"Cilantro Lime" Pork

Notice the quotes? Well I got this recipe because I thought it sounded awesome. I became obsessed with making salsa last summer, mostly the mango/pineapple variety, and 2 ingredients that were in all of the recipes were lime and cilantro. So I saw this recipe and I was all like, whaaaaat? Well it turns out, the pork is still really tasty (can't go wrong with a crock pot), but I did not really get the cilantro-y limey flavor I was looking for. Boo!

Ingredients

1/2 cup olive oil

2 garlic cloves minced

2 tablespoons lime juice

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1 1/2 teaspoon adobo seasoning with cumin

2 tablespoons chopped fresh (or 2 teaspoons dried) cilantro

1 (4 pound) bone in pork shoulder

1 medium onion, sliced

2 cups beef broth

Mix the first 6 ingredients together with a whisk. That will be your marinade. Easy peezy.

 

marinade + pork = mmmm

Get your pork shoulder out and make shallow cuts all over it, then put it in a big Ziploc bag with the marinade and shake it all up so the marinade covers the pork entirely. Then put it in the fridge for at least 6 hours. I left mine overnight. It made the fridge smell yummy (even though the bag was supposed to be completely airtight, what the hell?). When your pork is done marinating, put it in a big pan and sear it on all sides until it is brown. This is going to make your kitchen smell fantastic.

Now lay the sliced onion along the bottom of the crockpot and put the pork inside with the fat side up. Pour the beef broth and the rest of the marinade in the crockpot. I got 2 small cans of beef broth and just used all of that, without really measuring. I also poured the beef broth into the Ziploc bag first to dry to get all of the marinade out. Cover the crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours.

There are some other instructions after this but basically, once the 8 hours was up Dennis and I started eating it. We made sandwiches with Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce and this awesome pepper vinegar my dad made and gave us. Basically it is like... jalapenos soaked in vinegar (not sure what type of vinegar). I always fish some jalapenos out and put them on my sandwiches and OMG they are the bomb.

I can't remember how I found this recipe. It may have been on foodgawker's most favorited recipes of all-time where I found the last 2 recipes (Nummy Mozzerella Sticks & High Class Mac & Cheese). Not sure. Anyway, I think this recipe was sort of a bust because it didn't have the exact taste I was looking for, but the taste it did have was still really good, so I dunno what to think about this one. The meat was awesome, it made the house smell terrific (can I talk about how good this pork smells a little more?), and I did it all by myself with no help from Dennis, so in my book it is a success!

I have no pictures of the finished product because I have not been on top of my game lately. Sorry dudes.

Thank you to Des at Life's Ambrosia for this recipe. It looks like she's got a ton of other cool recipes on her site so check it out sometime!

Awesome Poppy Seed Salad Dressing

Over Christmas weekend, we went up to PA to visit Dennis' family. On Christmas eve, we had an awesome dinner thanks to Dennis' dad, Doug. Ham, corn, biscuits, mashed potatoes, & gravy. Num num num!

However, the salad is what I couldn't get enough of! After I had one salad and a main course, when I went back for seconds I had to get another salad. It was spinach with cranberries and slivered almonds, but what really made the salad was the dressing. Turns out Vicki had made the dressing herself and she passed the recipe along to me. So here I am passing it along to you.

Ingredients
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp paprika
1 tbsp poppy seeds
2 tsp minced onion
1/2 cup vegetable oil

I'm sure there is some rhyme or reason to adding the ingredients together, but I just added them to my container in the order they were listed. I used a gravy shaker for this and it worked wonderfully.

The amounts are written on the side which made for easy measuring. Just give it a good shake right before you pour it over your salad.

Vicki's salad consisted of spinach leaves, dried cranberries, and slivered almonds. Dennis is not a fan of almonds, so our salad is a little different. We used a 50/50 Mix of bagged greens that contained spinach leaves and other greens, kept the dried cranberries, and added some goat cheese.

All I can say is... OMG. It was so good! I had a little extra dressing in the bowl when I was done, so I just kept adding greens until I was mopping it up with pieces of spinach. Yummy. Thanks Vicki!!

Fluffy Pancakes

When I first found this recipe for fluffy pancakes, I was a little turned off by the vinegar in the ingredients list but it got so many rave reviews that I decided to give it a try.

Ingredients

3/4 cup milk

2 tablespoons white vinegar

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Mix the milk & vinegar together. You will be adding the dry ingredients to this mixture, so make sure to use a large bowl. The directions say to let the milk & vinegar mixture "sour" which sounds gross, but stick out the recipe to the end!! It will be worth it.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, & salt together in a separate bowl.

Add the egg & butter to the "soured" milk & whisk. Then add the flour mixture & whisk until it is smooth.

At this point, I like to pour one pancake to get a feeling for the consistency. Sometimes if it is too thick, it will just pour into a blob and it won't spread out into a circle. I use a whisk or a spoon like I'm spreading sauce on a pizza to flatten the pancake into a circle. Then I add a little milk to the mixture to thin it out. Now that I think of it, maybe I should just adjust the milk from the beginning! I will try this and update the recipe if it works out.

Anywho, this recipe usually makes 8-10 medium-sized pancakes.. medium meaning a little smaller than a CD. I usually make a bunch of plain Jane circles, then one or two fun ones.. like so..

This pancake was for me...

And this one was for Dennis!

We have an electric skillet that I can make 3-4 pancakes on at a time, but when I use a pan it definitely takes longer and the pancakes tend to cool off a little by the time I'm done with the batter. I just pop them back on the pan or skillet for around 30 seconds on each side and they're good as new.

We usually don't finish all of the pancakes, so once they have cooled down enough I put the leftovers into a Ziplock bag and toss them in the fridge. They heat up great in the microwave!

I have tried a few different recipes for pancakes, and so far this one is the best. Here's the original link at AllRecipes.com.