:kitchen: Today, instead of telling you how to make something, I am asking for your help. I want to make weiner schnitzel like I had so long ago in Germany, and more recently at HofBrau Haus in Las Vegas. Now, I have some porkchops in the freezer that I can pound thin, and I know I need a mushroom and onion sauce. Beyond that, though, I am asking for your tips. This is what I want it to look like:

Can you tell me how to get there? Pretty please?

:kitchen: If you have been following my little Thursday series for any length of time, you know I love seafood. I especially enjoy local seafood, and living so near the coast, when I eat fresh, local seafood, it is FRESH! BTW, did you know that you can tell how fresh a fish is by looking at the eyes? As the fish ages, the eyes cloud over. Beware of buying fish with the heads cut off at a fresh fish market. That’s not how they usually sell it. Since they sell by weight, they make more if the heads are on. The only reason to cut them off is to hide something, and now you know what that something is. Also, even though you buy it head and scale on, they will usually clean it for you while you wait, or at least my local place will. Dang. Now I want seafood again. I might have to pay them a visit tomorrow night instead of just blogging about them today; I don’t have time to go get it and cook it before practice tonight, and I like to cook mine the same day I buy it. River in the morning, on the plate in front of me by dinnertime. And boy, did I ever get sidetracked there.

Back to the seafood cook off. Today, I visited the Great American Seafood Cook Off site, and voted for the Shrimp and Andouille Cassoulet by Louisianian Brian Landry. That was an easy choice for me because I love andouille sausage. The perfect hot-ness and the flavor, oh my! And also shrimp, but I figured that part might could go without saying. I like that I can substitute bacon or smoked sausage for the andouille, because I can’t always find that. But seriously, how could I not vote for a dish that looks like this?

I also entered the contest for a trip to New Orleans. Because. Hello! New Orleans! Only, please, after hurricane season. Geez Louise! And Gustav!

And yes, I am looking at Hanna, thanks for asking. And Ivan, too. And also, Josephine. Any of ya’ll live a little more inland, and want to host a family of NINE for a week or so?

:kitchen: Well, it’s Thursday again, isn’t it? Must be time to talk about food here on Cass Knits! First off, have you tried Jasmine Rice? I finally bought some last month! I’d been curious for quite a while as to what the difference could possibly be, and I had always just substituted regular white rice for it in recipes. Well, that won’t be happening anymore, because jasmine rice is a whole new taste world! It’s sweet, and the grains separate very well, and I like it, yes, I do. And it is especially delightful with seafood!

Jasmine Rice with Seafood

2 cups jasmine rice
3 cups water
1 lb imitation crab meat
1 lb scallops
5-6 slices of cooked bacon, torn into bite sized pieces
lemon pepper

Start the water boiling, and cook the rice. While it is cooking, throw the bacon and scallops into a frying pan. Cook them until the scallops are done. That won’t take but a few minutes.

When the scallops are done, put the imitation crab meat in the skillet, add some lemon pepper and stir it all together to mix.

When the rice is done, tip it into the skillet and mix again. Call the crew, and smirk in Rachel Ray’s direction as you serve this 25 minute meal. Just Kidding, ya’ll. I love me some Rachel.

:kitchen: I made and took pictures of this chili some time ago. It is just so good! I make a large batch of it, and we eat it as a main meal with corn chips or tortillas, and then I freeze the left overs in 2 cup or so containers to use as a condiment for other Mexican foods. Yumm! I got the original recipe out of Colorado Cache Cookbook, and their more complicated version is a signature dish for La Bola in Denver. Shh, don’t tell anyone that mine is easier and just as tasty.

Green Chili

You’ll need:
2-3 pounds of pork stew meat, or chopped shoulder or, you know, pork
3 28 ounce cans of diced tomatoes
garlic powder or minced garlic to taste
21 ounces of canned diced green chilis
1 ounce of hot peppers if desired (I skip this so the kids can eat it, too)
1 tablespoon of sugar
1.5 tablespoons of salt

Brown your pork and cook it until it looks dry.

Pour off the grease if you need to, but if you used lean meat, you probably won’t have too. Add the tomatoes, chilis and seasonings.

Stir it together and let it simmer for at least an hour, OR as long as you can stand to wait.

Serve alone or over burritos.

P.S. Like most chilis, this one is even better the next day, so make it in advance if you can.

:kitchen: I have a recipe for you today. I made it the other night, and it was so good! It was also quick to put together, and fairly light, which is a great thing for summer cooking, don’t you think?
When I made this, I really thought I was going to end up with shrimp lo-mein, and I suppose you could get that if you used oriental noodles, but the lime flavor really lightened the taste, and gave it an almost Mexican flavor. I’m not sure this really qualifies as a recipe, it’s so easy. But then most of the stuff I cook is pretty easy, and none of us are needing to lose weight.

Let’s have a note about the seafood: I used shrimp and scallops, because that is what I had on hand, but you could really cut the cost of this meal by using imitation crab meat for part of the seafood.

Seafood Delight

2 packs of shrimp-lime ramen
one bag of Asian vegetables
1 pound of seafood

Cook the seafood in a bit of bacon grease, just a tablespoon or so. Once you have that going, cook the ramen, and start the veggies steaming in the microwave. Spoon them all into a large bowl once they are done, then mix the seasoning packets in to the juices left in the seafood pan. Mix it all together and serve. Contains 224 calories and 3.16 grams of saturated fat per cup.

