Pork Schnitzel with Mushroom and Onion Marsala Sauce

This was a fun and relaxing weekend. Enjoyed time together and made sure to make the most of it. Even with Mike working Friday and Saturday we had fun.

Saturday night I went out to dinner with a friend because we are not old and cannot be going to bed at 8pm on a Saturday, it's just not cool.

So we ate Greek salads at the local Italian restaurant. Mike razzed us for that numerous times. Oh well, it sounded good.

Sunday Mike and I made cheddar & bacon coated chicken tenders. It's a Betty Crocker recipe but neither of us thought the coating stuck very well and that cheese and bacon do not work well as a chunky coating. It didn't taste bad, but it wasn't anything phenomenal. We also made baked steak fries fresh from a real potato, nothing frozen there. We also had a bagged bacon Caesar salad for a veggie. Then our friend, who I had had dinner with the night before, came over and brought ice cream and cookies for dessert.

The company made up for the lack luster dinner. Still, can't complain when the food is decent and the company is great. It was nice to get together with someone and just chat and have a good time.

Mike and I also went turkey hunting this weekend. As I am not licensed in the state of Missouri I just went along for the ride. First hunting outing ever. To say the least, I had a blast.

Then after hunting, we ate, then proceeded to go for a run, with the crazy sidewalks in that small town Mike resides in.

I say the person who put this in was drunk. Go home sidewalk man, you're drunk!

Then he lounged and took a nap while I finished phase two of my workout, Rush Fit. If you haven't figured this out by now, I'm a bit of a fitness nut and actually enjoy working out, mostly running. I guess that's why I can just about eat anything I want.

So after naps and workouts we decided dinner was needed and that we needed to use up the pork cutlet we had plus buy more to make sure we had enough to go around.

Needless to say the word "schnitzel" came to mind when thinking about a pounded out pork cutlet. I must say that is the word of the blog today "cutlet."

So off we went whisked away to Walmart for more ingredients and then back to make dinner.

We paired this with mashed potatoes (we did instant but making old fashioned mashed potatoes with some baby reds would have been much better.) Then we also had some cinnamon applesauce which was homemade.

Take about 5 apples, granny or pretty much your favorite apple. Peel and Chop. Add all into a quart sized pot with 1/2 cup of water and 1 tsp of apple pie spice. Simmer for 15 minutes then add 1/4 cup sugar and 1 Tbsp brown sugar and simmer for another 5, stirring occasionally throughout process.  Then mash it all up as chunky or as fine as you like and enjoy.

In the mean time, check out this deliciousness

Pork Schnitzel
Via: Taste of Home Cookbook
Prep/Total Time: 25 minutes
Servings: 6

6 pork sirloin cutlets (1/2 inch thick & 4 oz each)
1/2 cup all -purpose flour
2 tsp seasoned salt (like Lawry's)
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk **I left this out - accidentally - but it turned out just fine. So if you can't have milk or just want to omit we are proof that it works fine.
1 1/2 cups dry bread crumbs, plain **of course I would say to use only 1 cup since we had A LOT left over
2 tsp paprika
6 Tbsp vegetable/olive/grapeseed oil **We used grapeseed because we felt like it, worked well. Use what you have and what works best for you

Directions:
Flatten pork cutlets to 1/4 inch thickness **Or you can be like us and go to your local wally-world and pick up pre-tenderized pork cutlets that are already 1/4 inch thick. Less work and no pounding required**

Combine flour, seasoned salt, and pepper in a shallow bowl (large enough to dip your cutlets in). In another bowl beat eggs and milk. In a third bowl combine bread crumbs and paprika.

Create an assembly line station that ends in a plate to place battered pork. **I did two cutlets at a time because that's what fit in the pan to cook.**

Dip pork into flour first, then egg mixture, then into crumb mixture.

Cook pork in oil in a large skillet over a medium heat. **Again, we cooked only two at a time to prevent crowding** Cook on each side for about 3-4 minutes until tender. Remove to a cookie sheet lined in foil with a wire rack on top. Place in a 150-200 degree oven to keep warm and crisp.

Serve with a dill sauce or you can serve with a onion, mushroom Marsala sauce.

