The Annual Pig Roast

Every year, my husband's aunt hosts a large annual gathering the weekend following the Canada Day weekend.  No invites go out, rather everyone know when and where it is.  Family is encouraged to bring friends and spread the word.  The event starts mid-afternoon at their beautiful park-like setting in rural southern Ontario.  A picture of one of their man made ponds is the background image for my gardening blog, Garden Gnome Wanderings.  It has been wonderful watching as their vision for this gorgeous acreage become a stunning reality! 

We are beyond blessed with amazing family and friends.  Our extended family are very much foodies so there is always an abundance of delicious foods at family gatherings.  This gathering is no exception.  The grills are fired up for hot dogs and burgers while the piece de resistance is the roast pig is ready for serving along with a large variety of salads, vegetable trays, potatoes and of course, baked beans.  Then the dessert trays laden with delectable treats made their rounds. 

This year's pig did not disappoint.  As always, it was moist, tender and flavourful.  Normally the full face is showing as well but for some reason it was covered.  I forgot to ask why.  At any rate, the pig was the sure crowd pleaser.  I brought home a bit of the skin for pork rinds, a delicious treat I indulge in once a year.

After dinner which really continues into the wee hours of the morning with food out and ready for anyone wanting more, folks wander about the ponds, hike up the hill or just sit and chit chat waiting for the fireworks display that out does most community fireworks.  It is one of the most spectacular displays we've ever seen!  A couple of campfires are lit to ward of mosquitoes then left to die into glowing embers during the fireworks.  We usually head home after the fireworks but others stay through the night and the gathering continues throughout much of the following day.  It really is an incredible event!

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!

Asparagus Fusilli with Pork Balls in Mushroom Sauce

It really is amazing how versatile some foods are.  Take corn for example.  I read where 99% of everything produced (edible, non-edible) is in some way connected to corn.  A quick walk through the grocery store will show that corn is in many products as an ingredient, in packaging, and so much more.  Other vegetables appear in products that you would least expect.  Our kids gifted us with a very lovely basket filled with food products with asparagus as an ingredient over the Easter holiday.   Asparagus is one such vegetable that I would not have expected to find in a lot of food products yet surprisingly, Barrie's Asparagus in Cambridge, Ontario makes several products using asparagus. 

Last night, I decided to cook the asparagus fusilli that came in the gift basket.  This is an enriched pasta made from 100% durum semolina and fresh Ontario asparagus.  Fresh asparagus pasta would be quite easy to make if you have a pasta maker attachment for your Kitchen Aid stand mixer.  I wanted a rich, creamy sauce for the asparagus fusilli.  I started with fresh ground pork loin then built the dish from there.

When I make meatballs, the method used is determined by the meat.  If beef, I don't season the meat and the binder is milk.  That's it.  Ground pork is rather mild flavoured which is fine if cooking in a rich tomato based sauce long enough to absorb the flavour.  These meatballs were destined for a mushroom sauce, cooked over a shorter period of time so I lightly seasoned the ground pork with garlic pepper, mixed well with 2 eggs, then added dry bread crumbs.  I formed the meatballs with a meatball shaper then browned in heated olive oil in a ceramic coated skillet.  Once the meatballs were browned, I stirred in two cans of Campbell's condensed mushroom soup, a half can of milk and a half can of half & half.

This is one of the very, very few mass produced condensed soups that I do buy.  The reason being, it is ideal as a quick sauce.  Homemade cream of mushroom soup is easy enough to make but cannot be home canned and it is next to impossible to keep enough on hand in the freezer. 

I brought the meatball and sauce mixture to a low boil then reduced the heat to a low simmer.  The low simmer allows the meatballs to finish cooking while absorbing flavour from the sauce.  It also reduces the sauce to a thicker, richer consistency.  The lactose in the milk and half & half caramelizes to give a richer flavour while the lactic acid in both keep the meatballs tender and juicy. 

