Changes

You may have noticed I never did my Sunday's recipe. This is due to the fact that I've made the decision with help from a friend to move my blog to its own dedicated website on WordPress. I hope you'll like the change, I know I already do! This will give me a lot more freedom in the layout.

Please be patient while we make the change. It's still a work in progress, but feel free to take a gander of what it looks like so far. 

www.BellasSearch.com

Delay

Due to being really sick there won't be a recipe today. Sorry folks!

Uncle Earl's Pig

So, I have to give a disclaimer right off the bat: Rachel and indulged in slightly tipsy cooking. So not all of these pictures are as good as I usually attempt to make them. My fabulous and gorgeous friend Rachel came to visit me on my day off and to teach me how to make her "Uncle Earl's Pig". Apparently her mother had to beg him for the recipe for around 6 years, and he had to be married to his wife at the time for years until she shared the recipe with him. So you see, I have connections and got this recipe to share with you right now. It is dead simple! You wouldn't believe it! Or maybe you will and you'll follow these simple instructions to a delicious pork roast.

Most importantly you will need:

...a fabulous friend who will drink sparkling wine and eat cheese and crackers with you, because it makes everything better, even cooking. Featuring the gorgeous and fashionable Rachel!

OK, enough jokes, here are the ingredients you need, and it's only 3 different ones, and a kinda freebie.

Ingredients:
Pork Roast (We used a two pack)
Garlic (we used two heads, one for each roast)
3 Bottles of Liquid Smoke
(Some water)
[That's it, crazy, no?]

Get your roast out.

Now you want to peel all your garlic cloves. I'm not sure if I shared with you my mom's technique for easily peeling garlic cloves. Rachel shared it with me again, so we got it down pat.
First cut off both ends of the garlic clove.

When you have cut off both ends place your knife flat side on the clove. Now hit the knife to slightly smash the garlic. You'll see Rachel uses the heel of her hand, I use a fist.

Now you should be able to just slip the clove out. So don't smash it too hard and turn it into puree, just a little flatter.

Look at that cutie!

The garlic smell makes Rachel happy! The sparkling wine might be a factor too. ;)

Now that you have peeled all your cloves we will move on to stuffing them into the roast. If a clove is really big or wide you can cut it in half vertically.
Take your knife and stab a hole into your roast.

Stick your garlic clove into that hole!

Repeat the procedure until you have put all the garlic cloves from one head into your roast and distributed them relatively evenly.

Look at what a good job Rachel did.

Of course I had to do the other one. There's no just sitting and watching in my kitchen.

Then place the roast(s) into a dutch oven.

Pour all three bottles of liquid smoke on top of the roast into the dutch oven.

So, Rachel was a little tipsy and forgot that it's a good idea to add a cup or two of water so the roast stays more moist and the liquid doesn't bake to the bottom of the pot. So I'd definitively recommend adding some water or a bit of broth.

Place the lid on the pot and stick it in the oven for 3.5 hours at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

You can see most of the liquid evaporated because we failed to add water. This just formed a very flavorful slightly crunchy crust on the bottom of the roasts, so it was no biggie. They were delicious!

We served the roast with plain white rice, but you can really serve it with anything you'd like.
(Side note: Your house may smell like a bbq shack for a day or two after you make it, haha. But it is a very pleasant bbq smell.)

While we waited for the roast Rachel and played with makeup and she got to test out the set of makeup brushes I gave her for her birthday. Holla.
I actually got some new colourpop eyeshadows and lipstix in the mail that day, so of course I had to try some of the makeup right away.

I love all of their stuff. I'm also wearing one of their blushes.

We then convinced our friend Ryan to come over.

More wine!

And this is how you can tell I have the best friends and we are all so very comfortable with each other. It's nap time. Rachel pretty much always has a nap when she comes over. Ryan's just getting comfy.

Sleeping beauty! Nola guards the sleeping!

Ryan snagged the partner quilt I have with my friend Brandy. Brandy mailed me a ton of fabric and I made two matching ones with that fabric, so we each have one.

Cooking is always more fun if you're doing it for your friends. I am very grateful for the friends I have!


