Cherry-Mustard Sauce

Missy Tippens

I finally made the cherry sauce I told y'all about a few weeks ago when I posted my cherry smoothie recipe!

It's a simple sauce a friend from Weight Watcher's told me about: cherries, dijon mustard, and Greek yogurt mixed up in the blender. She said she loves it on chicken. I had a pork loin that needed to be eaten so decided to give it a try.

Only, once I got ready to cook, I discovered my husband had thrown out my dijon! Strange that he actually goes by expiration dates. :)

I found a recipe for dijon but decided to just doctor up yellow mustard by adding some white wine.

In a blender, I put the frozen cherries. Then added mustard and some white wine. I also added some of the Greek yogurt (and ended up wishing I hadn't added quite so much). So just play with yours until you come up with a taste you like.

I sliced my pork loin and cooked the chops in some butter and olive oil. Once the meat was nearly done, I pulled it out of the skillet and put it on a plate. Then I added my sauce to the pan drippings to heat it and help add flavor.

Okay, y'all can go ahead and say what you're thinking. :) It looks gross as a sauce for meat.

Yeah, I agree. However, I took a chance and served it anyway. I added the meat back to quickly heat through.

Pink pork! I will say it looked much better left over. The butter added a lot of great flavor.

Have you ever had to wing it due to a trigger-happy spouse?

Enjoy!

Missy Tippens

Pork Medallions and Pan Sauce

Missy Tippens

I recently saw these beautiful pork medallions at the grocery store and snatched them up for a night when I needed a quick meal. I could tell these would thaw and cook quickly.

Flash forward a couple of weeks, and I pulled these out of the freezer. They were thawed and ready to go by dinnertime. I waited until my husband got home to start everything.

I dried the pork, and then seasoned with salt, pepper, and some Penzey's Sunny Paris--one of our favorites. Here's the description from the website: Hand-mixed from: shallots, chives, green peppercorn, dill weed, basil, tarragon, chervil and bay leaf.  Sounds yummy, doesn't it? I thought it would be perfect with pork.

I heated olive oil and butter in the skillet. Then seared the meat on either side. Then I added a little white wine and covered for a few minutes to let the meat cook through. When it was done (don't over cook!), I took the meat out of the skillet and sprinkled in about 1-2 teaspoons of flour and cooked until slightly thickened. I spooned the sauce over the pork and served.

It turned out so yummy! Before preparing the meat, I microwaved baked potatoes and then made steam-in-the-bag vegetables. Not bad for a quick weeknight meal!

www.missytippens.com

Sriracha Dipping Sauce and a Book Release

I'm sore.

I spent the weekend painting. The guest room Saturday, the master bedroom Sunday. The master is the one that kicked my butt. Tall ceilings meant lots of reaching, stretching and going up and down the ladder. Of course, it was all worth it. The rooms looks great and it's another item ticked off of our to-do list as we prep the house to go on the market after the first of the year.

Sorry, no pix, though. You know me, so eager to get started that pictures never even cross my mind.

All that work (yes, it was a lone endeavor) meant no cooking, though. Instead, I made hubby take me out one night and order pizza the next. The perfect trade off, right?

So today I thought I share one of my new favorite pantry staples

.

Sriracha sauce (pronounced sir-ah-cha). Nowadays, you can find this at most grocery stores on the Asian food aisle.

Now, I'm not a fan of super spicy foods. However, sometimes things need a little kick. And there's just something about the flavor of this Korean hot sauce that does the trick.

One of my favorite things to make with it is a dipping sauce that is perfect with chicken fingers, SWEET POTATO FRIES (love those) or anything else you might want to dip.

First, I start with some regular old mayonnaise and ketchup. About half and half.

Now add a little sriracha. And by a little, I mean a little. You can always add more later.

Whisk that all together and taste.

Hmm... Needs a little more sriracha.

Whisk again.

Taste again.

Perfect.

Another ingredient I add on occasion is Worcestershire sauce. It simply adds another dimension of flavor.

Like I said, I absolutely love this with sweet potato fries. Shoot, I love sweet potato fries just about any way, but the little bit of heat with the sweetness of the fries makes them even better.

Oh, and it's also tasty spread on burgers.

In other news, guess what is now on Walmart shelves?

I love this story. And I love that it's out right before Memorial Day because Kaleb, the hero in this book, is a wounded warrior who knows the true meaning of Memorial Day and pays tribute to it in the story.

I hope you'll consider picking up a copy.

Mindy Obenhaus lives in Texas with her husband and kids. She's passionate about touching readers with Biblical truths in an entertaining, and sometimes adventurous, manner.

When she’s not writing, she enjoys cooking and spending time with her grandchildren. Learn more at www.MindyObenhaus.com.

Fall Pantry Organization has it's rewards!

The weather's turning colder. Pumpkins are out but the farmers market is getting a bit sparse.
Then there was the reminder to be prepared for pandemics. Not my favorite P word.  But it did make me look in my pantry. Now there's a horror story right there.

I didn't take a before picture. But it was bad. The shelves were half empty. Half full bags turned over on their sides. How had it gotten to it's "after an earthquake"-like state?

Wellllllllllll. We only use fresh veggies in the summer. I don't buy preservative-laced food. If it isn't "clean" food, it isn't in our pantry.  I make it through the winter thanks to freezing. But this year, for a lot of reasons, including very bad spring weather, I didn't get a lot of freezing done.  

