Photo from America's Test Kitchen

First, the wraps: they came from America’s Test Kitchen (free registration required) and they were amazing. Every crazy step in that recipe, from toasting rice and making powder out of it to freezing chunks of pork tenderloin to grind up in the food processor, worked perfectly.

A word of warning: do not lean in to get a whiff of the pork as it cooks in the fish sauce and chicken broth. This is not a smell you will enjoy. But once the mixture is done, with the lime juice, fresh herbs, and shallots, oh, it’s wonderful. Especially all wrapped up in a lettuce leaf.

Second: brown rice! I put a cup of brown rice in a strainer, rinsed it, then put it in the rice cooker with 2.25 cups of water and two smashed garlic cloves. Ohhhhh, yummy, especially when soaking up the juice that leaked from the lettuce leaves as we ate them.

So – if you’re looking for a fresh tasting and delicious summer dinner, have at it. SO good. Yum.

I was searching for recipes with beans and sausage, since I want to eat as much fiber as possible, and I wanted to eat sausage. (Yes, there’s a joke in there somewhere, but I’m too tired to find it).

I found this recipe online for Kielbasa with Beans and Tomatoes. Y’all. IT WAS DELICIOUS. I modified by adding a bit more tomatoes (I had a can double the size of what the recipe called for, so I added some extra for additional tomatoes, which I love). I also did not have dried rosemary and substituted marjoram instead, which was just fine.

I served it with parmesan polenta that I haven’t made in forever. It’s also super easy.

2.5 cups water

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup fine corn meal

1/2 cup grated or shaved parmesan

Put the water and salt in a microwave-safe casserole and whisk until dissolved. Then whisk in the polenta. Cook for 4-5 minutes on high, until the polenta gets thick. You will have to whisk it together, and can stop the cooking after 2 minutes to do so, though sometimes I’m doing eight other things and can’t do it. It might be gloppy on the bottom but you can stir it together – but be careful because that mess is HOT.

Once you have the thickened polenta all stirred up, gradually add the parm while continuing to stir so the cheese gets all up in there (yes, that’s a culinary term). The consistency is like really hella thick mashed potatoes, so I put some in a big bowl and served the kielbasa and beans alongside. They were perfect together (much like New Jersey and you*).

*That is Tom Kean, former governor of New Jersey, and keeper of the most interesting Jersey accent in the history of the universe.

The whole meal took me about 25 minutes to put together and was awesome. Hubby also gave the meal 5 out of 5 stars, so we’ll be making it again soon.

Do you like kielbasa, or sausage meals? What’s your favorite recipe?

I was fortunate to have some pretty outstanding meals (made even better by the outstanding company) at a variety of restaurants, but there was one cocktail that outshone them all and that I’m still thinking about (and dying to make) even a week later.

On Thursday night, I went to M, which is a Cameron Mitchell restaurant. The food was divine, the service wonderful but the highlight of the meal was when I ordered and received a Black Orchid martini. Little did I know I was going to receive this…

Apologies for the poor picture quality (via my iPhone). The waiter brings a martini glass with a round ball of ice to the table. Within the ice is frozen an orchid flower. Once to the table, the waiter pours the martini over the round of ice and you now have a Black Orchid. But it wasn’t just the presentation of the martini that charmed me (though that helped) it was the taste. It was, simply put, delicious. Probably the best martini I’ve ever had, and I do like my martinis. So I asked for, and was graciously given, the recipe for the Black Orchid. Lucky, lucky us!

Black Orchid Martini recipe compliments of M, a Cameron Mitchel restaurant

1 oz Raspberry vodka (they use Belvedere…you should too better vodka makes for a better martini)

1 oz Elderflower liqueur (St. Germain)

1/2 oz simple syrup

1/2 oz fresh lemon juice

1 oz white cranberry juice

Shake and strain in a martini glass (props to you if you make ice balls with frozen flowers inside).

Enjoy!