Quickie Summary:
Ingredients:
Pork Roast (We used a two pack)
Garlic (we used two heads, one for each roast)
3 Bottles of Liquid Smoke
(Some water, or broth)

Peel your garlic cloves.
Make slices on each roast and stick the garlic cloves into each slit.
Pour all three bottles of liquid smoke over the roasts into the pot.
Add a cup or two of water or broth.
Replace the lid onto the pot.
Bake at 350 Fahrenheit for around 3.5 hours.
Serve with rice, or any other side dish f your choosing. It has a bbq type flavor.

Stuffed Peppers

I am so insanely lucky I have such a kind and supportive husband! I don't know how I would have made it through this month without him! I have finished off my insane work stint and topped off at 30 days straight working without a day off. However I ended that stint with a night spent in the ER with agonizing back pain. That is also not a night I would have survived without my husband who was so caring and patient. So I got the following day off, and then went back to work before getting another day off during which I did absolutely nothing. However starting next week I will have two whole days off. I'll have regularly scheduled days off again and will have time to actually cook myself. So this should be about the last guest post recipe for a while. Today's recipe is also from my husband, and our adorable niece, Gabby, will make an appearance. Some of the photo credit also goes to my brother-in-law, Clint, who helped take pictures. I was gone for the entirety of this process, but am writing this up because my husband isn't terribly wordy. The pictures are a bit different than I would usually do them, but we'll make it work, eh?

Ingredients:
5 Bell Peppers (One per person - This makes enough filling for more than 5 bell peppers)
Ground Beef (1 lbs)
Rice
Canned Tomatoes (1 petite diced, 1 petite diced with Italian Seasoning, 1 petite diced with chilies; chose for your own preference. You may only need 2 cans, we had lots of extra filling)
Onion
Garlic
Salt & Pepper

Cut the top off your bell pepper and remove the core.

I.e. the white stuff and the seeds.

Par-boil the bottom half of your bell pepper, about 10 minutes.

Once they have been par-boiled and drained of water place them in a baking dish like my pyrex dish here.

You can now set these aside and get started on your filling.

You will need rice. You can either prepare rice in a rice cooker, or do it my way. I toss my rice into boiling water and let it cook like pasta for around 10 minutes, depending on which rice you use, and then drain it like you would drain pasta. Either way, cook about 1 - 1 1/2 cup's worth of dry rice with your preferred method.

While your rice is cooking you can saute your diced onion in a bit of oil or butter, then add in your ground beef and garlic, then season to taste with salt and pepper.

When your beef is browned all the way you can drain it in a colander.

Add in your cooked rice.

Get your canned tomatoes ready. You can see, my husband used different types of tomatoes.

You then add your canned tomatoes.

Mix this all well. The filling can be made ahead of time, which is what my husband did.

When you're ready to make your peppers preheat your oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Start stuffing your peppers. Featuring our niece, Gabby, helping out.

Just fill them up, so they are equally full.

Now go ahead and put the tops "lids" on and stick them into the oven for around 15 minutes, just enough time to heat everything thoroughly.

My husband then served them on a bed of salad in our individual casserole dishes.

Isn't he fancy?


Quickie Summary:

Ingredients:
5 Bell Peppers (One per person - This makes enough filling for more than 5 bell peppers)
Ground Beef (1 lbs)
Rice
Canned Tomatoes (1 petite diced, 1 petite diced with Italian Seasoning, 1 petite diced with chilies; chose for your own preference. You may only need 2 cans, we had lots of extra filling)
Onion
Garlic
Salt & Pepper

Cut the tops off your bell peppers.
Decore and deseed the peppers.
Parboil for approximately 10 minutes.
Set aside.

Cook 1 - 1 1/2 cups of rice.

Saute diced onions.
Add garlic.
Brown ground beef.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Drain meat.

Mix meat, rice, and canned tomatoes.

Stuff bell peppers, and place the tops back onto your bell peppers.
Bake for approximately 15 minutes, or until thoroughly heated through.

Serve.

Meatloaf

I never had meatloaf as a child since my mom really doesn't like ground beef at all. So one day I decided to experiment and make it myself. So I have no idea if this is traditional, but my husband and I like it, so, good enough. I made this awhile ago, but hadn't written it up yet. Since I've been insanely busy at work (My last day off was February 13th) I haven't really had much of a chance to do any cooking. My lovely husband is so kind and has been picking up a lot of my slack. Eventually things will calm down though. It has to! Right?
Anyway, here goes!

