Pork Tinga Tacos

I'm usually not a huge fan of many slowcooker recipes....I like the concept of dumping a bunch of ingredients into the slowcooker and coming come 8 hours later to a delicious meal, but I find that a lot of slowcooker recipes are just too mushy for me.  When I stumbled upon this pork taco recipe that came from Rick Bayless, I decided to give my slowcooker another shot.....I'm glad I did!

Being a slowcooker recipe, this is very quick and easy.  You should make this when you can find some avocados at a good price.....I can't believe how expensive they are some weeks!  At my grocery store this week, they are $2 each....what?!  I know they're not in season yet, but geez that's crazy.  When I made these tacos, I was lucky that I found avocados for $0.75 a piece at my local fruit and vegetable market. 

Just a warning - this recipe makes a ton of taco filling.....I immediately froze about half of it to use at a later date, and we still had more than enough for Kevin and I to eat for dinner that night plus leftovers another night.  It was very good and pretty healthy by my standards.

Ingredients:

1 lb. redskin or Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into 1/2″ cubes (I used 5 or 6 medium-sized yukon golds)
2 lbs. boneless pork shoulder, cut into 1″ pieces and seasoned generously with salt and pepper
1 (28 oz.) can diced tomatoes (preferably fire-roasted)
3-4 chipotles in adobo, chopped
1 Tbsp. adobo sauce (which is just the sauce that canned chipotles come in)
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. dried oregano (I used Italian seasoning instead)
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium white onion, sliced 1/4″ thick
1 1/2 tsp. salt

For serving-
4 oz. fresh Mexican chorizo sausage (optional, but recommended - I used 7 ounces)
24 warm corn tortillas (I like white corn tortillas with this recipe.....if non-fried corn tortillas are not your thing, I think flour tortillas would taste good with this recipe too)
1 cup crumbled Mexican queso fresco (or other fresh cheese, such as feta or goat cheese)
2 large avocados, diced (don't leave out....the avocado really adds a lot to these tacos!)
cilantro, chopped

Directions:

Spread the potatoes over the bottom of a slowcooker and top with the pork.

In a large bowl, mix the (undrained) tomatoes with the chipotles, adobo sauce, Worcestershire, oregano or Italian seasoning, garlic, onion, and about 1.5 tsp. salt. Pour the mixture evenly over the meat and potatoes.

Cover and slowcook on high for 6 hours or low for 8-10 hours.

When you’re ready to eat, fry the optional chorizo and then stir everything together, breaking the pork into smaller pieces. Taste and season with additional salt if necessary.

Serve with warm tortillas, cheese, cilantro, and avocados for making soft tacos.

Source:  Smells Like Home Blog, Originally from Mexican Everyday by Rick Bayless

Island Spice Pork Tenderloin

Before trying this recipe, my opinion on pork tenderloin was, ehhh.....it's okay.  This recipe totally changed my outlook...this is now by far by new favorite pork tenderloin recipe!  The sweet and spicy combination of the rub and glaze add an amazing flavor to the pork. 

This is casual and easy enough for a weeknight meal at home, but it's also impressive and tasty enough to serve to company.  This one's a keeper (and I've made it several times)!  I know that the USDA says to cook pork to 160 degrees, but don't believe them....They also say to cook steak to 145 degrees which is a sin (medium-rare is around 130 degrees)!  By serving your pork tenderloin at around 150ish (pork is actually safe once it reaches 137), you will ensure that you have a juicy flavorful meat instead of a dried out tenderloin.

Ingredients:

For the spice rub:
2 tsp. kosher salt (I used coarse sea salt)
½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 pork tenderloins, about 2-2½ lbs. total (I just made 1 pork tenderloin that was a little less than 2 lbs.)
2 tbsp. olive oil

For the glaze:
½ cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tbsp. (2-3 cloves) finely minced garlic
1½ tsp. Tabasco sauce (Sriracha sauce would also be good here!)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Stir together the spice rub ingredients in a small bowl.  Rub the mixture over the pork tenderloin.

Heat the olive oil in an ovenproof 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat.  Place the tenderloin in the skillet and brown on all sides, turning occasionally, about 4 minutes total.  Remove from the heat, leaving the pork in the skillet.

