Tonight we had Pork-Oulet. This is a play on the original Cassoulet recipe that I was inspired to try because I watched Guy Fieri this past weekend. www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/guy-fieri/pork-oulet-recipe/index.html I will say, I am not at all impressed with the name, but the dish was delicious and I got a thumbs up from Hubby, Daughter and Daughter's Boyfriend.

I started by taking 1/4 pound of thick sliced bacon pieces and sauted that in my cast iron Dutch Oven on medium low heat. While that was cooking I seasoned the chunks of pork butt and chicken thighs with salt and pepper. One thing I did that the recipe didn't call for was to cut through the bones in the chicken thighs to add more flavor. I did find out that if you do plan on doing this putting the skin side down on the cutting board before trying to whack it with the cleaver is a good idea. On the first one I removed the skin first, then whacked it. I ended up slicing open my finger. Thank goodness for bandages and plastic gloves because this is definitely a get your "hands dirty" kind of recipe.

Anyway, it all went fairly smooth and no one else got hurt after that. Took the bacon out and set it on a paper towel to drain. Browned the pork butt in the bacon drippings first, then removed to a bowl (wanted to catch all the flavor in the juices). Next came the chicken, browned it then added it to pork butt. Finally onions, carrots and celery. Let that cook until onions were transparent, added garlic, cooked about a minute then added flour. I added too much flour so I immediately added some of the chicken stock and made a sort of rue. It got very pasty so I decided to add the whole container of chicken stock (4 cups) I then put all of the pork and chicken back in - I used 8 chicken thighs instead of 4. I threw in my two bay leaves, lowered the stove to simmer and put the lid back on. I let that simmer for two hours. I drained my beans (I used canned white beans - that was all I could find at the store, but I think they are the same as cannellini beans) and added them to the pot. Cooked another 25 minutes and voila! it was dinner time. I made some garlic toast and it was a really tasty cold weather meal. Oh yeah, I couldn't find the cipollini onions, so I used regular, diced yellow onions that I had in the freezer. I like to buy a big bag of onions and dice them all at once then freeze them in small ziploc baggies. It works great!

I think I am going to go watch some TV now cuz my belly is full and I want to snuggle under a blanket.

Happy Eating!!

Well, it has been a while, but I finally got back in the kitchen tonight. I could blame it on the time change, and as a matter of fact, I think I will. I have had no gumption for much of anything since the time change this fall. I do think I am turning into my dad's mother. We could never understand why Gramma would be up at 4:30 AM hosing off her front walk. Well, I think I finally understand. As I lay in bad, staring at the ceiling (we have a projection clock in our bedroom), all I can do is think, "darn, if I lived in the city, I could go and hose off my front walk".

Anyway, tonight I made a very tasty, and super easy, dish. I got the inspiration from a recipe out of the Taste of Home July/August recipe booklet sold at checkout counters. This one is simply titled Bacon and my best friend, Patti, shared it with me when I started telling her about the three pound package of bacon I had in my refrigerator that I needed to do something with. I have been hearing comments from the hubby about how that bacon was going to go bad if I didn't do something with it. He was also making comments like "So, how is that blog thing going? Don't you think you need to add to it?" He says I spoiled him with all of the cooking that I had been doing when I started the blog and he was missing it.

The recipe is http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/BLT-Skillet I did make some alterations. I didn't have linguine so I used spaghetini. Also, I didn't have fresh tomatoes or parsley so I used canned tomatoes and dried parsley. Oh, and I did not add any salt because the bacon I used was very salty. This actually turned out great!! This will go into my arsenal of things I can make with ingredients I have on hand and it tasted quite delicious. Hubby was pleasantly surprised and so was I!

Happy Eating!!

I finally got back in the kitchen today!! It was a success!! I watched a show this weekend starring Nigella Lawson and she did a Spanish chicken dish that had bone in, skin on, chicken thighs, little potatos and chorizo sausage, so I decided to try it. Everythig was going well, until I got home from the store. I remembered everything but the chorizo which is a vital part of the dish. Well, not wanting to return to the store, I had to compromise and work with ingredients I had. I took the mild Italian sausage I had in the freezer out to defrost and started cooking.



First I took a shallow baking dish, the kind you would use to make a jelly roll, and spread about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in the bottom. I added Herbs da Provance (sp). I then cut my little red potatos in half and set them aside. Now time for the chicken. I smeared the chicken thighs, skin side down, in the olive oil with the herbs. I then flipped them over so the skin side was up. Broiled that for about 10 minutes or so until the skin was crispish. I added the potato and Italian sausage (without the casing). Sprinkled with salt and pepper, returned to the oven and baked for about 40 minutes at 350 degrees.



Super easy and very tasty. Got a thumbs up from the husband and the daughter. Both said they would eat it again!!! I love kitchen successes!!



Happy Eating