As a result, you get the more popularly known Taco Tuesday.
Stuart picked out this recipe off of foodgawker to have on one of our Mexican Mondays, but I altered it by taking advantage of my slow cooker and using pork instead as it was on sale and chicken was not.
On this particular Monday we both had a long day at the office (due to the fact that we carpool), so the decision to use the slow cooker was even more clutch! And because we got home late and were very hungry, photos were not taken. I did think enough to snap a photo with the trusty iPhone. Please accept my apologies for the sorry photograph.
Chipotle Pulled Pork Tacos
Ingredients:
2 lb boneless pork roast
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes
3 chipotle peppers in adobo, chopped
lime
Steps:
Place pork in slow cooker, fat side up. Trim some of the fat if desired.
Top pork with onions, garlic, tomatoes, and chipotle peppers.
Cook on LOW 4-5 hours.
Shred the pork and return to the sauce and squeeze with the lime. Keep warm until ready to assemble tacos.
This month’s Crazy Ingredient Challenge reveal day falls on Easter so our host Dawn of Spatulas on Parade picked the ever popular Easter candy Peeps to be paired up with Lemons!
But back to April’s CIC post. The biggest challenge with this month was using an already finished product.
Leave it to the preggo to come up with a cocktail! (Please don’t call child services, but I did taste a sip so I could validate that the recipe works!) I present to you the perfect cocktail for your Easter Sunday – Marshmallow Peeps Lemon Drop Martini. This is definitely what adults want in their Easter basket. If we can’t hunt for eggs, then we might as well sip on something fun!
Marshmallow Peeps Lemon Drop Martini
Ingredients:
3 yellow peeps (any color will do, but a yellow lemon cocktail looks best)
3/4 C vodka
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C water
3/4 C lemon juice
sprinkles (optional)
Steps:
In a jar soak peeps in vodka for at least 4 days. Remove Peeps from vodka (strain if they’ve fallen apart).
In a small saucepan dissolve sugar in water over medium-high heat. Allow to cool.
Place sprinkles on a flat plate. Run a slice of lemon along the rim of the martini glass and gently twist the glass in the sprinkles.
In a cocktail shaker with ice combine equal parts lemon juice, simple syrup, and Peeps vodka. Pour into martini glasses.
To see the other bloggers who participated in this month’s Crazy Ingredient Challenge click on the link below.
This is my second month as a member of #BundtBakers. #BundtBakers is a group of bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bundts with a common ingredient or theme. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme or ingredient. This month’s theme is Easter and our lovely host is Tara from Noshing with the Nolands.
My first bundt was one of my grandmother’s recipes. This month’s bundt is as well.
With a theme of Easter there wasn’t any question in my mind as to what I would make. Busia would always make her pound cake and bake it in a Lamb or Chick cake mold and it would always be decorated with jelly beans. My mom has the chick cake mold but unfortunately we haven’t been able to find the lamb. I might just have to order a Spring Lamb 3-D Cake Mold off of Amazon. The first year I made this recipe we were having a group of friends over for Easter and I thought it’d be fun to serve cupcakes, and I decorated them with jelly beans to create a cute spring landscape.
2011 Easter Cupcake Landscape
As I think is the norm for pound cake I made the recipe in a loaf pan. But I always had problems with the top cracking, and I have issues when it comes to frosting cakes so it was never pretty.
2012 Easter Pound Cake
Given that this blogging group is called #BundtBakers, this year I used my bundt pan to make my most beautiful Easter cake yet! Because the top of the cake becomes the bottom of the cake I didn’t need to worry about frosting uneven cake. The mold of the cake pan created a beautiful smooth surface that even my novice frosting abilities could handle. I decorated the cake in “Easter egg” style striping with jelly beans.
2014 Easter Bundt
Easter Pound Cake
Ingredients:
5 eggs, at room temperature
2 sticks butter, at room temperature
1 2/3 C sugar
1 tbsp lemon extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 C cake flour
1/2 tsp salt
Steps:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease cake pan.
In the bowl of a stand mixer beat eggs and butter until smooth. Add in eggs one at a time until incorporated. Add in the sugar. Once combined add the lemon and almond extracts. Add the salt and flour in batches until batter is smooth. Pour into greased cake pan and bake 50-55 minutes, until a knife comes out clean.
Allow cake to cool before frosting with cream cheese frosting. (Recipe below)
Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:
5 tbsp butter, at room temperature
5 tbsp cream cheese, at room temperature
3 – 3 1/2 C powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
milk, as needed
Steps:
In the bowl of a stand mixer beat together butter and cream cheese until combined.
Add sugar a few tablespoons at a time. Also, add vanilla 1/2 tsp at at time. Once all vanilla and 3 C of sugar have been added taste the frosting. Add more sugar to taste. Only add milk if needed to balance flavors or smooth out the icing. (I used very little more than 3 C of sugar and needed no milk.)
If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, send an email to Stacy at foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com or ask to join our private Facebook group. This is a purely administrative group. All recipes and photographs can be found on our individual blogs or on our Pinterest board.
