Cuban Sandwiches

Have I ever told you how much my family loves to take a concept and run wild with it until it's been exaggerated to death? And of course you know we love NFL football and betting and eating snack and drinking beer. So imagine the fun we had combining the two this week! So my sister and I were discussing our football tickets for this week. And then from there - and I don't know quite how it evolved, we got to talking about the different cities that have NFL teams. And which cities we liked the most and which ones we'd like to visit some day. And being as we are, we decided to do a Sexy City ticket. That's right. We chose what we decided were the 6 sexiest cities in the NFL and bet on them. And since Miami was deemed to be one of those sexy cities, and won the Thursday Nighter, I was inspired to make Cuban Sandwiches for snack this week. That is one sexy snack for two sexy sisters, and a sexy city 6 pick ticket! So let's have some fun with that.

You'll need:
A 1 or 2 pound pork shoulder roast, depending on how many sandwiches you want to make. I used a 2 pound to make about 10 sandwiches. The roast is really the key to give your sandwiches good flavour and I slow cooked mine the day before.
Salt and pepper to season
1 tablespoon of ground cumin
1 tablespoon of dried oregano
1/4 cup olive oil
4 cloves of smashed garlic
1/2 teaspoon of dried red chili flakes
1 sliced onion
1 cup of orange juice
zest and juice of a lime
1 cup of chicken broth
2 bay leaves
Bread. Not a baguette. If you can't find a Cuban roll, I used Portuguese buns
10 slices of Swiss Cheese
Bread and butter pickles
10 slices of Black Forest ham.
Salt and Pepper and olive oil to brush on the bread
A Panini or sandwich grill if you have one. Otherwise use a skillet and smash the sandwich down with a plate with a brick on it. And flip after 3 or 4 minutes on medium heat. Just to golden and your cheese is melted.

So let's get at that pork roast. Just of note, this is an amazingly delicious way to cook a pork roast and I would use it as main if I wasn't in the mood for Cuban Sandwiches.
Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven on medium heat and add the garlic and chili flakes. Season the roast with the salt and pepper and rub in the cumin and oregano. Brown it in the oil on all sides and add the onion, bay leaves, lime juice and zest and orange juice and broth. Cover and place in a preheated 300 degree oven and cook for about 3 1/2 hours. Remove the meat and set aside. Boil down the remaining juices in the pan until they're reduced by half or a bit more. You want it to be like a gravy consistency. Press it through a sieve and let it cool down. Put it in a squeeze bottle and refrigerate it. And you just made you own homemade sub sauce! Imagine that! Let it come back down to room temperature before you make your sandwiches.

To assemble your sandwiches, slice open the bun and add some of your sub sauce to each side. Layer the sliced pork, then cheese, then pickle and the ham. Season with a bit of salt and pepper. Brush each side of the bun with olive oil and heat in the sandwich press for about 5 minutes. Let all of your ingredients come down to room temperature before you assemble them. That way they'll be warm from the grill, but your bun won't scorch. And that's a sexy tip right there! Mustard or Dijon is an option to serve on the side. But not traditional to the sandwich. So that's your call. And that, my friends is the way to enjoy a Sunday in the sexiest possible way. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Bacon Frittata

I guess I can tell you that my biggest pet peeve in life for the past decade (or 2, because where do the years go?) has been the price of gasoline. As it goes steadily up, my nerves go steadily down. To the point where I started driving a 4 cylinder car to save on gas. And I watch the websites like a hawk, driving on fumes to fill up on the next cheap gas day. I will literally buy 2 dollars worth to hold me off till then. So now, instead of spending a full days pay on gasoline, I only spend a half days pay per week. And I thought I was winning. But oh no my friends. As the cartels have been slowly loosening that noose off my neck, the bastard pig farmers have been quietly gaining momentum.

Canadians more than love bacon. It courses through our veins. It is the very mainstay of our lives other than hockey and maple syrup. And when hockey is over for the season and the maple trees are not in sap, it's all we have to sustain us. We count on bacon. It is our trusted and dear friend. A friend when nobody else seems to care. And knowing this, the pig farmers or the government, or some other sinister blood lusty thieves started sneaking the price slowly up to the point where less than a pound of bacon (because those same blood lusty thieves put us to the metric system) raised it to $7.99 a package. More than the price of a steak or chicken or a really good cut of pork roast.

