Beer Braised Pork Loin

Peter Brady succinctly expressed it with the shrug of his shoulders and upper lip curled against his teeth when uttered in a Humphrey Bogartish voice, "Porkchopsh and appleshauce." 

Somehow the combination of succulent pork and sweet juicy apples are perfect together.  

Pair that with a spiced Autumn ale and you got yourself a little slice of heaven right there!



Beer Braised Pork Loin

1 Tablespoon Bacon Fat
1 Pork Loin Roast, About 5 Pounds
3 Cups Chopped Sweet Onion
2 Granny Smith Apples, Peeled and Diced
1 Tablespoon Spicy Guinness Mustard
12 Ounces Woodstock Autumn Ale
3 Teaspoons Tony Chachere Creole Seasoning
1 Bay Leaf

Rub pork loin all over with Tony Chachere Creole Seasoning.  Brown pork loin roast in hot fat in a large Dutch oven or roasting pan.  

Sauté onions until they start to brown.  Add apples and continue to sauté until softened.  Stir in mustard.  

Return pork to pan or Dutch oven and pour beer over top.  Cover tightly with aluminum foil. Bake at 350° for 2 hours, or until pork is tender. 

Place pork loin on a serving platter and keep warm.

Place liquid with vegetables into a blender; cover and process at low speed until smooth. Or, press through sieve or process in food processor in batches.

Pour sauce into a saucepan and bring to a boil

Slice pork and serve with sauce ladled over top.  

Maple, Apple, and Cheddar Pie

I love cheddar cheese on my apple pie . . . it's a salty/sweet kind of thing.  This recipe bakes the cheddar right into the pie with a touch of maple syrup . . . served with a scoop of ice cream and you'll have it all goin' on!

Maple, Apple, and Cheddar Pie


1 Pie Crust
1 Tube Crescent Rolls
1/2 Cup Sugar
2 Tablespoons All-Purpose Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
4 Medium Cortland Apples
1 1/2 Cups Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese
1/4 Cup Maple Syrup
2 Tablespoons Maple Syrup 


Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. 

Place the pie crust into a 9-inch pie pan or plate and set aside.

Peel and thinly slice the apples; set aside..






In a large bowl, stir together sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt. Add apples; toss gently to coat. Add cheese and the 1/4 cup maple syrup; toss gently to combine. Transfer filling to pastry-lined pie pan.  

Trim pastry even with edge of pie pan. Place crescent roll triangle on the top leaving slit-sized gaps between triangles, you will have to trim them a bit so that they don't overlap to much.  

Fold crescent roll edge under bottom pastry. Crimp edge as desired.  Use crescent roll scraps to make a design on the top, if desired.

Cover the pie loosely with foil to prevent over browning.

Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes.  Transfer to a wire rack. Brush with the 2 tablespoons maple syrup. Cool for 1 hour. Serve slightly warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Caramelized Apple Cheesecake Parfait

Caramelized Apple Cheesecake Parfait

1 Pkg. (8 Oz.) Cream Cheese, Softened

3 Tbsp. Confectioners Sugar 

1 Tsp. Vanilla Extract

1 Recipe Caramelized Apples

1/4 Cup Butter

5 Graham Cracker Sheets

Whip together cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla in a bowl. 

Crush graham crackers in blender or food processor   Melt butter in a small pan. Mix in graham cracker crumbs until all crumbly.

In a wine glass, jelly jar or any other glass begin to layer your parfait.

Graham cracker/butter mixture, cream cheese mixture, then apples.  Repeat twice then sprinkle with graham cracker crumbs as a garnish.  

Gently tamp down the graham cracker layers to compact them.

You should get four parfaits from this recipe.  

Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Print recipe

Cranberry Apple Pork Loin Roast with Sour Cream Sauce

Cranberry Apple Pork Loin Roast with Sour Cream Sauce


1 (3 To 4 Lb) Boneless Pork Loin Roast
2 Cloves Garlic, Minced
1 Can Whole Cranberry Sauce
1/4 C Brown Sugar
1/2 C Apple Juice
2 Apples, Cored, Peeled And Coarsely Chopped
Salt And Pepper To Taste
1 Coup Sour Cream 


Place roast in slow cooker; rub all over with the minced garlic. 