Local fresh asparagus will be in season here shortly.  I can't wait!  Asparagus is best lightly cooked (steamed, sautéed, grilled) until just tender (al dente) while retaining the beautiful bright green.  If overcooked asparagus takes on a drab olive colour with a mushy texture.  Dried asparagus is closer to a brown than a green so it did not surprise me that the asparagus fusilli while more of a drab olive colour dry, turned closer to tan when cooked.  Aside of the colour, there really isn't much asparagus flavour in the asparagus fusilli. 
Fusili is a nice thick pasta with lots of nooks to hold thick sauces, like the mushroom sauce used for this dish.  I topped the asparagus fusilli with the pork balls in mushroom sauce, sautéed fresh asparagus and sliced mushrooms, and chopped fresh green onions and tomatoes with just a light sprinkling of sesame seeds.  One of my favourite ways to serve any pasta is to include some type of chopped fresh vegetables on top.  Raw vegetables added this way add both an element of flavour and texture that pairs nicely with many pasta dishes.   It's a great way to add a bit of extra nutrition as well as eye appeal.  The asparagus fusilli with pork balls in mushroom sauce was a delightfully delicious and sinfully rich meal with the flavours blending nicely yet fairly low in fat. 

Ham Chowder

One of the reasons I chose our new Italian made Lagostina Collezione Pro cookware set aside of the high quality was it really was a 'set' but rather a mult-material collection of cookware.  One of the pieces of the set was a 4.7L (5 qt)  enameled cast iron Dutch oven, orange no less.  I would have preferred red but the reality for me when it comes to kitchen equipment is colour is always second to quality and function.  In this respect, the Lagostina Dutch oven excels in both quality and function.  The lid has a self-basting design for optimal steam recirculation.   It can be used on the stovetop or in the oven.  The Dutch oven included in the Collezione Pro collection is actually part of Lagostina's Tuscan collection as well so matching pieces can be bought separately.

While the new Dutch oven was the same size as my older Lagostina Renaissance stainless steal Dutch oven, I had reservations on how I would use it.  Seriously, for me it was aesthetics because in my mind the enamel coated Dutch oven did not look like a pot that could be used on the stovetop.  At the same time the idea of searing meat for soups and stews then cooking in the same pot in the oven intrigued me. 

We had a lovely family gathering for Easter so I had left-over spiral ham to use up.   I decided to test out the new Dutch oven with a ham chowder.  The weather has been taking its time warming here so we are still into cold weather foods.  The end result was a delicious, creamy yet chunky chowder perfect for a cold spring night.

Ham Chowder
(recipe by Garden Gnome)

1  ham bone
8 medium potatoes
2 medium carrots
1 small onion
2 c cooked ham, diced
1 c instant potatoes
1 c frozen sweet peas
1 c frozen whole kernel corn
1 c half & half

Place ham bone in large Dutch oven or stock pot.  Cover with water.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to simmer and low simmer for 20 minutes.  Peel potatoes and cut into bite size pieces.  Peel and dice carrots.  Finely chop onion.  Stir potatoes, carrots and onion into the stock pot with the bone.  Return to boil then reduce heat to high simmer.  Cook until potatoes and carrots are tender.  Remove the bone.  Scoop out half of the vegetables and set aside.  Use an immersion blender to smoothly blend remaining vegetables and stock.  Add the instant potatoes slowly while stirring to keep a smooth consistency.  Stir in reserved vegetables, peas, corn and ham.  Return to a low simmer.  Stir in half and half.  Cook until heated through.  Ladle into bowls for serving.

Despite being a bit leery on the new enamel coated Dutch oven, I quickly fell in love with it.  The ham chowder cooked beautifully in this vessel with no over heating and residual heat in the cast iron kept the chowder nice and warm for seconds.  A couple of days later I made a no-knead crusty bread (boule) in the new Dutch oven.  The bread was beyond delicious and was my first successful homemade crusty bread with chewy interior.  The enamel coated Dutch oven cleans up nicely and gives good results.  I'm impressed enough with its performance I plan on buying a matching smaller one the next time they are on sale.

