads) and ham slices (sandwiches) in the freezer as quick meal starts. 

I thawed a bone in ham shoulder from the freezer.  It was unsmoked so I decided to cook it slowly over charcoal.  The end result was absolutely delicious!   I grilled it low and slow adding just enough fresh charcoal to keep an even low heat.  A lot of the fat just under the skin dripped off and the meat took on a wonderful smokiness without added calories.  I removed the skin, fat and bone then sliced wedge style.  The skin, fat and bone will be used to make a ham stock for split pea or potato soup.  I may even use some of that stock to can a few jars of dried beans.  It will be a beautiful base for either!

Yesterday's Comfort Cooking

It has been a brutal week, full of activity which really when combined with service and contract people coming in resulting in a hectic and frustrating week.  Our custom window treatment contractors were in last Saturday.  Both window treatments were wrong!  The kitchen panels were the wrong material and the front California shutters were only partially installed.  At almost $2,500 I was beyond being disappointed.   They came out yesterday to replace the panels so the kitchen is one step closer to being completely finished.  The shutters are scheduled to be fixed Wednesday evening.   I've been canning when I could get a stretch of a couple of hours and I did one smaller bulk cooking session but yesterday I was in the mood for homemade cookies after the custom window treatment contractors fixed the panels in the kitchen (looking good now!).   That translates into peanut butter or shortbread cookies, our two favourite homemade cookies.  It's not like I don't make other cookies but those are our comfort cookies!  I made a small batch (3 doz) of peanut butter cookies. Hey, these are a need right now!

Carrying on the theme of comfort cooking for the day,   I popped a homemade peameal bacon roast in the oven along with a couple of potatoes for baking.  Peameal bacon is our favourite quick cook, low fat meat.  Although peameal bacon is a home cured pork loin, the texture is a bit different than ham.  Roasting the peameal as a chunk gives a bit smoother texture when cut compared to raw sliced then fried.  However, frying the peameal bacon slices gives a nice caramelization and bit of crisping to the coating that roasting does not achieve.  Either way, peameal bacon is a delicious, comfort meat!

Baked potatoes are the perfect side for a peameal bacon roast as they can bake while the roast is cooking.  Any time you can cook more than one component of a meal in the same vessel, in this case the oven, it is a frugal use of energy.  I served the peameal bacon roast and baked potatoes with lightly buttered sweet peas and tomato slices.  Not pictured is the sour cream I topped my potato with for just a touch of creamy comfort.  Rounding up our comfort meal, we ate in front of the television watching Coronation Street.  The beauty of comfort cooking is the end result always makes you feel better :)

Smoked Salmon Appetizer and Spiral Ham

We had our big Easter celebration this past Saturday.  The kids and grandkids were home with the Easter bunny making a special appearance for the little ones.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous so the Easter egg hunt was held outdoors.  We had a lot of delicious foods, shared a lot of laughter and took lots of pictures for our picture albums. 

All family members from the youngest to oldest pitch in helping with food prep for any family get together.  We made a smoked salmon appetizer.  This is a very easy appetizer to make.  You need small crackers, cream cheese, a couple of small packets of thin sliced smoked salmon and capers.

Capers are the pickled, edible flower buds of the caper bush (Capparis spinosa).  They are traditionally used as a garnish, in pasta dishes or in tartar sauce.  Their intense flavour pairs quite nicely with the smokiness of smoked salmon.

Ham is our traditional meat for Easter.  I seldom buy a boneless ham because it usually pressed meat (higher processing) and the bone can be used for other meals.  Our local Wal-mart had spiral hams on sale for $20 regardless of the size.  Needless to say I bought the largest one I could find.  Spiral hams are a great deal because not only do you have a thin sliced ham for dinner as well as left overs for sandwich meat. you have a nice sized bone for making soups or stock.

Most spiral cut hams come with a honey and spiced glaze, as did this one.  The glaze is used during the last 10 minutes of cooking.  These types of hams are usually cooked for about 2 hours (12 - 15 minutes per lb) at 250ºF.   I served the ham with dressed up mashed potatoes, niblet corn and crusty French bread.  It was a delicious, unpretentious home cooked meal.

Preparing a Pork Loin for Three Kinds Cuts

Larger pieces of meat are available in the grocery stores or through your butcher.  Many don't realize that by buying a larger piece of meat then cutting as desired they can actually save overall because some specialty cuts cost more per pound than the large piece.  For example, peameal bacon consistently costs about $5 per lb, cured and ready to use.  A pork loin, the meat the peameal bacon is made from costs $2.30 per lb or less meaning curing the bacon at home is less than half the price of store bought.  I have shown various ways to cut a pork loin on this blog with our two favourite cuts being chops and roasts but here are a few more comments and the reasoning behind it.