Add remaining ingredients and cook on low for 7 to 9 hours. 

Pork should be about 160° when fully cooked.

Remove roast from crock pot and cover with foil.  

Mash the apples in the sauce with a hand masher or the back of a fork.

Remove a cup of sauce from the crockpot.  Allow to cool then mix in sour cream.  The mix the sour cream mixture in with the rest of the sauce.

Slice the roast and spoon sauce over slices.  Delish with rice.

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Apple Zucchini Crisp

Apple Zucchini Crisp

3 Cups of Granny Smith Apples 
1 Cup of Small Zucchini  
1 Tsp Granulated Sugar
3/4 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
1/2 CUp Flour
1/2 Cup Old-Fashioned Oats
1/3 Cup Softened Butter
1 1/2 Tsp. Melted Butter
1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon


Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease an 8" round or square pan. 

Peel and slice the apples and zucchini.




Combine melted butter, 1/4 tsp of the ground cinnamon, and regular sugar and mix with apple and zucchini slices. Pour into pan. 

In a separate bowl, combine brown sugar, flour, oats, softened butter and remaining cinnamon, until it's all crumbly. 

Top apple and zucchini slices. Don’t worry about covering every inch.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the crumble topping is golden brown and inside slices are tender when pierced with a fork. 

Print Recipe

Firewater Friday - The tower of power, too sweet to be sour, ohhhh yeahh!

Have you ever experienced what could best be described as a puckering of the salivary glands when you eat something?  The pain is right at the very back of the jaw where it hinges with the skull. It feels sort of like the glands going from zero to OMG-here-comes-a-lemon! in half a second.

This pain is usually comes on when the first bite of food hits your tongue and only lasts a couple of seconds.  Sometimes it happens when you smell a certain food or even when you do nothing more than think about it.  

It is commonly, but not necessarily, something sour that causes this reaction.   

This is what that is . . . when you eat something sour your mouth waters.  That is, saliva is being pumped into your mouth by the salivary glands. The parotids, two of your primary salivary glands, are located on your cheeks, near the jaw.  The pain is caused by the inability of the glands to discharge the saliva they are producing quickly enough.

Normally, this is a natural reaction to the foods you are eating.  However, it can also be caused by parotitis, which is a low level inflammation of the gland which most often requires no treatment. 

But I’m not a doctor . . . so what do I know?

Absolut® Orient Apple Vermont


OMG! good . . . very delicious . . . very dangerous!

2 Parts Absolut Orient Apple

1-2 Teaspoons Real Maple Syrup

2 Dashes Bitters

Garnish: Orange Zest

Pour ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice.  Stir and strain into a martini glass. 

The tower of power, too sweet to be sour, ohhhh yeahh!
Macho Man Randy Savage

Firewater Friday - Allow me to ladle you a piping hot bowl of . . .

If a meal is served to me 'piping hot' I know if I gobble it down with utter disregard for its extreme hotness I should do so with full knowledge that it's going to burn the taste-buds from my tongue and scald the flesh from the roof of my mouth.  

Piping hot . . . what does that mean anyway?  A reference to plumbing?  If you’re in the vicinity of a burst steam pipe, it will get your attention  . . . and, I promise, it will hurt.

Nope, that’s not it.  

Does it come from the Scottish tradition of ceremoniously serving food on special occasions accompanied by the playing of the bagpipes?  Certainly that food could be considered 'piped in'.

No, not even close.

What ‘piping hot’ refers to is the sound sizzling hot food makes as steam escapes from it . . . the sound is reminiscent of whistling teakettles and high-pitched musical pipes.

One of the first literary references was from the second of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales - The Miller’s Tale (1390)

Absalom in his attempt to woo Alison . . .

He sang as tremulously as nightingale;

He sent her sweetened wine and well-spiced ale

And waffles piping hot out of the fire . . . 

Now a pipe dream . . . that's a whole other thing. It, too, has nothing whatsoever to do with plumbing or musical Scots.  It has everything to do with pipes . . . opium pipes.

You puff on one of those suckers you'll have dreams like no other . . . pipe dreams, as it were.

Absolut® Orient Apple Breeze

2 Parts Absolut Orient Apple

2 Parts Cranberry Juice

1/2 Part Fresh Pink Grape Juice

Combine all ingredients and pour over rocks in a highball glass. 