Pork Loin Chops in Mushroom Sauce

Here it is the end of the first week of February and we are in the midst of a rather nasty winter storm with freezing rain, heavy snow fall, and high winds creating white out conditions.  These are the days meant for staying indoors, catching up with a few indoor activities and enjoying warm, comfort foods.  One of our long time favourite comfort foods has been pork paired with mushroom sauce.  While the sauce uses commercially condensed cream of mushroom soup, the rest is magic! The lactic acid in the milk tenderizes the meat while the soup adds a rich creamy and comforting sauce.

The beauty of pork loin chops in mushroom sauce is after the pork loin chops are browned, the dish can be cooked in the skillet, in the slow cooker or in the oven which makes this a rather versatile dish.  Each give slightly different results but all are very tasty!  In general, the skillet gives a bit richer sauce, the oven in mid-way and the slow cooker slightly less.

I use boneless pork loin cut into about half-inch slices.  Browning the pork chops adds extra flavour and colour.  Sometimes I add in browned sliced mushrooms.  I normally add either cubed or sliced potatoes to the mixture.  From there I only need add a side, a salad and bred for a complete meal.

Here's how to do this dish using each method:

You will need: browned boneless pork loin chops, 3 - 4 tins of condensed mushroom soup, 1 to tins of milk, 1 c browned sliced mushrooms (optional), 4 medium sized potatoes (chopped or sliced)

Methods:

• skillet - Brown the meat then drain.  Return meat to skillet.  Prepare the potatoes as desired and add to the skillet.  Mix the mushroom soup with the milk and pour over the pork chop and potato mixture.  Cover the skillet with tented foil then cook on medium heat, stirring often until sauce caramelizes and the meat is tender.  Remove from skillet and ladle extra sauce over the pork chops and potatoes for serving.
• oven - Brown the meat and drain.  Prepare the potatoes as desired.  Pour the potato and pork  chop into an oven proof baking dish.  Mix the mushroom soup with the milk and pour over the pork chop and potato mixture.  Tent the baking dish with aluminium foil.  Bake at 350°F until meat is cooked through, potatoes are tender and sauce is bubbly.  Remove the foil tent.  Continue baking 15 minutes to develop a bit of caramelization.  Remove from oven.  Plate using the extra sauce as a gravy.
• slow cooker - Brown the meat and drain.  Place the meat and soup mixture into the slow cooker.  Set on low and cook for about 4 hours.  Prepare the potatoes as desired and mix into the meat and sauce.  Turn the temperature setting to high.  Continue cooking until potato are tender.  Plate using the extra sauce as gravy.

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!

Ground Pork

We live in a small community with two grocery stores (No Frills, Sobeys) and a Walmart although that just changed with the closing of Sobeys.  Of those stores, Sobeys was the grocery store to find foods like fresh seafood, ground pork or turkey and other foods besides the basics.  Even then it was hit or miss as to whether ground pork or ground turkey would be available.    Much like our beloved peameal bacon that also has a hit or miss availability I have resorted to making ground pork and turkey myself.  Recently No Frills had pork loins on sale for $1 per pound.  I ended up with 23.302 kg at a total cost of $51.27.  I ground one of the pork loins.

Pork loin is a fairly lean cut of meat so it is idea for pork loin chops and peameal bacon but it is also good for ground pork.  In order to grind the meat, I cut into about 1 - inch strips that would fit in the hopper of the KitchenAid® food grinder.  Just look how nice and meaty the strips are!  Note that the middle piece was a bit fattier but I used it anyway.  The reason being, a little fat is necessary for flavour and texture.  Once the meat was cut into strips, I chilled it in the freezer for a half hour.  Cold meat grinds better than meat that has not been chilled.  After chilling the meat strips were ready for grinding.

The KitchenAid® food grinder has a coarse and fine grinding plate.  The meat strips are passed through the coarse grinding plate first.  The process is quite easy requiring only guiding the meat strips through the grinder on setting 2.  It is important to not force the meat, simply guide it and the grinder attachment will do the rest.

A whole pork loin will take about 10 minutes to go through the first pass of the coarse grinding plate.   The resulting ground meat can be passed through the coarse grinder again which aids in mixing any fat evenly in the ground meat. 