So I went on bacon strike. I didn't think I needed it that badly. I just decided bacon and I were through for good. I stopped buying it altogether. But it wasn't too long before I started lingering in bacon the way I used to lust for new shoes. I would just stand there with my cart and eyeball it, hoping for a brand on sale. Stand there and savour the good memories of a long lost love. Relish in those precious memories and wonder what I did so wrong to break us up. Often times I would just softly caress that plastic and resolve myself to be content in the good memories we had and move on. Sometimes I would put it in my cart, only to throw it back down in chicken. Strength and resolve. But then one day, I ordered a BLT for lunch from a local deli. And I realized I was back at square one. The addiction was strengthened by that toasted sandwich. I think my joy possibly frightened the office staff from ever dining in the same room as me again. It was shameful. So I relapsed. I bought some bacon on the way home that night and went on an ever loving bacon bender the likes of which you've never seen.

And I cook the whole not full pound of it because I can't know when I've had enough. And so last night I had some left over bacon because I'm normalized again after the withdrawal. And this frittata is the very best way to enjoy leftover bacon.

You'll need:
bread slices, about 5 to cover the bottom of a 9 x 13 casserole dish. I use light rye. Just use enough full slices to cover the bottom of the pan and tear up another piece to fill in the holes so it's all covered
8-10 eggs
a splash of milk
a goodly few sploshes of hot sauce of your choice
2 chopped tomatoes
also anything else you like. Chopped onion or green or red pepper or jalapeno. Just whatever you have on hand or like
2 cups of grated cheese. Again, use what you like. I like old white cheddar and gruyere
salt and pepper to season
6 or 7 slices of crisp bacon which you will crumble over the top

Heat your oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of the casserole dish with the bread
Whisk the eggs, hot sauce, salt and pepper and milk
Add the cheese and tomatoes and whatever else vegetable you like
Pour it over the bread and crumble the bacon over the top and season with more salt and pepper
Bake for about 45 minutes
Let it rest for 10 minutes before you serve it

So easy and you can have this for brunch or lunch or dinner or breakfast. I like asparagus very much, so I serve with a side of roasted asparagus. But a salad would be just the dandy too. Enjoy friends!

German Inspired Pork Roast Dinner

We're coming up to October already, and that makes me think of Oktoberfest and beer and sausage and schnitzel and all things like that. Fun! But even better, Mother Nature has her Autumn on, and that spells flavour! Not to mention the glorious beauty on the landscape.  In my Farm Share basket this week, I was given red potatoes, leeks, purple cabbage, celery root and a bag of Macintosh red apples. And since I'm in the mood for all things German, let's go ahead and use them all in a German fusion dinner. I had a nice pork roast in the freezer, so we'll use that as our main. So if you want to stay with me for this one, we're making Honey Dijon glazed pork roast with a port reduction, home made apple sauce, braised purple cabbage with leeks and caraway seed and red potato-celery root mashed.

Now normally I make a shopping list of everything you'll need for a recipe, but I'm going to break it down to each component of this meal, and you'll be in charge of making your master list because I don't want to miss anything - or worse, have you decide that this is too much trouble. Because it isn't. It's an easy and delicious meal to make. And special too, so you can really show off with this one!

For the applesauce you'll need:
3 apples, peeled and cut into small chunks
3/4 cup of water
a splash of apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup of sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Throw it all in a saucepan and bring it up to a boil. Reduce heat and cover and simmer for about 20 minutes. Remove the lid and keep simmering until all the liquid has dissolved. Set aside for dinner time.

For the Pork Roast:
Slather it with Honey Dijon mustard. Or mix a tablespoon of Dijon and a teaspoon of honey and use that.
Fresh or dried rosemary to season (about 1/2 of dried or a teaspoon of chopped fresh)
1/2 tsp of dried thyme or 1 sprig of fresh, peeled off the stem
Course salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 400 and roast for 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven, reduce the heat to 325 degrees and add a cup of water to the roast pan and put it back in the oven and roast for 35 minutes per pound. Remove from oven. And we'll come back to this. Keep an eye on it and add more water if need be so your honey mustard doesn't scorch and ruin the whole meal.