Plop, plop, fizz, fizz; oh what a relief it is!

Oh, Alka-Seltzer . . . how do I love thee?  Let me count the ways.  It's good for what ails you . . . aches and pains?  headache?  upset stomach?  and at one time its ads even suggested taking it for "the blahs."  I'm jiggy wit dat!


The lemon-lime variation has a salty-sweet thing going on.  I'd drink it all day long if it wasn't for the whole overdosing-on-medication thing.


Seriously,  it's the best invention since cheesy-poofs.








Alka-Seltzer has been around since 1931 and is simply a combination of aspirin, sodium bicarbonate, and citric acid all compacted into a fizzy tablet.  drop into a glass of water and watch it go.  It's like magic!  But watch out because if you have the glass on top of a pile of papers the effervescence will effervesce all over your papers and make a mess.  Don't ask how I know this . . . but there's a reason that Speedy uses an umbrella in the commercial.

It's not only good at curing the icks, but it also can be used as an effective cleaner for your coffee pot, glassware and jewelry  . . . all those bubbles cut through grease and grime.  Don't mock me before you try it . . . it works!




Anyhoo . . . I'm not suggesting that anyone run out and buy this wonder of all wonders, because it's not necessarily good for everyone, I'm just saying that *I* like it.  


Ploppity, ploppity . . . fizzity, fizzity . . . 

Creamy Cabbage with Apples and Bacon

1 Teaspoon Olive Oil
6 Slices Bacon, Chopped
1 Large Onion, Chopped
Salt And Pepper To Taste
1 Tablespoon White Sugar 
2 Tablespoons Cider Vinegar
1 Head Green Cabbage, Cored And Chopped
2 Large Granny Smith Apples - Peeled, Cored and Thickly Sliced
1/2 Cup Chicken Stock, Or As Needed
1/2 Teaspoon Coriander Seeds
1 Pinch Nutmeg
1/2 Cup Sour Cream


Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large, heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven. Add the bacon and cook and stir until most of the fat is rendered, and the bacon is lightly browned but still slightly limp, about 5 minutes. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon to a small bowl; do not drain. Pour off any excess bacon fat in the pan, according to your taste.


Stir the onion into the pot, season with salt and pepper, and cook and stir over medium-high heat until onion is translucent. Sprinkle in the sugar, then stir in the vinegar-stand back or you'll get a nose full! Scrape up the delicious brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the cabbage, stirring well to combine.





Cook, uncovered, until cabbage is reduced and starts to soften, 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in apples, stock, and coriander seeds. Cover, reduce heat to medium low, and cook for at least 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add more stock as needed, and continue cooking until the cabbage is soft, but not falling apart.


Just before serving, remove the cover and stir in the bacon with its juices. Cook over medium-high heat until any remaining liquid is reduced to a syrup and the mixture is piping hot, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in nutmeg, and fold in the sour cream.

Squeezing the poop out of a buffalo nickel

It seems that if someone is really frugal they can squeeze the poop out of a buffalo nickel.  There are to save money or be more self sufficient without much effort.  

For example, my grandma used to save the butter/margarine wrappers to grease her pans.  You can also use them to separate hamburger patties, They won't stick to each other or themselves and can help keep things stacked together and taking up less space in your fridge or freeze.  It makes sense, if you think about it, and it takes no effort.  

She also used to save bacon grease for cooking . . . bacon seasoned cooking fat  . . . yummy, who doesn't like bacon!  I use bacon fat to make homemade soap . . . I freeze it until I have enough to make a batch of soap.  You can use any kind of filtered re-claimed fat or oil for the same purpose.  And, making soap is not only easy, it’s fun.

Canning and dehydrating are excellent ways to save money whether your garden or buy in bulk.  You can have a garden almost anywhere that you have some free space  . . . even if it just a container with tomato plants.  A well cared for tomato plant can yield 20 up to100 pounds of tomatoes in a season. That’s a lot of tomatoes.

Learning to cook from scratch is so satisfying.  It also saves money, tastes better and you know exactly what’s going into the food you eat.  Chances are you have all the ingredients you need in your cupboards right now to make a fresh hot loaf of bread or a batch of creamy ice cream.

