Pulled Pork Enchiladas

This morning, I suggested enchiladas for dinner sometime and tonight I came home to the smell of pork slow-cooking in the crock pot. Gail found a nice center-cut pork roast, which pulled apart easily after eight hours of cooking. Just before rolling them into the tortilla shells I got the most delicious nibble.  The recipe is from food.com with very little modification.

Pulled Pork Enchiladas
Makes 12

3 lb boneless pork roast
1 oz dry onion soup mix
1 ½ c salsa
4 oz diced green chilies
½ c sour cream
3 oz sliced black olives
10 oz enchilada sauce, red or green
2 c shredded Mexican blend cheese
12 small whole wheat tortillas

1. In morning or day before, place pork roast in crock pot. Cover with onion soup mix and ⅔ of salsa; cook on low 8 hr or until meat easily pulls apart with fork. Shred pork with 2 big forks; drain excess liquid, reserving if desired.
2. Drain chilis, reserving liquid if desired. Preheat oven to 350 F.
3. In large bowl mix shredded pork with drained chilis, sour cream, remaining salsa and half of olives.
4. Using 3 large plates: pour enchilada sauce on one, shredded cheese on another, leaving third empty. For each enchilada: Dip tortilla in sauce to cover one side, place sauce-side-up on empty plate. Fill with meat mixture; top with shredded cheese. Roll; place in baking dish.
5. Pour remaining enchilada sauce and shredded cheese over top; bake 1 hr until browned and bubbly.
6. Garnish with remaining black olives; pass extra salsa and sour cream at table if desired.

Variations:

• Add 1 T chili-garlic sauce to meat mix before rolling enchiladas.
• Garnish with diced green onion.
• Combine reserved liquid from crock pot and canned chilis; pour over enchiladas before baking.

Maine Beer Company Zoe

Hops can add three different elements to beer depending on how long it boils while brewing. Long boiling times add bitterness. Short boiling times add the flowery flavor of the hops. Extra short boiling times add aroma. Typically, brewers add hops at different times to build elements of all three in their beers.

This Zoe ale from the Maine Beer Company is a hop celebration. The tag line just below the cute smiley face on the label reads, "Our Happy, Hoppy, Amber ALE."  There is a fair amount of hoppy bitterness and aroma, but the beer is dominated by the floral notes of the hops.

You can see the thick head in the picture, which telegraphs the almost chewy mouth feel. I would prefer a slightly less sweet finish. Nonetheless, this was a delightful change of pace from the Belgian ales I've been fixated on lately.

Banana-Cranberry Muffins, A Tale of Two Pans

Better late than never, a couple of weeks ago, Gail made these banana-cranberry muffins. Boy were they delicious. But as you can see from the picture, half came out with a golden color on the bottom even though both muffins tasted the same. They went into the oven in two different pans, but went in on the same rack at the same time. The only difference was in the pan.

The lighter muffins were cooked in the aluminum pan pictured to the left. The aluminum pan is made by the Mirro Aluminum Company, which is no longer in business. The golden muffins were cooked in a non-stick, Wilton pan. I'm guessing the darker pan transmitted the heat more effectively resulting in the golden color.

Gail extended her normal muffin mix with bananas and cranberry sauce. The tartness of the cranberries was a good balance to the often cloying sweetness of banana muffins. Gail substituted half the bananas below with cranberry sauce.

Banana Bread or Banana Muffins
Freeze over-ripe bananas as they occur, make banana bread when you have 3.
Makes 1 loaf or 12 regular-sized muffins

1 batch basic muffin recipe (below)
⅓ c sugar
3 mashed ripe bananas (minimum 1½ c mashed)

1. Make basic muffin recipe, increasing sugar by 1/3 c. Add bananas to completed batter.
2. For bread, bake in loaf pan until tester comes out clean, about 1 hr. For muffins, bake in muffin tins 20 min.

Variations:

• Substitute orange juice for milk.
• Add nuts, or chocolate or peanut butter chips (and bacon for Elvis bread!).