My husband is gearing up for hunt camp so I always cure a chunk of peameal bacon for the guys to enjoy there.  I bought an 11.33 lb pork loin at $2.28/lb at Sam's Club for a total of $25.83.  Now, my philosophy is if I'm going to do something like this I might as well get a few extras out of that large piece of meat.  The goal is always to get as many meals and variety as possible.  I usually start with the end in mind as well because I wanted two pieces of peameal bacon and I showed how cutting the loin chops ourselves would save about 70¢ per lb.  I gathered all of the necessary equipment as pictured.  There is organic granulated sugar in the older canning jar and Morton's Tenderquick in the other.  Not pictured is my large cutting board, knives, measuring spoons.

I cut the pork loin into three distinct cuts.  A pork loin is cut from the rib section of the pig so there is directionality.  Starting at the wider end (closest to the tail end) I cut straight across to even the meat for cutting pork loin chops.  That piece of meat in front of the scale is a bit smaller than a chop.  There is a bit of the trimmings (whitish) in front of it.  I will use this meat and the trimmings for a hearty soup.  I cut eight 1 - inch thick loin chops.  There are six to the right of the trimmings for hunt camp and two to the left for a meal for ourselves.  If I were doing this loin entirely for ourselves, I would have cut four of the loins chops into 1 - inch cubes to be used later for kabobs.  I cut the remaining piece in almost half.  The smaller end piece was 2½ lb and the larger piece 3½ lb.  The weight is important because that determines the amount of cure needed for the peameal bacon.  If I were doing this pork loin just for ourselves I would have left one of the roasts as is without curing.

Aside of the cured meat the rest of the meat was packaged for freezing.  The meat for curing was prepared in zipper style freezer bags then allowed to cure for five days before rinsing and rolling in cornmeal.  The peameal bacon will keep for about a week after curing or it can be froze for longer storage.  It will be sliced for use at hunt camp and either sliced or baked whole for home use.

Peameal Bacon Buns Tray

There are times in the kitchen where saving both time and energy is much appreciated.  So it was during our recent move.  The thing is you have to eat and I like food presented nicely but with the kitchen and dining areas in semi-chaos mode I decided to take a couple of short cuts.  Peameal bacon is one of my favourite quick cook meats.  Not only is it tasty, it is lower in fat and calories than regular bacon.

I had left-over peameal bacon roast from my first day cooking with natural gas.  Well, I really shouldn't say my first day cooking with natural gas as I grew up cooking with natural gas and one house we rented eons ago had a natural gas range, but it has been a very long time since I have cooked with natural gas.

I cut part of the left-over roast in half then sliced it so it would fit on the store bought dinner rolls.  Then I cut pre-sliced Swiss cheese in half and added thinly sliced iceberg lettuce to the tray.  Not pictured is the honey mustard and Miracle Whip that was served on the side.  This was a quick to prepare snack tray that used minimal kitchen resources at lunchtime during the move.  It was a very quick clean-up as well, something I really appreciated!  I repeated the peameal bacon tray the following day but on a larger scale for entertaining.  The guys really enjoyed it!

This Hot Mama is Cooking With Gas!

Here in beautiful Ontario, Canada we have several choices of cooking fuel - wood, charcoal, butane, propane, natural gas and electricity (hydro).  Some are experimenting with solar cooking as well but that really is only somewhat dependable during the summer months.  I've cooked with all of these cooking fuels.  By far the most common cooking fuels in residential homes is wood (Northern areas), electricity, natural gas and propane.  Availability of a cooking fuel can be restricted by location.  For example there are no natural gas mains in some rural areas so you must use electricity, propane or wood.  Apartment buildings in urban centres generally do not have the option for natural gas and many won't allow any type of outdoor grill on balconies.  If you do have an option, aside of owning your own woodlot or having access to free firewood, natural gas is the cheapest cooking fuel coming in at about the third of the cost of electricity.  Ontario has gone to TOU pricing which means you are paying more during high periods of use that translates into paying more to cook breakfast and dinner.  The beauty of natural aside of the low cost is natural gas appliances operate even if the hydro is disrupted so you can still cook.