After the meat strips are passed through the coarse grinder the ground meat (pictured) can be left as is and packaged for the freezer.  However, a second pass of the coarse ground meat through the fine grind plate gives a nicer result.  Simply change out the grinding plates then guide the ground meat through the hopper again.  This process will take about 5 minutes but the results are well worth it.  This will give a finer texture with a more even distribution of any fat.  While a third pass through the grinder is desirable with some cuts of meat, it is not necessary with pork loin.

 Note the difference between the fine ground pork (left) and the coarse ground (right).  The fine ground gives a nicer texture for burger patties, meatballs and meatloaf.  After the final fine grinder plate pass, I packaged the ground pork into vacuum seal freezer bags but did not seal them immediately.  If I had the meat would have been very much squished which is ok but not what I wanted.  I folded the tops over then set in the freezer to freeze.  Once frozen I then vacuum sealed for longer storage.  This method prevents the meat from becoming a huge meatball.  I ended up with four about 1 kg packages of lean ground pork from one pork loin.

Aruba, Bahama, Come On Pretty Mama...

We arrived in gorgeous Aruba just after 4 PM on May 12.  After picking up our rental vehicle (a Hummer) we headed to the Costa Linda Beach Resort where we would be staying for seven nights.  Six of those nights were on the fifth floor overlooking the resort and Eagle Beach while the last night was on the first floor overlooking the pool area.  After checking in we went for drinks at one of their bars near the beach.

When we do rentals for any vacation, we usually get a unit with a kitchen.  This saves on the cost of breakfast, lunches and snacks.  Sometimes we enjoy a dinner or two in the rental unit as well.  Our time share unit at the Costa Linda had a small but functional galley style kitchen.  It was adequately equipped for simple cooking.  It included a gas range, microwave oven, refrigerator, dishwasher, blender, toaster, can opener and coffee maker as well as serving ware.  There was a three seat breakfast bar on the L of the counter then a full sized dinning room table with seating for six off the kitchen.

We went grocery shopping at Ling & Sons Super Center in Oranjestad, Aruba, just a short drive from the Costa Linda the day following our arrival.  It looked very expensive because prices were posed in the Aruban Florin (AFL).  One USD is about 1.75 AFL.  Factoring in the exchange rate the cost of food was not much more expensive than we pay in Florida at our vacation home.  There were four of us so bought according and although it looked like a lot of food, we had little left over at the end of the week.

One of our meals was a simple pan fried pork loin chop with corn on the cob and boiled Dutch potatoes.  At first I thought Dutch potatoes were an actual dish as they are called that on many restaurant menus but it turns out they are a variety of potato in the grocery store.  In the restaurants, they were very similar to what we would call home fries - fried chunks of peeled potato with onion.  What I did note even at the restaurants the potatoes were always peeled.  It reminded me of my late father-in-law who immigrated from the Netherlands to Canada when he was 19.  He refused to eat potatoes with skins on them as that was considered pigs' food!  I don't recall him ever eating the skins on potatoes, not even baked potatoes.

Our simple dinner was enjoyed on the balcony of our time share.  Just look at the beautiful view!  In the foreground is the resort.  To the upper left of the yellow building there is a little resort bar with stools but you can take your drinks anywhere on the resort.  To the right of the yellow building is a new bar that had it's grand opening a couple of days before we left.  There are various barbecue areas set up where you can cook your own food if desired.  To the bottom left corner out of camera range is one of the resort restaurants. The natural body of water is the Caribbean Sea.

We ate out a fair amount during our stay in Aruba.  I will be sharing some of those dishes with you as one very special foodie highlight.  Stay tuned for more of our Aruba foodie adventures!

Rib City at Immokalee, Florida

We arrived at our vacation home on May 8 with our friends.  Our plans were to fly out from Fort Lauderdale to Aruba on May 12 so we decided to make a bit of a scenic trip leaving the day before to show our friends the coast.  This type of sight seeing of course involved stopping to eat.  We stopped for lunch in Immokalee, Florida were we found a Rib City located at 621 North 15th Street.  It looked inviting, and we are always in the mood for ribs!

