Wiener Schnitzel

So I mentioned it once before here, but because it was one of the best times in my life, I'm going to mention it again. During the year of 2008, I spent the months of September through December in Vienna, Austria (and a little bit elsewhere) living with an amazing Austrian family, learning the German language and learning about Austrian culture. I loved being there so much that I am always missing all of it with a little bit of my heart and I'm constantly trying to find ways to go back.

Anyway, one of my many favorite memories while I was there was staying in the cutest little city called Dorfgastein. Now for me, Dorfgastein is the quintessential essence of Austria. We got to hike through the snowy alps while we were there (mind you I didn't bring any hiking boots to Austria), watch some boys play fussball, eat breakfast in a little mountain cabin, and much more.

A view of the town in the valley, from our hike in the Alps - a dream, isn't it?

 But one of the things I remember most is going to mass on their Thanksgiving day. And although I am not catholic (read about my religion here) and my  German was pretty pathetic, I could still feel a spirit there, and it was an amazing experience. 

And for our thanksgiving dinner we were fed traditional Austrian Wiener Schnitzel. I think it was veal. But it was delicious. And since then schnitzel has always had a special place in my heart (or my stomach?) and I made it with a couple friends once when we got back to Utah, but my dear honey husband never tried it before, so finally I decided I needed to make it for him. And I used an Austrian cook book that was purchased in Vienna. And so this recipe is pure Austrian goodness.

And for your pleasure, I have translated into English :)

4 veal, pork or chicken cutlets (I used pork, but veal is the most common)
6 TBS flour
1 TBS salt
1 tsp pepper
3 eggs
1/2 cup italian bread crumbs
1 cup panko
vegetable oil
1 lemon

1. In a shallow large pan put about 1 inch of oil, and heat over medium low.
2. Beat each cutlet using a meat tenderizer or a heavy flat pan, between 2 pieces of plastic wrap until cutlets are about 1/4 inch thick.
3. Rinse the cutlets under cold water.
4. Dry with a paper towel.
5. Mix the flour with the salt and pepper in a small bowl.
6. Dip each cutlet into the flour mixture and cover completely.
7. In another bowl beat eggs.
8. In a third bowl combing Italian and Panko bread crumbs.
9. Dip each cutlet in the eggs and then cover in the bread crumbs.
10. Fry each cutlet in the oil for about 3 minutes on each side, until the breadcrumbs turn a golden brown color.
11. Cut lemon into wedges.
12. Serve each schnitzel with a lemon wedge.
13. Squeeze lemon juice over schnitzel and enjoy.**

**If you want to make the meal more American, you can dip the schnitzel pieces into ketchup or another sauce instead. Either way, its delicious.


PS. Wiener Schnitzel means Viennese Cutlet. Wien is Vienna in German, and its pronounced veen. :)

Creamy Pulled Pork Taquitos

If you have a small family like ours, or even if you don't, you might have the same problem as we do. Leftovers. What do we do with all of our leftovers? As a family of two, it seems like no matter how much halving of a recipe I do, we still end up with leftovers. So, we've embraced it. We learned from experience and a lot of wasted food that we don't eat leftovers from the same week very often. So, with the help of our food saver we are able to pack up our leftovers nice and air tight and freeze them. And then on another day when we're feeling lazy and not wanting to cook or if we're in a hurry we can just through them in the microwave to thaw, and reheat them however we want. Its wonderful.

But, this recipe is also a wonderful way to use leftover meat. We enjoyed this recipe with leftover meat from our Mexican Pulled Pork tacos, but if you have leftover shredded beef or chicken I am betting this would taste amazing with those too. And once you already have the meat ready (whether you choose to use my pulled pork or not) this recipe is super easy. And extra delicious too. Win win.

Recipe slightly inspired from Our Best Bites

2 - 3 cups Mexican Pulled Pork
3 oz cream cheese
1/2 (12 oz) can green salsa (in the aisle with enchilada sauces)
juice from 1 lime
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
10 tortillas large tortillas (or more small tortillas)
salt

1.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Spray a baking sheet with non stick spray.
3. Microwave cream cheese for about 30 seconds until soft.
4. In a large bowl combine pork, cream cheese, green salsa, lime juice and cheese. Mix well.
5. Take one tortilla and place about 3 TBS of pork mixture on the lower half of the tortilla.
6. Roll the tortilla up as tight as you can.
7. Place taquitos on baking pan with the seam side down.
8. Lightly spray the tops of the taquitos with non stick spray and sprinkle with salt.
9. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until they are crispy and the ends turn golden brown.
10. Enjoy dipped in some salsa, sour cream or guacamole. Yum!

Ps. We only ate 7 (of the 10) taquitos the first day, and put the rest in the fridge. They tasted great again the second day (as leftovers!) and next time we make these we'll probably make a lot more so we can freeze some and have them ready to go.

What do you do with your leftovers?

