Sweet Pork Enchiladas with Homemade Refried Beans!

Here is one of my favorite recipes, I can't believe I haven't shared it yet. Maybe it's because I like it so much I don't want anyone else to have it! Just kidding, this is too good not to share. Sweet Pork is a Utah favorite from the likes of Cafe Rio and Costa Vida. We have dabbled in finding a good recipe before, but this one has become the clear favorite in our house. With the addition of easy homemade refried beans, this will become a staple when you meal plan.

Sweet Pork

2 lb pork loin roast (I've said this before, Costco sells the best pork loin roasts ever. They come in packs of four for about $12) 

- 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder

- 1 tsp cumin

- 1 1/2 tsp molasses

- 1 can yellow El Pato sauce (it's in the Mexican foods section. It's a small yellow can with a duck on it. Usually costs about $.60 )

- 2 small cans of tomato sauce

- 3/4 cup brown sugar

- 2 cups Dr. Pepper (try not to use the cheap knock-off stuff, we could tell a difference when we did)

- Salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients in a crockpot. Add the pork loin. Cook in on low for at least 8 hours. Remove from crockpot and shred it in a large sauce pan with about 3-4 cups of left over sauce from the crockpot. Simmer it on the stove top until the liquid reduces to a really thick sauce. Salt and pepper to taste. 

Homemade Refried Beans

2 Tbsp. of oil

2 cans of pinto beans (with it's juices)

2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 yellow onion, minced

Salt and Pepper

In a large frying pan on medium high, add the oil and the onion. Sauté the onion until translucent. Add the garlic and sauté for about 30 seconds until the garlic is golden brown. Add the two cans of beans and mix. Cook covered for about  5 minutes until the beans start boiling and soften a bit. With a potato masher, mash the beans until you obtain the consistency that you want. At first it will seem really soupy, but the more you mash and mix the more the starches will thicken up the beans. Take off the heat and add salt and pepper to taste. 

Sweet Pork Enchiladas with Homemade Refried Beans

Sweet Pork (from recipe above)

Refried Beans (from recipe above)

Colby Jack Cheese, shredded

8-10 Flour Tortillas

Toppings (Sour cream, salsa, lettuce, etc.)

In a flour tortilla, add some refried bean, sweet pork, and shredded cheese. Roll up the tortilla and add to a greased glass casserole dish. Add enchiladas until the dish is full. sprinkle a lot of cheese over the enchiladas until mostly covered. Top with foil and place in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, take the foil off and cook for 5-10 minutes more, or until the cheese gets bubbly.  Take out of the oven and let cool for a bit. Serve and top with your favorite toppings and enjoy. 

These are so good, and they get better as leftovers. I hope you enjoy them.

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Creamy Corn Chowder

Well world, we are again going to try and make an attempt to keep this recipe blog up to date. A lot has happened to us in the past year since we have blogged. We had a baby, sold our home, moved in with the in-laws while looking for a home, started a Masters program, and finally bought a home much closer to my work. Now that things are starting to settle again, we can start experimenting and testing out recipes. Our first attempt: Creamy Corn Chowder.

A few days ago I met up with some of my study group at a restaurant in SLC called Blue Lemon. I've been there many times, but this time they had Corn Chowder as the special of the day. I have always been a huge fan of corn soups so I got it. It was pretty awesome. It made we want more. So I decided to try to recreate it at home. While researching recipes I found that there were a lot that used fresh corn rather than canned or frozen corn. With it being November, it's pretty hard to find fresh corn without it being really expensive. A lot of recipes I found also had negative comments saying that they were bland and watery. So I decided to try to make ours like a broccoli and cheese soup. Needless to say, it was a big success. So here is my version:

(Sorry for no pictures yet, I didn't know how this recipe will turn out, but I know we will be making it again soon so i'll take pictures then)

Creamy Corn Chowder

6 Strips of bacon
2 Tbs butter
1 large onion, diced
1 rib of celery, diced
1 garlic cove, crushed and diced (for soups I like using the jar minced garlic you can get at the store, it's a bit milder than fresh garlic)
2 cups of chicken stock
4-5 potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1/4" cubes
2 cans of creamed corn
1 pound of frozen corn
Pinch of cayenne pepper
2 cups of heavy cream (I'm sure you could use half and half, I just had cream on hand)
1 Tbs flour
1/2 Tbs of sugar
1 Tbs of water and 1 Tbs of corn starch mixed to create a slurry (optional)
1/2 cup of shredded monterey cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste (and taste a lot to make sure you don't over salt)


1. In a large pot, cook the bacon on medium high until they are pretty crispy. Remove the bacon and set aside keeping it's drippings in the pot. There should be about two tablespoons of drippings, if there is more, then I would remove all but 2 tablespoons.

2. Add the diced onions and celery. Cook the vegetables, stirring occasionally, until they become translucent, probably 4-5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute more.

