Three! Three posts, ah-ah-ah!

We'll just ignore the gap of a whole day between this post and the last one. 

Today's recipe: Pork in Tangy Mustard Sauce

This sauce is an explosion of tangy deliciousness that you can put on pork chops or pork loin.  It tastes really expensive and fancy, so if you're trying to impress someone, I think this is a good recipe to pull out for company. 

• 1 pork chop, thin center cut is my preference for pork chops because I can either have them as chops or cut them up for stirfry.  When I made this the other night, I actually used this pork I get from the local farmer's market that is labeled "shish-kabob pork", and it's basically pork loin cut into cubes. It's usually inexpensive and easy to portion out into one-person servings (about a handful of meat per packet).  
• Salt and pepper
• 3 T apple cider vinegar
• 1 - 1/2 T dijon mustard
• 1-2 t (or so) honey
• dried rosemary (careful with rosemary - it likes to show off and gets bitter if you add too much.  I didn't measure mine, but I'd say I used about half a teaspoon)
• rubbed sage (again, I didn't measure, but I'd say no more than 1/4 tsp or it overpowers the sauce)
• 1-2 small fresh mushrooms, sliced, or a can of sliced mushrooms.  
• about 1T of butter

1. In a small bowl, combine vinegar, mustard, honey, rosemary, and sage.  You may want to use a whisk to make sure that the honey combines in fully.  

2. Pat dry pork chop or whatever pork you're using.  If you're using a thick cut of pork, pound it flat with a meat tenderizer so that it cooks quickly in the pan.  Salt and pepper both sides of the pork.

3. In a lightly oiled skillet, brown the pork on both sides over med-high heat.  Add butter and mushrooms and saute until the mushrooms have started to brown a little bit.  

4. Turn on your exhaust fan or open a window.  When you pour the sauce into the hot skillet, the vinegar's going to be pretty pungent and it might irritate your eyes and throat a little.  Let the sauce thicken, and cook everything together until the pork reaches at least 145 degrees.  It won't take long if you're using thin cuts of meat, so watch it.

This is a good one to serve with egg noodles, but I had mine with brown rice with a side of steamed broccoli.  

And there you have it. Let me know if you tried this one.  If you cooked this to impress your future spouse, be sure to invite me to the wedding!

Oh look, two posts in a row!

New day, new recipe.   How's everyone hanging in there?

As promised, I'm going to lead with the recipe so you don't have to scroll through a page of rambling.  This is a recipe that is pretty quick and easy, and the ingredients are fairly inexpensive.  You can always splurge on fancier mushrooms or wine for the sauce, but if you only have a can of sliced mushrooms and cheap plonk available, this sauce will still be pretty impressive.

Chicken with Mushrooms in Cider/Wine Sauce

• 1 - 2 chicken tenderloins, thawed completely 
• 2 fresh mushrooms, sliced, or a small can of sliced mushrooms 
• 2 T of flour
• About 1 tsp of garlic powder, or more if you like your chicken with more garlic flavor
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 bottle of whatever light alcohol you have on hand. This recipe is pretty forgiving.  I made mine tonight with a bottle of IPA-style hard cider, but you can use any wine you happen to have on hand.  You can also use apple juice if you don't have anything harder on hand. 
• 2 T of unsalted butter (or more if necessary)
• 1/2 cup of egg noodles

1. In a zip-top baggie, combine flour, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Pat chicken tenderloins dry and add to baggie.  Now, put on "Hey Ya" and "Shake it like a Polaroid picture!".  (Fun fact, shaking Polaroids can actually cause the film to separate and cause bubbles in the picture, so it's recommended to just lay them flat.  But, by all means, shake that chicken bag.)  Get it good and coated.

2. Gentlemen, start your noodles! In a small sauce pan, cook your noodles according to package directions, but make sure you don't overcook them.  Meanwhile, melt butter over medium to med-high heat in a small skillet.  Once it's melted, add the coated chicken and brown on all sides.  Watch the butter, though. It likes to get a little TOO browned.

