Skirt Steak and Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Kebabs 22 January 2010

We didn’t have enough teriyaki sauce so we substituted some soy sauce that we had on hand and it was still amazing.  Had to make several other adaptations based on what we had, as well.  Adapted from Recipezaar.

Ingredients

• 1 large skirt steak
• 4 boneless chicken cutlets
• 1 1/2 cups teriyaki sauce
• 3 Tbsp. sesame seeds (I used toasted)
• 1 cup white vermouth (I subbed white vinegar)
• 5 Tbsp. garlic, chopped (I think I used about 8 Tbsp.)
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 8 slices bacon (or however many you need to wrap the chicken)

Directions

1. Cut both steak and chicken into kebab-sized pieces.
2. Mix teriyaki sauce, sesame seeds, vermouth, garlic, and onion.  Add meat and marinate for 4-6 hours.
3. Wrap 1/3 slice bacon around each piece of chicken (may be more or less depending on how big you cut your chicken, just make sure it wraps around enough that the skewer goes through bacon, chicken, bacon to be secure).
4. Alternate chicken and steak to make the kebabs.
5. Grill until cooked to your desired doneness.  (I used the George Foreman and it took about 4-5 minutes for each batch.)
6. You can baste with more sauce during cooking if you’d like.

Guinness & Honey Glazed Pork Loin 20 January 2010

Adapted from Recipezaar.  Goes really well with garlic mashed potatoes.

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cup Guinness
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 4 lb. pork loin

Directions

1. For glaze, put Guinness, honey, and brown sugar into a pan and reduce by about half.
2. Preheat oven to 400F.
3. Season the pork loin with salt and pepper (optional, but it makes the flavor richer) and place in a deep roasting pan lined with aluminum foil.  Cook for 20 minutes.
4. Remove pork from oven and pour glaze over it..  Turn the heat down to 325F and cook for another 40-50 minutes, basting every 10-15.
5. Glaze will form syrup that’s also good drizzled on mashed potatoes.

Decent Salad 19 January 2010

This is my grandmother’s recipe.  She makes this almost any time we have a family get-together.  Looking at the recipe, it seems totally bizarre, but it’s really tasty.  The flavors mesh really well together.  My favorite jello flavor to use is lime.

Ingredients

• 1 6oz. package jello, any flavor
• 1 small container cottage cheese
• 1 can crushed pineapple
• 1 small container cool whip

Directions

1. Place pineapple and jello in medium saucepan – do not drain pinapple.
2. Bring to a rolling boil.
3. Cool in fridge until solid.
4. Chunk it up with a mixer or whisk.
5. Mix in cottage cheese well, then mix in cool whip.

Savory Sauce for Pizza or Pasta 17 January 2010

I rarely buy pre-made sauce anymore.  This is so quick and simple to make.  Can also be made in large batches and canned to save for later.  Don’t remember where this recipe came from, but I don’t think I made it up.

Ingredients

• 1 28oz. can tomato puree
• ¼ cup tomato paste
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 1Tbsp. dried basil
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 2-4 garlic cloves, minced
• ¼ tsp. salt
• ¼ tsp. pepper

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients, in order, in a blender.
2. Blend until smooth and fully mixed.

Bourbon Steak (or chicken) 16 January 2010

I have no idea where I found this recipe, but it’s one of my best dishes.

Ingredients

• ½ cup soy sauce
• ¼ cup bourbon
• 1/8 tsp. garlic powder
• ¼ tsp. grated ginger
• ¼ cup water
• 1-4 steaks

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients together.
2. Marinate for at least 2 hours.
3. Grill or pan-sear.
4. To make sauce:  heat some of the marinade in the pan you cooked the meat, add cornstarch or flour to create the proper thickness.

Works on chicken, do not marinate for more than 2 hours or it will be too strong.  Do not use the sauce you marinated the meat in to make a sauce for this, the consistency will not be right due to bits of chicken fat.  Mix up a new batch if you want sauce.  This works well to make a bunch and put it with rice and vegetables into individual containers to take to work.