Did I mention easy? But the presentation makes up for it!!

:kitchen: I think we all know that nothing beats the taste of home cooked food. It’s just better if your hands have been in it. You know I am right! You may be giggling, but you are also nodding in agreement; I can practically see you! However, sometimes, it just doesn’t work that way. You are rushed, you are tired, or something you want to do comes up, and there you are, needing a quick dinner fix. So today, I thought I would critique some frozen foods for you, and let you know which are picks and which are pans.

Picks:

Stouffer’s Macaroni and Cheese. Seriously cheesy, seriously good. Serve with salad and you are done. Unless your husband is like mine and demands MEAT. In that case, serve it with leftover something or other.

Stouffer’s Vegetable Lasagna. This one is so satisfying that you can skip the meat.

Stouffer’s Chicken Parmigiana. Not as good as mine, but a fairly decent second. Add a veggie.

Stouffer’s Three Cheese Ravioli with Meat Sauce. Yumm! Rich and cheesy and just about perfect.

Gourmet Dining‘s Seafood Medley. I don’t usually care for frozen seafood, but I can tolerate this one and ask for seconds. The fam loves it.

Gourmet Dining’s Shrimp Linguini. This one is good, too, but I prefer the Medley.

Bird’s Eye Viola Shrimp Scampi is good, but it is not as rich and decadent as mine. Of course, it costs about a quarter of what I pay for ingredients for mine, too.

Bird’s Eye Viola Garlic chicken is good, too, and it has plenty of garlic for most folks, but a little extra is good, too.

Pans

Stouffer’s Chicken Enchiladas with Cheese Sauce & Rice. Something just went wrong here. We’ve tried it a couple of times, but the texture of the tortillas is just …. not right, ya’ll.

So, I was looking at my family the other day, as they were eating, (Haha, nine people live here, so someone is ALWAYS eating.) and I really started thinking about what I feed them. I am back to using the food pyramid for myself, because I just feel so much better when I eat that way. It’s plenty of food and I don’t end up feeling bloated, and I have energy– stamina– the ability to keep on going like the energizer bunny. And yet, I let my family eat however, whatever. Yeah, cause I am smart, and I thought it would seem like deprivation to them if I “made” them eat a little healthier.

So, anyway, I talked to dh, and we decided it would really benefit the whole family to have a healthier diet. It will be better for our hearts and lungs, our immune systems, and hopefully our tempers and ability to concentrate. But that health thing is a biggie. Do you know that sudden cardiac arrest kills 900 people per day? That’s just crazy, because it’s mostly preventable through diet! St. Jude’s has put together a website that explains abnormal heart rhythm and there are a couple of videos as well. Sudden Cardiac Arrest and The Human Heart (hey, that second one would be great for science for the younger kids– we may watch that on Tuesday).

Oh, I don’t think the kids will be suffering too much. We’re camping this weekend (yeah, and I am in here on the computer, because…………I am silly, that is why), and we’ll be having hotdogs for lunch. Ha, nothing new there, we eat hotdogs every Saturday. This week, though, they are coming with a little surprise–instead of 2 hotdogs, we’ll have one hotdog and some carrot sticks. Because, do you know how much protein we need a day? Six ounces. Do you know how much we were eating? Twice that. Easily. I love these guys, I want them to live long, healthy lives, and enjoy eating every day of those long healthy lives. That means I need to teach them about good food choices NOW.

:kitchen: Quite some time ago, like several years, I followed a delightful recipe for cider braised pork loin. I only made it the one time, but it was so good! I served it for a holiday meal, and it was so tasty, and so pretty! Yes, I said pretty–that recipe included yams, prunes and apples in addition to the cider. It was impressive. And also very spendy. I kept meaning to make it again, but never did convince myself to buy all that fruit again just to make a roast. And yet, I could not get it out of my mind! With that in mind, I created this recipe not too long ago, and it is indeed very tasty, but also pretty simple.

Slow Cooked Apple Pork Roast

1 Fresh Picnic Shoulder (this is ham before it becomes ham, ya’ll)
4-6 Apples
Basil
Oregano
Rosemary
Salt

First, cut your apples into quarters and put them in the bottom of your crockpot. You need just enough to make a nice layer in the bottom. Go ahead and take the cores out if you’d like, but the apples will be discarded at the end of the cooking.

Now a fresh picnic has a fat side and a side without a layer of fat. Go ahead and sprinkle the unfat side with spices, and then flip the meat over so the fat side is up. Slice as close to the meat as possible and make a flap of that fat layer, but don’t cut it all the way off. Your knife will need to be quite sharp for this, otherwise, you’ll be hacking at it for quite a awhile. Fold that fat back, and season this side of the roast. Then fold the fat back in place over the roast, put the lid on the crockpot and turn it on. The fat will keep the meat basted for you. I hope you are going somewhere, because in a couple of hours that roast is going to be smelling pretty good, and you will want to be lifting the lid to look at it. Don’t do that Just let it cook for several hours, you know the drill.

Now, it’s not going to look so pleasant when you get ready to take it out of the pan, so I though I better prepare you. The fat renders and the apples juice and here’s what it looks like when it’s ready. That meat is so tender and flavorful, though. Just trust me. You will be having to take it out in chunks, because the roast just falls apart! Discard that top fat and the apples, and serve it up. Here’s what it looks like on the platter.

Enjoy!