We ordered the three cheese fries ($7.95) as an appetizer.  They were made with waffle cut fries, something just a bit different than French fries.  The toppings were Monterrey Jack, Pepper Jack and cheddar cheeses with real bacon bits.  The fries were served with spicy ranch sauce for dipping.  Oh my, were they good!

Now, this is a very easy and inexpensive, home style dish that could be made at home.  McCain's waffle cut fries can be found in the freezer section of the grocery store or a less expensive alternative is to cut them yourself from fresh potatoes using your food processor.  Simply fry the waffle fries until golden brown then top with the three cheeses and homemade bacon pieces then place in a hot oven just until the cheeses are melted.

I ordered the back rib plate lunch special ($8.99) that included a half rack of tender ribs, choice of two sides and toast.  I chose coleslaw and baked beans as my sides.  This was a delicious meal, very much home style cooking.

You just can't go wrong with BBQ ribs in the summer!  The trick it to cook them long and slow.  You can use a rub for the slow cook then a mop (wet sauce) when finishing them up.  I make my baked beans from scratch to use that day or home can as well as creamy coleslaw.  This home style BBQ is one of our favourite summertime meals.  Sometimes we add in grilled local corn and/or some type of dessert like homemade ice cream. 

Oven Braised Sweet Baby Ray Ribs

I recently wrote about some of the frugal deals we found during our last trip to Sam's Club. While warehouse shopping is not for everyone, a considerable amount of money can be saved, more than enough to recoup the cost of membership even if you don't buy any food.  I am very picky about what foods I do buy there because some foods (eg. fresh fruits) can be a problem trying to bring them back into Canada and some purchases like dairy, meat and poultry have restrictions as to how many pounds can enter when returning to Canada.  Compounding the problem is US prices have come closer and in some cases exceed the Canadian price.  In general (for us), commercially canned foods (which we buy very little of), most bread  cannot be bought cheaper at Sam's Club and dried cereals are getting rather close to Canadian prices.

A couple of days ago, I was watching FoodNetwork Canada, when three of the programs showed ways to cook ribs.  There was no denying it, the craving for ribs was sparked.  I pulled out a large rack of ribs from the freezer, grabbed a bottle of Sweet Bayb Ray's Barbecue Sauce (2 - 40 oz bottles $5.98 at Sam's Club) from the pantry and the stainless steel roaster.  Dinner was in the makings!

Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue Sauce is an award winning sauce that we discovered at a ribfest.  It is one of our favourite purchased barbecue sauces.  The deep, spicy, smokey rich flavour is perfect for using with any cut of pork but it was perfected for use on ribs.  The trick for cooking pork spare ribs is long and slow.  I like to add a bit of moisture during this process before adding the sauce later.  The ribs can be seasoned if desired but this time I didn't.  They went into the oven at 200ºF to slowly cook for the afternoon (about 5 hours).  About 4 PM I poured half a bottle (about 20 oz) of Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue Sauce over the ribs and let them cook at 275ºF for one hour then raised the heat to 400ºF, removed the lid and cooked for 20 minutes to caramelize the sauce a bit.

Ribs cooked in the oven this way are mouth-watering delicious with wonderfully tender, fall-off-the bone texture.  The caramelized crust give a texture similar to that found on ribs cooked on the grill.  I served the ribs simply with a side of rice and mixed vegetables.  We are eating more rice now that I stopped using the rice cooker.  I am quite pleased that I finally learned how to cook rices on the stovetop.  The results are considerably better than rice cooked in the rice cooker!  I now longer need to add a bit of butter when cooking rices like I had to do with the rice cooker and I can still use a wide variety of liquids for cooking the rice.

It was a delicious, easy to prepare meal with the taste of summer just perfect for a chilly, late winter's day.  Spring is in the air so we will be doing a lot more outdoor grilling. Tonight we are gilling steaks on the charcoal side of our grill.  Gardening is just around the corner so there will be more canning to do.  I'm looking forward to getting busier in the kitchen as well as enjoying more opportunities for entertaining in our home!

