Happy New Year, GUSpositivepeoples!!! Welp, after a too long hiatus, I am finally back trying to get in the groove again. Perfect time to start thinking about quitting and/or working on quitting, maintaining quitting. No pressures. Just like I don’t need any pressure telling me I need to get back on the old diet/exercise programs. February will be my 5th anniversary. Yayyyyyy!!!!! I owe it all to Common Sense Mainer and my GUS buddies.
I still don’t have my act together with retrieving links and the buddy list but hope to get that together soon. In the meantime, here’s a few recipes.
On Boxing Day we celebrated Christmas with my opera buddy’s brother and sister in law. I love the sister in law because she is a kind heart and likes to talk cooking. Not so much the brother because he repeats his grievances from 50 years ago and had to tune him out. Dinner was quite easy even though elegant and expensive (opera buddy paid).
Crown Roast of Pork was the star and we bought 16 chops from an amazing butcher — The Lucky Goat. Odd name but here’s the story:
One of the biggest questions we receive is, "What's with the name?!" The simplest answer we can give is that Jim is the Lucky Goat. Two health scares in as many years have prompted him to swing for the fence, and with the support of his family, he decided to go for it. They say you only live once... and they are right!
Beautiful store and the family is completely gracious. They also have a fish section. Opera buddy bought cooked shrimp for shrimp cocktail. OMG!!!! The place is organic and we will be back again and again. I love local success stories and this place is definitely a success.
Crown Roast of Pork — NYT
Preheat oven to 400 degrees (then you will reduce to 350 degrees)
I think the fewest chops you can get for them to circle the pork is 12.
Fresh sage
Fresh parsley
Fresh or dried thyme
Olive oil
I didn’t give quantities because you just have to sort of go with your gut. I had a package of sage so used about ¾. Took the stems off. Threw in a handful of parsley. Used dried thyme — about a tablespoon.
Grind up in a mini-mincer or blender — I used a blender. Use a rubber spatula to push leaves down then slowly add olive oil and blend. I think I used about ¼ cup. Just keep checking — it should be a paste.
Salt and pepper the roast then hand rub in the herb mix — into the middle and around the sides. Let sit until roast is room temperature — about an hour.
Place roast in roasting pan upside down (chop bones on bottom) and cook at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and cook for 1 ½ hours to 2 hours depending on size of roast. Mine went 2 hours. Instant read or regular thermometer placed in meat between bones should read 145 degrees. Let rest 15 minutes then slice.
Do not put any dressing in roast as it will diminish moistness and extend cooking time.
Stuffing (also known as Dressing south of the Mason-Dixon line)
Ground pork (@ 1 pound) cooked, drained, set aside
¼ pound of butter, melted
chopped celery and onion cooked in butter
garlic if you want it (I used 4 cloves)
Fresh sage or make your life easier and use appropriate amount of Bell’s Seasoning
Pre-cubed bread — I stupidly used frigging Whole Foods something and it took me a chain saw to cut it. I used to be sane and use cheap white bread. Let it dry — cube day before or stick in oven to dry out.
Chicken broth — add for moisture — don’t soak.
Cook separately for 20 minutes covered then 10 minutes uncovered at 350 degrees. So can be put in with the roast.
Green Beans with Arugula and Clementines
This recipe called for haricots — right — I used regular green beans — cut the ends off and cut in half.
Steam the green beans until tender
Mix with Arugula and Clementine wedges
Toss with a vinegret. I had a brilliant fig and vanilla balsamic vinegar, and I do think balsamic works but so would a regular vinegar.
Can be served room temperature.
Even with giving 4 chops to the relatives to take home I had a bunch left over since we only ate one each at dinner. There’s only so many left over chops one can eat cold. Plus, opera buddy left for Chicago so I wasn’t about to lose excellent meat. Yep — I actually do have 10k pounds of dried beans. I soaked about a pound and a half of navy beans (any decent white bean will do) for Pork and White Bean Soup.
Pork and White Bean Soup
Soak how many ever beans you think you need overnight.
Cut up pork in chunks and use bones
2 cans of crushed tomatoes (I had one and used a can of whole plum — no problem)
one carton of chicken broth
herbs you like. I used parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme (Simon and Garfunkle mix)
Salt and pepper — I used hot pepper flakes
Next day I cooked the beans on low in the water for a few hours to soften. Then I threw everything else in and cooked for about 4-5 hours — adjusted seasonings. Put in the outdoor fridge (aka porch) then cooked again to make sure beans were soft then put in containers for the freezer. I’m stocking up for the winter.
Blessings to all. I can’t promise getting back in the saddle for Tuesday — baby steps.
Please take time to visit The Inoculation Project: Michigan Monarchs!