Corn Cake

Sweet corn cake is so yummy, i could really the whole thing. It could be a great side dish, or a dessert, or breakfast. 

Start with fresh corn.  You'll need 1 1/2 cup of corn.  Cut the corn off the cob and put it into a food processor.  Pulse until the corn is chopped into tiny pieces, but not pureed.

Next, you will need 1/2 cup of softened butter.  You will mix the softened butter with 1/3 cup of masa flour, 1/4 cup water, and 2 tablespoons of milk.

On top of that mixture, add 1/4 cup corn meal, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, & 1/2 teaspoon baking powder.

Stir that together, then add the corn pieces.

Place the mixture into a well greased 8 x8 pan.

Cook at 350 degrees for roughly an hour or until the edges start to brown.  Use an ice cream scoop to serve up little balls of deliciousness!

Broiled chicken

This is broiled chicken with a garlic, lemon, and rosemary rub.

Start by grating the lemon zest.  You'll need 2 teaspoons, plus 1/4 cup of juice. 

Mince the fresh rosemary.  You'll want about a tablespoon.

Also mince some garlic (not pictured).  Combine garlic, lemon zest, rosemary, and some fresh ground pepper in a bowl.  

Rub this mixture under the chicken skin.

Combine the 1/4 cup of lemon juice and 3 tablespoons of olive oil.

Broil the chicken on a lower oven rack for about 12 to 16 minutes.  Flip  the pieces and broil for 10 more minutes or until the temp reaches 160.

Brush the lemon juice / olive oil mixture onto the chicken.

Return to oven on a top rack (about 5 inches from broiling element).  Cook for 10 minutes or until chicken reaches 175 degrees.

Ta Da!

Lemon Garlic Potatoes

 

 These lemon garlic potato wedges are a nice accompaniment to the broiled chicken.

Start by mincing some garlic.  Also cut some fresh oregano.  Mix about 2 tablespoons of minced oregano, with 4 garlic cloves, a tablespoon of olive oil, a tablespoon of lemon zest, and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.

Then dice some Yukon Gold potatoes into wedges.  Fry them in a mixture of olive oil and butter.  Flip to cook them on both sides of the potato.

Then add in the garlic/oregano/lemon mixture to the pan.

I didn't get a great final picture of the potatoes. Trust me, they are good.

Okra

 

Okra is so delicious.  It gets a bad rap, but it really is tasty.

I like to just pan fry okra.   Slice it up, stir it around in a pan with some olive oil, salt, and pepper...

 

 Cook it until it gets a little brown on the edges.  But cook it at a somewhat high heat so it browns on the edges but doesn't get soggy.

Red Beans and Rice

Red beans and rice go nicely with pork tacos!


Start by sauteing some onion in a little olive oil until the onion is translucent.  Then add a little bit of minced garlic and saute until fragrant.  Next, stir in the rice.  Stir the rice in with the garlic/onion mixture for just a minute.  Then add chicken broth!  Just use the proportions of water/rice as in the directions on the rice, only substitute chicken broth for the water.  I don't have exact measurements for the onion and garlic, just use as much as you want to add some flavor!

 

Once the rice is cooked, add a little paprika, a splash of cumin, and salt and pepper.  Then stir some red beans into the hot rice!

Serve and enjoy!

Pork Tacos

Pork and pineapple tacos!

Main ingredients - pineapple and pork. MMmmmmm.

Here is everything you'll need:  Pork shoulder, fresh pineapple, brown sugar, canned pineapple in 100% pineapple juice, green chiles, chipoltle peppers in adobo sauce, chili powder, cumin, salt, olive oil, onion, cilantro, lime, feta, garlic, and mangoes!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Start by chopping the onion and sauteing in a tablespoon or so of olive oil in a large dutch oven.

 Next, mix 2 teaspoons of salt, with 2 teaspoons of cumin, and 1 teaspoon of chili powder. Trim the excess fat from the pork shoulder.  This step is not pictured as my photographer thought it was too disgusting for photos.  Wash and thoroughly dry the meat.  Then cover the pork shoulder with the seasonings and rub in!

Add another tablespoon of olive oil and bring the heat up on the dutch oven until just starting to smoke.  Add the pork shoulder to the dutch oven.

Brown the meat for several minutes on all sides.

While the meat is browning, prepare the sauce.  I used about 1 chipotle pepper (minced), 1 small can of chopped green chiles, 1 16 oz can of pineapple & juice, 2 cloves of minced garlic, and about 1/4 cup of brown sugar.

Once the meat is nice and golden on all sides, add in the sauce.

 Let that simmer for a few minutes, then place dutch oven into the 350 degree oven and cook for 3 to 3 1/2 hours.  Cook until the meat is falling apart!

Slice up the fresh pineapple.

 Once the meat is done, remove the meat to a plate and shred with two forks.  Place shredded meat in a container back in the oven, covered with some of the juices left in the pan. At this point, you can turn the oven down to 200 degrees or so. This is just to keep the meat warm while finishing everything else up.

 Now, you have removed all the meat and have the spicy sweet sauce remaining in dutch oven.

Put the dutch oven on the stove and heat over medium heat.  Add about a tablespoon of cornstarch dissolved in water and stir until  the sauce is slightly thickened.

Line up all your taco ingredients - pork, pineapple, sauce, cilantro, and feta.

 

 Garnish with lime slices.  Serve with sweet corn cake and red beans and rice!  And enjoy!

Greek Salad

Greek Salad - it is so beautiful and so yummy.

Ingredients...romaine lettuce, cucumber, red pepper, tomatoes, mint, kalamata olives, parsley, and feta.  Also, this salad should really have red onions in it, but I forgot them and didn't feel like going back to the store.  So you'll have to just imagine the red onion.

Plus, the ingredients for the dressing:

Before you start with the dressing, you should put a red pepper in a 450 degree oven and cook it for about an hour, flipping every 20 minutes or so.  Now, on to the dressing. 

You'll need oregano, garlic, lemon, olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, and pepper.

First, you chop the oregano finely. You'll need 2 teaspoons.

And mince the garlic - about one clove. 

Fresh squeezed lemon juice - 1 1/2 teaspoons.

Plus 6 tablespoons of olive oil, 3 tablespoons of vinegar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.  Plus a splash of black pepper.

Then whisk it all together.

 Add cucumber.  You should peel the cucumber and remove the seeds, then slice it into 1/4 inch pieces.

Add the cucumber to the dressing.  Here, you would also add thinly sliced red onion if you have that.
Let that stuff sit while you prepare everything else.



Chop up the olives.

This is what your roasted red pepper should look like  You could take the easy way and by the jarred roasted red pepper from the store, but it isn't too hard to roast your own.  Plus it smells and tastes delicious!

Remove the red pepper's charred skin and slice the pepper into thin slivers.

Wash the romaine, mint, and parsley.  Tear into bite size pieces.  The mint is really amazing in this salad.  You'll want a decent amount of small mint pieces so there is a bit of mint in almost every bite. Its so good!

Then combine all the ingredients and serve!