Mexican Pulled Pork

Remember here, where I talked about easy vs difficult crock pot recipes. This is one that would definitely fall in the very easy category. Throw everything in the crock pot, and just shred the meat when its done. Use this delicious meat for tacos, enchiladas, burritos, nachos, or however you'd like.

2 (8 oz) cans of tomato sauce
1 TBS chili powder
1 TBS cumin
2 TBS brown sugar
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 TBS minced garlic
1 1/2 lbs pork loin
1 cup of corn (optional)

1. Put tomato sauce, chili powder, cumin, brown sugar, cayenne, salt and garlic in your crock pot. Stir well.
2. Add your pork into the crock pot and cover with sauce.
3. Cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 5.
4. Shred pork using 2 forks.
5. Drain pork juice through a collander.
6. Enjoy in whatever Mexican food you'd like. We had ours in tacos. Yum!

Lentil Soup

My dear friend Mahana shared this recipe with me.  I was at her home for a bread making lesson and she realized that I came straight from work and had not had time to eat lunch. She warmed up her lentil soup and I immediately asked for the recipe.  Mahana is a wonderful cook and she changes the flavor of dishes by the spices she add.  She has also made this using paprika, cumin, chili, marjoram or curry; and not necessary in any particular combination.  I used an Italian based seasoning because it was what I had and trusted.  If you like to experiment you can try different combinations of the other spices and see what you like. 

1 1/2 cups dried lentils
1 cup barley or 1 cup balsamic rice
2 cups chicken broth
1 small onion chopped
1/2 cup dried celery (you can use fresh celery,  if you do reduce the amount of water used)
approximately 8 cups of water
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 to 2 cups diced ham (not deli but good spiral ham, I used some I had frozen left over from Easter dinner) or mini sausage links or horseshoe sausage (sliced)
2 Tbs crushed parsley
1 1/2 Tbs crushed oregano
1 Tbs. crushed basil
1/2 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. white pepper

Heat oil in a deep saucepan or pot.  Chop onions and slice meat (if you use the mini links you can leave them whole).  Place onions in the hot oil, (if using fresh celery add now) add meat and saute until onions are translucent.  Add chicken broth, make sure you scrape any particles of meat and onions off the bottom of the pan to incorporate the flavor in the soup.  Add lentils, barley or rice and spices (if using dried celery add at this time), stir in 2 cups of water or enough to cover the lentils and barley by 1 inch.  Simmer for about 1 hour until lentils and barley are soft.  Stirring regularly and adding more water as needed; 1 to 2 cups at a time. I probably cooked this for about 1 1/2 hours and added water every 20 to 30 minutes.  Our soup was thick, but still felt like soup.

Once lentils and barley or rice is soft.  Serve.  We had fresh fruit and warm bread, I think a salad would be delicious with this too.

This makes a lot of soup.  We had enough for dinner, leftovers for another whole meal and froze enough for 2 more dinners for us.

Slow Cooker Pork Enchiladas

Have I told you yet how much I love Mexican food? Especially enchiladas. Probably 95% of the time that I go to a Mexican restaurant I order chicken enchiladas. ** 

But these pork enchiladas did not disappoint. I know on multiple accounts I've shared my love for cooking food in the crock pot. And coming home from church to this pork cooking was as good as anything. We all loved the taste of this pork, and I love the texture that it gets from cooking in the crock pot. Also, I have developed a deep love for cumin. The smell, the taste, its just perfect.

So, please enjoy this delicious recipe for me. I know you won't be dissapointed. 

 

 

Slow Cooker Pork Enchiladas

2 lb pork roast

14 oz chicken broth

1/2 onion, chopped

2 TBS chopped garlic

1 TBS cumin

1 TBS chili powder

1 tsp salt

28 oz red enchilada sauce

4 oz green chiles, diced

10 medium sized tortillas 

8 oz Mexican blend cheese

1. Combine pork, chicken broth, onion, and spices in a slow cooker.

2. Cook on high for 4 to 5 hours or on low for 7-8 hours.

3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

4. Remove pork from crock pot and shred using 2 forks.

5. In a large bowl, combine pork, 3/4 cup enchilada sauce and 1/4 cup liquid (from the crock pot).

6. In another bowl combine remaining enchilada sauce, 1/2 cup liquid and green chiles.

7. Spread 1/2 cup of the enchilada sauce mixture on the bottom of a 3 quart baking dish.

8. Divide pork mixture and half of cheese between the tortillas.

9. Roll tortillas and place them in the baking dish, seam side down.

10. Cover tortillas with the remaining enchilada sauce mixture.

11. Cover pan with foil.

12. Bake for 25 minutes.

13. Remove foil and sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

14. Bake for another 5 minutes, until cheese is thoroughly melted.

15. Enjoy topped with your favorite salsa, cilantro and sour cream.

 

**My favorite enchiladas are from the restaurant Rosa's in Fallbrook, CA (where I'm from). Although I get enchiladas almost every time I eat at a Mexican restaurant I still haven't found anything to surpass my love for Rosa's chicken enchiladas. And although I loved the recipe I used here, they still weren't as good as Rosas. And I'm still on the quest to find the best enchilada sauce recipe. So if you have one that is THE BEST, please share it with me. As I am desperate out of lack of ability to travel to Rosa's anytime I'd like. Please and Thank You.

