Pork roast: three ways

One morning last week, I was running out the door and remembered at the last minute to toss the pork roast into the crock pot. In my coat and hat, with the baby in one arm, I grabbed the pork roast from the fridge, unwrapped it, flicked some salt and pepper on, hit the switch and left for the day. Two minute meal prep is the best. We had dinner for three nights from that 2 minutes of prep work.

Night one: barbecue pork sandwiches

Night two: pork burritos

Night three: provencal pork stew

Here are the recipes:

Barbecue Pork Sandwiches

Pork butt or shoulder roast

1 bottle of barbecue sauce

Hamburger buns or hard rolls

1. Place pork in a crock pot. Lightly salt and pepper and cook for 8 hours on low
2. Take a portion of roast pork and break it apart with a fork. Mix in sauce to taste.
3. Serve on bun/roll with more sauce if desired.

This meal goes particularly well with a simple coleslaw.

Pork Burritos

left-over pork roast

tortilla shells

rice (cooked)

shredded cheese

avocado

cilantro

lime

red onions

sour cream

whatever else you like on your burritos

1. Heat tortillas either individually over open gas flame (use tongs...your fingers will thank you) or wrap several tortillas in tin foil and heat for 15 minutes in the over at 300F.
2. have each person determine their topping preference.

Provencal Pork Stew

left-over pork roast

1-2 large cans whole tomatoes

1 can white beans, drained (or cook your own ahead of time)

2 carrots, diced

2 celery stalks, diced

1 small onion, diced

chicken broth

4 cloves garlic, pressed in garlic press or crushed and finely minced

wine (preferably a dry white, but red wine works too)

herbs d'Provence

Salt and pepper

1. Saute the onion, carrots and celery until onions become slightly translucent, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and saute for 30 seconds, until fragrant, then add the wine. You could also replace wine with broth, if you prefer.
2. Crush the tomatoes lightly with your hands or the back of a spoon as you add them to the other sautéed vegetables. Add beans and 1 tsp. herbs d'provence or to taste. Cook until slightly thickened but carrots and celery are still slightly crisp, about 15-20 minutes.
3. Add salt and pepper to taste and add pork and heat through.

Winter squash and swiss chard lasagna

Ingredients
1 largish winter squash (app. 3 lbs) cut in half and seeds scooped out
15 oz ricotta cheese
1/4 tsp. each red pepper flakes and nutmeg
1 bunch swiss chard chopped, stems and leaves separated
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp.flour
2 c. milk, heated in microwave for 2 minutes
1 box no boil lasagna noodles
4 large garlic cloves, chopped finely or crushed through garlic press
shredded Italian blend cheese (or combination of mozzerella and parmesean
olive oil
salt

Instructions

1. Roast for 1 hour (or until soft) squash at 375 degrees. Place cut side, rubbed with olive oil, on a rimmed cookie sheet.
2. When squash is done, let cool then peel skin off. Puree in food processor.
3. Make a bechemel sauce by melting butter, whisking in flour and cooking until light gold color. While whisking, poor in hot milk slowly and cook over med-low heat until slightly thickened. Set aside.
   
4. Mix squash puree, ricotta, salt
   
5. Saute chard stems with garlic and a bit of olive oil until softened. Add chopped chard leaves and saute until wilted. Add to ricotta mixture.
6. Start your layers in a buttered 9x13 pan: Bechemel sauce, noodles, squash-ricotta-chard mix. I usually get 2-3 layers of each. Top with cheese. Cover with tin foil.
7. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes, remove tin foil and bake for additional 10 minutes.

This week's meal plan

Sunday: Spaghetti and meatballs
Monday:Roasted vegetable curry from Moosewood's Simple Suppers cookbook
Tuesday: Roast chicken with potatoes and cherry tomatoes
Wednesday: Winter squash and swiss chard lasagna
Thursday: Burritos
Friday: Pasta with vegetables from our CSA box
Saturday: Fish with cous cous and CSA box vegtables

This week's meal plan

Sunday: Pan-fried chicken breasts, sauteed spinach, cous cous, and tomato-basil-feta salad
Monday: Winter squash soup, green salad and bread
Tuesday: Omelettes and green salad
Wednesday: Baked kielbasa and sauerkraut with homemade pretzels
Thursday: Pasta with vegetables from our CSA box
Friday: Pizza with roasted vegetables from our CSA box
Saturday: Lasagna with swiss chard (from Ready When You Are by Martha Rose Shulman)

Breaking bread

Front loaf shaped by me, rear loaf by 3-year old O-man

In the last couple years raising young children and baking bread have become my primary spiritual practices. While I have several bread and baking cookbooks, when I found Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, I had found my spiritual guide. I'm a convert. I proselytize at any opportunity. Seriously, if I was getting a cut of this book's sales I might even be able to keep myself in flour for a while.

The basic premise of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day is that you make a large batch of high moisture dough, let it rise once then store it in the fridge for up to 2 weeks, taking out portions of the dough to shape, rise and bake whenever you need a loaf.

Here's the thing about this book that make it an exceptional resource for family cooks:

1. The work is really quite minimal and the actual shaping and baking part is so easy that it really does only take a few minutes so it can be done anytime.
2. having dough around means that you can almost always whip up something for dinner...pizza, calzones, soup or salad with bread, sandwiches, bacon and eggs in toast, pasta with toasted breadcrumbs, I could go on and on.
   
3. It's a lot cheaper to bake bread than to buy it at the store, plus, this way you aren't eating all those preservatives
4. Kids love fresh bread. Who am I kidding...EVERYONE loves fresh bread.
   

Three foods from scratch that always seem like magic

There are three things that I cook regularly at our house that some how have managed to consistantly seem like magic to me. I know it's just a bit of science and smidge of planning, but still I feel like amazed that it actually works every time:

1. bread
2. yogurt
3. dried beans

I am also find myself amazed at how much it costs to buy these things in the store and how lousy they taste compared to my homemade versions. So, if you are attempting to cook from scratch this is where I'd start. Every loaf you take out of the oven will leave you feeling better about the world, every batch of yogurt will make you feel brilliant and every batch of beans you cook up will feel like you won the lottery. Okay, maybe that's taking it too far. At the least though, it'll make you feel like you won a game of cards.

For the next three posts, I'll cover how to start making these three things from scratch.

What are we having for dinner tonight?

About 5 times a day, my two and a half year old asks me this question: "what are we having for dinner tonight?" I know this is the age old, 5 o'clock dilemma for most families, but in our house it is genuine curiosity about the food we're going to be preparing, eating and enjoying together. Cooking and eating is as central to our families existence as it has been for the entirety of human existence, but in the face of modern food culture--fast, cheap and out-of-control--it can be a struggle to eat well, stay relaxed, enjoy what's on the table and to know what you are actually eating.

So, this blog is my effort to explore how families can cook their food from scratch so that they can enjoy their food and enjoy each other.