For the cabbage braise:
4 leeks, thoroughly rinsed and just use the white and light green parts, sliced
1/2 head of sliced purple cabbage
salt and pepper
1/2 tsp caraway seed
a splash of apple cider vinegar
1 cup of vegetable or chicken broth
You could also add some apples to this, but I made the applesauce, so no need since we're not running an apple orchard here.
This takes about an hour, so plan it around when your roast will be ready. Use a heavy pot or Dutch Oven for this.
Saute the leeks in a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper, just until they're soft and not browned. Add the splash of apple cider vinegar, the caraway and the sliced cabbage and cover the pot. Let it simmer for about 8 minutes until the cabbage wilts.
Add the broth and cover and let it simmer for about an hour until the cabbage softens. Just before you serve, take the lid off and let the liquid evaporate.

For the potatoes:
1 peeled and chopped into 1 inch chunks celery root
4 red potatoes, peeled and chopped into chunks
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup of cream or half and half.
 Add it gradually and don't use all if your mash is tight enough. Or use more butter and cream if you're cooking for a gang. Double the potatoes and celery root.
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon of horseradish
Boil the potatoes and celery root in the same pot in salted water for about 20 minutes until they're soft and easily pierced with a fork. Drain and add the butter, cream and salt and pepper and horseradish. Mash with a mixer or a potato masher. Keep warm.

For the Port reduction:
Remove the roast from the pan and let it rest. Deglaze the pan on the stovetop with about 1/2 cup of port or red or white wine. Let it reduce by half and add 2 cups of chicken or beef broth. Whisk it all around at a hard boil for a few minutes and reduce the heat to medium. Now we're going to make a slurry which is just 1/2 cup of warm water and 2 tablespoons of flour. Stir the flour into the water with a fork so you have no lumps. And now whisk your slurry into the gravy a bit at a time and stop when you decide it's thick enough. So let it simmer for a minute after adding each ration and see where you are after it comes up to the boil. Get it? Hard to explain by typing. But you'll see how it thickens after each addition of slurry.

Now to plate:
Put the cabbage on a platter and slice and lay your roast on top of that and put your potato mash on the other half of the plate. Serve with the applesauce and gravy on the side.

Mother Nature can be one cruel and unrelenting bitch in the middle of January, but in October at least, we can't help but celebrate her! Enjoy the fall my friends!

WHISKEY! Baked Pork Chops

Well DAMMITTTTT!!! It is my life's goal to learn to cook authentic Mexican cuisine. I love Mexican food and I love Mexico and all Mexicans. The end. Love. So I ordered an expensive cookbook on line which I was hoping would assist me in achieving my goal. I shall not name the celebrity chef author since that wouldn't be very nice and my failures cannot be blamed on him. But I was very stealth and secretive about my mission since Mario thinks I spend too much money on cookbooks, so I ordered it on line so as to avoid detection on any kind of Chapters Indigo surveillance video. And every day I was tearing home from work, skidding up to the mailbox sideways on two wheels in the anticipation of its arrival. And when it finally arrived, I was breathless with excitement. I put it to the side (okay, under a pile of towels in the linen closet so I wouldn't be caught) until I had the time to really embrace it and soak up the joy. And guess what - it has the type of recipes where it says 2 cups of ancho chile sauce (page 267), 1 cup of spice mixture (page 93) serve with corn tortillas (page 60) and so on. That type of thing hurts my brain and pisses me off. I'm not running a research project here. I want to cook a recipe for Christ sakes! So I am not pleased at all with my secret purchase and I think I would have found quite a bit more joy from a new pair of sandals. That's right. Sandals. Because our winter from hell has just now finally ended!

So onto the recipe. This jumped out at me from a pop up on facebook. I can't give credit right now because I don't remember where I found it. But if I ever do, I'll edit here and give credit. I just saw "whiskey" and it had me right there. That's why I tried it and it turned out to be amazingly delicious and the chops were so moist that I couldn't believe it! Who doesn't love whiskey and who doesn't love pork? Talk about a marriage made in heaven.

