Garlic Pork Roast, mashed Yukon gold potatoes, green beans, and MORE scones

Nick and I took a little break from some cooking over the weekend. Friday night was his work's holiday dinner/party. Saturday we went out to dinner with friends at Saigon Bistro. Sunday was Nathan's grandma's 80th birthday. There was a surprise birthday lunch for her and, a gathering afterwards. 

Basically, the only cooking we did over the weekend was breakfast. I made the usual breakfast on Saturday; bacon, eggs, and hash browns. On Sunday Nathan came over so, we made the usual but added a Dutch baby to the mix. I forgot to take any photos of the Dutch baby but, it turned out even better this time. Previously, we made it with whole milk but, this time we bought some skim milk to cook with(per the recipe).

Sunday evening some house guests, Daniel and Kristen, arrived on their way from Boston to KC. Nick and I decided to prepare a big dinner for Monday night. The menu for the evening was garlic pork roast, Yukon gold potatoes, with green beans. I am not a huge pork fan but, I am starting to like pork roasts and tenderloins(I have always loved bacon).

The recipe, from Cook's Country, called for butterflying the roast, something I had never done before. The roast was then brined in oil, salt and 10 cloves of crushed garlic for an hour before rolling it with a garlic, thyme, and red pepper paste. The end result was pretty fantastic(photos below). Everyone at the table loved it.

The recipe for the mashed potatoes was different than any we have tried before. It called for boiling the potatoes whole with the skin still on them. Once drained, you peel the skin with a knife before mashing. The mashed potatoes get a good review in my book, they turned out great.

The green beans were nothing special. We just made them because Nick said that we should have something green on the plate. Just threw some onion, salt and pepper in with some canned green beans.

After everything was all cleaned up, Nick baked some more blueberry scones. We had already prepped everything so, all he had to do was mix the wet and dry ingredients etc. They are delicious!

Shot of some of the hash browns I made over the weekend, very exciting, right?

The pork roast searing in a hot pan of olive oil before it goes into the oven

The pork toast, just out of the oven

The finished product!

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

As soon as I read the recipe for Loaded Baked Potato Soup on the Cook's County website, I wanted a bowl for dinner. Nick and I stopped by Hy-Vee to grab some items for the recipe. The recipe called for 8 ounces of bacon chopped then fried in a Dutch oven. You then strain the bacon and fry up the potato peels (from the 3lbs of potato the recipe calls for) in the grease. Everything is made in the one pot if you have an immersion blender which, we received one as a wedding gift (fun and handy kitchen tool).

The end result was delicious, especially on a cold winter night. It's a heavy soup with the 4 cups of cheddar cheese and a cup of heavy cream. Because it is a thicker soup, something we noticed is that it turned out a bit grainy because of the pureed potatoes. The recipe made 8 servings so, I am looking forward to leftovers! Here is a photo of the soup topped off with bacon, fried potato peels, and scallions:

Garlic Risotto and more Blueberry Scones

I am a fan of cooking competition shows. Top Chef is my favorite but, for some reason I enjoy Hell's Kitchen too(it's probably just because of Chef Gordon Ramsay). On HK the contestants have to prepare risotto as a part of dinner service and, it always looks delicious. I have never had any while at restaurants because mushrooms are usually involved or ham(yes, I am picky).

Last night I decided I wanted to make risotto. I used a recipe that I found on Cook's Country called Garlic Risotto and, it turned out well. Nick and I kept tasting the risotto while it was cooking to make sure we didn't under cook or over cook the rice. We were both rather unimpressed with the flavor, until the end where the recipe called for the fresh grated Parmesan cheese (I splurged on the cheese and, went for a block) and thinly sliced scallions.

In the end, Nick and I were very happy with our dinner. Originally I had planned to steam some broccoli to place on top but, opted for some toasted garlic bread(blurry photo from my camera below). I am currently eating some leftover risotto right now and, it tastes delicious even after being zapped in the microwave.

Since we had to be up earlier than usual today, I wanted to have something tasty ready for us to grab for breakfast so, I decided to bake up some more blueberry scones.  This time I took photos of the cutting process/before baking and the finished product. I had 2 for breakfast... I could eat more... I am officially addicted to homemade scones!

Before (pardon the blurry-ness... the camera on my phone isn't so great)

After- up close shot of my new favorite addiction

New Topic For The Blog

It's been a long while since I have posted a blog and, after all of the cooking Nick and I did this weekend, I decided I should use this blog space to share our cooking endeavors. Thanks to some great friends, Nathan and Alana Wood, we have been working with recipes off of the Cook's websites(America's Test Kitchen, Cook's County and, Cook's Illustrated). Unfortunately, I did not take any photos of the food we prepared but, I will in the future.

On the weekends I take the helm when it comes to breakfast. For a while there I was on a pancake kick (blueberry, pumpkin, and anything else that sounded good) and, now, I think I have moved onto hash browns. Saturday morning I went downstairs to start on breakfast when I remembered we did not stop by the store to grab anything. We had eggs, milk, and some cheap bacon(we recently tried some more expensive thick cut brick style bacon, seriously, the best thing ever) but, no starch. I knew we had some potatoes so, I went to one of the Cook's pages to find a recipe.

Every time I had attempted to make hash browns from scratch there was too much moisture in them so they were mushy and, not crisp. From reading online I thought I needed a potato ricer to squeeze out the excess moisture. Turns out, there is something way easier you can use, a kitchen towel. By placing shredded potato into the towel you can then wring out all of that potato juice. The hash browns I made turned out fantastic, I even made more on Sunday.

Nick took care of dinner on Saturday. He prepared a Horseradish crusted pork tenderloin, garlic rosemary roasted potatoes, and braised brussel sprouts. The recipe originally called for a 2lb beef tenderloin but, we opted to go for a less expensive route and, the results were still fantastic.

Sunday morning I baked up some blueberry scones from the Cook's website. Nathan and Alana had already given the recipe rave reviews so, I could not wait to try them myself. While the scones were baking I fried up some bacon (I went to the store on Saturday so, we had some good bacon on hand) and lined some up for baking. Nick likes to fry up eggs in bacon grease so that's why I prepared the bacon two ways. I prefer baking bacon because it turns out crisp every time.

Wow, the blueberry scones were fantastic. Mine didn't turn out as pretty as the ones on the Cook's website but, they were crazy tasty. Nick said they were as good as the ones at Panera, if not better. The scones were soft, not dry, you could taste the bit of lemon zest in them. I don't know that I will ever buy another scone!

Here is the list of everything Nick and I cooked this weekend:

-Hash browns from scratch (2 times)
- Bacon (2 times)
- Fried eggs and scrambled (2 times)
- Horseradish crusted pork tenderloin
- Garlic rosemary roasted potatoes
- Braised brussel sprouts
- Blueberry scones
- Christmas cookies