Gardening Update

Casa de Montecalvo is still under the weather. So we haven't been experimenting with new dishes. We have been trying to keep up with healthy dinners.

We did a lemon herb chicken with corn and herb fried potatoes on Monday.

We had meatloaf on Tuesday with carrots in a garlic butter sauce. It wasn't very neat looking, and I forgot to take a picture therefore there's no picture here. The meatloaf, however, was a great freezer meal.

Tonight we had an Asian flavored chicken with rice and broccoli. I used a slim down version of the Asian marinade we talked about here. 

Even though we've been sick, our plants are doing pretty well. We have some peppers growing and some parsley:

Anyone know what type of peppers those are? They are pretty darn hot. They take a lot of abuse, but they are growing so well. The basil, however, we learned is not as drought proof as its cohorts:

I love the idea of using fresh from my garden ingredients. I've been bugging Marc for months to build a box for me to grow some veggies in. I guess we'll have to make sure that we attempt to harvest some drought proof foods. :)

Do you garden? Any tips?

Spiced Pork Roast with Pomegranate Sauce

Sometimes I like to pretend I'm on  Iron Chef America, especially when I have an ingredient I don't know what to do with. I cheat though, a lot. I don't give points for presentation and I usually look up a recipe first which nullifies the originality points. There was a pork roast in the fridge. I pulled out my Epicurious App for the iPhone and enter, "Pork" + "Dinner" + "Healthy" + "Main Course," and it provided me with the recipe for dinner tonight.

There were only 18 results, and one of them called for pomegranate juice. It just so happens that we had a bottle of it in the fridge...and we hate it! This killed two birds with one stone - 1) use the pork tenderloin, 2) get rid of, but not waste, the juice in the fridge. Huzzah!

Ingredients

Ground Cumin

Ground Cinnamon

Black Pepper

Salt

Pork Tenderloin (ours was approx. 1 pound)

Olive Oil

1 Cup pomegranate juice

3/4 teaspoon corn starch

1 Tablespoon water

1 Tablespoon unsalted butter

Procedure

1. Mix together cumin, pepper, salt and cinammon

2. Pat tenderloin dry

3. Cover tenderloin in spices

4. Heat olive oil in skillet over moderate heat (don't let it start to smoke)

5. Cook pork turning occasionally (we turned it every 3 minutes or so)

6. Remove from heat when internal temp reaches 145 degrees F

7. Allow to rest before slicing

For the Sauce

1. Pour and discard any fat from the skillet used to cook the pork

2. Pour in pomegranate juice and boil on high heat (approx 3 minutes, or until you reduce to 2/3 cup)

3. Mix corn starch and water in a separate dish

4. Pour into juice and continue boiling until it thickens (1-2) minutes.

5. Remove from heat and swirl in butter

6. Run sauce through a mesh sieve and skim off any fat (we didn't have any)

Pictures!

The spice team

Mmmm dinner!

Spices on the pork

Team: Sauce

Letting the meat rest with its aluminum foil tent

Making the sauce

Straining

The importance of straining

Plated!

As you can see we strained into a measuring cup. This made it super easy to pour the sauce over the meat. We also added some salt to the sauce and it helped temper some of the tartness of the pomegranates. 

I served this with brown rice because I really didn't know what to serve with it. We didn't have a veggie because I was at a total loss of what would go with it. Marc's main complaint was, "I wish I had a veggie with it," and I have to concur with him. I'm still not sure what I would have put with it - carrots maybe? 

Overall the dish was pretty tasty. The jury is still out on whether to make it again or not, and if so would there be any changes. I am, however, thoroughly enjoying trying out new things and breaking out of the rut we were in for our dinner routine.

What ingredients perplex you? What do you use to find new things to make?

Blackened Chicken with Guacamole

Marc came home one night and proudly declared that he was going to make a co-worker's guacamole. He did in fact make it that night, but then we needed to figure out what to do with it. The power of Google kindly proudly sputtered out a recipe to help with this issue. Therefore, I present to you, the long awaited Blackened Chicken and Guacamole recipe:

Ingredients:

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

1 Lime

2 Hass Avocados

1 tomato

1 Jalapeno Pepper (2 dependent on heat preference)

1 Small Red Onion

¼ cup cilantro

Butter (¼ cup approximately)

Spice Rub:

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon paprika

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon dried thyme

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

½ teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon oregano

Procedure:

Guacamole:

1.Mix a heavy pinch of salt, a heavy pinch of pepper (black or white), a pinch of ground cumin and the juice of the lime together in a mixing bowl

2.Stir until well mixed

3.Halve the avocados and remove pit

4.Spoon contents out of the avocados and discard skins

5.Dice tomato into ¼ inch pieces discarding seeds, juice and innards of the tomato

6.Add to bowl

7.Dice jalapeno pepper removing seeds and veins

8.Add to bowl

9.Roughly chop the cilantro and add to bowl

10.Finely dice red onion

11.Add to bowl

12.With a fork or potato masher mix the ingredients together and mash to preferred consistency

(We recommend smooth with some chunks)

13.Refrigerate approximately 15-25 minutes 

Chicken:

1.Pre-heat grill (I usually only turn on three of the burners for something like this)

2.Melt butter

3.Brush chicken with melted butter

4.Coat chicken breasts in seasoning

5.Repeat for both sides

6.Grill for 8-10 minutes, turning halfway through

7.Add extra seasonings during the grilling process if necessary or desire (remember seasoning may fall off when you're moving the chicken around pre-grilling)

8.Allow to rest for 2-3 minutes

Pictures:

^Spices

^Getting the chicken ready

^My Grill set up. We don't have a working light on the patio, so I set up the little blue desk lamp instead.

^Grilled chicken with guacamole and white rice.

A shout out to Marc's co-worker, Stephen, for the guacamole recipe. This meal was sooo good and so easy to make. I was surprised at how well it all came together. We paired it with some white rice, which was nothing fancy...just stuff from the bag. It was definitely nice to have something and flavorful for dinner.

Hello Autumn

How do you know that autumn has arrived in Florida? Because the grocery store has different types of squash and pumpkins and orangey-yellow flowers. It was a pleasant surprise when I walked in after work today to grab something for dinner.

Being the slackers we can be we haven't meal planned this week at all. (Go us, right?) We had our normal cheat day on Tuesday, so today I swung by the grocery mart.

Marriage is about compromise. We were told this by everyone we met that has been married, and during the readings at our wedding. Food for us is no different. I love roast beef. I'm not super picky about which part of the moo cow I'm roasting, it just better be red on the inside. Marc, however, is not a fan. But since I went grocery shopping and cooked, he didn't get a choice (much like the lasagna night).

Therefore I present tonight, my super simple, super tasty (in my opinion) roast beef.

Homemade Roast  Beef

Ingredients:
Beef Roast
Onion Powder
Garlic Powder
Oregano
Salt
Pepper

Procedure:

1. Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees
2. Remove any excess fat from roast beef.
3. Generously cover with the above spices
4. Place meat thermometer in center of roast
5. Roast until meat reaches 145 degrees (for medium rare)
6. Remove roast from oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes
7. Slice however you wish and eat!


It took approximately an hour and a half to two hours to cook at approximately 4 inches tall. I made baked potatoes to go with it. Just washed the potatoes, wrapped them in aluminum foil with some butter and popped them straight on the rake. They cooked for the same amount of time as the meat. I love side dishes that are auto-done with the main dish. So much easier that way.

The leftovers will not make it to another night. I'm going to turn them into sandwiches for lunch tomorrow. :)