My last kitchen range was a Jenn-Air slide-in model with every bell and whistle available.  I had the smooth and coil cartridges, the big pot burner,  and the grill.  It was an absolutely gorgeous stove but just would not stand up to heavy duty canning.  I was adamant about switching to a gas stove for this house.

I chose a Whirlpool Gold 30-inch free standing gas range (model# GFG461LVB) with continue burner grates.  It is 5 burner range with self-cleaning oven and extra features.  Unfortunately it does not go below 170ºF so I will not be using the stove for dehydrating, something I could do with the Jenn-Air. 

Pictured also is my new Whirlpool Gold Quiet Partner dishwasher (model# GU2475XTVB1).  All of the controls are hidden when the door is closed.  My husband had a dickens of a time getting the old dishwasher out because the previous owner installed the floor in a manner that prevented sliding the dishwasher out.  They did leave a lot of extra tiles so there should be some of the marble tiles in the garage that we will cut to fit at the base of the dishwasher then install the kick plate.  The dishwasher runs like a dream!

The very first thing I did with the gas range was boil water in the tea kettle.  It was sophisticated but gave me an idea of how to work the controls.  To turn on the burners, the control is set to ignite where the electronic igniter creates a spark to light the burner.  During a power outage a match can be used to manually light the burners or oven.  Once the burner is lit, the control is turned from ignite to desired setting.

Banana bread is one of our favourites so what better way to test the performance of a new oven than with a tried and true recipe?  The bread came out quite lovely, nicely browned although just a bit darker than I would like so I will adjust the baking time when I make it again.  Other than that I have no complaints.  There was a good rise even though I was baking potatoes and a peameal bacon roast at the same time.

We eat a lot of salads but that is not always reflected in this blog where I show the entée only unless I make a special salad.  By far my favourite salad this summer is Greek salad.  I'm not sure why but I'm finding it a bit more interesting than the standard garden salad.  Don't get me wrong as there are lots of ways to jazz up a garden salad and the toppings are endless but the Green salad is just easy to make with a clean, refreshing flavour.  It isn't heavy like Caesar salad can be yet the feta cheese provides extra protein and calcium.  And the feta is a nice change from cheddar cheese.  Next up will be experimenting with blue cheese.  That should be interesting!

I baked the peameal bacon roast and baked potatoes in the oven along with the banana bread.  I cooked the carrots on the gas stove top.   The results were excellent!

What is really nice is I can now cook meals at a third of the price of using electricity.  When the TOU pricing came out I struggled to figure out an easy solution.  I used the outside grill as per normal but there were those days I really needed an alternative.  Now I can relax and cook exactly what I want without worrying about the TOU pricing for hydro.  At the same time I know I can always cook even if the hydro is out.

Norpac All Beef Franks

Canada Day for many signifies the official start of summer.  The traditional fare for this holiday is barbeque, usually hot dogs and hamburgers.  Both are perfect crowd pleasers and larger family get togethers.  We don't eat hot dogs very often but when we do, they must be all beef.    We discovered Norpac's all beef franks so decided to try them.

Norpac is a Canadian beef processing plant located in Norwich, Ontario.  It is owned by the Heleniak family.  Twenty percent of all the beef fed under their program are raised by the family.  Their philosophy on raising and processing cattle is quite impressive.  The cattle in their program is locally raised under their strict guidelines.  All cattle grown under the Norpac program must be less than 24 months old and BSE free.  The cattle are fed a 100% vegetarian diet that is hormone and antibiotic free, free choice system.

Norpac's all beef franks made from Ontario corn fed beef.  The ingredients are:  beef, water, soya flour, salt, spices, sodium phosphate, sodium erythobate, sodium nitrate, and smoke.  Sodium erythrobate is the salt of erythorbic acid, a variation of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C).  It is extracted from the sugars in sugar beets, sugar cane and corn.  It replaces sulfites as a response to increased consumer sulfite allergies by food manufacturers as a preservative and to retain the colour in cured meats.  Of note though is this ingredient should be avoided if you have a corn allergy, something that is also increasing.

We sliced open the franks lengthwise then pan fried them.  They were topped with cheddar cheese that was allowed to melt before placin on toasted sesame seed hot dog buns.  Additional toppings included mustard, ketchup and caramelized onions.

These delicious, mouth watering franks are considerably more expensive than other brands of weiners and about double the price of all beef wieners.  A package of six costs $5.99 or $1 per frank.  They are a bit larger than regular wieners though.  These franks are well worth the extra cost!  I'm looking forward to trying them on the grill. 