You'll need:
2/3 cup of sour cream
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons of flour
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp of dried thyme or 2 sprigs of fresh, remove the stem
olive oil to brown the chop, just to coat the pan
pork chops, bone in or boneless. 4-6 of them. I used 3 since my family all flew the coop.
1 small chopped onion
1 pack of slice mushrooms. You choose. Baby bellas or whatever you like
1/2 cup of WHISKEY!

Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Whisk the sour cream, water, flour salt, pepper and thyme together and set aside.
Heat the oil on med to high heat in a cast iron Dutch oven or a vessel that can go in your oven. Brown off the chops for about 5 minutes per side until they're really good and seared. Remove them from the pan and add the onions and mushrooms all at once. Reduce the heat to medium and let them get golden brown. About 5 minutes. Then add the WHISKEY! and let it simmer until nearly all of the liquid has evaporated. Whisk in the sour cream mixture and add the pork chops back in. Make sure they're covered with the sauce. Cover and bake for about an hour. These are so awesome. I served them with a side of garlic mashed potatoes which was perfect for spooning the extra sauce over. And a side of whatever veg you like. Enjoy friends! I should abandon my dream of becoming an expert Mexican cook and dedicate my life to finding boozy good recipes like this.

Devils on Horseback

Let’s talk about hipsters. Fans of irony, clothing created ethically without ethics and, perhaps ironically, being like every single one of their very individual friends. (Internet, do not email me if I’ve misused the word “irony” here. If Alanis didn’t care, neither do I.)

My best friend and I once had a discussion about whether or not we were hipsters. (My best friend is definitively not. She wears J. Crew every single day.) I was having a harder time identifying myself. I did have that U-Back dress from American Apparel, but on the other hand I shopped at the Gap just as regularly. I like to listen to Bon Iver (maybe that’s too mainstream to be hipster now), but I also have Women and Song vol. 1 on regular play (this may make me a middle-aged woman, but “Good Mother” is just SUCH a kick-ass song). I read Vice magazine, and Glamour. We concluded I was just shy of hipsterdom.

But I appreciate irony like everyone else, and I am a particular fan of Instagramming my food in Kelvin or Walden, and so perhaps in my late twenties, I am entering that dreaded “aging hipster” phase, which basically terrifies me. Luckily I live in the suburbs, so I think I’m safe (although I do have lots of room to brew my own beer). Anyway, who cares about all this hipster business when the 70’s had some awesome food trends? I think we should bring them back, in a totally ironic and fresh way.

Here on TLGT, (that is awesome, I should hashtag us- #TLGT) we appreciate the classics. Our Vichyssoise recipe would be an excellent example of this.  So what if that recipe came from the day when you had your husband’s boss for dinner? It’s still fresh and delightful. You know what else is goddamn delightful? Devils on Horseback. Dates, blue cheese, bacon (but I used prosciutto, because we know how I feel about bacon) and a nice, boozy sauce. What could be better? Nothing.

Preheat your oven to 350°. Start by slicing your dates in half and stuffing them with blue cheese- I used a nice sheep’s milk Stilton, and that was fabulous, but you could do anything. Ideally, you want a fairly salty cheese, to go with the sweetness of the dates. Wrap it in prosciutto, because we are re-vamping classics, so something has to be fresh and new. Pop those in the oven for ten minutes.

Now, cognac is the traditional pairing, but they don’t sell that at the Wine Rack, they only sell $10.00 sherry there, so that’s what we are going to use. Don’t drink it though! Just simmer it down in a pan with a little sugar until it reduces and forms a nice, sticky glaze.

Plate your little devils in a fresh way- but I kept the 70’s toothpicks for a little hit of kitsch. Drizzle with the sherry glaze. These are probably ironic enough to bring to the next hipster Ugly Sweater party that you go to, and you can all sit around and play Scruples while you eat the Devils!

Editor’s Note: I may have listened to “Good Mother” 828 times while writing this blog.  

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Have you ever invited people over for dinner, but then gotten so caught up in the Speech From the Throne that you forgot to make something? Then you look in your fridge and all you have is eggs, milk, spaghetti and pancetta (because you’re a fancy b*tch)?

