When rummaging through our fridge of meat, I decided to break us out of our normal meat routine and make some gorgeous veal chops we picked up from the Farmer’s Market recently.

I am a big fan of adding extra flavor to meats with a rub. I put Luke to work with our mortar and pestle grinding up three garlic cloves, olive oil, pepper and some cayenne pepper.

I rubbed the garlic paste into both sides of the chops and then pan seared thems in olive oil (heated until smoking) for three minutes on both sides

After searing, I put the chops on a plate and covered with foil. I added some beef stock and scraped up all the seared-on pieces from the bottom of the pan.

Despite not really liking mushrooms, I was craving a mushroom-cream sauce. What can I say? I’m an odd bird. I added some cipollini mushrooms, heavy cream and pepper to the liquid in the pan. To thicken it a little, I added some hazelnut flour (because we try to avoid white flour,) but any type will work.

I know the above doesn’t really give much guidance on the sauce, but you should just eyeball it all to your taste.

I let the sauce simmer 2-3 minutes to cook the mushrooms and then returned the chops to the sauce, covered and simmered another 5-7 minutes. You’ll want to spoon some of the sauce onto the chops throughout the cooking process.

I really like the combination of the tender veal with the creamy, savory sauce. They compliment each other very well.

To add to the inventiveness of the meal, I decided to try a NEW vegetable for a side: Radicchio. This hard-to-pronounce vegetable has a slightly bitter flavor that works really well with a salty counterpart. This is what it looks like at the store:

Kind of like red cabbage, but smaller.

I found a recipe in a cookbook at home for pancetta-wrapped radicchio that looks delicious and easy. To make it, just cut the head into wedges, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and wrap with a piece of pancetta or bacon.

Throw the pan into a 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes until the pancetta is crispy and the radicchio is soft. Drizzle with some balsamic vinegar and what you get is this crazy-yummy “vegetable” side dish.

All in all, I’d say mother nature did us a favor bringing the storms so we’d be forced to stay in town and go on some culinary explorations!

I am a HUGE ribs fan. We eat them at least once a month in the summer following my dad’s technique for slow braising and then char-grilling. There really isn’t a more flavorful, tender piece of meat in my book.

Luke woke up early on Saturday and picked up two gorgeous racks of pork ribs at the farmer’s market. This is a good 5 lbs of ribs, which embarrassingly enough, we finished between three of us!

I like my ribs spicy, so I made a great rub that added some zing then spread it all over the uncooked ribs.

Here’s the rub recipe adapted from a paleo blog I read:

- 3 Tbsp paprika
- 1 Tbsp onion powder
- 1 Tbsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- lots of fresh ground pepper
- 2 tblsp olive oil

I put the rubbed ribs in the fridge to let the flavors sit while I made some homemade BBQ sauce. I can’t stand how sweet store-bought BBQ sauce is, so I decided to make a sugar-free sauce myself from a recipe I found on Son of Grok, another paleo blog I follow.

This sauce is super simple and tastes amazing. There’s so much depth and spiciness to it and it has a thick texture to really coat whatever meat you use it with.

To make it, just combine all the ingredients below and simmer for 25 minutes until thick.

Ingredients:
- 1 6oz can tomato paste (preferable organic)
- 1 to 1.5 cups of beef stock (look for low or no salt added)
- 3 Cloves Garlic minced
- .5 of an onion minced
- 2 tablespoons dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 tablespoons chili powder

Yum! This sauce has quickly become a staple in our fridge. I highly recommend you try it out.

So now that my ribs are rubbed and sauced, I placed them on a 1 inch deep cookie sheet and wrapped them in foil.

Then I baked them in a 325 degree oven for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, until the bones are clearly showing. I love this method of cooking ribs because the meat gets so incredibly tender and the house smells amazing.

To finish them off, Luke fired up the grill to medium/high heat and charred the ribs for 5-7 minutes.

I served the ribs with spicy green beans (cayenne pepper) and sweet potato fries.

This was an AWESOME meal to end the weekend. My mouth it watering just thinking about it!