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.

Grilled Pork Tenderloin

One of the local grocery stores had pork tenderloin on sale.  Pork tenderloin is not a large cut of meat but at an average of one and a half pounds it is a nice size for four servings.   This is a lovely, tender but very low fat cut of meat.  I cook pork tenderloin using various methods and I occasionally cure it.  I find it is best cooked as a chunk rather than slicing before cooking however, I have used pork tenderloin cut before cooking in dishes like stir fry. 

Pork tenderloin cooks nicely on the grill providing it is cooked low and slow to prevent drying out.  I like using indirect heat on the grill.  Once the tenderloin has nice grill marks, I add the desired sauce if using a sauce as I did when cooking these two gorgeous pork tenderloins.  When using a tomato based sauce or any sauce containing sugar as a mop it is important to apply about 15 minutes before the meat is cooked to the desired doneness.  That will allow a nice caramelization of the sauce without charring. 

I served the grilled pork tenderloin with steamed potatoes, grilled corn on the cob and a side salad.  It was a tasty yet easy summer meal.  Pork tenderloin cooked this way is simply delicious.  It reheats nicely as well. 

Grilled Pork Chops

You just can't beat barbequed pork!  It is a wonderful, lower fat meat that is flavourful and budget friendly.  Thanks to media misinformation over the H1N1 scare, the price of pork plummeted so we are able to enjoy barbequed pork in many forms.  While we enjoy barbequed pulled pork (I even can it) as well barbequed ribs and roasts, we don't bargeque (grill) pork chops very often. 

Pork chops are easily grilled but you do need to be careful to not dry them out.  One trick is to use extra thick pork chops which we often do.  Another trick is to grill just until there are well defined grill marks and no more.  The threat of trichinosis is no more and modern pork has been bred to be leaner meaning less fat.  What this really means is when cooking modern pork the cooking must be adjusted to prevent drying of the pork.  Use a moist heat or when grilling use a sauce or mop especially with thinner cuts of pork.

I served the grilled pork chops with grill baked potatoes and home canned green beans.  The potatoes were simply topped with home canned Old Fashioned Chili Sauce.  Old Fashioned Chili Sauce is a wonderfully rich, warm aromatic condiment that pairs nicely with pork and potatoes.  In fact one of my favourite winter meals as a child was a mountain of mashed potatoes and chili sauce lava.  I can at least one case (12) of 500 ml (pint) jars each year.  By far, we pair the sauce with potatoes often served with pork.  It is a wonderful no fat topping for potatoes.

Dinner at Magnolia's Veranda (Four Queens, Las Vegas)

My husband and I are very much homestyle diners even when traveling, not fast food or gourmet or formal dining.  Our dining choices very much reflect this.  Now I can easily explain our choice as being we don't feel that fast food is a good nutritional value for our food dollar and gourmet or formal dining tends to be overpriced but you are paying for the whole experience.  Still justifying spending $250 or more for a formal dining experience is still difficult.  It's not like we wouldn't and definitely would if there was the opportunity to meet one of the celebrity chefs like Michael Smith, it's just we choose not to when traveling.  We have dined at a couple of higher end restaurants in Las Vegas but the meal was comped.  Any, we are both more comfortable eating home-style meals so tend to know where to find them when traveling.

Magnolia's Veranda in the Four Queens Resort & Casino in Las Vegas is simply delightful.  The prices are excellent and the food is very much home style cooking.  Meals are prices about $11 each with soup or salad and dinner rolls included.  We had a two for one coupon so while the meal was not comped it was quite frugal.  We ended up eating there two nights so I will share the second dinner we had next week.

My husband ordered the rack of ribs with soup of day, baked beans, baked potatoes and green beans.  They looked wonderful with a nice, tangy aroma earning two thumbs up from my husband.  This meal is about as home style as you can get!  The secret to cooking mouthwatering ribs at home is long and slow.  When I make barbeque ribs at home, I set the grill to the lowest setting then slowly barbeque for about 5 hours before using the mop (wet sauce).  The biggest mistake made with barbequing ribs is putting the mop on too soon and at too high of a temperature.