And don’t forget to take a peek at what other talented bakers have baked this month:
I thought it only fitting to cook the last recipe in the book!
This last entry references Deuteronomy 33:28 “And Israel shall dwell securely alone, Jacob’s blessing, in a land of grain and wine, and the heavens with drip dew.”
Rena titled this Bible study section “A Return to Eden” because it is up to the new residents of Israel to “restore [it] to its original Eden status.” The people are expected to bless the land, rather than the land bless them.
Easter Sunday marks the end of Lent, but that doesn’t mean a halt has to be put on your spiritual education until next year. Continue to live your life so that it blesses those around you.
As much as I would have liked to keep Rena’s recipe true to itself (Red Wine and Barley Salad) for this final blog post, I am allergic to barley so I substituted Israeli Couscous. Publix was out of red bell pepper so I bought a green one (I love the pop of color it brings to the salad though). After changing a few things I then changed even more to suit my personal preferences – I omitted the almonds, feta, and grapes. Having tasted the salad, grapes would be delicious in here – but the grapes in my fridge were questionable and thought it safest to leave them out. I absolutely love the dressing she created and actually tripled it to use as a marinade for grilled chicken to serve along side the couscous.
This recipe would be fantastic to add to your next potluck picnic as an alternate pasta salad!
1 tbsp parsley paste (use fresh parsley if you have it)
Steps:
Bring water to a boil. Add in the couscous and cook covered over low heat for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until all water is absorbed.
In a bowl combine couscous with onion, pepper, and tomatoes.
In a small bowl whisk together olive oil, vinegar, mustard, and parsley paste. Note: If you are using fresh parsley do not mix it with the dressing. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
I’ve been wanting to try using the honey we brought back from Hawaii and after a trip to the Marietta Square farmer’s market in Atlanta where we inhaled Angel Pecans from Ye Olde Christmas and Candy Shoppe I knew that roasted nuts in honey would be a great way to utilize the Hawaiian honey. But first, I needed to do test runs with cheaper products.
National Pecan Day was an excellent excuse to try it out. I already had pecans in the pantry and my friend Tara of Tara’s Multicultural Table gave us vanilla bean infused honey for Christmas. I happily used that, roasted the pecans in the oven, and tossed with a little powdered sugar.
Vanilla Honey Roasted Pecans
Ingredients:
1/3 C vanilla bean infused honey
1 1/2 C pecan halves
1/8 – 1/4 C powdered sugar
Steps:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place honey in a microwave safe dish and microwave for 20 seconds.
Toss pecans in honey. Place pecans in a single layer on a greased baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, stirring halfway through.
Remove pecans from baking sheet and allow to cool in a single layer. Toss in powdered sugar, to taste.
I saw that Rena had a recipe for Trail Mix to accompany her study of Numbers 33:1-2 during which the journey from Egypt to Israel is detailed.
Today, Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday, marks the start of Holy Week in the Catholic Church. On Palm Sunday we celebrate Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem the week before his crucifixion. According to the Bible He was greeted by crowds placing palm branches along his path.
I thought that her Trail Mix would be a fun way to prepare for the journey of holy week ahead. During this week we celebrate Holy Thursday, the Last Supper, Good Friday, the Crucifixion of the Lord, and of course Easter Sunday, the day Jesus rose from the dead.
This week is also the last to survive without chocolate, or whatever other vice you gave up for Lent. So, make a healthy snack and power through!
Instead of Rena’s trail mix I made these Cinnamon Raisin Energy Balls – a healthier way to get your sweet tooth fix and a natural boost of energy.
If you are looking for a comforting side dish look no further. The perfect potato side dish made it’s way into my inbox on March 20th via Food Network’s Recipe of the Day email.
It’s rare when the Recipe of the Day is one that perfectly fits my menu or pantry items but this one arrived just in time to use up the bag of potatoes that were starting to get questionable.
And I got to break out the mandolin I got for Christmas! While I peeled potatoes Stuart slice away – he loved how quick and easy it was.
Scalloped Potatoes
Ingredients:
2 1/2 lb red potatoes
2 C half-and-half
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 clove garlic, smashed
2 tbsp unsalted butter
black pepper, to taste
Steps:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8×8″ casserole dish.
Peel and slice potatoes to 1/8″ thick slices. This is easily done with a mandolin but if you don’t have one slice as thinly as you can.
In a large pot combine potatoes with the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to medium. Cook, stirring, until mixture has thickened.
Pull out the garlic clove and pour into prepared casserole dish. Give it a shake so the potatoes settle evenly.
Bake for 1 hour until bubbly and golden on top. Allow to rest for 10 minutes before cutting into it – if you don’t it’ll still taste fabulous but won’t look as beautiful.
Tonight’s recipe and accompanying bible verse come from The Book of Deuteronomy.
It is a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity – where you will not lack for anything; a land whose stones are iron, and from whose mountains you will quarry copper. Deuteronomy 8:9
Rena references the Babylonian Talmud during her bible study. It suggests that the reference to “stones of iron” is a metaphor for those who will build the land. According to the Talmud “any scholar who is not as tough as iron is not a scholar.” Those building Israel are its scholars – requiring a strong will and a strong faith.