3. Add the butter, potatoes, chicken stock, creamed corn, and 1/2 of the frozen corn. Stir to combine and bring to a boil. Put a lid on the pot and let boil until the potatoes get soft. This may take 15-20 minutes so keep testing the potatoes. Once they are soft, turn the heat down to a low simmer. (Make sure it is not boiling anymore)

4. In a separate bowl, mix the flour and the cream until the flour is dissolved. Slowly add the cream to the chowder. Add the cayenne pepper and sugar. Let the chowder simmer (not come to a boil) for about 10-15 minutes. Taste as you go and adding salt or pepper to taste. Again, don't overdo it since this can get salty really quick.

5. (Optional) If the chowder is seeming a little thin for your liking, then you can add the slurry of water and corn starch. This should help thicken up the chowder.

6. Just before you are ready to serve, add the cheese and remaining half of the frozen corn. Test again for flavor, adding salt or pepper to taste. If you want the soup to be a little more sweet, add a little bit more sugar. Let cook until the frozen corn is now fully cooked, about 1-3 minutes.

7. Serve with the crumbled bacon on top and chopped chives. Enjoy!

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Dutch Baby, Baby!

About a year and a half ago, I was up really late at night just flipping channels and landed on a network called "Create TV." Create is a PBS station that only shows TV programs that deal with DIY stuff like cooking, crafts, and home repair. I became obsessed with this channel. For a long time it was always on at our house. And what got me so obsessed was America's Test Kitchen and Cooks Country. These two shows inspire me every time I watch. I watched it so much that our little boy (who is 7 months now) can recognize the theme song and loves to sit and watch it with me. I had to get their cookbook, so Laura got me their America's Test Kitchen: The Complete TV Show Cookbook  that has all of the recipes from all 11 seasons of their show. We have been going through the recipes and every single one turns out to be our favorite. So you will probably see a lot of their recipe's, with our own little tweaks, show up on this blog. But I have to say, you need to watch their show, it's definitely one of the best cooking shows out there.

But one day I watched them make whats called a Dutch Baby. I have always known these as German Pancakes, but theirs looked so much more amazing than any German pancake I had ever been served. So we had to try it. The recipe is super easy, super quick, and tastes incredible. Perfect for those lazy Saturday mornings or when you want to have breakfast for dinner.

Dutch Baby

Adapted from Cook's Country by America's Test Kitchen

1-2 Tb vegetable oil
1 C flour
1/4 C cornstarch
a few scrapes of Lemon zest
1 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 1/4 c milk (they prefer skim milk but we used 1% and it was just as good)
1 Tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
Powdered sugar
Maple syrup
Whipped cream

Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees.  Brush the oil on the bottom and sides of an oven-proof skillet. Place the oiled skillet into the heated oven for 10 minutes.

Combine flour, cornstarch, lemon zest and salt in a large bowl. Whisk eggs then add the milk, butter, and vanilla and whisk until incorporated.  This is important: whisk about half of the egg mixture into the flour mixture until smooth. This will prevent any lumpiness. Once smooth, add the rest of the egg mixture.

Pull out the hot skillet from oven and carefully pour the batter into the skillet.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until edges are crispy and golden brown. Remove from oven and slide the dutch baby onto a cutting board. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with your favorite french toast toppings. I really like the classic maple syrup and whipped cream, where Laura likes berries. The recipe also recommends just squeezing lemons on it.

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4th of July Soda Grilled Brats

This Fourth of July I was having the biggest craving for bratwurst. Gross! is how my wife reacted when I told her. I've always had a fond love for bratwursts. They always bring me back to when my family would visit Leavenworth, WA, a small Germany alpine town  tucked in the mountains just outside of Seattle. If you get a chance, I highly recommend visiting. Every time we would go, we would stop at this small sausage shack and get an authentic German Brat. I haven't had one in years so I felt that we had to try it this year. Someone mentioned to Laura's mom that the best way to cook brats is to boil them in beer or some sort of soda. It gave me the idea to par-cook the sausages in the liquid, then take them to the grill and finish them off. I also wanted to see if there was a difference between cooking them in Coke or Sprite. So we did two batches. The coke ones were good but I preferred the Sprite ones, they were amazing and super juicy! Even Laura agreed they were pretty good. Here's the recipe:

Soda Grilled Bratwursts

6-8 Bratwursts (I prefer the natural casing ones but sometimes they are hard to find. I think we got ours at costco)
2 cans of Sprite (or Coke)
Buns and toppings

So this is super simple. Just put the sprite in a pot and get it boiling. Place the brats in the soda and let it boil for about 5 minutes until they are really plump and grey. Take them out of the soda and put them on a grill preheated to med-high. Grill until golden brown and crispy, about 6-8 minutes turning occasionally.

This was so simple and easy, I think I'm going to make it a Fourth of July tradition.