3. Pull that chicken out of the skillet and deglaze the pan with your alcohol of choice.  You don't have to use very much, just enough to make a light sauce.  Make sure to scrape the bottom to get all the lovely brown bits up.  Add your mushrooms and let it cook about a minute or two.  Add chicken back to pan and let it cook through.  Make sure that your chicken hits 165 on your thermometer, but make sure you don't burn your sauce, too.

4. By this point, your noodles are probably done.  Drain them, butter if necessary, and serve with your chicken and sauce.  Pairs nicely with a side salad and whatever was left over in the bottle.

Mine came out a little too brown, but it was still pretty tasty!

So, if you tried this at home, let me know how it came out, or if you made any changes.

I don't have anything to ramble about regarding this recipe.  This is a modification of a Chicken Marsala dish my mom makes at home.  Marsala wine isn't terribly expensive, so if you can get a bottle of it, try this sauce with Marsala wine.  It's lovely.

In which I post a recipe and a long absence is swept under the rug....

I was suddenly reminded that I have this blog.  I haven't updated this thing in, what, two years?  Yeesh.  But, now that I'm stuck at home because of the whole "social distancing" thing, I guess I can bring readers up to speed.  Not that I don't practice social distancing regularly anyway, but not out of concern for germs.  I just don't like crowds.  It takes me about a year of banking social energy to go to a convention, and then after a weekend, I'm all people'd out.  I digress.

It was suggested to me that I start posting recipes for things you can make for one person.  I enjoy cooking, and am constantly frustrated by the fact that many of the things I want have to be made in amounts large enough to feed a small army (ex: my grandma's pirogi recipe).  So, through trial and error, I've developed a few things that can be thrown together relatively easily, inexpensively, and quickly.  So, without further ado, here's the first recipe.  In the future, maybe I'll lead off with it.  I dunno.  We'll see what sticks.

This is a really quick, easy recipe.  It reheats pretty well, too, so it's good for lunch at work.

Chili-lime Sweet Potato Rice Bowl

• 1 small sweet potato, peeled and cubed
• Olive or vegetable oil
• Tajin chili lime fruit seasoning (Or you can use lime zest and chili powder.  I get this stuff at Aldi, and apparently it's supposed to be sprinkled on fruit, but it's also a nice chili lime seasoning for stuff like chicken, sweet potatoes, etc...)
• 2 T of black beans, rinsed (Canned black beans can be rinsed, portioned out into about 2T size amounts, and then frozen.  To use them later, you can thaw them out under hot water, and then you can serve as is.  I get about four little, tall, skinny square Rubbermaid containers out of one can of black beans.)
• Shredded cheese (or you can chop up one of those deli slices, your choice)
• Other vegetables and toppings (such as tomatoes, salsa, sour cream, etc)
• About half a cup of cooked brown or white rice.  Either works fine.  I like the nutty flavor of brown rice, but use whatever you have on hand.

1. In a small/med size bowl, toss sweet potato, enough olive oil to coat potato, and a generous amount of seasoning until well coated.  Spread onto a foil-lined jelly-roll pan (you know, those cookie sheets with a rim around them).  I use a rubber spatula to make sure that everything gets evenly coated and distributed.  

2. Set toaster oven to 350, and bake potato for about 30 minutes.  

3. Once the potato is cooked, scrape them into a paper-towel lined bowl to soak up any excess oil.  

4. Assemble the bowl.  Start with rice, then add potato, black beans, any other veggies and toppings, and top with rice.  If the potatoes or rice is still warm, a quick stir will melt the cheese pretty well.  If you're reheating this at work, set the cheese and any cold toppings aside until after you've reheated the rice, potato, and beans.  

This is a really basic recipe that you can dress up with pretty much anything else you have on hand.  I used steamed broccoli in the one I made this afternoon, or you can add kale (if you really must) or spinach.  

You can also turn it into a pretty tasty quesadilla by swapping out the rice for a tortilla, and adding some corn and cilantro to the black beans.  However, if you're going to make it into a quesadilla, I recommend either mashing the filling to keep the beans from flying out of the side of the quesadilla when you flip it (I'm still finding black beans in weird places in the kitchen), or just browning it in the toaster oven to melt the cheese and crisp up the tortilla.  

If anyone reading this decides to try this out for themselves, please let me know how it came out.  Did you make any changes?  What did you try?