Knockoff Baked Beans

Ingredients:
* 6-8 strips of thick cut bacon
* 1 beef strip steak or BBQ rib meat**
* 1 teaspoon steak seasoning (whichever brand you prefer)
* 8 oz Hillshire Farm smoked sausage
* 2 tablespoons bacon drippings
* 1 cup chopped onion
* 1 tablespoon diced jalapeno
* 2 (28 ounce) cans bush’s baked beans (whichever flavor you like)
* 1 (20 ounce) bottle your favorite brand/flavor barbecue sauce, I usually use a brown sugar bold sauce but anything goes

Directions

1.Fry bacon in a skillet until crisp. Drain, reserving 2 tablespoons of the drippings.
2. Chop or crumble the bacon and set aside.
3. Sprinkle steak with seasoning, grill or saute over high heat until medium. Cut into 1/2 inch cubes (you can do this first if you’re sauteeing).
4. Grill or saute sausage until nicely done. Slice the sausage length wise into halves then slice into quarters then cut quarters into cubes. (again, you can do this first if sauteeing).
5.Saute onions and jalapeno in reserved bacon drippings in a skillet until tender.
6. Stir in bacon, steak, sausage, beans and bbq sauce.
7. Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes stirring occasionally.

The flavor is enhanced if stored covered in the refrigerator for 8 to 10 hours and reheated just before serving.

**I included the original recipe instructions, which makes this sound like a LOT of work for baked beans, with all the meat you have to cook. The trick here is to throw leftover meat (steak, BBQ ribs or pork chops) already cooked and cut up into a baggie in the freezer. Even small amounts. Just keep adding to the same gallon-sized bag. Then, when you want to make these beans you’re 1) using something you might have otherwise thrown away and 2) not having to worry about cooking up the meat. You’ll just defrost it and give it a quick saute to heat it up a little.

In addition to the traditional matzoh, charoset, horseradish and assorted other Seder-y type foods, we’re serving:

Matzoh Ball Soup: using the Cooks’ Country recipe (Login required, I’m sorry!) and using the recipe on the side of the box for the Matzoh balls.

Hard boiled eggs and Deviled eggs.

Baby Spinach Salad with red onion, toasted almonds, and cranberries (recipe on the back of the Craisins bag). I’m omitting the feta, as some folks don’t like it.

Turkey breast, tenderloin and grilled rosemary potatoes – cooking by Hubby, recipes also from Cooks’ Country.

Meichel: matzoh farfel with mushrooms, from “Passover by Design,” by Susie Fishbein.

Steamed green beans

Dessert:

Berries with dark chocolate

Matzoh Bark!

Inspired by Angie’s recipe for cracker candy, I’m taking matzoh boards, and covering them with melted and boiled brown sugar and butter. After baking, I’m going to (very) liberally sprinkle them with pecans, sliced almonds, cranberries, dark chocolate chips, and salt. Yay!

Chag sameach!

As is often the case with me, this recipe first appeared on All Recipes, but I adapted it for my own use. Link is to original recipe.
Ground Beef Curly Noodles

Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Cook Time: 20 Minutes
Ready In: 30 Minutes
Servings: 6 (this would feed four people)

INGREDIENTS:

* 1 pound ground beef
* 2 (3 ounce) packages Beef flavored ramen noodles
* 1 (14.5 ounce) can Del Monte petite diced tomatoes (Petite diced are much smaller than any other canned tomatoes and easier to get into your kids because of their small size)
* 1 (10 ounce) can whole kernel corn

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Crumble in the ground beef, and cook until no longer pink, stirring frequently. Drain off grease.
2. Stir in the flavor packet from the noodles, tomatoes, and corn (with their juices). Break up the noodles slightly, and add them to the skillet. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes, or until noodles are tender. Stir occasionally to break up any clumps of noodles.

Notes:
**I specified Del Monte diced tomatoes because they have better flavor than Hunts (no really, they do). You could use any flavor of diced tomatoes but I do rec that you use petite.

**I used 2 packages of Ramen, Beef flavor (instead of one package of Ramen, Oriental). If you’re cooking for less people, just use one package. I liked the Beef flavor quite a bit.

**Josh put salsa on top of his and thought it really kicked up the taste, so you could try this too!

Both Josh and Brianna ate it and liked it. Our test of likeability is if Brianna says “mmmm” and Josh says he’d take it as leftovers for lunch.