You will need:
Ground Beef (Lean is better if you're using a loaf pan, if you're using a roasting rack the fat drippings will collect in the bottom and you can use a higher fat content since it will drip off.)
Bread Crumbs
Milk
1-2 Eggs
Ketchup
Mustard
Italian Seasoning
Paprika
Cayenne Pepper
Salt and Pepper
(Not pictured today, but often I will cut up chunks of pepper jack cheese and mix them in)

And here are your wet ingredients:

Soy Sauce
Maggi if you can get it
Tabasco Sauce
Worcestershire Sauce


Here's my pro tip. You could totally mix all the ingredients together in a bowl like a peasant. ;) I however put all the ingredients in a big gallon sized bag, seal it, and then mix it by squeezing the outside around.

There, you've added the ground beef.

Next add the additional ingredients: about a cup of bread crumbs, two eggs, a couple of squirts of mustard, Italian seasoning, Cayenne, Paprika, Salt and Pepper.

Add a couple squirts of Worcestershire Sauce, Tabasco Sauce, Soy Sauce, and Maggi if you have it.

Now that you've squeezed out the air and sealed the bag, start squishing. Get it all really mixed up. (If you're adding cheese do it now.)

Now when it's all mixed up you can start getting it ready for the oven. You can see I will be putting it into loaf pans. However if you are adding cheese, I recommend shaping it into two little loaves and using roasting pans. The cheese will add a lot of extra fat/grease, so it'll drip down and away from the loaves.

If you're using loaf pans squish your meat mixture into them and smooth the top over.

Squeeze ketchup over the top, it'll become almost like a glaze. On the back one I also sprinkled some brown sugar. Obviously you can also experiment with whatever flavors you like.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about an hour. You can use a meat thermometer to check and see if they are ready.

Here you can see I served it with roasted potatoes and cucumber salad.

I hope you will enjoy this recipe and make yourself a delicious meal.


Hopefully when things settle down I will get to cook a lot more for fun and make funnier posts.

Charlie's Famous Potato Salad

As some of you may know I’ve been working like crazy and haven’t had a day off in who knows how long. So I haven’t really had any free time. However I don’t want to let you guys down either and not have a recipe to post. My wonderful husband agreed to cook one of his special dishes, so all I had to do was take the pictures and do the write up.

So, here goes: Potato Salad

You will need:
Potatoes
Eggs (6)
Celery
Pickles
Mayo
Salt and Pepper
Optionally: Paprika, Bell Peppers, Onions, Bacon, Cheese, etc

First things first, cook your potatoes. You want to have them firm enough to hold their shape and not disintegrate, but not so hard that they aren’t properly cooked. Once they’ve cooled you will want to chop them into cubes.

Hard boil your eggs.

Once they’ve cooled down enough to peel, do so.

Now that your eggs are cooled you want to chop them up as well. You can chop them up with a knife, use an egg cutter, or do what my husband does: He grabs my cooling rack and places it over a bowl.

Place the hard boiled egg on top of the rack.

Now gently press down while rolling the egg across the rack.

See how it’s being smushed into pieces?

Chop up your celery.

Chop up your pickles.

Now it’s time to start combining things. Get your bowl of cut up potatoes ready.

Toss in your celery.

Toss in your pickles.

Add your cut up eggs.

This is where you could add any of the optional additional ingredients, like bell pepper, bacon, etc.
Doesn’t this mix look like spring?

Now add a healthy glob of mayo. I’m not giving a specific amount as it’s best to do this to your individual taste. You can add more or less depending on how you like it.

Grind copious amounts of pepper onto the mix.

Add salt to taste.

Start mixing.

My husband then puts the whole salad into a clean bowl for nicer presentation. He also sprinkles paprika and pepper on top which gives it an almost fancy look. He was bemoaning the fact that we don’t have any fresh herbs in the garden so that he could have put a sprig on top of the salad for presentation.

I hope you enjoy your potato salad!

I never make it myself, because my husband is the master. Everyone always asks him for the recipe, and now we finally have it.