Fear not, my culinary chums. If you have those items, (or fine, bacon, if you lack pancetta), you can make your guests a beautiful Italian dinner of Spaghetti alla Carbonara. You also need a good hard cheese like Parmesan. These are all things that a well-stocked fridge and pantry should have, so you’ll be good to go at the drop of a hat.

See how my pan isn't nearly big enough?

This is a two-step meal. Start by boiling some salted water for your pasta. While that comes to a boil, sauté your pancetta in a large frying pan (because you are going to put all the pasta in it- it needs to be quite large in order to accommodate it all). Add some minced garlic to that. Now, in a bowl, crack four eggs and whisk with a little milk and a nice amount of grated cheese. Whisk it more and set aside. (Side note- many people think carbonara is a cream sauce. Many restaurants of ill repute will just add bacon to alfredo sauce and call it a carbonara. This is incorrect and slightly shifty. It is an egg sauce, and it is creamy and amazing anyway.)

Egg mixture

This is one of those meals where timing is everything, so you need to have it together when you come to this next step. If your guests are trying to engage you in conversation at this point, this is an excellent time to tell them to open the wine in order to occupy their minds with a task so that you can concentrate. Or encourage them to choose some dinner music. Whatever. Just get them away from you.

Here we go. Drain the pasta and add it to your very big pan. Turn off the heat of the stove, and if your pan is quite hot, take it off the burner entirely. Now take the egg mixture and dump it all over. What we are trying to achieve here is a cream sauce, not scrambled eggs on pasta. To do this, you need to immediately start aggressively tossing your pasta and continue to do this until the pasta is coated. The heat of the pasta and pan will cook the eggs, and with your assertive tossing, the eggs will not be able to solidify into clumps.

I probably would have been better off with a smaller plate. 

Garnish with some fresh parsley (if you have it, which is why everyone should grow herbs in their kitchen) and serve immediately. Salt and pepper to taste. Now you can judge anyone who thought carbonara had something in common with alfredo!

Chorizo Huevos Rancheros

Hello food? It's me Diane. Hahah after a lot of soul searching, I realize that I'm not really a blogaholic after all. I just have too much time on my hands because of this bloody diet I'm on! All the times when I would have been happily munching away on something, I sit and stare at the four walls waiting to lose another pound. Don't get me wrong - I have no regrets at all. I've lost a ton of weight and I was feeling positive all the way until tonight when I made one of my favourite meals. And Mario got the real version of it while I had to settle for the "healthy" (read Diet) version. So I write blogs like they're going out of style because believe it or not, it takes my mind off food.

But the main reason I decided to go on a diet is because I'm going to Mexico with Kelly in November, and being a woman of some years, I wanted to have one last kick at the can. Not to ever wear a bikini again, but just not to have to waddle down the beach sweating and gasping for air while my thighs are still 3 feet behind me. And Mexico is such an enchanted place. I adore everything about it. The food, the culture, the beloved people, the art, but most of all the most amazing food on the planet!

Now I didn't set out to make my favourite Mexican dish right on the home stretch of my diet. Mario came home with a dozen farm fresh brown eggs yesterday. They still had farm bits on them. Hay and shit and tufts of tiny feather chicken type stuff. Or whatever. They were farm fresh and we'll leave it at that. I appreciate the freshest of anything, so I had no choice but to make eggs for supper! And I'm so blessed that I live in the vegetable growing capital of Canada, so during the summer months, my favourite little market stocks up lots of fresh Mexican ingredients to please all the homesick migrants workers we have in town. Yay for me! But God Bless those poor guys being so far away from home and missing their families. So let's get started.

You'll need:
Corn tortillas for your bottom layer

For the base:
A pack of fresh chorizo. Get the Mexican one and get mild unless you adore lots of heat
It looks like a chorizo of the dried variety, but read your label and make sure it's fresh. It's in the meat section as opposed to the deli section.
A can of pinto beans
1 finely chopped Vidalia onion
3 or 4 cloves of finely chopped garlic
1 tsp of cumin
1 tsp of coriander
1 tsp of chili powder
freshly ground pepper. Hold off on the salt until I talk about that in a minute
1  chopped red pepper
1 chopped jalapeno pepper, seeds removed unless you want it really hot
1 can of plum tomatoes or I use my own that I jarred, or 2 freshly chopped tomatoes
And now for the salt - if you use canned, don't use any salt. If you use fresh, wait till the end to season as need be
zest of a lime
2 tablespoons of fresh chopped cilantro
Taste before you serve and add hot sauce if you like.
Add your fresh herbs in as you start your tortillas and increase the heat to a simmer.

