Surprising Accomplishment in the Kitchen

Anyone who knows me (well hubby mainly), knows I am an undomestic goddess with no/limited skills to cook up a decent meal. Thank you to boxes of mixes or frozen microwaveable food that has helped me fake it. (Side note: I was devastated when Schwan's went out of business!)

But last week, after having a deliciously spicy shredded pork sandwich at book club, I asked for the recipe and that got me on a tangent yesterday when I had to travel to Point and Plover. They have some pretty good grocery stores and meat markets.

When I got to Metro Market in Plover, I had some pork loin thoughts in mind, but then I saw all their options. Go there!! 

So this is my step-by-step of a Korean BBQ Pork with Goat Cheese Sandwich. Yes, I literally invented this last night! (Maybe??)

There were a lot of choices, but when I saw this one I was reminded how we both loved our spicy Korean "infusion" restaurant experience last year. So I decided that was a good place to start since the baking/cooking directions seemed easy enough.

Then, since we both are big fans of King's Hawaiian everything, I got slider buns, too.

The star of the show was the shredder I ordered on Amazon that just arrived on Monday. I keep getting recipe feeds on social media (do they even know me?) and many times they are using this tool. It says "chicken" shredder but I think it's just any kind of meat shredder.

Since the pork loin was much thicker than a typical chicken breast (that's me guessing) I sliced it down the middle and tried my new "twist-twist-twist one more time shredder".

That worked!

And when I had all the shredded pork in a container, I poured on any remaining juices from the oven pan.

While I piled the pork on a slider bun, I decided it needed some cheese maybe. As a new fan of goat cheese, I threw on some crumbles and nuked it a bit in that slider bun.

Oh wow. I'm not saying it was good because I came up with any of it, but it is a good combination of flavors.

P.S. I had it two nights in a row and it was perfectly delicious!

Well Something's Freezing Over

Laughed at this a few days ago as we knew "it" was coming. The Deep Freeze. The Polar Vortex. Whatever you want to call it.

And this is what wake-up temps looked like here. 22 Below with "feels like" of 45 degrees below stinkin' zero. Wow. 

Thank you, God, for a roof over my head and heat. And a job that has me working from home on Fridays! It all worked in my favor today, that's for sure. We did not venture out at all. Well, hubby went to the mailbox but that was a quick trip!

Tonight I made some comfort-ish food.

My first attempt making homemade Chicken Pot Pie. I should've taken the picture before I broke off some of the crust accidentally!

Anyway, it wasn't so bad for my first attempt. Only a few things I'd tweak for the next time, if Jim ever wants it again. And we do have some leftovers so we'll see how it holds up on Day 2. Otherwise, I'm not feeling like venturing out tomorrow either. Might have to get inventive!

Full disclosure: I can do that with trifles. But nothing to do with cooking, that's for darn sure.

Hope you stayed warm today. This isn't over. Bundle up and keep thinking safety first!

Uno de Mayo

Happy May Day!  Of course this day is always emotional because it's not my birthday, but it's my "I gave birth" day! To clarify, not to the cat in the picture. But our now 27-year-old baby Carter. I asked him "How am I supposed to convince people I'm only 29 when you're 27?!"

Uff da. 

I really just grabbed a random picture for Carter's birthday and realized she (Sylvester) is gone and he is so grown up and "basically gone" to adulthood and independence, too! Someone stop my momma tears!

Thank goodness there was a happy ending, of sorts, to my day.

Of course our Marketing Department "Fun Committee" has something lined up each month, so today was the Pre-Cinco de Mayo Guac and Salsa Showdown. I've never made traditional salsa, but thanks to my friend Brenda K., I was introduced to the concept of "fruit salsa" a few years back. A great summer potluck addition.

So last night after golf lessons and choir practice, I sliced and diced a bunch of fruit to make a salsa!

A blend of kiwi, apples, raspberries, strawberries and more. I figured why not offer an alternative to the spicy salsa I personally love to have!

Our Fun Committee did a great job of laying out all the Guac and Salsa options. Complete with numbers and heat indexes. They provided the usual tortilla chips for the dips, but I provided my own "cinnamon-sugar" pita chips and pretzel crisps for my Fruit Salsa.

Although I'm typically competitive, I honestly didn't think my non-traditional salsa stood a chance. I was just happy to introduce people to this summer alternative my friend introduced me to.

I was legitimately quite surprised to get a very cute second-place trophy! I will include my "prize winning" (what I used this time) recipe below, but keep in mind it's better with fresh summer fruit and you can add whatever you want.

Robyn’s Fruit Salsa

2 kiwis (peeled and diced)
2 Golden Delicious apples (peeled, cored, and diced)
8 ounces raspberries (diced)
16 ounces strawberries (diced)
2 T white sugar 
1 T brown sugar
3 T fruit preserves (I used seedless strawberry jam)

Serve with cinnamon-sugar chips (Stacey’s Pita Chips or Snack Factory Pretzel Crisps)

Side note: Best if served the same day you make it so it doesn’t get too runny. If it does, you can drain a bit before serving.

Look at you all set to summer potlucks now! In the meantime, help me cope with my baby being a super adult!

A Taste of Home

Had to chuckle today when I got this Snapchat from Mr. World Traveler...

If you can't see it clearly, it's a pan of mac and cheese and it says: "Had to show these Germans what a real American dish is."

Almost looks like he baked it! Where did these mad kitchen skills come from? That's awesome. Cool for him to share that and cool for him to rolling as Mr. Independent, too.

Not to be outdone, I had to get my own "taste of home." Home to me, anyway.

Move over, lamb and lion... March came in like a King today!

It just happened to be on my way home. So did a new round of snow and slush. Sigh. I was hoping a new month would bring a new attitude. Maybe the taste of home will help me deal with winter and my empty nest.

Worth a try.

I Yam What I Yam

Full confession time. I love baking. But when I am in the zone for trifle creations, I almost always do the cake part from a mix. Box to pan in three short steps. Totally a time saver.

So when I decided to try a certain recipe for the upcoming cookie exchange and it called for cocoa, I thought I better check the cupboard. I was pretty sure I had some but hadn't used it in awhile.

And by awhile, I guess I mean seven or eight years. Uff da.

Please don't take away my Bake-Queen (baking, haha) crown. It's all I got. Because I definitely was also reminded tonight that I don't know a thing about cooking!

I was at Wal-Mart getting fresh cocoa and a few other ingredients when I noticed one of my high school boys. And by "my" I mean I've taken hundreds of photos of him in Assumption sports over the past few years. I notice he and a friend are carrying around the white laminated sheet that shows what aisle popular items are located in. When he looped around a few times, I thought, "I know Wal-Mart. I'm sure I can help him."

Hey (name deleted to protect the innocent), what are you looking for? "Yams," he said. When I saw  we were in the canned vegetable aisle, I said, "Well I think you have the right aisle." He said that's what the sheet said, too.

While we looked and looked, his buddy said, "Hey, there's the French fried onions!" I turned to nameless boy and asked, "Are you in charge of Thanksgiving dinner shopping? Wow. That's a big responsibility!"

Then I realized it was too big of a responsibility for me, too. "You know (boy), I don't even know what a yam is," I admitted. "But I'll put in a good word to your mom that you were trying really hard to find them."

And yes, hubby and I are hosting Thanksgiving dinner for his family. And yes, you can bet your sweet yam, there won't be yams.

Even if they do come in a box or can or whatever.