While my poor husband is stuck working all weekend, I’m planning to hit up the pool a lot, watch some fireworks and of course make some delicious grub. I just love all the red, white and blue themed recipes I’ve come across…

I found these adorable red, white and blue cupcakes over at Tidy Mom blog.

These “pretzel sparklers” would be a bit hit with kids, I’d bet.

For the adults? I’m digging this fourth of July cocktail.

I love this american fruit-flag! It would be delish with some fresh farmer’s market berries.

Photo credit: http://www.rd.com

Of course, it doesn’t get much more all-american than a good old hot dog!

I’m planning on baking my second-ever cheesecake since my last one turned out so yummy. This time it will be a classic New York cheesecake decorated with some patriotic berries.

Photo credit: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com

Photo credit http://www.bonappetit.com

How are you guys planning to celebrate? What foods are you most looking forward to eating?

They were ridiculously sweet, soft and juicy, all perfect requirements for some out-of-this-world ice cream! It helped that we also picked up some amazingly thick, creamy heavy cream from a local dairy farm.

You really cannot beat fresh farmer’s market produce.

So back to the cherry/chocolate ice cream. This recipe is super simple to make and resulted in what was seriously the best ice cream I’ve ever had.

The only gadgety thing you need is an ice cream maker. If you don’t have one, I suggest you invest in one immediately! Homemade ice cream is worlds better than store bought.

To make this recipe, you will need the following ingredients:

INGREDIENTS

Start by pitting your cherries. This can be a bit tricky if you don’t have a cherry pitter, but I used the end of a chop stick instead and it worked well.

Next, heat up your milk, one cup cream, cherries and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Once it starts steaming, lower the heat to low and let it sit for 15 minutes.

Then run the mixture through a blender to puree together. Pour the mixture into a large bowl and place in the fridge for a couple hours until it’s cooled throughout.

While the concoction cools, chop up some dark chocolate (I used 85% cacao bars from Trader Joe’s) and about 10 cherries so you’ll have some yummy cherry chunks mixed into the ice cream.

Remove the liquid from the fridge and add the remaining 3/4 cup cream. Pour it into your ice cream maker (make sure you DON’T add the chocolate and cherry chunks at this point. That comes later.) and let it run for 25 minutes.

Your ice cream will be very hard to resist at this point, so you’re best to not even taste it!

It should be soft so you can easily scoop it into an air tight container. Fold the chocolate and cherry chunks into the ice cream and place it in the freezer for 1-2 hours.

When you’re ready to dig in, let it thaw for 5-10 minutes so it’s easily scoop-able. Then just enjoy the awesomeness that is cherry/chocolate ice cream!

Typically I’ll stuff chicken breasts with it and top them off with a basil leaf, but for some reason a breast of chicken didn’t appeal to me. I decided to use a whole rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. This is really my favorite way to eat this meat because it’s so tender, juicy and flavorful. Plus you get a ton of food with no hassle.

Luke beat me with the better half of the wish-bone!

I seasoned the chicken with a little oregano and heated it up in olive oil. Then I added some organic (5 grams of sugar or less too) marinara sauce and ample bits of fresh goats cheese.

I baked it for about 10 minutes at 325 until the goat cheese was soft and the marinara was bubbling. We paired ours with red cabbage sautéed in a lot of butter and sea salt.

This is a SUPER easy preparation of chicken that was incredibly flavorful. It would be perfect for any busy weeknight.

I hope you all have a great week! I’ll be posted about some fabulous weddings I recently attended later this week. :)

I did a really simple preparation of the lamb using ingredients we had around the apartment starting with a garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper “rub.”

I then seared the lamb in some olive oil for two minutes on each side, until the outside was brown and charred. After setting the meat aside to rest, I added some more olive oil, minced garlic and onions – making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan to get up any of the left behind fat.

Once the onions were cooked, I added a bit more olive oil, water and a pinch of flour to thicken up the sauce. Then I returned the chops to the pan, coverd and simmered on low heat for 30-40 minutes.