Remove your chorizo from the casing and brown it on medium heat for about 8 minutes. Just like browning hamburger meat. Remove it into a bowl leaving as much fat in the pan as possible. Saute your onion in the fat for a minute or two, then add your garlic and chopped jalapeno and red pepper. Add the cumin, coriander, chili powder and pepper and let it sauté for a couple of minutes. Add your tomatoes and drained pinto beans, and the chorizo back in. Let it simmer uncovered for about half an hour until the liquid reduces to almost nothing. Your sausage will break down and your beans will plump up. Add your lime zest and reduce the heat to low.

For the next layer you'll need eggs, canola oil and about a cup or less of grated semi soft Mexican cheese. Or use Monterrey Jack if you can't get it. We'll come back to this because you'll do this step just before you plate.

So let's make a nice, fresh salsa for the top.
1 chopped tomato
1/2 finely chopped Vidalia onion
2 cloves of finely chopped garlic
2 tablespoons of chopped cilantro
zest and juice of a lime
1 tsp of salt
Stir it together and let it hang out in the fridge till you're ready to plate.

So let's get the magic underway.
In a small skillet, heat a tablespoon of canola oil on Med heat. Put a tortilla in the pan for about 30 seconds, then flip it over and heat the other side for about 30 seconds. You want to heat and moisturize them sort of like a nice facial, but don't let them crisp. Do one for each person and set them aside under foil wrap to keep them warm. Now fry an egg in the canola oil sunny side up. Reduce the heat to Medium Low so the bottom doesn't scorch. I put a cookie sheet over it as a cover to let it steam and cook the top. But I'm a redneck that way. If you have covers for your skillet, by all means use that. As you see the egg is almost done, sprinkle some of your cheese over the egg and put the cover back on to let it melt.

To plate it, place a tortilla on the plate, add a layer of the chorizo mixture about 1/2 inch thick, but leave a circumference of visible tortilla so people can see just the edge (aren't I so Scientific?) Slide the egg over that and top with a spoonful of your fresh salsa. Garnish with a sprig of cilantro and a wedge of lime. And that's it! It's ridiculously delicious and it can be served for breakfast, brunch or dinner. Eggs aren't just for breakfast anymore!

Charcuterie

Summer dining is just the best. It’s so easy and carefree; everything just feels more relaxed. I mean, how could it be stressful, really? You jam a glass of wine or beer in someone’s hand, invite them to your outdoor living space, and fire up the grill. Nothing could be easier.

Except, of course, not grilling. Or cooking anything. This is somewhat like the infamous “Late Night Bacon” recipe from Rachel Ray, but here’s a secret: sometimes it’s okay to just have various snacks and call it a meal. If you’re into local breweries and scarves, you might just be inclined to call it “charcuterie”. You go to a number of different lengths with this if you’re entertaining, but it’s also a nice option for a meal just for yourself.

Here are the basics: meat, cheese, bread, some kind of jelly/dip, and a fruit or veg. In these photos, you can see I opted for prosciutto (because when do I not opt for prosciutto?), a nice topped goat cheese, and cornichons with Dijon. Believe it or not, that was only for me to eat (and okay, I didn’t eat ALL that cheese in one sitting). If you have a number of guests coming, maybe you would want to expand those options. For example, if you feel fraudulent for not actually cooking anything, why not make your own pâté? In Ottawa, where I live, we have this fantastic bakery, Art-Is-In, and they make this awesome olive loaf, which I highly recommend. You can tell they are serious because they call themselves a “boulangerie,” so it’s for sere, because it’s French.

I have seen various recommendations about serving charcuterie and basically the suggestion is two meats and three cheeses, plus your serving vehicle (olive loaf, peut-être), and then some little bits to go with, like olives, pickles, grapes or whatever. I like a sweet jelly (I’m hoping to eventually put a nasturtium jelly recipe in here) and then a spicy/salty spread like Dijon as well.