We did the following:
1 small yellow onion, chopped
1 pkg (8 oz) white button mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup Marsala cooking wine
1 pat beef broth (it comes in this jelly like state and you boil it in about 1/2 a cup of water to create broth - or you could just use 1/2 cup of beef broth)

Saute onions over medium heat until just translucent. Then remove from pan. Put beef broth in pan and bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Add Marsala, mushrooms and onions. Everybody in the pool!

Cook over medium low heat until starting to reduce. You can add a slurry (corn starch mixed with COLD water) 1 tsp at a time to reach desired thickness.

Now go out and cook!

Smothered Pork Chops a la Mike & Sarah

So the folks were in town this weekend. They had some things that needed to be done at the house and so between Mike and I we helped make that a bit easier for them. Help that we don't mind giving at all.

It's always fun to see Mike's folks. I always get a good laugh and have a great time.

So for dinner the other night Mike decided he wanted to make dinner rather than go out. That was fine, but then he remembered the roomie was sleeping. Well poo poopie doo. Then we found out around 5 that the roomie was awake and moving around. It was Mexican Monday and so she goes out on a double date gathering thing with friends and her boyfriend. Ok, sweet, we can now dominate the kitchen!

So Mike called his folks and let them know we could do dinner at the apartment now and then he and I rushed out to Walmart to collect ingredients and hurry back home to cook before the arrival at 6:30. (we left shortly after 5:00) So we have a list and are running through the store like we are on an episode of Bobby's Dinner Battle. Running to find the ingredients needed and figuring up a side dish and then having little time to make dinner in.

We finally figured out a side dish, we could do crostini (which have been done before - see here) but we changed it up and bought some Philadelphia dinner creations Italian herb flavored and then bought mini ciabatta breads and planned to cut them into quarters.

So we rush back home and begin prep work. Turning the oven broiler on and starting the veggie work. I pull out a pan and start arranging the peppers on them to place under the broiler. We bought the mini peppers rather than full bell peppers. They taste great too.

Then I began prepping the ciabatta bread, cutting the little squares into quarter triangles.

Drizzled with olive oil.

Then oiled the pan and popped under the broiler. However, I did burn the first set and had to start over with the other half of the bag. :( Oopsie!

While I was working on toasting my ciabatta bread triangles Mike seasoned the pork chops and seared them in the cast iron.

He then cut up the remaining mini yellow and red peppers, sliced up some onion, garlic, and popped open a small can of peas. After he seared the pork he took the meat out of the pan, placed on a plate and set aside while he sauteed up the onion and peppers. Then made a roux and added everything back into the pan and made gravy. Adding the peas last so not to mush them up any more. So we ended up with delicious and tender smothered pork chops (sadly I forgot to photograph my plate or even the pan! What kind of blogger are we? It was my job this time to take pictures, I failed. But I did get a picture of the finished crostini.

The folks liked it. Though Mike went a little crazy on the seasoning. He used Tony Chachare's Cajun seasoning, which in small doses is great. He seasoned the pork separately from the gravy and so combined it created quite a bite. More than planned but still delicious.

The recipes are simple.

Pork Chops - thin cut - boneless (however many you want to use, I think we had 6 or 8)
1/2 bag of mini peppers sliced and seeded
1 small onion
1 small can of peas
Cajun seasoning of choice
water or some stock to create gravy
and a roux to thicken which is just flour and oil or butter seared in a pan until desired darkness of roux (we usually do a blond roux - even though I prefer slurry's - corn starch and cold water).

-Season meat, sear on both sides in hot skillet.
-Set meat aside.
-Saute onion and peppers together and some chopped garlic
-Set veggies aside when just tender
-create blond roux, add some stock/water
-everybody back in the pan, add peas and cook until warm

Serve with delicious crostini and mashed potatoes.

We bought Betty Crocker Loaded Mashed for a side and it was pretty darn good.

For the crostini

1 small loaf French Baguette (the thin rod kind for bite size pieces)
2 Tbsp ish of extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup cream cheese creations by Philadelphia (Italian herb blend)
1/2 bag mini peppers

Roast peppers either on a gas stove top over the fire or under your oven broiler until the skin is charred. Place in zip lock bag or in a bowl covered with plastic to let the skin steam off.

