Kung Pao Pork and Noodles

I found this recipe in one of my cook books and decided to try it out. I used some of my Pork Roast meat from my freezer, but you could use whatever.

What you need:

1 TBS vegetable oil

1 bag (1 lb) broccoli slaw mix (you can use regular cole slaw if you want but you miss out on the great texture the broccoli gives)

1 lb pork boneless loin, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1 med. red bell pepper, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup spicy Szechuan stir fry sauce (I didn't want spicy so I went with regular stir fry sauce)

1 TBS honey

1 pkg (6-7oz) rice stick noodles

2 tsps sesame or vegetable oil

2 TBS salted peanuts

What to do:

1.Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add vegetable oil; rotate skillet to coat bottom. Add slaw mix; stir-fry 2-3 minutes or until crispy/tender. Remove broccoli slaw from skillet; keep warm.

2. Start a pot of water boiling for the noodles. Add pork to same skillet you cooked the slaw in; stir-fry over medium high heat 5-6 minutes or until brown. Stir in bell pepper and water. Cover and cook 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until pork is tender. Stir in stir-fry sauce and honey; reduce heat. Simmer uncovered 1-2 minutes.

3. Add noodles to the boiling water. Boil 3 minutes; drain. In large bowl, toss noodles and sesame oil. Divide noodles among 4 individual serving bowls. Top with broccoli slaw and pork mixture. Sprinkle with peanuts.

Sweet and Sour Pork

This is another one of the dishes that I make with my Pork Roast. It's quick and easy and yummy.

What you need:

1 bag cooked pork meat (see Pork Roast post)

1 bell pepper, chopped into bite size pieces

pineapple chunks (however many you think looks like enough)

1 onion, diced

1 can/bottle sweet and sour sauce(whatever you can find at the store)

cooked rice

What you do:

Saute your onion and pepper in a little bit of oil. You don't want your veggies totally mushy, but you don't want them raw either. You decide how crunchy you want them to be. Toss in the rest of your ingredients and cook until hot all the way through. Serve on top of your rice and enjoy!

Southwest Spaghetti Pie

Abigail participated in the 4-H Favorite Food Contest again this year. She wanted to make Stuffed Manicotti but we found out that it would take longer to bake than the time she was given, so she decided on this dish instead. She worried that a casserole would be ordinary, and it doesn't look very fancy, but it tastes delicious! She won the red ribbon in the Junior category and had lots of fun at the contest. She chose her place setting with Stuffed Manicotti in mind and she got dinged a couple of points on her score card because the judge felt that she should have had a more southwestern theme reflected on her table.  But, she'll have a chance to change the place setting when she goes to the district food contest later. I've posted more about the contest here.

Southwest Spaghetti Pie

6 oz. uncooked spaghetti, broken into thirds
½ lb. lean ground beef
½ cup chopped green and red bell peppers
1 cup prepared salsa
1 can (15 oz.) diced tomatoes, do not drain
1 can (15 oz.) black beans, drained and rinsed
¾ cup frozen corn, thawed
½ -1 teaspoon cumin, according to taste
6 oz. (1 ½ cups) shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
½ cup small curd Cottage cheese
1 egg

Cook the spaghetti just to al dente. Drain and set aside. Meanwhile heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 1 ½ quart casserole with nonstick cooking spray. Cook ground beef with peppers until no longer pink, stirring often. Drain. Stir in salsa, tomatoes, black beans, corn and cumin. Cook 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Stir in ½ cup of the cheese.

Beat egg in a medium bowl until well blended and foamy. Add cottage cheese and cooked spaghetti; toss to coat. Spoon spaghetti mixture into sprayed casserole. Spoon meat mixture on top of spaghetti. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Sprinkle remaining 1 cup cheese over top and return to oven for 10 minutes or until crust is light golden brown. Let sit for 10 minutes or so before serving. Makes 6 servings.

Vernal Equinox and St. Patti's Day Dinner

Cameron wanted to do an Irish meal for St. Patrick's Day, but we were gone to Mesa for a fabulous wedding on that day, so we decided to make our Vernal Equinox meal do double duty. Sunday the 20th was the Vernal Equinox, so we had the dinner then. Ed and Kayleen (just friends), came to visit us for the weekend, so we included them in the dinner and had a ball.

We found pint glasses at Dollar Tree (for a buck each), and then Kayleen helped me come up with a cool way to fold the napkins. I found the fabric in the discount bin at WalMart, but it wasn't quite big enough to be a table cloth, so I just put it as a runner, and then found a green crocheted washcloth that I hadn't used yet (so it was still crisp and pretty) and put the beeswax candles on it as a center piece. Simple, but it did the job.

Here's what we had to eat:

Corned Beef

Cabbage

Boiled Potatoes

Green Bean Casserole

Green Trifle for dessert

and to drink...

Cream Soda! (not Irish, but it looks like Ale in the pint glasses, lol)

We had a lot of fun with this, and stuffed ourselves silly.

Cabbage and Potatoes

We had sautéd cabbage and boiled potatoes as 2 of our side dishes for the equinox/Irish dinner. Both were pretty simple, so I didn't want to make 2 separate posts for them.

Cameron sauted the cabbage (along with chopped onion) in butter, a little bit of bacon grease (he loves cooking with bacon grease), and some of the brine/juice from boiling the Corned Beef.

Cameron boiled the potatoes in the leftover juice/brine/water from boiling the Corned Beef. I think he had to add a little bit of water just so there'd be enough.

Corned Beef

This was oh so yummy! When Cameron told me that he was making Corned Beef, I cringed. The only corned beef I'd ever known was the hash out of a can...needless to say I was hesitant. I was quite glad to learn that it also came roast style.

We found this Corned Beef at WalMart-giver of all good and evil.

• Cameron put the raw corned beef in a pot of cold water and then stuck it on the stove.
• When the water got to boiling, Cameron took the roast out and put it in a pan and covered it 1/2 way with the water/juice it was just boiling in, and then placed it in the oven (at 325) for 1 1/2 - 2 hours.

That's it! It was simple but really tasty.

French's Green Bean Casserole

I loved this. Cameron...not so much. The picture makes it look nasty, but it was oh so yummy (Ed and Kayleen thought so too).

Even though this isn't Irish, we chose it because it's green (well, under the onion pieces on top it's green) and I wanted one other side dish for our Equinox/Irish dinner.

Ingredients:

1 (10 3/4 oz.) can CAMPBELL'S® Cream of Mushroom Soup

3/4 cup milk

1/8 tsp. black pepper

2 (9 oz. each) pkgs. frozen cut green beans, thawed*

1 1/3 cups FRENCH'S® Original or Cheddar French Fried Onions

Directions:

MIX soup, milk and pepper in a 1 1/2 -qt. baking dish. Stir in beans and 2/3 cup French Fried Onions.

BAKE at 350°F for 30 min. or until hot.

STIR. Top with remaining 2/3 cup onions. Bake 5 min. until onions are golden.