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Hen & Brussels Sprouts

July 25, 2014 by Kristin

There was something appealing about a mini bird at the grocery store tonight. I didn’t want to fuss with carving up and packaging leftovers from a regularly sized bird. I didn’t feel much like navigating through my cabinets to dig out the roasting pan. And I had a new dish that was just begging to be stuffed with sautéed brussels sprouts and topped with a roasted cornish game hen. So mini bird, it was.

I followed the same chicken roasting basics that I’m accustomed to: dry off, place fat {coconut oil or ghee} above and beneath skin, place chopped herbs {thyme, rosemary, or both} beneath skin, stuff cavity with lemon and some more herbs, and roast at 375 degrees until the meat thermometer reads 165 degrees {about 45 minutes}. Tonight roasting happened with a cast iron grill pan rather than the deeply buried roasting pan.

While the hen was doing its thing in the oven, I whipped up some super simple brussels sprouts with shallots that were… okay. I focused on the flawless hen and made a mental note to be better at brussels sprouts the next time around.

Achiote Pork Salad

July 18, 2014 by Kristin

Gosh, this salad. Where do I begin? Ultra tender achiote pulled pork and sweet and tangy pickled red onions on a bed of fresh spinach – a wow worthy meal, for sure!

I started by making a double batch of homemade achiote paste {not by choice}. A pre-made paste was nowhere to be found, so I Googled my way through the Whole Foods aisles until I found annatto seeds {the red nuggets in the photo above} and a recipe that made sense.

I then purchased the rub ingredients from this recipe, but didn’t care much for the cooking instructions {or the review comments}, so this big hunk of pork and I went rogue in the kitchen.

After coating the 4 pound bone-in pork shoulder with the rub, I wrapped it tightly with plastic wrap and let it hang in the fridge for about 16 hours. I placed the pork in a slow cooker, poured 32 ounces of veggie broth around the sides {being careful not to wash the rub off the meat}, and placed a few quartered yellow onions around the pork. I let it cook on low heat for about 8 hours {until the meat pulled away easily from the bone} and then used two forks to to shred the meat.

After the meat was prepared, assembling the salad was super easy: baby spinach, pickled red onions, pulled pork. And the best part about this salad? The pork provided fat and the pickled onions provided acid, so the addition of salad dressing was unnecessary.

Polenta Sliders

July 8, 2014 by Kristin

Do you ever have one of those days that you feel like you squished multiple days into a single day? And you look back on your very first thing you knocked off your list and it seems like ages ago? Today was one of those days. It started with waking up in Florida, returning a rental car, and heading to the airport and ended with cleaning out cabinets in Austin, a mini trip to Fresh Plus, a 4-mile Shoal Creek trek with Skylar, and a fancy little dinner. The stuff that happened in between went something like work, work, work, wondering how I could be so homesick after 5 days at home, work.

When I was cleaning out the cabinets {homesick therapy}, I found a tube of polenta that served as inspiration for dinner. And then the thought progression continued like so: burgers -> arugula & spinach -> mushrooms & onions.

I put my oven to work by simultaneously sautéing, grill-panning, and broiling. And when everything was cooked to perfection, I assembled the mini towers of goodness and served to Skylar and Max.

I liked changing up a plain old meat/veggie combo with the texture of polenta. And I totally dug the addition of greens and sautéed veggies, but a classic topping of lettuce, tomato, pickle, and onion would be equally as delicious.

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Shepherd’s Pie

June 24, 2014 by Kristin

Resisting the most adorable casserole dish in the world, I could not. I scooped it up without concern that I rarely make casseroles. I’d figure something out, right? Pinterest would certainly guide me in the right direction.

While I didn’t find the recipe on Pinterest, it did spark a memory of Shepherd’s Pie. I’d often seen it on menus, but couldn’t recall if Shepherd’s Pie was something I had ever actually tried. I sifted through recipes and came to the conclusion that anything topped with mashed potatoes was worth giving a shot.

I settled on Alton Brown’s Shepherd’s Pie recipe. Partly because I trust Alton Brown, but mostly because I was excited about cooking with ground lamb.

I swapped out {more than} a handful of ingredients to make this dish void of dairy and gluten. There were initial nerves about how mashed potatoes with coconut milk and oil would taste. But after whipping them up and sampling the meat/veggie mix, I knew I was 25 baking minutes away from the coziest of meals in the coziest of casserole dishes.

A modified version of Alton Brown’s recipe is below:

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