Cut your bread and place on a lightly oiled baking sheet and oil the top side of your bread with a drizzle of olive oil. Pop in the oven under the broiler until golden on each side, careful to watch them as they will burn FAST.

Once your bread is done pull out of the oven and take a garlic clove cut in half and rub on each toast (only on one side). Then top with cream cheese.

Now, get your peppers, the skin should just flake right off when rubbed gently. Slice up into strips and top your crostini.

And serve. These will go fast, they are delicious.

Mike and I have a lot of fun figuring out new things and new ways of doing things. He suggested using the ciabatta bread since the store didn't have a small baguette to use. Then we decided last minute to use the mini peppers rather than the big bell peppers just because. Also, initially Mike had suggested using cream cheese and just mixing it with Italian herbs. Well I went to get some and found that new recipe creations and was all over it.

Just get creative  how can you change a dish? Can you make it better? Can you change the flavor profile from Italian to Mexican, or just tweak to your taste? You can do just about anything with the right seasonings and a little thought. And don't be afraid to high five in Walmart, make life fun. :)


Also while at Walmart this week I found this. Gooey Butter Cake - in Kansas! That doesn't happen often if at all. It's by Paula Deen. Since we have this slight obsession with gooey butter cake I bought it to try it out.

The gooey part was good but I can't say the "yellow cake crust" was great. To me it was too salty. But on a scale of 1 to 10. I give it a 7 because when in a pinch and not feeling like making it, this would suffice. Just definitely is NOT St. Louis traditional. But not bad.

 Now go out and cook!

November Foodie Pen Pal Reveal

It's that time again, time to reveal the foodie pen pal stash of the month. YAY!

My pen pal this month was Robin Lourie - she sent me this fabulous box. You can check out what she got from her pen pal here. I sent to Anna, who doesn't have a blog but sent me this e-mail in regards to the goodies we sent her.

I hope you are doing well this day before Thanksgiving! I wanted to send you a BIG thank you for the great box of goodies!

I truly appreciate the thoughtfulness that you put into creating this package. The almonds were YUMMY!

The dark chocolate bars will be consumed post Thanksgiving! I can't wait to try the recipes you sent as well. The can of pumpkin is exactly what I needed!

The barbeque sauce looks so pretty! I think that will go great on tempeh for a vegan tempeh reuben.

Again thank you very much! It has been a pleasure exchanging emails! Thank you for reaching out!

I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving! I've got to get to the co-op to get my "turkeyless roast"

Here is what she got: 

So now on to what we got :) I must say that Robin was lovely and sent the most wonderful things.

Look at this haul! I mean seriously! Of course this arrived the day I was heading out to go to Mike's, the mailman freaked me out by knocking on my front door (mind you I consider my actual front door the back door so, this really does worry me when I hear a knock at that door). Come to find the mailman waiting there for me and handed me this loveliness which I immediately became quite excited about and began smiling. I don't think she quite knew what to do with me other than walk away from me.

First thing I busted open, even before Mike got to see it were these bad boys. Soo freaking delicious, they were gone in 3 days (would have been sooner had I not had will power or the need to share at least one pretzel with Mike). I will be recreating these for a Christmas treat to pass out, rather than bake a bazillion cookies like I normally do. Going easy this season with the baking.

Then we have enchilada sauce and smoky pulled pork seasoning sauce. Um, delish!!! Mike and I had to make pulled pork for sure. So bought a pork shoulder (couldn't find one unseasoned at Walmart so I bought a BBQ seasoned and slow cooker ready one). This is the result ----

Yes, it's as delicious as it looks, super simple too. Add 1 cup of water to the packet of sauce and one 2-lb pork shoulder and cook on low for 8 hours. Easy peasy and super delicious with some baked potatoes and green beans. Yummmm :) I still have leftovers hehe.

Then we have tea, Tazo Passion, Nature's Splash (a lot like Crystal Light) and then some green tea. I adore the Tazo passion tea - when I worked at Starbucks that was my go to drink. I haven't tried the green teas yet and have brought the Nature's Splash to work with me for my water - I use Crystal Light daily so this is perfect.

