Whoopsie Wednesday: Forgot to Post and Thursday's Dinner

Wednesday's dinner was a great success, I made a spicy black bean soup and my husband made some corn bread waffles. You can find corn bread waffle recipes online, but our recipe came from the KitchenAid Belgian Waffle Maker cookbook that came with our super-studly, mack-daddy, dual belgian waffle maker, (with chrome exhaust and V-8 engine). Seriously, it's an awesome waffle maker.

Basically you use flour, corn meal, eggs, milk, cheese and cayenne pepper and make a nice thick waffle batter. You cook each waffle for 3 minutes and 45 seconds and they are light and crispy and cheesy and delicious. It made a sort of nice quick bread to serve with the bean soup.

I rinsed, sorted and soaked my beans and set them aside. In the bottom of my pressure cooker I sweated some roughly chopped onions, garlic, yellow bell pepper, and 2 tsp of Emeril's Southwest Seasoning and 1 tsp of chili powder and a single bay leaf. I added the drained beans and stirred them all together and then added a partial container beef broth I had in my fridge that needed using up. You could use chicken or vegetable broth or a mixture if you are so inclined. I cooked the beans with the veggies for 25 minutes on high pressure and then did quick release after 10 minutes. We served everything with a nice green salad. I was so tired though that I fell asleep without remembering to post. So sorry!

Tonight (Thursday's) dinner was sort of a chaotic adventure. My oldest daughter came home today with an earache, which necessitated some phone calls to local doctors to see if anyone could see her before 5 and dosing her with tylenol. Then trying to get her sister to get dressed and both kids to find their shoes to get them in the car to the doctors. No sooner had I texted my friend (and Sarah's softball coach) that we couldn't make it to practice, (my husband is the assistant coach) I get a call from Coach's Wife (and also my friend) that their beloved Golden Retriever had JUST passed away suddenly and could we please go coach the other kids?

Is it any surprise that I left the dinner in the oven? When I got home I was able to salvage the now somewhat sad and shriveled pork loins I had prepared by putting some barbecue sauce on them, but I still felt bad.

These are delicious when prepared correctly, but pretty good even if you leave them in about 30 minutes longer than you should have.

Take both pieces of a pork loin and lay them in a lidded dutch oven or large oven safe lidded pot; mine is an enamel over cast iron piece from the Martha Stewart collection. Sprinkle the loins all over with your favorite BBQ rub or rib rub. Drizzle the meat with a combination of liquid smoke, worcestershire sauce, apple juice and a splash of mojo marinade. (If you lack mojo you can sub in some citrus juices, lemon, lime, orange etc.) I put some large hunks of onion and a quartered apple around the meat to cook down and add moisture and flavor. They did help keep the meat somewhat moist as well.

After I pulled the meat out I took some pre-steamed green beans and put them in a pan with hot bacon fat and let them sit and sizzle till they were golden brown, then I peppered them and turned them and let them get brown on the other side. While those were cooking over medium heat I added some butter to a smaller pan and put that on low. Then I sliced an un-peeled apple into many nice thin slices and fried them in butter. When they were brown and soft on both sides I added the apples to a bowl with a goodly dash of cinnamon. Then I added some frozen corn to a microwave safe bowl and cooked the corn niblets with salt, pepper and butter. You could also add a bit of cream or sour cream after they are heated through to make a sort of "creamed corn" that is also very good.

Failed Dinners

Okay, so I think I used the wrong cut of beef last night on my brisket because although it looked and smelled JUST LIKE every other time I have made it-- it tasted exceedingly bland! I just used the roast I had on hand and did not go and get a brisket, so I have only myself to blame. But here's the thing; I can eat a mediocre meal one night, but then I have the leftovers to deal with and you have to figure out what went wrong and fix it.

But first you have to start cooing the item that takes the longest to make. There was a leftover bag of collard greens from my husband's lonely little New Year's Day feast (the kids and I were out of town) so I fixed those in my pressure cooker. To the bottom of the pressure cooker I added 1 chopped onion, 1/2 C of vegetable broth, 3 cloves of garlic minced, 2 TB of ketchup, 1 TB of balsamic vinegar. I rinsed and picked over the pre-chopped bag of greens and removed any large stems or blemished leaves. I tossed the leaves with 2 TB of salt and 1 TB of sugar. Then I packed them down in the pressure cooker and cooked them on high for 20 minutes.

So last night's "meh" brisket got thrown into a sauce pan and covered in BBQ spice rub, then I added some BBQ sauce and heated the whole thing up. Instant pulled beef sandwiches, just add buns!

I just took some frozen corn niblets and microwaved them with salt, butter and 1 TB of water, just like you do. They were fine.

I threw the buns on the plates, added the BBQ, side of corn, side of greens. My baby wanted cheese on her sandwich, my 8 year old requested some pickled okra on the side and we were ready to eat.

The greens were so dang good I think I might make them that way from now on. The kids loved the sandwiches. My husband loved ALL of it and no one had to eat any under-spiced brisket for dinner! YAY!