I ordered the grilled chicken special that was bonless, skinless chicken grilled to perfection served with salad, green beans, real mashed potatoes and gravy.  The potatoes were rich and creamy.  The gravy was definitely not a mix gravy either.  Real mashed potatoes with homemade gravy is one of the sign posts of home-style cooking!   The chicken was nice and tender with a lovely flavour. 

The grilled chicken would be easy to duplicate at home.  The boneless, skinless chicken breasts were pounded out and lightly seasoned before grilling.  Pounding out the chicken breasts breaks some of the fibers making them more tender.  It evens out thick spots so the chicken breast cook evenly and faster without drying out. 

Old Fashioned Comfort Food

The snow can be blowing, the wind howling, sleet hitting the windows or so hot breathing is difficult and yet some foods comfort us.  My gosh, I think everyone has a few tried and true dishes they think of as comfort food.  These are the dishes we turn to over and over because not only are they family favourites, they are down right comfort food.  So what makes a comfort food?  In all honesty I think comfort food is any food that just makes you feel warm and cozy inside regardless of what is going on outside. 

Boneless pork loin chops in a mushroom sauce is one of our ultimate, cold weather, comfort meals.  It is rich and creamy beyond belief!  The secret to the sauce is condensed cream of mushroom soup, one of the very few soups that I buy commercially made.  The reason being I cannot home can a version of this soup and only so much of homemade cream of mushroom soup will store in the freezer.  The lactic acid in the condensed soup and added milk along with the slow cooking method result in tender pork chops that melt in your mouth.  I often add sliced mushrooms to the sauce as well.  The pork chops pair nicely with steamed potatoes, rice or noodles.  My husband's favourite is pairing the meat and sauce with potatoes. 

Panko Encrusted Pork Chops

Breading, specifically bread crumbs is often used as a coating for meats, poultry and seafood.  While I am not a huge fan of heavy coating I'm a bit partial to coconut fried shrimp and my husband's famous signature pork chops.  Panko is a Japanese style of bread crumb made from a custom baked bread that results in airy, crispy crumbs that give a delicate crunch without burning problems.  These bread crumbs are more expensive than store bought bread crumbs and considerably more expensive than homemade bread crumbs.  I paid $3.49 for a 227 g box so that is rather expensive.  This is not the type of bread crumb you would use on a regular basis but it does lend itself well to specific culinary applications so well worth keeping a box on hand. 

Most applications for panko call for deep frying and believe me it really is the only bread crumb to use if you want delectable coconut fried shrimp.  I decided to use them for panko encrusted pork chops baked in the oven.  This was just an easy, quick meat serving.

I set up three bowls - one with seasoned flour, one with panko bread crumbs and dried parsley flakes, and one with beaten eggs.  Then I dipped each boneless pork loin chop into the egg mixture, then flour, then egg and finally panko mixture.  I baked at 400ºF until golden brown.

I served the panko encrusted pork chops with leftover slow cooker baked bean, home canned green beans and oven baked potatoes.  The chops were absolutely delightful!  They were moist and tender inside yet crunchy on the outside which gives me an idea for pork nuggets.  All in all I was rather pleased with the results.

A Simple Dinner

Life has an uncanny way of getting extremely busy.  Those are the times when putting a fast, easy meal on the table is a must.  Many rely on fast food take-out for these types of dinners but nutritionally these foods are not good value for you food dollar and they put a nice sized dent into your pocketbook.  There is another way, and that is to rely on easy to put together 15 minute and 30 minute meals.