Featured on:

Crock Pot Brown Sugar Balsamic Pork Roast

Guess what?! I am finally back! Okay okay, so I've actually been back home since Monday evening (sorry!) but I started teaching night classes as well as my morning classes, so now Tuesday thru Thursdays I only am home for 1 hour (or less) in between my two jobs, and I surprisingly didn't want to spend the whole time cooking dinner, and none of the time eating dinner. So, finally on Thursday I decided I was going to make something in the crock pot.

But, in case you want to know, we had a wonderful time in Montana this last week. If you want to know more about our trip, read here. It was absolutely beautiful while we were there and the weather couldn't have been better either. It was great! The natural beauty of Montana, with its mountains, lakes, streams, rivers, trees and flowers is absolutely astounding. Nate was a little disappointed that Missoula had casinos, but was happily greeted by the beautiful towns next to Flathead Lake (On our way to Glacier) and decided we could buy a summer home there. Oh the life.

Top Row: Flowers on the side of the river. A tree growing in the reservoir. Missoula Farmers Marker
Second Row:  Mountain Goats that slowed our drive down about an hour. Stacking rocks waiting for good fishing. The Bitterroot River
Third Row: Butterfly on our hike. My first fish, fly fishing. The essence of Montana
Last Row: One of the fish Nate caught. Glacier National Park. A deer blocking our hiking path.


Anyway, this pork was really delicious, mine didn't turn out quite as beautiful as it did here (where I got the recipe from) but don't let the slightly unbeautiful picture fool you, this was pretty tasty. And once I get around to repeating recipes this will definitely be on the list.

2 lbs boneless pork loin

1 tsp ground sage

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 TBS crushed garlic

1 cup water

Glaze

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 TBS cornstarch

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1. Combine sage, salt, pepper and garlic.
2. Rub seasonings over roast.
3. Put roast and water in crock pot.
4.  Cook roast on low for 6 to 8 hours.
5. Meanwhile, combine ingredients for glaze in a small sauce pan.
6. Heat over medium until mixture thickens, stirring occasionally.
7. About one hour before roast is done brush roast with glaze.
8. Brush roast another 2 times in the last hour.
9. Serve with remaining sauce on the side. **

**I dipped my meat into the sauce as I ate it, Nate just drizzled some on before and didn't need to add more while eating it. Also, he ate it in a pita, but I think it would taste really good over rice.

What are some of your family's favorite quick and delicious recipes?

I'm pretty permanently working 10.5 hour days Tues-Thurs now, so I need as many as you can give me!

Crock Pot Pork Roast with Sweet Gravy

I wish I could claim some of these recipes for myself, but I just steal them off other's blogs and eat them and fall in love with their food. I found this recipe off Jamie Cooks It Up and adapted it to fit what I had in the kitchen. So here it goes -

1 pork loin roast

2 packages country gravy mix

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup Newman's Own Light Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

1/4 cup Yoshida's Original Gourmet Sweet & Savory Sauce

1 clove garlic minced

1/4 onion sliced and chopped

salt and pepper

Spray crock pot with Pam to help with clean up afterwards. Place pork loin roast in crock pot and cook on high for 3 to 4 hours or 8 to 9 on low. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle onion over the top.

Place water, brown sugar, dressing, sauce and garlic in bowl and mix together then pour over pork roast. Cook.

After pork roast is done take out of crock pot and let sit for 5 minutes before cutting. Pour left over marinade in pan skimming fat off, mix in gravy packages and bring to a light boil.

Sit down to eat with gravy over the pork roast, enjoy. I was licking my plate clean.

Cafe Rio Pork

Cafe Rio Pork:
2 pounds pork
3 cans coke
1 1/4 cup brown sugar
a dash of garlic salt
1/4 cup water
1 can sliced green chiles
3/4 can enchilada sauce

1.Marinade pork in 1 1/2 can of coke and 1/4 cup brown sugar for a few hours (or overnight)
2.Drain marinade.
3. Put pork, 1/2 can coke, water and garlic salt in the crock pot. On high for 3-4 hours, on low for 6-8.
4. Remove pork and drain liquid.
5. Shred pork.
6. Blend 1/2 can coke, chilies, enchilada sauce and brown sugar.
7. Put pork and sauce in crock pot on low for 2 hours.

Nate and I made this for dinner a while back. It was so good, the meat tasted almost identical to Cafe Rio. The only problem was we had too much. We each probably ate 4 or 5 burritos from this meal throughout the week, so by the end of the week we were pretty sick of it.