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Awesome Tomato Basil Soup/Grown-Up SpaghettiO's

When I was a kid, I was succumbed to eat different varieties of the Chef Boyardee and SpaghettiO's line of canned spaghetti in tomato sauce. I was particularly fond of the spaghettiO's with meatballs. Of course, as a child you never realize the quality of food you are eating just as long as it was quick to make and tasted somewhat decent. I have forgotten the days of those canned spaghetti products until a few days ago when Laura and I were experimenting with a recipe for a Tomato Basil soup. A friend gave us about 20 leaves of fresh basil and we needed to find a way to use them before they went bad. We made this soup and it was pretty good. However, then next day we had a stroke of genius and added some pasta to the soup and made our own amazing "grown-up version" of SpaghettiO's. So here is the Tomato Basil soup recipe along with the optional step to make it the Grown Up SpaghettiO's.

Tomato Basil Soup

Ingredients:

1 28oz. can of whole peeled tomatoes (or 5-6 fresh tomatoes)

4 cups of tomato juice (1 quart can)

15-20 leaves of fresh basil

1 cup of heavy whipping cream

1-2 tsp. of chicken bullion to taste

2 cloves of garlic

7 tbls. of butter

1/3 cup of Parmesan cheese

Salt and Pepper to taste

Optional:

1/2 pound of rotini pasta

In a large stock pot, place tomatoes and tomato juice and heat on medium. Simmer for 25-30 minutes. Add the garlic, bullion, and chopped basil leaves to the tomatoes and puree with a immersion blender or remove and puree in a stand blender and return to pot. Keep on medium heat and add the heavy cream, parmesan, and the butter. Season with salt and pepper and stir until the butter melts. Simmer for 10-20 minutes and serve.

To the Grown-Up SpaghettiO's, cook the rotini pasta until done and add to the soup. It is so amazing and even better the next day!

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Sweet Pork and Creamy Tomatillo Ranch Dressing

While living in Provo a few years ago, we became friends with a really fun couple, the Noordas. They, like us, were major foodies. One day they shared this recipe with us and we were blown away. They have since moved to Chicago but we still think of them every time we make these recipes. (and we hope they don't mind us sharing their recipes with everyone on our blog)

There has been an explosion of Tex-Mex type restaurants in the past 5 or 6 years around us. They all pretty much serve the same type of food, large salads, burritos, and tacos. They are all pretty much known for their sweet pork and Creamy Tomatillo Ranch Dressing. Laura and I spent a while trying to find a replica recipe for these and failed to recreate them. Then the Noordas shared their version with us and we have been making it ever since. So thanks to the Noordas for this awesome recipe!

Sweet Pork

1 big hunk of pork butt (again we highly recommend the pork roasts available at Costco, if there is one nearby)

2 cans "el pato" (green or yellow cans in the Mexican aisle by the salsas & enchilada sauce. Just an FYI: the yellow can is milder than the green can)

3 cans of tomato sauce

2-3 cups of brown sugar

1 cup of water

We like to cook this on low in the crock pot for up to 8+ hours. By that time it should be really soft and easy to pull apart with a fork or tongs. Put the shredded meat back in and cook for a little longer to get the flavors to penetrate the shredded meat. Serve in any of your favorite styles of Mexican dishes. We really like it with taco salads and large burritos, but our new favorite is making large nachos.

Creamy Tomatillo Ranch Dressing

3 fresh tomatillos, peeled and quartered

juice of a lime

1/2 c. buttermilk

1/2 c. mayo

1/2 c. sour cream

a pkg dry Ranch Buttermilk Dressing mix

1 c. fresh chopped cilantro

6 stalks green onions, with ends

2 cloves crushed garlic

3-4 tsp sugar

5 cross-section slices of a jalapeno pepper(optional if you want a kick)

Mix well in blender or food processer. Refrigerate for at least one hour before serving.

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Bruschetta

So the other night we watched Julie and Julia which made us really want to cook again. And of all the dishes cooked in the movie, Laura was fascinated with the Bruschetta. So we had to try it out the Julia Child way. We first tried this recipe over the holidays in Seattle with my family and have made it almost twice a week since then, they are that good! Here's the recipe:


Easy (but addicting) Bruschetta

5-6 Roma tomatoes (or plum tomatoes)
Olive Oil
Garlic Cloves
Fresh Basil
Parmesan Cheese
Bread (traditional Baguette or we used French bread and really liked it)
Salt and Pepper
Italian Seasoning

Cube tomatoes and finely chop about 5-7 leaves of basil and place in a mixing bowl. Also add about a 1/4 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese to the bowl. Pour about 2 tablespoons of olive oil over the tomato mixture and combine. Sprinkle some Italian Seasoning and Salt and pepper to taste. Let that sit in the fridge for a while so the tomatoes will take on some of the flavor of the basil. Next, slice the bread in 1' slices. Coat the bottom of a skillet with olive oil and place on med-high heat. When hot, add the bread and brown on both sides. You may have to keep adding more oil to make the bread crispy. Peel a garlic clove and cut it in half. Rub the garlic clove on one side of the toasted bread. How much garlic you rub is up to your taste in garlic, but 5-6 rubs works good for us. Place the tomato mixture on the garlic side of the bread and enjoy!

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