And at this rate I will never have to buy peanut butter again, I just have to ask that they include peanut butter in every FPP box I get haha!! I do love peanut butter A LOT. It's got to be my favorite food. I was also getting low on honey and this was a pleasant surprise. I prefer local honeys and this is just perfect. Actually used it for the first time last night in some oat bars.

And now for the adult side. She must have read that I like to make beer bread. :) So I received two cans of this Bombshell Blonde Ale. I drank one, was not overwhelmed or in love with the flavor, it's beer. But it made some fabulous beer bread, which I made the other night and have been enjoying since.

A big huge thank you to my pen pal for sending such a lovely box of goodies that I am still enjoying.

Wanna be a foodie pen pal? Check it out below.

Here’s a detailed explanation of the program:

-On the 5th of the month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you can choose to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
- Foodie Penpals is open to US, Canadian residents & UK residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. So, I’m going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!

***If you’re in the UK, please contact Carol Anne from This Is Rock Salt at rocksalt@thisisrocksalt.com to get involved!

22nd Pig Roast 2012

So Mike and I attended the 22nd Annual Pig Roast on October 20th. His family has this roast every year and roasts a pig, well, they haven't done a whole pig for a little while so they did two shoulders. 

So we left at O'Dark thirty in the morning to arrive around 9 or 9:30 am at the cabin.

We did get the chance to see the sunrise together and it was absolutely gorgeous. Great country scenery with a beautiful sunrise. Great way to start a day.

So 3 1/2 hours of being on the road and two pit stops later we arrived at the cabin, which is located in "middle of nowhere" USA. It's not somewhere you would just think to go and the people around the area are definitely redneck. But it was definitely a gorgeous area. The colors of fall and all the foliage. Absolutely beautiful area.

So we arrived, unloaded the truck and figured out what we needed to help with. So we checked on the pig. Well, pig pieces. Mmm, couldn't wait to dig into that, but it was only 9:30 am and the pig wouldn't be ready until about 1 or 1:30. The fire was started around 4 am that morning and the pig was put on around 4:45 am. So the pig had already been slow cooking for about 5 hours. Mmmm, that's gonna fall right off the bone. Couldn't wait.

They do have this nifty little motor to spin the pig to keep the cooking even. From what I caught from conversation they pieced it together, which is actually pretty cool. Kept the pig evenly cooked and ultimately delicious. They had a fire going and had some hickory or mesquite smoker chips/bits in there too to give it a bit of flavor.

Look at that pig, ain't it beautiful and delicious looking?

Yeah we all pretty much sat around that baby a good part of the morning, munching on the snack foods like crackers, cheese, fruit and chips in eager await of the main event.

Of course waiting on food can be a little boring, not that conversing with people isn't fun. Mike took me out on the 4-wheeler for my first ride. I've never been on a 4-wheeler. I have been on a dirt bike but cannot say my experience with that was pleasant. I did hold onto him a little to hard when we first took off down the road. Mike told me on a few occasions to lighten my grip and that I didn't need to hold on so tight. Of course going 50 mph on a vehicle that doesn't have any seat belt or really any safety feature to keep you on makes me a little nervous to start out. I eventually got to the point where I just held onto the bars on the back of the 4-wheeler and started to really enjoy it. After we had stopped and saw the lake he let me drive it back. That was fun. So got to ride and drive one for the first time. How cool. :) However, Mike didn't think I drove fast enough - it's my first time, I'm not driving 50 mph. I'll stick to 30.

So when we got closer to actually eating Mike's dad began to baste it in some good old KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce. Mmmm, that just made our mouths water even more.

