Mrs. MC's Fancy Cakes

Thanks to our favorite Graphic Designer family Mrs. MC made these lovely cakes for our 1 year-old's birthday. Other than our concern for poisoning her with red dye they were lovely cakes and quite cute too.

The of course we had to turn Lil' MC loose on one of them. It is her first Birthday after all. Here is the aftermath. 

Non-conformist Pork Loin

Last night was the annual ward Christmas party and we volunteered to cook a pork loin. It was a beautiful piece of meat. It was almost three feet long with just enough fat to make it tender, if cooked right. Which is where the nonconformity comes in. See the recipe we were given called for salt and pepper and shoving some garlic slices into the loin at irregular intervals. Then it requested that we bake it for 1 to 2 hours. Well is it 1 or 2 hours? I had visions of cardboard dancing in my head. So I decided to rebel and cook this thing my way. It was for the good of all involved, I promise. So here is how it went down. 

Thanks to Mr. AB (who cannot be named for fear of lawsuits, but if you watch any cooking shows on a certain cooking channel and don't know who AB is, you should probably pay closer attention next time) I decided to use a dry rub I learned from him. 

8 parts Brown Sugar

1 Part Salt (Kosher of Course)

1 Part Chili Powder (I used a nice deep red roasted one)

1 Part Misc Spices (I used garlic Granules, Mustard Powder, Basil, Cumin, Black Pepper)

We did this mixture using a cup of Brown Sugar so  it was a Cup of that and an 8th of a cup  of everything else. You can make as much as you like but that was a perfect amount for this piece of meat. 

So this all happened the night before. We rubbed the loin thusly. 

We rubbed the back and front massaging the rub into the savory flesh of the loin. And then we wrapped it up in two layers of Wide (this helps immensely) tinfoil.

It looked like a happy tinfoil sausage at this point.

Our seasoned happy roll was then placed in the fridge to chill out over night. We put in on a standard sheet pan diagonally and it mostly fit. The next day we made the glaze sauce base. 

1 cup Chicken broth

1/2 Cup Red Wine Vinegar

2 TBLS Worcester Sauce

3-4 Smashed up garlic cloves

1-2 TBLS of Honey

Mix this all together and bring to a boil then let steep for a while. Then open up one end of your pork roll and pour it in. Cook (this is called braising) for 3-4 hours on 225 F. It wont burn unless all the liquid dries up. Which at 225 would take days. I used a probe thermometer to check doneness and pulled it at 190 which is actually hotter than it should be but it didn't hurt it. Anything after 180 should be more than hot enough to kill the bugs. After it has cooked open one end of the foil and dump out all the liquid into a big sauce pan. At this junction I actually moved the loin onto a new sheet pan lined with foil since it was being served later and to the public. At home I would have left it in the old, now discolored, tinfoil. Put the loin into the now extinguished oven to rest. Now boil the liquid for a long time. This stuff needs to go from water consistency to BBQ sauce consistency. Do be afraid to let it boil and boil good. It took about 30 minutes for ours because we had so much sauce. Once the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, spoon it over the loin. Don't be shy, this is the divine ambrosia that makes this dish. Then hit the loin with the broiler until the sauce starts to caramelize (it will turn brown and bubble, it might even get black in one or two spots). Cut and serve. In our case we then brought the loin to the chapel and it sat in the oven for over an hour staying warm. They wouldn't let it play with the other loins because it was different. When dinner was served Mrs. MC found her way into the kitchen and acquired some of the banished loin which we shared with our table and our favorite graphic designer who was nice enough to save us a table near him. I even got our favorite vegetarian to eat some, and she liked it! For all the trouble this little anarchist loin caused in the kitchen it was sure a hit among those who tried it. In fact the servers who invented the other recipe took the left overs home and gave the packing material leftovers to the missionaries. 