Stir together the brown sugar, garlic and Tabasco in a small bowl until blended.  Spread the mixture evenly over the tops of the tenderloin.

Place the skillet in the preheated oven and roast about 20 -30 minutes (depending on the size of your tenderloin) or until an instant-read themometer inserted in the center of each tenderloin registers 145˚ F. Loosely tent the skillet with foil and let stand 10 minutes before slicing and serving (After letting the pork tenderloin rest, mine was right over 150 degrees which was perfect...Don't cook your pork tenderloin to 180 like they told you to do in the old days or it will be dried out!).

I served this island spice pork tenderloin with mashed potatoes and a spinach apple salad.  What a great meal!

Source:  Found on Annie's Eats, Originally from The Gourmet Cookbook

Pigs in a Blanket

I have always loved pigs in a blanket.  They're perfect bite-sized snacks, and they're super simple to make.  I made this for lunch on a Saturday, and they really hit the spot.  This isn't really a recipe, but here's how I make them:

Ingredients:

16 little smokies (I always buy the small package)

1 tube of pillsbury refrigerated crescents

2-3 slices of cheddar cheese (or any cheese works good)

ketchup, for dipping

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Cut each crescent triangle in half (you can also cut into thirds if you want less bread around each mini hot dog).  Place a small piece of cheese and a sausage on each crescent half and roll up.

Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Pork & Shrimp Egg Rolls

To go along with the orange chicken that I made for dinner, I decided to make some homemade egg rolls.  I've been wanting to make homemade egg rolls for awhile because the frozen kind just doesn't cut it for me.  Kevin loves egg rolls so I decided to go ahead and give it a try.

These turned out great!  I will say that it did take me quite a bit of time to make these since you have to roll up each invidual egg roll, (we ended up not eating dinner that night until 9ish instead of 8 like I had planned) but if you have the time it's worth it.  I think my first time making egg rolls was a success.  My only advice is to buy extra egg roll wrappers if you have never made egg rolls before because I tore quite a few of them in the beginning.  It took me awhile to get the rolling down (and you have to be very gentle otherwise the wrappers will tear open), but eventually I got the hang of it. 

I got this recipe from allrecipes.com, and it ended up making about 30ish big egg rolls so I fried up 8 and froze the rest for later (which I would suggest doing - this recipe is definitely a process so you want to make a bunch while you're doing the work so that you can eat these over several meals).

Ingredients:

1 (16 ounce) package wonton wrappers (I bought 2 packages of big eggroll wrappers.....each had 21 wrappers so I definitely needed 2 or else I would have had extra filling)

1 pound lean ground beef (I used ground pork instead)
1 pound shrimp - peeled, deveined and coarsely chopped
5 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 pound bean sprouts
2 green onions
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 medium head cabbage, finely shredded (I just bought a bag of coleslaw mix to make it easier)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon MSG (I omitted, but I seasoned the filling with salt & pepper)
1 cup vegetable oil
Sweet and Sour Sauce, for serving

Directions:

1.  Place cabbage, bean sprouts, celery, and green onions in a large wok and stir fry over a high heat until vegetables cook down. Mix in shrimp, stir fry until cooked (I actually cooked the shrimp seperately to make sure I didn't overcook them.  Then I added into the mixture at the same time as the ground pork).

2.  In a large skillet, brown ground pork. Drain grease and add the meat to the vegetable and shrimp mixture. Continue to fry over a high heat; add oyster sauce, soy sauce, garlic, and salt & pepper. When well blended, remove mixture from heat.

3.  Place a tablespoon of the meat and seafood mixture (or more, depending on how large your egg roll wrappers are) into the center of each egg roll wrapper. Fold the wonton skin over to make a package of the meat mixture inside, and seal the skin closed by dipping your finger in a little water and pressing the ends together (the back of the egg roll wrapper package had instructions for how to roll the egg rolls up).  If you are freezing some of the eggrolls, freeze them on a baking sheet at this time and then move to a ziploc bag once they are frozen.

4.  Fry the wontons in 1/4 inch of vegetable oil until golden brown (if you are frying up the frozen ones, just go ahead and fry them from frozen and just fry a few extra minutes).  Serve with sweet and sour sauce.