While the meat was cooking, I worked on the spaghetti squash. If you haven’t seen this vegetable before, it’s usually found in the produce section near the other squash. Here’s what is looks like…

Cooking spaghetti squash is really simple. Just cut it in half and cook (with the inside part on the greased pan) for 40 minutes. Once cooled, take a fork and scrape the inside of the squash so you get “spaghetti.”

The shredded squash tastes surprisingly a LOT like real pasta. With just 42 calories per cup it is so much healthier than spaghetti. You can cook the squash with any sauce, toppings or seasonings you like. I chose crispy pancetta, butter and plain old S&P.

I had to include one food-porn shot of the pancetta cooking. YUMMMM

The results were perfectly tender, juicy lamb and “al dente” spaghetti squash with lots of savory, salty pancetta. I only wish there was more meat on the lamb! I could have eated it all night.

I think I found my favorite vegetable…spaghetti squash is awesome! Have you guys tried it before?

The menu for last night was some wild sea bass coated with a macadamia nut crust, topped with a mango cream sauce. Luke and I had some amazing macadamia nuts in Maui, and I’ve been craving a dish with the same tropical flavors since we’ve been home.

I started out by making the macadamia nut crust in our food processor. It took about a half cup of copped nuts, a tablespoon of olive oil, some red pepper flakes and pepper.

Next I got the mango cream sauce ready. This sauce is very easy and really makes the entire meal. It’s sweet, rich and pairs perfectly with the macadamia nuts. Just chop half a ripe mango, combine it with 1/2 a cup heavy cream and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and let it thicken until your fish is ready.

The last step to this easy recipe is to cook the fish. I started by seasoning it with salt and pepper and then searing it on medium-high heat in a skillet with some olive oil and crushed garlic. Once seared on each side, I transferred the fish to the oven, which was pre-heated to 350, to cook for another 8-10 minutes.

Once cooked through, I topped each filet with the macadamia nut topping and returned it to the oven until the crust was slightly brown.

I topped each finished fish with a good heaping of the mango cream sauce and added some of our fav veggies: green beans and swiss chard.

This fish was scrumdiddlyumptious! I would definitely recommend the crust and mango cream sauce, which can be paired with any type of fish from salmon to tilapia.

For dessert, I tested out my springform pan Luke’s sister gave me by making a chocolate-orange cheesecake. It turned out amazing, although it’s hard to go wrong with cheesecake. I got the recipe from the “I Love Cheesecake” cookbook that came along with the pan.

Enjoy!

Birthday Shoes is a Vibram FiveFingers fan blog – definitely not where I typically turn for new food ideas, but buyoff from two of my favorite bloggers is enough for me to give it a shot.

Liz makes some amazing pizza, and one of our favorite restaurants in Chicago is Pequod’s, but we’ve been shunning most refined carbs for quite a while now. The big selling point of the recipe I had found was that it was for a pizza recipe with no bread – and we’re not talking about some cheese and pepperoni heated up in a bowl either. This was a MEATza.

A meatza is a vegetarian’s worst nightmare. It is a pizza where the crust is literally made out of ground beef. A LOT of ground beef. Like 8 quarter pounders worth. In other words, it was perfect.

I immediately recommended it to Liz, but she had other ideas…and more ideas…then a few more ideas…then some final ideas…and 6 weeks later I still hadn’t had any meatza. So last weekend, after spending all day Saturday and half the day Sunday with Liz stressing over placecards, programs, table seating, etc., etc., I knew this was going to be my big chance to finally feast on some meatza.

I gently asked, “Honey, why don’t you let me handle dinner for your Sunday Supper Series.” I took her dejected grunts as confirmation of her desire to also enjoy some meatza.

I picked up two pounds of 90/10 free range ground beef, an onion, garlic, green pepper, pepperoni, mozzarella cheese , and Trader Joe’s pizza sauce. In total, I spent about $20, although I already had the rest of the spices and parmesan cheese to follow the recipe.

