Monday, August 18, 2014

Crockpot Asian Pork with Mushrooms

Good job, Self, for planning a crockpot meal on my first day back to work. Better yet my wonderful husband did all the prep work in the morning and it was cooking away when I got home! Nothing is better than coming home and smelling dinner prepping!

 

Well, okay, it gets better when your husband remembers there is a bottle of wine in the fridge and he pours you a glass. Ahhhhhh!

 

I've made this recipe once before but I guess I did not blog it.

We used a pork tenderloin instead of a roast. No reason, it's just what I bought at Costco. I think it should not cook for the entire 8 hours then, and my husband wisely saw this and set it to warm early. He seared up the pork this morning, mixed up the spices and ingredients and let it bubble.

There's a sweet spiciness to this, with a bit of ginger. I didn't ask if he added more ginger than the recipe states (I usually do to any recipe) but I think he did.

So delicious flavors, easy to make, and even better if someone else cooks it!

P.s. The recipe states that you can prep this the night before, searing and all, and then just turn it on in the morning! See recipe directions.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Crock Pot Asian Pork with Mushrooms.

 

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Crab Cakes with Ginger and Lime, with Triple Pork Fried Rice

The rice is from yesterday's meal but I was happy to have it to round out tonight's meal. My husband is crazy for anything ginger so I immediately bookmarked (or pinned) the crab cake recipe when I saw it.

Crab cakes are kind of indulgent for my summer budget and then I had to have a nice wine to with it, so this meal was an unexpected yayyyyyy! (Rosè wine not pictured.)

 

Yesterday I posted this pretty picture to Instagram and titled it "Bacon is pretty."

It was a lot of bacon but my husband digs it. He actually is drawn to the smell of bacon cooking...he comes into the kitchen to nibble it and I usually scold him.

The Triple Fried Rice called for bacon, ham, and chopped pork chops. I had canadian bacon so I called that close enough to ham.

The finished fried rice. Everything was cooked in small amounts of bacon grease. Yum.

 

I also posted this picture of the dirty dishes. I watched an interesting video yesterday about the lost art of cooking. So many Americans don't take the time to cook and instead rely on easy, processed foods. The average amount of cook time is 15-20 minutes, mainly to boil water or reheat proceeded food. That uses about a pot and very few other dishes, so the average time for dish washing is four minutes.

I'm kinda proud to tell you that my husband spends about 15 minutes doing the many dishes that I dirty- cutting boards, prep bowls, food processor parts, multiple pots and pans, etc.

Poor Jim!

 

I mixed the lump crab meat, cilantro, grated ginger, panko breadcrumbs, lime zest, green onions, mayo, and hot sauce about an hour before I wanted to sauté them.

 

I showed my son that these are made just like his beloved chicken sandwiches- dipping in flour, egg, and panko, but with crab. No go. He tried a bite and liked the crunch but not the crab. More for us?

One or two minutes per side in a bit of olive oil and butter and they were done!

We really enjoyed these. I could probably add a bit more ginger and hot sauce to kick these up a notch in flavor.

 

Click here for the stolen recipe for Crab Cakes with Ginger and Lime.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Triple Pork Fried Rice.