So, when is it a new recipe?

I have a bad habit of changing recipes.  (Mostly due to lack of original ingredients.  aka PLANNING!)  To the point, sometimes, that they are barely recognizable as the original thing.  I contemplate whether or not to keep the recipe and realize that I have to make a ton of edits in order for it to be the same the next time I make it.

I made this amazing pork dish the other day.  Its original name was Barbacoa Beef.  Already I'm sure you can see a major difference in the basic ingredients.  I don't want to take credit away from some one who created the original recipe, but, at the same time, I would like to recommend it the way *I* made it. 

So, here it is:

My recipe for Barbacoa Pork, based loosely off this Barbacoa Beef recipe.

Ingredients:

3 lbs pork loin roast  (really, any hunk of pork)
5-7 cloves of garlic
1 medium onion
1/2 lemon and its juice
2 Jalapenos
3 tbsp of chopped cilantro
1 1/2 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp chili powder
salt
freshly ground black pepper
3 bay leaves


Directions:


~Place garlic, onion, lemon juice, cumin, chili powder, jalapenos, and cilantro in a blender or food processor.  Blend into a paste (or liquid).


~Place your hunk-a-hunk of burning pork into a sprayed crock pot (I use olive oil in a fancy spritzer thing instead of Pam.) 

~Rub your meat down with your paste.

~Throw in the bay leaves and lemon half (after being juiced, of course)

~Add a dash of S&P.

~Turn that bad boy on high and walk away.  My frozen** hunk of meat took 6 hours on high and 2 on low. It was cooked to perfection. 

~Shred the meat and serve in a nice, warm tortilla with all of your favorite toppings- Chipotle or Moe's style.  Olives, cheese, cilantro, salsa, sour cream, guac, black beans, etc.  OR, do what we did, and serve it up as a salad.  (I did add some more cumin to the top of mine and E's.  I didn't want it to be too spicy for the kids.)

There you have it.  My version of a chipotle beef, but with pork and jalapenos.


**If you know me well, you will understand why my meat was frozen.  I suck at organization and pre-planning that the laying out of the meat necessitates.

Fresh Diet Pink Lemonade

The weather has been ah-mazing here.  Upper 70s, lower 80s.  I love it.

With the warm temperatures, I've been craving some yummy, cold, refreshing drinks.  Like lemonade (the real stuff!)  Aldi's happened to have lemon's on sale for $.99 a bag!  Then, I rounded the corner and found the $.79 strawberries!  I snagged a few of each the other day and decided to make some pink lemonade this week. 

I don't know if I'm just a lousy searcher, and I don't use the right keywords when looking for things.  Or, if there truly wasn't a good, yummy, fresh homemade recipe for Strawberry Lemonade (that didn't include club soda or simple syrup) on Pinterest.  Either way, I searched and searched and couldn't find one.  So, I made my own.

The awesome part about this lemonade?  Its diet and it only cost me $1.92 (with tax!) to make the entire pitcher.

My Fresh Diet Pink Lemonade

Ingredients:
6 Lemons, room temperature
1 16 oz package of Strawberries (washed)
7 packets (or more to taste.  I like my lemonade kind of tart) of Stevia (though Splenda would work well, too)
1 cup of water (and about 1.5 quarts added at the end)
Ice
Sprig of mint

You'll need a lemon juicer and a knife to cut your lemons and strawberries

*Wash and cut your strawberries. 

*Put into your 2 quart drink container and set aside.  I mashed mine a little bit with my pampered chef mixing do-dad.  But, you can mash yours with a fork a little bit if you want.  

*Roll each lemon back and forth a few times before cutting it.  I read something somewhere (isn't that the way it always is?  I can never remember WHERE I read it.) that you get more juice from your lemon if you roll it before cutting and juicing it.  It seems to work well.

*Juice each lemon half.  (I absolutely LOVE my lemon juicer from Pampered Chef.) 

*Pour the lemon juice over the strawberries and let them sit together for a while.

*Meanwhile, heat your cup of water up per your method of choice. I  put mine in the microwave for about 1.5 minutes. 

*Stir in your packets of sweetener. 

*Pour water/sweetener mixture over strawberry and lemon juice combo.  Stir well.

*Add extra water and ice until you have 2 quarts of lemonade.

*Pour into your pretend-I'm-on-a-tropical-island-alone-glass, garnish with a lemon slice and a sprig of mint, that you took from your neighbor's herb garden, and enjoy. (You could even go further and do a little sugar on the rim of your glass if you wanted to be super fancy)

I did find that wasn't super pink the first day, but the second day it was a glorious color!  I'd recommend making it a day ahead to achieve a beautiful color pink.



It was so.stinking.yummy.  Normally E doesn't really care for my low-calorie re-dos.  However, even he raved over this, saying "its very refreshing!" 

There you have it.  Diet Pink Lemonade.  Yum!

Two recipes: a tried and true, and one that's new.

E's been coming home late the past few days. So, the kids and I decided to make a new popcorn recipe. It sounded great! Kettle corn with a Cinnamon twist. Yum!

(in case you are wondering what I made it in, I have a stove top popper. I have had this Whirley-pop for a while now, even though its been broken since I used it the first time. It was a gift, so I couldn't take it back to get a new one. )

We started with some Cinnamon, sugar, and salt.

with a touch of almost-four-year-old-little-boy love

put it all in my Whirley pop and gave it a go.

I was so excited to try this. It just sounded SO yummy! Unfortunately, I went to turn the handle and the top piece snapped off. It may not sound too vital, but that small turning plastic piece is what kept my Whirley pop whirling.

Here's the end result when said plastic piece snaps to pieces during cooking.

Not exactly what I envisioned. It doesn't taste good either. But, Orval to the rescue. I threw some microwave popcorn into the microwave, then threw the spice mixture on top. Its still pretty good, but I'm sure that it would've been better made the correct way. Especially with that homemade kettle corn.

My tried and true recipe went a little smoother. Blueberry cobbler is in the oven now!

On the ingredients list:

1 stick of melted butter

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of flour

1/2 c milk

1 tsp of baking soda

1 can of pie filling (we used fresh blueberries. about 3 cups)

1 cute little helper

Mix everything but the blueberries together. (this works best if a little boy does the mixing.)

Pour into a dish. Pour blueberries (or any fruit filling, really) on top.

Throw into a preheated oven at 375 degrees for 40 minutes.

Well, I think I hear my timer now. I'm off to check the progress of my yummy dessert.