Pork | Mommie Cooks!

Navajo Fry Bread

February 28, 2011 By Julie 32 Comments

The time comes when all birds must leave the nest and fly on their own. When I graduated college and started looking for a job, I decided that the farther I could soar from my hometown the better. Sound familiar? Be it a need for actual physical distance or merely emotional distance, I’m willing to bet that at one point in our lives we could all relate to that new found feeling of independence pulling us as far away as possible from where it all began. As for myself, I wanted nothing more than to show all those around me that I had what it took to make it on my own.

That ever growing need for independence eventually landed me in Phoenix, AZ. It was far from my childhood stomping grounds, completely different in every possible way from Wisconsin, and I had a cushion in the fact that my grandparents were living there in case I ever needed a familiar hand.
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Prosciutto and Mushroom Ravioli with Basil Browned Butter Sauce

February 14, 2011 By Julie 35 Comments

The boys and I celebrated Valentines this weekend by indulging in a truly special and incredibly delicious meal. It was a feast fit for a king (or four kings as the case may be) that required ample time, patience, and love to put together. Alex helped roll out the pasta and cut out the shapes. He really wanted to make dinosaur ravioli, but I somehow convinced him that hearts would be more suitable for the occasion. When it came time to stuff them, I put out on APB to my facebook fans and asked them what they would like to see in a ravioli. I received 13 fabulous and completely unique responses. In the end I decided to go with a variation of what Melanie suggested:

Melanie: Mushroom, shallot, sage, proscuitto, ricotta – simple butter sauce would be all you’d need to top it and maybe some fresh grated romano??

Definitely a rockin’ delicious choice. Thank you so much Melanie for the inspiration!

Before I move on to pasta rolling however, I have a little (exciting!) housekeeping to attend to. First up, I wanted to share with you all that the (hopefully) final redesign for Mommie Cooks is nearing completion! I am beyond excited about the new layout and I hope you will be too. Look for the change to take place sometime between this Wednesday and Saturday. This design has been a long time coming; I actually first started the process back in August if you can believe it!

Next in line, this mommy blogger has a blogoversary coming up! Believe it or not, my first year blogoversary will be on the 24th of this month (coincidentally the same day as my birthday) and we are going to celebrate with some fun giveaways. So be sure to stop by in the upcoming days to see what fun items I’ll be sharing with you all.

And last but certainly not least, If you’ve ever been interested in the art of chocolate molding, then you’ll want to stop by my local NPR station’s food blog, WFAEats and check out an article I wrote on just such a topic. I did a lot of “research” for that topic and found it to be a very tasty endeavor.

Enough jabbering. Its time to get back to the good stuff, who’s ready to roll some ravioli?

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Pork Rouladen

November 1, 2010 By Julie 30 Comments

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween! Thankfully all the boys were healthy enough this year to head out and trick or treat (last year Nick was stuck inside with the swine flu, poor kid). Here they are just before leaving the house to beg for loot. Notice how Alex’s costume is on backward. That’s what happens when I let my husband dress the kids.

This was Drew’s first time trick or treating and he did fabulous. It’s amazing how quickly they pick up on what they’re supposed to do. He went right up with the big kids and grabbed out of the buckets. Not a stitch of scared in the kid. Mommy was real proud.

And now, of course, with Halloween officially being over, it’s time to start thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’m still in denial about it all, so I’m holding off on my Thanksgiving recipes for another post or two. Instead, I’ve decided to put up a dish that reflects a bit of my German heritage (I’m half German and half Swedish, give or take a half).

I do enjoy, on occasion, cooking family dishes that remind me of my roots. Being half German means I was fed a lot of schnitzels and potato pancakes growing up. One particular dish that I remember my mom cooking for us on a regular basis was rouladen.

I figured it was high time I shared our version, but seeing as I don’t eat red meat all that often, I substituted pork in the place of it’s traditional counterpart. You could easily substitute beef back in for this recipe, but I will say that it was just as delicious with “the other white meat” as it’s stand in.

Ingredients Needed:

1 Pd. of Pork Cutlets
1 Onion, Chopped
4 Pieces of Bacon, Cut in Half
4 tsp of Dijon Mustard
4 Dill Pickles
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
1 Tbsp of Oil
1 Cup of Water
1 Tbsp of Corn Starch

First up, you’ll grab your cutlets and pound them out nice and thin.

Tip: Just think about that old ex boyfriend or girl friend who dumped you for the popular kid in high school and then grab the mallet. You’ll be surprised how thin you can get them.

Now it’s time to load them up with the good stuff. Grab a knife and spread some mustard over the meat. Follow that up with your bacon, then a pickle, and finally the onions.

Roll it up and close it tight with toothpicks.

Now grab the salt, pepper, and paprika and sprinkle it over all sides of the meat.

Pull out a large saute pan and heat up the oil on medium high heat. When it’s good and hot, throw your rouladen in the pan and give them a minute or two on all sides to brown up.