It really wasn't the fear of an Ebola pandemic freaking me out when I looked at the pantry. Nope. When you have lived through hurricanes and ice storms, you learn a well-stocked pantry can keep you from traveling roads with folks who think they can drive on slippery asphalt or keep you from starving while you wait a week for the power to come on. Or say everyone in the house has the flu? Do you really want to go to the grocery store in your pjs?

For us, long term storage stocking up means canned goods like chicken noodle soup, canned ravioli and Frosted Mini-Wheats for ManO, gluten-free snacks for me, dried fruit and nuts, oatmeal, and Spam. But most of all, getting my act together meant getting my pantry in order. I'd already decluttered back in the spring but I needed to organize.

Where to get ideas: I researched the net. I visited Pinterest.  Traveled to Amazon.com. I looked in TJ Maxx and Target.  Pondered closet organizers in hardware stores. Bottom line?  I decided I'd rather spend my money on food rather than racks and boxes and other storage containers to make my pantry "pretty."  Not to mention, I found out canisters don't necessarily keep out bugs. So I turned my rabid attention to the ZONE method, putting foods together by their use or type of meal.

The Top Shelf:  Water filters, plastic bags, parchment paper and such as well as cookbooks are up here. Sadly, I only pull out the family cookbooks at holiday time. The rest of the time, I'm on Allrecipes.com.  But I broke down and bought a fill it yourself recipe book to keep all my most used GF recipes at hand.  

The Baking Shelf: Gluten free flours, mixes and other grains, condensed milk, pumpkin, spices, extracts and four kinds of sugar for holiday baking. If it wasn't before the holidays, this shelf would be practically bare, even with my reorganization.  Money saving organization: I have baggies of spices and mixes that I stand up in dollar store plastic napkin holders. 

The Quick Meal Shelf: On the left, I put my various sauces and GF pastas, stir fry ingredients, and condiments.  On the right, breakfast stuff like oatmeal and Frosted Mini Wheats. Okay, mostly Frosted Mini-Wheats. ManO is obsessed like a toddler who will only eat one thing. And that thing is Frosted Mini Wheats for breakfast.  Why yes, that is a bag of potato chips on the quick meal shelf. Don't judge.

The Long Term Storage Shelf:  The canned goods here have a long shelf life. There is enough here to survive two weeks. Yeah, I won't make it through a zombie apocalypse but will make it through a North Carolina storm. My rule of thumb is to always replace what I take out but, if I have the option of buying fresh ingredients, ignore this shelf as much as possible for true emergencies. Ready.gov has a list of items you should have on hand in case of an emergency but googling emergency preparedness works too or maybe even zombie apocalypse.

Floor level:  My bulk paper products and bags go here.

Sigh. I've worked over several days on the pantry. But I'm not done. It's a work in progress. ManO keeps moving stuff because he likes it better in one spot or another. I have some dead space that needs to be thought about and used better. But I did mention rewards.

I decided to make my pumpkin ice cream as a motivation.  After three days of hard work, I rewarded myself with a variation of my three ingredient (whipping cream, condensed milk and vanilla) ice cream. You can find the original post and vanilla ice cream recipe here.  Whip the cream before folding in the condensed milk, 3/4 can of pumpkin and one tablespoon pumpkin pie spice. Throw it in an ice cream making and voila.

But then I decided to get wild and crazy and top it with a pecan praline sauce.         

It doesn't get much better when you find a praline sauce recipe that doesn't require corn syrup or a candy thermometer. This is my adaptation of several I found on the web. Just remember you must use butter to make this recipe work.

Easy Praline Sauce 

2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup organic half and half 
1/2 unrefined organic cane sugar
dash salt
vanilla to taste
1 cup toasted pecans, chopped or pieces (optional)

Melt the butter in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Mix half and half, sugar and salt together then pour into the pan, whisking constantly. Continue to stir until sugar is dissolved and sauce thickens. Take off heat, add vanilla and stir. Cool for a half hour or so, stirring occasionally. Add pecans, stir and serve over ice cream. Store leftovers in refrigerator up to four days.

Note: Some folks leave out the nuts and use it as an easy caramel sauce. 

You can also add gingersnaps or other types of cookies on the side to really make it special.

So how is your fall pantry looking? Is there anything you make sure to stock up on before winter, bad weather or flu season set in? Do you have a favorite sundae combo as a reward for good behavior or a bad day?  

Fresh Tomato Sauce with Capers

Hello, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back! I found this cookbook at the library and thought it might have a great way to use up some of our fresh tomatoes.

It's called (sideways) The Southern Italian Table. I looooooove Italian food. GIMME, GIMME.

 The recipe is really simple. Fresh tomatoes, a few teaspoons of fresh basil, 2 tsp of capers, two cloves of garlic.

I sent some kids out into the garden to get tomatoes. (It occur to me that by the time you read this, it will be October. So, imagine it's summer time.)

                                     
Chop the tomatoes, and throw in a pan with the basil. Add two teaspoons of olive oil.

 Here are the capers. Funny how a little jar lasts forever. Because recipes hardly ever need capers...

Mmmm. I love the way they smell. Mix everything together and mash well. Let it boil for about 20 minutes so the water is mostly reduced. Some people add a little salt or brown sugar, but this was a pretty simple sauce. 

                                           
I decided to make some stuffed pasta shells to put the sauce on, so mix two eggs, a carton of ricotta cheese, a cup of parmesan shredded cheese, 2 tsp salt and 2 tsp crushed garlic. Boil the shells, rinse in cold water, stuff, pour on the sauce and bake in the oven.

 Hubby's plate. Man, I wish I could eat like he does and not gain weight. YUMMY.

 I threw in some frozen meatballs because it sounded good.

Have a great weekend and see you all soon!