I don't particularly like Minestrone

Tonight Mrs. MC wanted Minestrone soup. My mind, in horror,  instantly flashed to the plethora of soggy vegetable stews I have experienced in my life. My grandpa used to make something called Mulligan's Stew. Its like Minestrone on steroids. Mrs. MC makes Minestrone from time to time and I usually have one bowl, out of love for her, not the soup. So having just finished a 14 page paper for class, I wanted to cook the soup. I needed to stand up for a while anyway. Now comes the confession. I ate two bowls. Here is how it went down. 

6 qt. stock pot

2 stalks of celery, diced

2 carrots, pealed and diced

1 small yellow onion

2 Tbls Butter (the real stuff please)

2 Cups Diced Red Potato

1 Qt. Canned tomatoes, drained

1 Qt. Vegetable Broth

2 Cups Fresh Green Beans

1 Zucchini, Diced

1 Can beans, white, drained

Some pasta, shapes not spaghetti

Your chopped veggies should be about equal in amounts. This is similar to a mirepoix but since the ratios are not 2:1:1 I would be castigated for calling it that, but you could use the mirepoix ratios, in fact I think it would be better. Anyway, sweat the veggies in the butter in the bottom of your pan. Sweating is not sauteing. Sauteing equals browning, sweating equals translucence. If your stuff browns the pan is too hot.

 

Once the onion and celery become somewhat see through add about two cups of diced red potato and stir for about three minutes. This is where I wanted to add fresh garlic but I was out (gasp!). If I had fresh garlic I would add a couple or more cloves diced. After stirring the potatoes for the three minutes I added one quart jar of homemade canned tomatoes with the liquid drained off and one quart of vegetable broth.

 

Now spice to taste. I used a lot of garlic granules since I was out of fresh garlic, and salt and pepper, some thyme, a little cumin and some mustard powder. This is where you can make it how you like it. I let the concoction simmer for about 10 minutes until the potatoes were starting to get soft. Then I added about 2 Cups of fresh green beans snapped in half and one diced zucchini. Cook this until beans are to your liking. I like mine crunchy but not rock solid. Add one can of white beans, drained. I was out of white so I used pinto. White would have been better. I added about a half can of water to keep the mixture from getting too thick. Then I added some Farfalle (bowtie) pasta. Cook until the pasta is al dente and then season to taste. 

I served this with homemade bread with butter and it was a hit. I think even the kids ate it. MMMMM. 

The first and foremost post

This is a new attempt at Blogging for me. I did attempt once, a long time ago. I discovered this when I tried to sign up for this blog. My first blog was a one sentence, "lets see how this new technology works" blog that I never went back to. Who knows how long ago that was. Since the title was in Arabic, I assume it was during my undergrad years.  So this time, following the advice of my favorite graphic designer- that blogs should be about something, I will make a real stab at this. Considering I will actually finish an MS degree in three weeks, I may need something to do. So my topic is Mormon Cooking. I am sure some are confused. Some might think I mean to post funeral potato recipes and others might think I intend to create a new multi-level marketing company that uses LDS connections to build your network, while others may wonder what Mormon Cooking is. 

So I suppose it is only fair to define what I mean by Mormon Cooking. While I have a great love for green Jello salads and freezer meals, this is not that kind of site. As a Mormon and a self proclaimed good cook, I wanted to share my triumphs and tragedies in the kitchen. I found a chain of blogs about food the other day and have enjoyed perusing them. I feel like I would love to be connected to that scene but I have two hang-ups: 1. I am not a pro-chef by any means and 2. Alcohol. It seems that every "good" cooking site, book etc. is more focused on how to use good booze to enhance food rather that just cooking food. Considering my faith's avoidance of alcohol, I wanted to post how I cook delicious food "sans Alcholia". So thus the premise of my blog was born. I will attempt to provide recipes, ideas, and thoughts on cooking - that negate the need to sneak into a liquor store, hoping no one in your Ward sees you, in order to make new and delicious food. If you came here looking for funeral potatoes I am sorry, I have never made them. Hopefully though I will have something to share. Until next time. . .