The showiness here is in the serving. Put it on some super rustic platter, or an ultra-modern one, and spend a little time in the arrangement. Maybe you’re doing a wine and cheese pairing party, in which case you would want to do some lovely little labels to show people what to pair. I’m totally into the chalkboard aesthetic these days, so I would be inclined to get some of those sticky chalkboard decals and put them on the table so you can spend a little time on designing that. Maybe you’re super crafty, and you are actually going to make a platter with chalkboard painted areas right on it. In serving your charcuterie, I can say that Pinterest is your friend for sure.

Like a summer’s eve, charcuterie is ripe with possibilities. All it needs is a little time from you, maybe a trip to your local cheesemonger, and all that creativity your day job sucks out of you. Have a lovely evening… and invite me over for some cheese and wine some time!

Pulled Pork Sandwich

Bailey is totally going to kill me for this blog. She thinks we have been way too heavy on the swine blogs of late, and she's right. But I'm a sale shopper when it comes to meat, and pork is what they're practically giving away this week at my local grocer. I thought we were a little red pepper heavy a few weeks ago, but I didn't hear her complaining about that since she loves red pepper so much! And when you can pick up a nice pork shoulder roast for $4.00, then that's God telling me to make a slow roast, pulled pork sandwich dinner. I don't think a family could get take out anything for a mere Four Dollars!

And today, I declared it a "Me Day", so this day was dedicated to my own pleasure. And why not? I've been working hard and just endured my 53rd Canadian winter, so I wasn't about to stress myself today. Pulled pork is a meal that you can make without having to peel a potato, or break out a whisk, but the oooohs and ahhhhs you get will please you immensely. And your family will swoon with delight. So let's get started.

You need a picnic style pork roast. I don't know what that exactly means. But it will shred up for you unlike a tenderloin or a loin roast. Get it with the bone in and the fat cap on it. Get a butt cut if you can, but a shoulder will do. (hahah butts rule!) It needs a spice rub. And pulled pork aficionados will insist you use a butt and smoke it and so on. And if I were ever to go to Memphis on vacay and dine on this speciality, that`s what I would insist on. But since I live in Canada, and this is just a meal for my family, and I don`t see myself competing on Top Chef, we're go to do this pedestrian style.

For my spice rub, I just used my Cajun seasoning that I had on hand. I make my own you know. That's sort of a joke because I'm too cheap to buy the already made Cajun seasoning. You can look up the Jambalaya recipe in this blog to see what that is. Or you can just make up your own blend. Rub your roast all over with olive oil and massage the spice blend onto the meat. Put it in the oven uncovered at 275 degrees for 6 hours. Or 7. No less than 6 and no more than 8.

Take it out of the oven and let it cool down enough to handle. Remove the fat and the bone and discard. Now some recipes will tell you to shred the meat with two forks, but where is the love in that? They aren't called Shredded Pork Sandwiches! They are Pulled Pork Sandwiches. So take the time to break it all down with your fingertips. Pull it apart! Discard all the yucky fatty bits and throw away any of the tough outer bits that are too crispy from the roasting process.

Now here is where I'm certain I am not doing this Memphis style, But this is what tastes the best to me. I used Ciabetta buns because they have enough body to sustain themselves for a moist sandwich. I slice them and butter them and put them under the broiler just to toast them a bit. I mix just enough barbecue sauce into the pulled pork to moisten it. Not too much. And you can make your own or use a good quality store bought one. Spoon the meat onto the bun and add a bit more barbecue sauce. Serve with sides of coleslaw and baked beans. Some people like to put the coleslaw right on the sandwich and to me, that's awesome. Skip a step right there! Why bother forking it into your mouth if you can ingest it in the same bite as your sandwich? So I do that now too.

This is easy and fun and delicious! People will beg you to make it again and again. So sorry about that Bailey. Swine really does rule the world!