Mom's Cottage Roll

Pork is the remains a popular meat of choice for curing with bacon and ham being the most popular.  What many don't realize is curing meats at home is not as difficult as it would appear.  Curing meats at home is extremely easy and quite low cost.  By curing it yourself you can save substantial money if you can get the uncured meat on sale.  If you indulge in a smoker you can expand to making cured, smoked meats as well.  I recently experimented with cottage roll as a pork cut I would like to cure at home. 

Cottage roll is cured pork shoulder cut from the end of the shoulder.  It is similar in colour and flavour to peameal bacon but the texture is somewhat in between ham and peameal bacon.  It is a fattier than peameal bacon that is cut from the loin.  Cottage roll is held together for cooking by string mesh.  It is usually brought to a boil then low simmered for a couple of hours.

Mom's Cottage Roll

1 cottage roll (about 4 kg)
1 bayleaf
1 large onion
4 - 5 peppercorns
4 medium potatoes
2 large carrots
2 parsnips
½ small rutabaga
1 medium wedge cabbage

Place the cottage roll, bay leaf, onion and peppercorns in stock pot.  Cover with water.  Bring to a boil then reduce heat to simmer.  Cook for 1 hour adding water if necessary to keep meat covered with water.  Cut vegetables into bite sized pieces.  Pour vegetables into stock pot.  Cover and cook until vegetables are tender.  Remove meat from stock pot.  Cut mesh from meat and slice for serving.  Serve the vegetables on the side.  Reserve stock and any remaining vegetables for soup made with some of the meat.

Pictured is the cooked cottage roll just out of the stockpot.  The pinkish colouration is characteristic of cured pork.  The mesh is removed at this point then the meat is sliced for serving.  Slice about a half-inch thick.  Trim the fat from any leftover cottage roll slices.  Cube the slices then return to the pot with stock and extra vegetables for soup the following day.  If you find there is not enough leftover vegetables for soup but plenty of meat and stock, get creative.  Stir in a cooked beans (eg. navy, black, kidney) or noodles or add more vegetables or a combination of any of the ingredients mentioned.  The resulting soup is quite nice by itself but would be tasty with drop dumplings as well.

Cooking a cottage roll dinner is one pot cooking that can be done on the stovetop as this one was, in the slow cooker or even in the countertop roaster.  The important things to remember is to keep the cottage roll covered with water and to cook slowly so the meat is tender.  This really is a simple, low prep yet tasty meal that is economical as well.  The cottage roll was 4.39 kg (about 9 lb) for $7.45.  The total cost of the dish came in at just under $10.  It made enough for dinner for two that evening, soup for four the following day with enough leftovers for two. 

I served the cottage roll with the vegetables on the side.  A small garden salad and dinner rolls completed the meal.  I was quite pleased with the results of this one pot meal.  Cottage roll is now on my list of meats to cure at home just as soon as I can find a good sale on pork shoulder roasts!

Pea Meal Bacon Dinner

Every home cook has a meal that they turn to as a quick comfort meal.  For me that tends to be a meal based on pea meal bacon for the meat.  I cure a piece of pork loin once a month or more for pea meal bacon.  This home cured meat is perfect for pan frying when sliced or can be cooked as a roast in the oven.  It is a quick, easy to prepare and low fat meat sure to please. 

The weather is now rather cold so a little extra heat in the house from cooking is very much appreciated.  A little comfort food is also very much appreciated.  The real beauty of comfort foods is they aren't  labour intensive to prepare.

I cooked the pea meal bacon roast in the oven along with the potatoes.   Steamed carrots and   home canned cream style corn rounded out the meal.  The steamed carrots were a real bargain.  One of the local grocery stores had 10 lb bags of carrots, beets and onions on sale for $2 each.  Well you just know I had to buy a bag of each at that price!  Cream style corn is really nice spooned over baked potatoes as a topping anytime but especially more so on a cold winter's evening. It was a nice comfort meal to enjoy watching the wind whip white caps over the water's surface.

Kitchen Quick Tips - Don't Toss That Bacon Grease!

After cooking bacon drain the meat and reserve the grease.  Allow to cool slightly then pour into a container and store in the fridge or for longer storage in the freezer.  Use it to add flavour when frying other foods.  Pop a teaspoon of bacon grease into bean soup to enhance the flavour.

Kitchen Quick Tips - Easy Bacon Cooking Cleanup

Line a baking sheet with foil wrap.  Place bacon directly on the foil wrap or on a wire rack for self draining.  Bake or grill at 400ºF until cooked.  An alternative a friend recently showed us is to cook directly on the grill without the pan.  Both methods will cook a lot of bacon in a short period of time with very little cleanup afterwards.