Mike's Uncle and cousin did the meat carving. The smoke ring on that meat was about 1/8th of an inch and it was sooo delicious. The bone literally pulled right out of the meat. It was amazing. Mike said it was the best they had had so far. There was soo much food beside the pig. There was broccoli cheese rice casserole, macaroni and cheese, fruit tray, veggie tray, bean dip (which is evidently legendary and so delicious it disappears faster than you can blink) and then there was a delicious dutch oven black forest cake that Mike's sister made. She evidently is not cooking inclined so this was something many doubted would turn out and we were all skeptical due to the instructions of specific amounts of coals on top and underneath. So it was turned and watched for 40 minutes without looking. All wondering if this thing would turn out. It actually turned out quite well. Found that it was moist and delicious. I only got a small bite because it disappeared pretty quick and I really didn't want and entire bowl of it. There was also pumpkin pie and apple pie on top of the promise of s'mores later (which I did have.)

After being stuffed to the brim and sitting back while our stomachs settled. It was a pretty great time getting to meet his aunts and uncles and cousins. Sat back, listened to stories and laughed at his dad being his dad. His family cracks me up. I truly enjoyed myself and I know Mike did too.

We stayed the night at the cabin and his mom and dad, Mike and I sat around the fire until about 9 pm and had some drinks. I had some Jack Tennessee Honey with Diet Dr Pepper while Mike had some with Coke. That's good stuff. Smoother than Jack's original Tennessee Whiskey.

The next morning we helped pack up and make sure things were picked up, put away and locked down. Mike and I took the 4-wheeler's out one last time. He made me drive my own this time. It was a beautiful crisp morning and I thoroughly enjoyed the scenery and was getting more comfortable with the 4-wheeler. Came back to the cabin, loaded up the 4-wheeler's and locked up the cabin. Soon headed back to reality. I had taken Friday and Monday off to ensure a truly relaxing weekend. My weekend hadn't started off so well because Friday morning as I tried to leave I had a flat tire - not cool. So I was delayed about 2 hours from leaving my place to arrive at Mike's. Good thing we left Saturday.

So Sunday we spent the day carving a pumpkin and making dinner for ourselves and roomie and another friend. Grilled chicken with vegetable kabobs and macaroni and cheese Mike's mom had made and sent home with us. Pretty delicious if I do say so myself.

Monday we went to the gym then ate at my favorite local sandwich shop, Mighty Melt. I love the bread there. Their sandwiches are pretty good. I'm trying to replicate their bread - of course they don't give out their "secret" signature recipe and won't tell me what kind of bread it is. Grrr, means I have to figure it out on my own. Which in and of itself is frustrating but gives me an experiment and plenty of bread around the house.

Monday we also went out on Mike's layout boat and tried out his new motor for it. Worked pretty well. Much faster than the push pole. Was entertaining and helped scout out areas he could hunt ducks. He's hoping to get some hunting in Tuesday this week and possibly Sunday next week.

This weekend I was involved in Rugged Maniac's 5k mud run in Weston Missouri at the Snow Creek Ski Resort. Can I just say the hills there were absolutely insane and totally not meant for running or climbing up.

It was crazy on that account on top of the fact that it was cold and had water obstacles. I ran at 12:30 and it was still only 35 degrees outside. There were 4 water obstacles. It really wasn't too bad once you got through the first obstacle. At that point your legs are numb and you just keep pushing through. I finished in roughly 51 to 53 minutes, considering my 3.15 mile time averages about 28:30 minutes so to add in around 15 obstacles that's not bad. I plan to do warrior dash in April in KC. Should be a lot of fun. I felt like a beast going up the mud wall with the rope. You really have to use a lot of upper body strength. I can't say I've ever had fantastic upper body strength but with the Insanity workout I just finished it has helped quite a bit.

Front: Before & After

Back: Before & After

I am at the very least quite impressed with my results. I wasn't expecting it honestly. Mike has had really great results as well with his, haven't taken his after pics yet. Though today we did get some good pictures together. My friend took pictures for me for my Christmas cards as well as some pictures of Mike and I. So all in all we have been doing well and not really been cooking a lot. I have baked a lot of bread and will update once I've made about 10 more loaves, I'm sure it will take that much haha. 

Tomorrow Mike is thinking about doing a smoked turkey breast or a smoked brisket. Either way it sounds delicious and I am totally jealous that I won't get any ;) Lucky roomie.

So that is all for this recap of where we disappeared to. Been busy is all.

Go out and cook folks.