Thursday, November 15, 2012

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My homemade hot and mild sauce!

Ingredients
20 JalapeƱos or 20 red hot peppers
Whole head of garlic
Two medium onions
About 2 tbsp of salt
2 - 4 tbsp of olive oil
5 tbsp of vinegar

Blend peppers, 1 onion and half head of garlic, add a bit of the vinegar to blend everything together, and the salt. In a frying pan add the remainder of the olive oil, chop finely the onion and the other half of garlic and let brown,on low heat. Add pepper paste and cook for about 10 minutes on low heat. Turn off oven let the sauce cool for 5 to 10 minutes and put in jars.

I made this recipe the same but used jalapeƱos for the very hot sauce and hot peppers for mild. I had lots of hot peppers in my garden so decided to give it a try, and so far my recipe has been a hot hit. I make other sauces with it as well, which I will be posting those up. Enjoy!

Friday, November 9, 2012

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Good friends, good times and good food!

Our outdoor kitchen.

 Friend get together dinner menu.

                             Porchetta, oven roasted potatoes, ribs,white rice and garden vegetable salad.

The porchetta, potatoes and ribs were cooked in my backyard stone oven! The taste is super delicious when using natural wood heat, takes a bit longer but its well worth it. Of course you can cook any of these delicious recipes in a regular oven, and will taste delicious.
Questions,comments or suggestions always welcome.

                                                  
Oven Roasted potatoes, sweet potatoes & baby carrots



Ingredients
  • Potatoes (rule of thumb 2 potatoes per person)
  • 2 Sweet Potatoes
  • A handful of baby carrots
  • Salt & pepper 
  • 4 cloves of garlic finely chopped or garlic powder
  • 1onion (finely chopped)
  • 1 tsp rosemary
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • Olive oil
Wash  and cut potatoes into wedges (peal the skin off -optional). Combine carrots and the rest of ingredients,drizzle olive oil, mix well, and roast in the oven at 375F for about 25 minutes or until tender. Broil for an extra 5 minutes to  golden the potatoes.


 
                        Veggie salad

Ingredients
  • 2 cups broccoli
  • 2 cups green beans chopped in half
  • 2 beets
  • 1 avocado
  • a handful of cherry tomatoes
  • 1 small onion
  • goat cheese (optional)
  • salt, olive oil & vinegar to taste
Roast broccoli and green beans for 10 to 15 minutes at 350F. Let cool and place in a bowl. Add beets (sliced into thin moon slices depending on how large the beet is),avocado sliced into wedges, cherry tomatoes whole or cut in half, and sliced onion. Sprinkle salt, olive oil and vinegar to taste. Cut about an inch slice of goat cheese (3 tablespoons) and with a fork shred it over salad and serve.

 
Roasted Pork Ribs
                                                                Ingredients
  • Rack of ribs
  • 1-2 tbsp Hot sauce optional
  • 3 tbsp barbecue sauce 
  • 1/2 cup white wine
  • 5 Garlic cloves
  • Salt 
Cut ribs individually and place them in a rack. In a blender combine all other ingredients and blend together. You can always add more barbecue sauce to thicken if sauce to thin. Season ribs with salt, brush the sauce over the ribs and put them in the fridge for about an hour. Cook ribs in oven at 375F for 40 minutes. Broil for an extra 5 min.Note: you can marinate the ribs with the sauce the night before, or morning of.

Europeans love food, and porchetta is one of our favorite dishes.The roasted porchetta was delicious and our friends enjoyed it.

 Enjoy!
Wood fired oven
                                                          
Roasted Porchetta



Monday, November 5, 2012

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SpOokTacular Halloween

We had a spooky time on this Halloween night!! The weather wasn't the greatest but we kept our Halloween spirit! The kids went trick or treating and saw some creepy and cool decorations. The adults had fun, specially when the kids got home with their bags full of treats, they treated themselves lol!!!

Hope you all had a Spooky, Safe Halloween!!!

Enjoy the pictures, get creative for next year!!

We came across this house full of carved pumpkins, really amazing! The owner of the house explained to us that it took him and family members 2 full weeks to carve the 60 or more pumpkins on his front lawn, but it was a show stopper! Excellent carving