Kitchen Quick Tips - Preventing Bacon From Sticking

Bacon has a tendency to stick a bit while frying in some types of pans.  Sprinkle a little sugar in the fry pan when frying bacon to prevent it from sticking.

Kitchen Quick Tips - Bacon Bits

Make your own bacon bits by slicing across the strips to form small pieces.  Fry until crispy then drain well.  Divide into 1 c portions and freeze until needed.  To use simply thaw. 

Kitchen Quick Tips - Bacon

The date stamp on vacuum-sealed bacon reflects the last date it should be sold.  Bacon should be used within one week of opening the package.  It can be frozen for up to a month if desired.

Bacon on the Grill

Bacon seriously should be a food group of its own.  We love bacon!  Bacon can be cooked in a skillet but there are other ways to cook bacon that makes it a bit healthier.  When cooking larger amounts of bacon I like to cook on a rack over top of sided cookie sheet in the oven or grill.  The grease drains off while the bacon strips stay rather flat.  Some line the cookie sheet with tin foil for easy cleanup but I don't.  The reason is once the bacon grease cools I scoop it up for use in cooking later.

We had a fair amount of company during our recent stay at our vacation home.  One of our guests generously offered to cook the bacon, on the grill no less.  Now this was rather interesting because the bacon was cooked directly on the grill grates without using any baking sheet at all.  I found this to be a rather interesting cooking method.

Bacon produces a lot of grease which means flare-ups on the grill.  However, cooking on the grill keeps the heat and grease splatters out of the house.  So of course I was interested in this cooking method.  Pictured is the cooking bacon on the grill grates. 

All of the grease from the cooking bacon dripped down onto the grill and was burned off.  This did result in more flare-ups.  Our friend cooked the bacon to crisp as pictured.  I like my bacon crisp but my husband does not.  Still this was a lovely way to cook the bacon and definitely one I will be experimenting with in future. 

Surprisingly despite more flare-ups than would be expected with higher fat content meat, the grill cleanup was minimal.  There was grease in the drip pan which is to be expected.  The downside to using the grill is the bacon grease can't be saved for later use but it keeps the heat out of the kitchen which is quite desirable at our vacation home.  All in all though this really resulted in a lovely bacon.

Our Vacation Home Kitchen

Over the next few days I will be sharing some of the great foods we ate while recently on vacation.  This was a bit of a different vacation for us because we were setting up our vacation home.  That meant buying everything needed in a kitchen for home cooking.  While we were on vacation and wanted to eat out we also wanted to experiment cooking at home as well.  This differed from our normal vacations where we are forced to eat out the entire trip.  Don't get me wrong as we really do enjoy eating out and discovering new foods but as foodies doing a bit of home cooking is always welcomed!

Our vacation home is a manufactured home in a gated community located in the southern USA.  This presents the problem of us not being able to bring certain food products that we are used to using into the US either due to Custom's regulations or logistics (especially when flying) and visa versa .  Driving gives us more leeway as to what we can take but the drive itself is long, costing us about 2 days in travel time.  At the same time relying on local foods in our new home away from home gives us an amazing opportunity to explore new foods!

The kitchen is spacious but compact.  The appliances are Maytag and include refrigerator, self cleaning range, microwave oven and dishwasher.  To the right of the refrigerator there is a small counter then door leading to the laundry room.  The patio leads to the only access to the lanai (screened in porch).  The kitchen opens onto the family room.  It is actually a bit larger than my current home kitchen (move still in progress).  It is amazing light, bright and airy so I know I will enjoy cooking in it.

As far as the colour them for the house goes I think we really lucked out!  Most of the colours are the same as our permanent home except the valances highlight hunter green rather than navy blue so anything I bring from home will match right in.  The former owner left the dinette, patio furniture, tv/stand, family room furniture, one bed and a bedroom set.  When we arrived we quickly realized a shopping trip was in order as we didn't even have a glass!  We had been up well over 24 hours and were exhausted from entertaining the night we left so shopping was not a real welcomed idea but it was one we could not put off.

We hit the clubhouse for lunch then headed out to do a bit of shopping.  We picked up cleaning supplies, a lot of kitchen essentials and enough groceries to make coffee and breakfast the following morning.  Breakfast was a simple coffee, eggs, toast and ham steak.