Add in the cup of water, turn the heat down to medium low, cover the pan and let your rouladens cook up for about an hour.

When the hour’s up, grab the cornstarch, mix it with 1 tbsp of cold water and add the mixture into your pan. Heat back up to boiling, let it boil a minute to thicken and you’re done.

Serve it up over egg noodles or spaetzle.

And remember, no one will notice if you sneak a snickers out of the bucket while your kids are school. I won’t tell if you don’t.

I am linking up to Hearth and Soul and Tasty Tuesdays.

Pork Rouladen

Ingredients:

1 Pd. of Pork Cutlets
1 Onion, Chopped
4 Pieces of Bacon, Cut in Half
4 tsp of Dijon Mustard
4 Dill Pickles
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
1 Tbsp of Oil
1 Cup of Water
1 Tbsp of Corn Starch

Directions:

First up, you'll grab your cutlets and pound them out nice and thin.

Now it's time to load them up with the good stuff. Grab a knife and spread some mustard over the meat. Follow that up with your bacon, then your pickle, and finally your onions.

Roll it up and close it tight with toothpicks. Now grab your salt, pepper, and paprika and sprinkle it over all sides of the meat.

Pull out your large saute pan and heat up your oil on medium high heat. When it's good and hot, throw your rouladen in the pan and give them a minute or two on all sides to brown up.

Add in your cup of water, turn the heat down to medium low, cover the pan and let your rouladens cook up for about an hour.

When the hour's up, grab your cornstarch, mix it with 1 tbsp of cold water and add the mixture into your pan. Heat back up to boiling, let it boil a minute to thicken and you're done.

Family Friendly Fridays: Pomtastic! A Story of Ribs and One Very Addicting Drink.

October 22, 2010 By Julie 32 Comments

And so our story begins. Once upon a time there was a lowly food blogger looking for ideas on what to make for dinner. She searched high and low in books and on cooking blogs but just couldn’t seem to find the right dish for her family.

The blogger was sheer out of ideas, so she poured herself a Pom and tonic with a twist of lime using the Pom juice she was given from Ryan over at Pom Wonderful and sat down to ponder her dilemma.
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Meaty One Dish Risotto

October 20, 2010 By Julie 40 Comments

My husband is a meat eater. He likes meat in all forms and, to him, a meal just isn’t a meal without some form of dead animal, fish, or bird added to it. Case in point; the Nummy Noodle Soup I put up on the blog a couple weeks back. He proceeded to eat all of the soup and it’s contents except for the tofu. Those were left stacked in a neat little pile off to the side as an expression of his love strong dislike for meatless dishes. Our three boys seem to be following suit behind him. When given a plate of food to eat, they all reach for the meat first above everything else.

I, on the other hand, enjoy a helping of meat once in awhile, but am equally content with digging into a delicious meatless dish if given the opportunity. I make an attempt to leave the meat out of meals every so often, much to the family’s chagrin, but most of the time I am loading up on the moving proteins in all shapes and forms. This dish is no exception. To show my true love and admiration for my husband I added not one, but two land animals to my risotto. And I have to say, it wasn’t half bad. For a meat dish that is.
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Mexican Pork and Rice

October 6, 2010 By Julie 20 Comments

What’s your favorite part about the autumn season? Is it the cooler weather? The beautiful leaves? Maybe it’s Halloween or Thanksgiving that tickles your fancy. I know for my husband it’s the return of his beloved college football team, the VT Hokies. For me it’s all of the above (except swap out bucky badger for the maroon and orange turkey).

I didn’t always love the fall. Growing up in Wisconsin, summer took the cake. I had off from school, I could go to bed late, and I spent my days playing with friends from dawn till dusk. Autumn on the other hand, meant summer was over, school was back in, and winter was on the the way. And if you’ve ever spent a winter in Wisconsin then you’ll know what I mean. By god I love the place but dang if the winters aren’t really, really cold. And grey. And long. Really long. By the time you hit March, you’re were ready to pull your hair out only you don’t actually do it because you need every strand you have just to keep yourself from freezing into a block of ice right there in the parking lot between your car and the grocery store.

Fast forward 20 years and I’m now living in the South where fall signifies a break from the intense southern summer heat, school starting back up (funny how you learn to love school being in as an adult almost as much as you loved it being out as a child), beautiful foliage, football, and of course the imminent approach of the “great crazy triad” as my mother-in-law calls it; Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

Above all things, though, I’ve learned to adore the flavors of fall. I love the warm, hearty spices and the ability to cook really tasty “stick to your ribs” dishes that wouldn’t be featured as highly when the weather’s warmer. I suppose this love of winter dishes has followed me from my childhood to now. Maybe winter in Wisconsin wasn’t that bad after all.

One final word before we get to the recipe. I want to thank Dawn of Dawn’s Goodies for bestowing the Versatile Bloggers Award on me and Julie over at the Reason for My Insanity for presenting me with the One Lovely Blog Award. Thank you guys! I’m so touched that you would think of me!
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