It is important to remember during the journey of Lent to be “tough as iron” in keeping your Lenten promise, in resisting temptation, and in enriching your belief.
To accompany a verse on iron, Rena created a black bean soup as black beans are rich in iron. I halved her recipe as I only need to feed two of us. If you want to make this a completely vegetarian one-pot dinner simply substitute vegetable stock in place of the chicken stock. Rena suggests pureeing the soup to a desired consistency, I omitted this step.
Black Bean Soup
Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tbsp cumin
1 can (15 oz) black beans, undrained
1 can (15 oz) stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 1/4 C chicken broth
Steps:
In a pot saute onion and garlic in olive oil over medium-high heat. Season with salt, pepper, and cumin. Cook until onion is tender. Add beans, tomatoes, and broth. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer for 30 minutes.
Serve with crusty bread. And provide shredded cheddar cheese and sour cream for topping, if desired.
As promised I have another April Food Network Magazine recipe.
The first Monday in April kicks of National Baking week. And April 7th is National Coffee Cake Day. Two birds, one stone.
In every edition of their magazine, Food Network features a “Mix & Match” concept. Whether it’s a cake, bread, pasta, or something else. I really like this concept as they provide for you the basics of a recipe but allow you to be the mastermind behind which flavors you want to combine. It’s a great way for new recipe makers to learn how to adapt recipes to suit your tastes while still having the “science” at hand.
This month: Coffee Cake. I opted to use cocoa powder and oats in my topping and chocolate-hazelnut spread as my filling. I did contemplate making a raspberry coffee cake instead – and I just might! But when I flipped through this page it was Nutella that was on my mind – so that’s what I went with. But while making it my sweet tooth started putting up a fight, requesting raspberry instead. Too bad sweet tooth, you lost the battle to my pantry items. And while I write up this post my stomach is growling waiting for the cake to come out of the oven. Let me tell you, it smells fantastic – the cinnamon in the topping mixed with the chocolatey filling… is my hour up yet? (for the record there are 10 minutes remaining – I just hope it’s really ready!)
Nutella Coffee Cake
Ingredients for topping:
3/4 C flour
2/3 C brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
5 tbsp butter, at room temperature
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 C rolled oats
Ingredients for cake:
2 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick butter, at room temperature
1 C sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 C yogurt (original recipe called for sour cream, but I didn’t have any)
8-10 tbsp chocolate-hazelnut spread
Steps:
Make the topping: whisk together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Using your fingers, break the butter into small pieces and combine with the topping. After combined add the cocoa powder and oats. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8×8″ square cake pan with foil and grease.
Make the cake: In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In a the bowl of a stand mixer beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Add in the vanilla.
Incorporate a third of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Once combined add 1/2 C of yogurt/sour cream. Add another third of the dry ingredients. Once combined add the last 1/2 C of yogurt/sour cream. Add in the final third of the dry ingredients.
Assemble the cake: Place half of the cake batter in the prepared cake pan. Spread the chocolate-hazelnut spread and top with remaining batter. Top the cake with the topping from step 1. (Note: I did not use all of the topping.)
Bake for 1 hour, or until a knife comes out cleanly.
Allow cake to cook for 5 minutes and remove the cake from the pan by the foil. Serve your cake with some fresh fruit and a cup of coffee!
Now that my cake is out of the oven I might suggest using a 9×9″ cake pan instead. My personal opinion – the cake was too tall. With a shorter slice of cake you could eat a bite with both topping and filling. Additionally, with a larger cake pan size I would have used more of the topping!
Stuart declared this better than any coffee cake you can buy at the grocery store bakery and now expects it every weekend. (Yea, good luck with that!)
And the house of Israel named it manna, and it was like a white coriander seed, and its taste was like a wafer of honey. Exodus 16:31
Manna was a gift from heaven, but it required some work to turn it into something edible. The Torah provided instructions regarding how much manna could be gathered per person per day. Including the limitation that manna could not be kept overnight. This means that you could only gather what was needed for a day.
I think this is where “…Give us this day our daily bread…” comes from in the Our Father prayer. In this prayer we are asking the Lord for only that which we need. We must remember that “this day” refers only to our time on Earth. After reaching the afterlife we won’t need Earthly sustenance.
Honey Coriander Manna Bread
Ingredients:
1 C warm water
pinch of sugar
1 tbsp active dry yeast
1 egg
1/2 C honey
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 stick butter, melted
1 C whole wheat flour
3-4 C all-purpose flour
Steps:
Combine water, sugar, and yeast. Allow to sit 5 minutes.
In the bowl of a stand mixer combine egg, honey, spices, salt, and butter. Add in the yeast mixture.
Stir in flours 1 C at a time.
Using the dough hook of stand mixer knead the dough until smooth.
Transfer dough to a large greased bowl. Cover and let rise 2 hours, or until doubled in size.
Punch down the dough and divide in half. Knead each loaf again and place in separate loaf pans, or on baking sheets. Cover and let rise 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
Sew You Think You Can Cook 