This is an easy meal that costs well under $10, depending on how much you buy your beef for. Here’s a breakdown of what it cost me, since I coupon shop:

beef: 1.89/pound
corn: .35 a can (Green Giant corn)
tomatoes: .40 a can (Del Monte Garlic and Onion)
Ramen: .15/package

Total for dinner at my house, with enough leftovers for lunch for all three of us: approximately $2.94

While reading my mother in law’s old issues of Real Simple, I came across a site called Twitter feed that’ll get you 2 free weeks to try it out: click “Redeem a Voucher” at the top of the RelishRelish.com site, and enter code TS3PRDCH.

If you give it a spin, let me know what you think? I’m very curious about it, and love the idea from this week’s menu collection of making mini turkey meatloaf muffins for the kids.

Apricot-Glazed Pork Loin

Ingredients

1 pork loin (the size depends on how many people you’re feeding. Mine was a 2 lb loin)

2-3 garlic cloves, sliced into thin pieces (original recipe called for one clove but I used more. I like garlic)

1/2 cup apricot preserves (with whole fruit is good, maybe even preferable)

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin (or 1/2 teaspoon curry)

juice of 1/2 medium lemon

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Sea salt or Kosher salt

Ground pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat Oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil. Cut 6 (1-inch) slits evenly spaced across the top, insert the garlic pieces. Brush pork loin with EVOO and coat with salt and pepper. Let rest on top of oven for 20 minutes while oven is preheating.

2. In the meantime, in a small bowl combine apricot preserves, lemon juice, crushed red pepper, cumin with salt/pepper to taste. Set aside.

3. Bake pork loin in oven. Baking time depends on the size of your pork loin. Bake for 20 minutes then remove from oven and spread evenly with apricot mixture. Return the pork to the oven and roast for another 15 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 160 degrees (with pork, temperature is more important than roasting time).

4. Remove from oven and let rest 5 to 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

If you’re not familiar with Passover or with Seders, Passover aka Pesach, is a very important, super holy Jewish holiday (super holy as in, the first two and last two days of the holiday are like the Sabbath, during which you do not work) that takes place at home and with a full-on epic crap ton of food. Following the traditional Jewish holiday structure of ‘They tried to kill us. We won. Let’s eat,’ Passover is a commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt told with food. And wine. And more food. And more wine. And more of both.

You might have guessed that this is one of my favorite holidays.

Passover also means that for eight days, those who observe the holiday do not eat leavened bread. You’ll see matzoh in stores in biiiig packages. That’ll last about the week, maybe a little more. Some folks also clean out the house and remove every leavened bread product, then sweep the shelves and kitchen counters with a feather to make sure not one speck of chametz remains.

Passover is also among my favorite holidays because you celebrate at home with family. This will be the first year we’ve hosted a seder, and I’m very excited… and overwhelmed.

So, do you have a favorite recipe that you love during Passover? Would you share? Toda raba!

Mexican Casserole:

Ingredients:

2 lbs hamburger/ground beef

Taco seasoning (one or two packages, your choice)

1 can Rotel tomatoes

1 can Pinto beans

1 can chopped/diced green chiles, drained

1 jar queso (or a can of nacho cheese soup)

1 can sliced black olives

1 2-cup bag of mexican cheese or cheddar cheese

4 burrito size tortillas

1. Fry the hamburger thoroughly. While you’re doing that, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. Once hamburger is fried, add to it taco seasoning (no need for the water), a can of Rotel tomatoes (or just petite diced tomatoes, if you prefer less spicy…but why would you?), 1 can Pinto beans (again, optional), 1 can chopped green chiles, and the jar of queso or can of nacho cheese soup. Heat through.

3. Spray a casserole dish (I used my enamel cast iron heavy oven instead) with Pam. In the bottom, put 1/2 cup of the mixture. It won’t cover it, just spread it around, it’s to keep the first layer of tortilla from sticking to the bottom. So go ahead and put that tortilla down. Now, dividing the mixture into thirds, put 1/3 of mixture down, sprinkle with olives, put down a tortilla and repeat. End with a tortilla on top and cover with cheese and sprinkle last of black olives on top.

4. Bake the casserole, uncovered, for approximately 30 minutes. Turn it on broil for the last few minutes to get the cheese just right. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes. Slice like a pie and serve. The end.

Can be served with corn bread, a salad, Spanish rice or nothing at all if you’re lazy like me.