We bought a drip coffee maker which gave noticeably different results from our accustomed percolator so will be buying a percolator our next trip.  We bought a set of non-stick Wearever pots and pans.  If we were going to be the only ones using this house I would have went with stainless steel but we intend to rent the house out from January through March or April so I'm taking that into consideration when making our purchases.

The non-stick flat pan did a reasonable job of cooking the ham steak.  Ham steaks are generally inexpensive coming in around the $4 mark that is enough meat for 4 adults.  They can be used as the meat component for any meal.  We like ham steaks for breakfast or dinner either pan fried or grilled.  This ham steak had the bone in but some have the bone out.  We fried the ham steak in a little butter turning just as it started caramelizing.  It was a simple meal to start our new kitchen in our vacation home.

Peameal Bacon and Asparagus Pockets

I have posted before on various ways that I use my home cured peameal bacon.  Peameal bacon can be used pretty much the same way as you would use ham.  It does a different flavour and texture than ham but it is still a good substitute for ham.  Peameal bacon is either sliced and fried or left whole and baked.  Frying gives a bit of browning that adds to the flavour.  It is important to not overcook peameal bacon regardless of the method you use.  Once cooked it can be used hot as is as the meat main, in soups and chowders, and in casseroles or peameal bacon can be used cold in sandwiches, wraps and salads.

Sometimes those little bits of left-overs can help create an interesting dish.  I had a little peameal bacon left over from baked peameal bacon earlier in the week.  I cut it into cubes then added fresh asparagus cut into pieces and shredded cheddar cheese to create a filling for phyllo pastry pockets.  Brushing the pockets with butter would have given a nicer result.   The end result were tasty pockets that were a little on the messy side eat.

Phyllo pastry dough gives a lovely, flaky texture perfect for appetizers.  I buy the dough pre-made as it is rather time consuming and tedious to make from scratch.  The dough is quite fragile to work with because it is so thin.  The dough has to be thawed for about 5 hours in the refrigerator then rested at room temperature before using.   The filling should be made before opening the dough.  Melted butter is brushed or sprayed between the dough layers that are formed into various shaped filled pockets.  Phyllo pastry dough can also be cut into smaller squares then brushed with butter and layered into muffin tins to form a flaky tart shell ready for filling. 

Pork Loin (2) - Peameal Bacon

If you recall a few days ago I bought a pork loin so instead of making one extremely long post on what I did with the pork loin I decided to break it down into a few posts.  Anyone following this blog will know one of the first things I do when I get a pork loin is to cut a piece for making peameal bacon.  Peameal bacon is a true Canadian delicacy, one we enjoy on a fairly regular basis not only for breakfast but as a low fat, fast cooking dinner meat. 

I cure my own peameal bacon made from pork loin bought on sale.  Even full priced pork loin is cheaper than store bought peameal bacon so curing it is still cost effective.  When making peameal bacon it is important to use a kitchen scale as the amount of cure is dependent on the weight of the meat.

The middle section of the pork loin came out to just a little over 2 pounds.  How's that for guestimating?  I find this is a nice size for a chunk of peameal bacon as it is the ideal size for baking.  When sliced this will be enough bacon for 4 - 6 people for breakfast or 2 servings for dinner with left-overs.

Cured meats hold a certain mystic about them.  Many see the ham, bacon, corned beef and other cured meats as something difficult to make themselves.  However, curing meat is one of the easiest things to do.  There are two types of cure, brining and dry cure.  Brining uses a salt solution with or without additional seasonings.  The meat soaks in the solution for a given period of time to cure.  Then it is removed, rinsed and ready to use.  Dry curing uses the curing salt and for some meats (eg. peameal bacon) sugar is added.  The meat is placed in a zipper style freezer bag then the dry cure is poured onto both sides and rubbed in.  The meat is then refrigerated for the required number of days, turning at least once daily.  Once the meat has cured, it is soaked in plain water for 15 to 20 minutes to remove excess salt then any additional coating is added (eg. cornmeal for peameal bacon).

I use Morton Tender Quick for curing meats.  This is a nice product that gives good results.  It is a mixture of the curing salts and sugars meant for fast cure.  You should be able to find it in the baking aisle of the grocery store with the other salts.  Cured meat is not cooked as a result of the curing so it must be cooked prior to consumption.  Cured meats have a characteristic pink or red colouring when cooked.  The meat will be pink throughout on meat with a full cure.  Once the meat has been cured it can then be smoked but that is another topic that I will go into greater detail as I do a bit of smoking so watch for that topic coming soon.