I basically followed Justin’s (BirthdayShoes.com) recipe exactly, so I won’t repeat it. You can find the recipe here. The only differences:

• I didn’t have nearly as much grease as to drain off as Justin describes, which might be from using 90/10 ground beef rather than the 80/20 that Justin uses. I think 90/10 was perfectly sufficient though because you add a lot of spices to the meat already so it is still packed with plenty of flavor.
• I nixed the garlic salt since I had already added 3 cloves of minced garlic as toppings.
• Liz hates fungus, so no ‘shrooms.

Liz and I each had a piece and a half of the pie, which seems pretty weak until you consider that we each ate about 3 quarter pounders worth of beef (+topppings). From that perspective (and the fact that even Liz went back for seconds) testifies to the deliciousness of the meatza.

One present in particular was used to create this week’s Sunday night supper- a food processor! I’ve been dying for a food processor since so many great recipes require one- pesto, salsas and even homemade granola bars.

I was craving Black Bean Burgers for some reason. I really love the spicy flavor, unique texture and filling qualities of these vegetarian burgers. I also wanted to test out my new processor, which is needed for this recipe.

Basically you just mash up a 16 oz. can of black beans so most of the beans are “mushy.” Then I threw 1/2 a green pepper, 3 peeled garlic cloves and 1/2 and onion into the food processor until they’re finely chopped.

In a separate bowl I mixed one egg, 1 tablespoon each of chili powder, cumin and hot sauce. Then I added 3/4 cup of Italian bread crumbs to thicken it a bit.

I strained the beans and onion/garlic/pepper mix to get rid of the extra water before mixing everything (beans, onion mix, and egg/breadcrumb mix) together.

While my grill pan heated up to medium/high heat, I formed patties out of the mixture. It was a bit sticky/soft, so don’t be alarmed if you can’t make perfect patties. Once I threw them on the grill that held together fairly well.

We topped ours with whole-grain flat bread buns, onion, cheese, mustard and ketchup.

For a side, I whipped together a Mexican salad with iceberg lettuce, Mexican cheese, tomatoes, canned corn and jalapeno peppers.

I also used my processor a second time to make homemade chipotle dressing. This dressing is really easy and delicious with a ton of chipotle kick. I like to make a batch of it and keep it around all week for salads.

 All it takes is 1/2 a packet of Ranch dressing mix, 1 1/2 cups light sour cream, pureed chipotle peppers (this is where you need the food processor),  juice from one lime and 1 tablespoon cumin. Just mix, refrigerate for a 1/2 hour and enjoy!

This meal was a great way to mix in some vegetarian eating into our diet. The burgers were crisp on the outside and soft on the inside with lots of onion, garlic and spicy flavor. The chipotle dressing also had a nice kick to off-set the cold iceberg lettuce.

I definitely recommend you guys try this recipe out! If anything, it would be a nice offering at a barbecue this summer.

That’s 6 lbs of farm-raised bison meat. If you’ve never had bison before, it’s the leaner, softer, healthier verson of beef. In fact, I was really surprised to see how healthy bison is:

Since 6 lbs is enough to feed an army, I had my personal butcher (Luke) cut it into steaks. As you can see, bison has very little fat on it.

I cut up some carrots (check out those white ones!) and onions I got from the farmers market for the roast. You can also put in potatoes, but since I’m doing South Beach, I opted out.

Next I mixed two cans of beef broth, two tablespoons of sugar, a package of dry onion soup mix, salt, pepper and some cayenne to give it a kick.

Then I placed the bison, veggies and a bay leaf in the crock pot and topped with the broth mixture.

Everything cooked on low heat for 8-10 hours. If you can’t cook for that long, cook it on low for at least 6 hours and then turn it up to high for the last hour- hour and a half.

The result isn’t the prettiest thing ever, but it sure was tasty!

We couldn’t get over how tender, flavorful and juicy the bison was. It was just as good and regular beef roast, with no where near the amount of fat and calories. I think I’ll be choosing it over beef whenever possible.

Have you guys tried bison? Do you agree that it tastes pretty darn good?

I hope you all had a great weekend!