BLTs... But FANCY

Who doesn’t love a BLT? Everyone loves them! Bacon helps. Bacon helps everything, and in five thousand years, when human-bots are sifting through the wreckage of our ancient civilization, they will probably analyze the entirety of the Internet on some little microchip implanted in their brains, and they will say, “Why did these ancient beings worship thin, cured strips of animal flesh?” And they will come up with all sorts of reasons, but they won’t know, because they probably will have evolved beyond needing to eat, so they won’t know the deliciousness that is cured pork belly. They will just plug themselves into various electrical outlets. Or maybe they will have evolved to eating only bacon. Who knows!

            Today, I hope to convince you that bacon is actually not the be-all end-all of pork cuts, despite what the meme-makers will have you believe. In fact, I don’t even really like pork that much, truth be told (and an unfortunate experience in Cuba just cemented that for me.) I find pork chops to be a little dry, ham is just bizarre to me, and this new offal cuisine has taken things to a whole other level. (“Back in my day, we bought pigs’ ears in Price Club and fed them to the dog, we didn’t pay $28.50 for them in a restaurant!”) BUT, I am not a total sus-phobe, (and yes, I Googled the scientific name for pig there). I very much love prosciutto, ribs can be great, and I do like bacon when it’s cooked to death.

            Maybe you’re waiting for me to actually get to a point here. What I’m trying to say is give prosciutto a chance. Put it in your fry pan. Toast it up. See what happens. (I’m actually a little afraid to put this on the intra-webs, what if Anonymous finds me and outs me for screwing up the whole Internet by not loving bacon and cats?!) If you try this, you might just find a lighter, friendlier version of bacon. A gentle bacon. A bacon without weird bits of chewy fat. A bacon without the potential to death splatter into your eye and possibly set your kitchen on fire and require you to scrub down your entire stovetop after cooking it. You MIGHT find this to be a crisper, more delicious alternative to bacon. Try it. What is life without adventure, right?

            So, on to the recipe. Use bacon if you must. I may never go back to bacon after my prosciutto experience. Here’s what we are going to do. We are going to make a jazzed-up BLT. Maybe I’ll call it a PLT. Let’s think of our classic BLT elements here. 

• Bacon. Jazzed version: Prosciutto.
• Bread. Jazzed version: Panko bread crumbs.
• Mayo. Jazzed version: Garlic aioli.
• Tomato. Jazzed version: Tomato (BUT coated with that Panko and fried in a pan!)
• Lettuce: Jazzed version: Arugula. (What the hell did people do before arugula?)

Are you ready for this? This is as easy as a BLT but people will be all like, “Oh, that Bailey is so pretentious. She’s into that whole re-fab classics cuisine thing. She’s one of those people that uses “rustic” when she describes her food. I KNOW, right? Who says RUSTIC? I bet she pretends to like that offal cuisine too.” Seriously. People will say that.

            Start with your aioli, because the longer it sits, the better. And by the way, this is cheat-aioli. You could make real aioli if you want to, it’s super easy. But, I have that paranoia about food safety and it becomes very difficult emotionally for me to eat raw egg things. So cheat-aioli is incredibly easy, and it starts with mayo. Put a large scoop of that in a bowl.  Grate in some fresh garlic. Squeeze half a lemon in. Whisk while you add olive oil until it’s a nice consistency. Thinner than mayo, but not completely soupy.

            Put that in the fridge (food safety, y’all!). Now, put a few strips of prosciutto in a pan and let it crisp. This will happen MUCH quicker than bacon, and it’s a lot less responsibility. Set aside. In the same pan, because everyone likes using only one pan, add a little olive oil and get that ready for your tomatoes.

            Slice your tomato thickly, and if you’re dealing with a not quite ripe tomato, that’s even better. You want a nice, firm tomato that will stand up to being heated. Tomatoes are pretty moist, so I found the panko stuck to them just fine, but you could moisten them with an egg wash or something if you wanted to. I also added salt and pepper to the panko. In your hot pan (sorry, I should have told you to heat that pan up) and your slices of tomato. Sauté until golden brown, then flip.

            Now plate it. Choose something rustic. Bed of arugula, slice of tomato. Add some aioli, then top with another slice of tomato (just like a sandwich!).  But! We’ll be tricky and artistically lay your prosciutto slices across the top. Drizzle with more aioli. There you have it. The jazziest BLT you’ve ever eaten.