There are a multitude of ways to make fast, easy meals just that.  I like to keep quick meal starts ready to use in the freezer.  These include pre-seasoned cooked ground beef, ham cubes, cooked BLSL seasoned chicken strips, and other cooked meats (eg. roast beef slices).  This takes a bit of cooking ahead but really if you are cooking ground beef for dinner cook extra for the freezer as well.  I keep cooked beans and quick to cook meats in the refrigerator and of course being a home canner I keep several jars of ready to use foods on the pantry shelves (eg. meatballs, chicken, beans).   Bulk cooking sessions preparing several quick meal starts in a couple of hours can go a long ways towards stocking your freezer helping to remove the temptation to stop for take-out.

Sausage is a delicious quick cooking meat that is rather versatile.  It can be served on a bun, as is for the meat serving or cut into bite sized pieces then added to other dishes.  Bulk sausage can be formed into patties or it can be browned and crumbled to add to casseroles, soups and stews.  Sausage ranges in flavour from very mild to spicy and everything in between.  Aside of quick cooking and flavour, sausage is inexpensive.  Breakfast sausage is usually mildly seasoned and may have a maple syrup flavouring added.  Despite its name breakfast sausage is not just for breakfast.  I served breakfast sausage links with buttered broad egg noodles and black bean salad for a quick, easy meal that took less than 15 minutes to prepare.  The black bean salad is served cold but it could easily be served warm as a topping for rice.  

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!

Chicharrones (Pork Skins)

A couple of days ago I posted about our foodies finds during our recent vacation to the sunny south.  I always find it rather interesting what is considered a snack food in other geographical locations.  I am not a snack type person.  Rather I am a grazer who can easily eat almost constantly throughout the day but I tend to go after fruits, vegetables, cheese, beef jerky and believe it or not beans.  My favourite snack food is steamed broccoli with just a little butter followed by hot buttered popcorn or almonds if I want something crunchy.  Years ago, well before we had kids and were just dating I discovered pork rinds.  They never became a staple in my snack choice but then I discovered pork cracklings that I get to indulge in about once couple of years.  Then I discovered chicharrones (pork skins) sold in large bags in the area of our vacation home.

Chicharrones (pork skins) are similar to pork rinds but they are huge!  Just look at how gorgeous they are.  They are delightful so once again I brought a bag home. 

Chicharrones give the crunch you are after but unlike potato chips you can eat a bit because you can snap off what you want and they are filling.  I don't have a bag of plain potato chips to compare the nutritional values to but when compared to sour cream & onion potato chips, a serving size of chicharrones at 14 g (about the size of a normal cracker) while the chips serving is 50 g.  It's important to realize though that the serving size of chicharrones is more than sufficient to satisfy your crunch craving while 20 chips (50 g) is not.  If factoring the chicharrones to 50 g the nutritional value is quite similar to the chips except there is cholesterol, no carbohydrates and more protein. The bottom line is neither chicharrones or potato chips should be part of a regular healthy diet but on occasion it doesn't hurt.

I think this is a really different snack.  The last time I brought home a bag I broke the chicharrones into cracker sized pieces and put it out for the guys when we were entertaining.  It was gone in no time and I got a lot of compliments off of it!  I may just talk to our butcher to see if I can buy pork skin to try to make these at home.  It would be a very interesting experiment!

A Simple Ham Dinner

Meals do not have to be fancy or complicated to be enjoyable.  Quite often the simple meals based on left-overs are those that become family favourite meals.  I like planning left-overs just for this purpose especially when cooking meat.  It is easy to cook extra for a planned left-over meal later in the week or to pop in the freezer as a quick meal start.

Bone-in ham is a frugal meat choice in that along with a good amount of meat and little fat, the bone can be used to make soups or chowders.  I cooked a ham for our Christmas dinner rather than our traditional turkey dinner.   It was a lovely ham with bone in.  There was of course left over ham.  Later in the week I warmed up a few slices of the ham to serve with baked accordion potatoes and whole kernel corn.  It was a simple, easy to prepare meal with a definite taste of home.

I discovered baked accordion potatoes last summer and did them on the grill.  They do not develop the same skin crispness of normal baked potatoes.  Cut in this fashion the baking time is reduced making them a perfect grill side.  The cuts are not just for presentation.  The cuts increase the surface area so theere is a bit more caramelization adding to the flavour.