__________________________

I came across an article from a 1901 edition of Good Housekeeping magazine that had been digitized and posted on the Internet.  It had some interesting ideas for using shredded wheat.  In time when people often didn't have bread, shredded wheat was often used and substituted in place of it.  I tried one of the recipes with good results.  I had to substitute some ingredients for things no longer available.  Give it a go . . . 

Shredded Wheat Biscuit Jellied Apple Sandwich

3 large apples

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

3 Shredded Wheat Biscuit

1 package Raspberry Jell-O

1 pint boiling water

Pare, core and slice apples, put in sauce pan with the 1/2 cup water and cook covered until tender, then add the sugar and place in a cool place until cold.

Split the biscuits lengthwise into halves and place into a narrow pan long enough to fit the biscuits side by side . . . I used a small bread pan.

Put a layer of the stewed apples between the halves.

Add the boiling water to the Jell-O and stir until dissolved.   Place the tops of the biscuits onto the apples and pour the Jell-O over top.

Put into refrigerator to set.  Serve with whipped cream.

Raspberries or other berries may also be used without cutting or crushing

The cow is of the bovine ilk; One end is moo, the other, milk.

Cow tipping began many years ago, when a young boy of the name of Tipper decided to make a cow more comfortable as it slept. Thinking that standing while sleeping was cruel and unusual, he set out one night to give the cow a rest. Tragically, Tipper fell into a thick cow pie as he tried making his way back to his warm bed. He ended up going to the hospital with a severe paranoia of cows. The next day, his family had a big steak dinner.

Cow tipping is the act of sneaking up on a sleeping cow and pushing it over for fun.  Think about the possibility of this being . . . well . . . possible; cows are slow, top-heavy, stupid, and sleep standing up.

It’s easy to assume that cows a few heifers short of a herd; after all, all they seem to do is eat, poo, breed, poo and moo. Whoa . . . slow down on the assumptions there Bessie . . . cows are actually quite aware of their surroundings, even if it seems as though their mulling over the vastness of the universe while endlessly chewing their cud.  That and the fact that the hang out in a herd . . . meaning many . . . so, if one cow happens to be clueless the others aren’t going to let you just walk up and push one of their buddies hoof over udder.

As far as that goes, if you try to knock over a cow by the mere force of your puny body the scales are tipped way in their favor. Have you ever seen a cow?  Been near a cow?  Cows are over five feet tall and weigh over a thousand pounds.  Uhm, that’s pretty darn big.

Cows are actually pretty fast and agile, too.  Have you ever watched a rodeo?  They can kick, jump, charge and send you flying with the toss of their head. And, guess what, they can run faster than the average tipper, too . . . up to 20 miles per hour.

Uh, by the way, cows don’t sleep standing up.  They may doze and chew, chew, chew but they sleep lying down just like you do.  Well, not exactly the way you do . . . 

Cows sleep lying with their front feet folded under and their back legs tucked under them, but so that one of their hips is resting on the ground.  Sometimes they’ll stretch out on their sides and sleep with their feet splayed out.  And, if they are particularly tuckered out, they snore.

Also, it’s an old wive’s tale that cows only lay down if it’s going to rain.  If that was true then it would rain every day twice a day, 365 days a year.  In fact, cows don’t give a moo if they get wet or not.  However, a cow will lay down if it’s tired and needs a nap.

So there it is . . .  cow tipping may sound funny and make for an amusing anecdote but it’s a pretty tough stunt to pull off.  Cow tipping probably originated from tipping drunken cowboys for a laugh.

________________

Cher’s Upside-down Apple Biscuits

To make the biscuit dough:

• 2 Cups Self-Rising Flour
• 1/4 Cup All-Vegetable Shortening, Butter Or Lard
• 1 1/2 Cup Buttermilk Or Whole Milk

Blend in buttermilk with fork just until the dough comes together. The dough will be looser than regular biscuit dough.

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees F.  Melt

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter

 in baking dish.  

Peel, core and thinly slice 

2 lb tart apples.  

Mix with 

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Pour apple mixture into the pan with the melted butter and pour the bicuit mix over top and spread evenly.  Drizzle 2 Tbsp melted butter over top.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 45-50 minutes or until apples are tender and crust is golden.

Let it cool slightly before slicing and serving.