Basic Muffins
Add pretty much anything to these. Best made in small batches and served hot.
Makes 12 muffins

1 egg

3 T butter

1 c milk

2¼ c flour

½ c sugar

1 T baking powder

1 t salt

1. Crack egg into shallow metal bowl to come to room temperature.
2. Melt butter on stove-top over low heat just until melted. Meanwhile, prepare any fruit or other ingredients that will be mixed in.
3. Remove melted butter from heat; stir in milk.
4. Preheat oven to 400 F; grease muffin tin if serving muffins hot, else line with paper baking cups.
5. Sift dry ingredients together (or pulse a few times in food processor with chopping blade), so liquid ingredients will mix in with minimal stirring.
6. Beat egg; slowly whisk in milk and butter mixture, whisking constantly.
7. Stir liquid quickly into dry ingredients just until combined; batter will be lumpy. Prolonged stirring will work up the gluten in the flour, which makes muffins tough.
8. Add additional ingredients (see below), again minimizing stirring.
9. Pour batter into prepared tins; bake until tester comes out clean. For bread, bake in loaf pan until tester comes out clean, about 1 hr. For muffins, bake in muffin tins 20 min.
10. Cool muffins in tins 5 min; transfer to cooling rack. Some people cool muffins upside down, but this can make tops misshapen.
11. Freeze any leftover muffins within 48 hr, or grill 3-day-old muffins in butter before serving.

Variations to mix in before baking:

• Substitute applesauce or shaved apple for half of butter only if serving muffins right away, since fat keeps baked goods from drying out.
• Substitute brown sugar for all or part of white sugar.
• Substitute honey or molasses for sugar, but use half as much since they have much stronger flavors than sugar.
• Substitute fruit juice for milk.
• Add 1 t vanilla or lemon extract and/or 1 t mixture of cinnamon, clove, ginger or nutmeg to batter.
• Add 1½ c chopped, crushed, diced, grated or mashed fruit (2-3 pieces), very well drained if necessary. If desired, toss fruit with 1 T sugar before mixing into batter. Increase sugar by ⅓c when adding fruit.
• Add ½ c nuts and/or chocolate chips.
• Sprinkle 1 T sugar or cinnamon sugar over muffins before baking.
• For a truly decadent muffin, dip baked muffins in melted butter, then cinnamon sugar.
• For savory muffins, add crumbled cheese and cooked bacon.

Tom's Mac and Cheese in the Little Truck

Gail and I had mac & cheese tonight from this cute little food truck. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a web page for Tom's Mac & Cheese. We found him at Russell's Garden Center Farmers' Market. Tom said he also goes to the Topsfield Fair.

The man & cheese was delicious and creamy. Tom said he uses Vermont Cheddar and Parmesan he imports himself. He says he can tell the quality of the non-commercial Parmesan because the fats melt so much more smoothly. I appreciated the care he puts into it.

Easter Candy at its Worst

At first glance this seems delightful. Who doesn't love a rubber ducky? A chocolate rubber ducky certainly called my name. But, look closer at how many ways this goes wrong.

"Quax" is a combination of "quack" and the first ingredient "wax." Next, find the word chocolate on the box. Yup, not there! This is "flavored," but not chocolate flavored. It is "Hollow Milk" flavored. What does "Hollow Milk" taste like? I suspect it is a good thing that this ducky is hollow, because nobody wants to eat a solid one.

Making New Potato Mushrooms

The mushrooms in the picture above are actually new potatoes cut into mushroom shapes. Here are the steps to make them.

Step 1: Make a cut half way into the potato about one-third of the way from one edge, then cut out the wedge from the side.

Step 2: Cut another wedge on the other side.

Step 3: Make a square stem by cutting two similar wedges at 90 degrees from the first two wedges.

Step 4: Round off the stem by cutting a small segment off each corner.

Step 5: Roast or boil your newly created new potato mushrooms.

Roasted Chicken Technique

My favorite meal as a kid was roasted chicken parts with mashed potatoes, peas and corn. Yes, that is three starches. For my birthday, Gail made my favorite meal for me. I said I didn't want the peas. She made me homemade stuffing instead. Yes, still three starches.

In the past, I just threw the chicken parts on a rack in the oven. This time, Gail pre-browned the chicken on the stove in butter. It came out particularly brown, crispy and delicious. I had a nice birthday.