Cooking Show: Crock Pot Favorites, and Baileys® Irish Creme Parfaits

Last week's cooking show featured an eclectic assortment of recipes.

I started planning a theme featuring favorite recipes for the slow cooker.

Crock Pot Chili

This is my personal favorite, as far as slow cooker recipes go.  The only prep is chopping a few ingredients and opening a few cans, then mixing it all in your crock pot and forgetting about it for 8 hours.  No additional steps, just add a few toppings at the end.  Truly a one-pot meal! 

And it's not a grease-laden chili, as you will use steak instead of traditional hamburger.  Here's the printable recipe.

Crock Pot Boneless Country-Style Ribs

With over 800,000 page views and 30K+ pins on Pinterest, this is by far the most popular recipe on this blog.

 Here is the printable recipe.

Green Beans with toasted slivered almonds and chopped bacon, not a crock pot recipe but I thought it was important to prepare a vegetable on the side! Click here for the printable recipe.

 And finally, Baileys® Irish Creme Parfaits.

Seriously good.

So good that everybody licked their spoon clean.

Really incredible, as in so incredible that they deserve their own blogpost with step-by-step instructions...but until I create that future blogpost, I won't leave you hanging.  Here's the printable recipe!

Cooking Show...Tailgating, Part III !

I can't believe we just filmed our third annual tailgating show!

I was once again joined by Maureen, the tailgating maven.  I don't know anyone who is more of a tailgating expert than she is.

Last month, it was my good luck to join in on one of her legendary tailgates, and I snapped a few photos.

Here they are:

Here's a photo of her table with appetizers and main dishes.

I think the two people that you see in the photo may be having a spirited discussion regarding whether the buffalo chicken dip tastes better with nachos or veggie sticks.

It's hard to see what was way down the other end of the table, so here's a picture of Maureen's fabulous tortellini/pasta salad and pulled pork sandwiches with vinegar slaw.

And we can't forget the dessert & drink table, featuring pomegranate mojitos and pumpkin whoopie pies, both of which we replicated for the show.

Here's what we made on the show:

Maureen thought it would be nice to have a signature cocktail for her tailgate.  

I decided that it should feature pomegranate juice, to match the colors of her alma mater.  Hence, Pomegranate Mojitos were born!  

Here's the printable recipe.

Then we moved on to Fall Salad with Cranberry Vinaigrette.  Click here for the printable recipe.

In the upper left corner of the above photo, you can partially see the Brie & Jam Phyllo tarts that we made.  I wish I took a picture of them; I promise to update this post as soon as possible with a picture!  

In the meantime, if you want to make them, you will need a package of frozen phyllo tarts, a wedge of brie and a jar of jam.  Place a small (3/4-inch) piece of brie and 1/2 teaspoon of jam in each tart.  Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

For the record, I used roasted garlic & onion jam which lent the perfect amount of savory sweetness to these tarts!

Our menu would not be complete without Slow Cooker Pulled Pork sandwiches!  Here's the printable recipe.

And for a sweet finish to our show, Pumpkin Whoopie Pies.  If you want to see a plate of treats disappear, make these.

During the show, someone asked me how long these will keep.  I had to answer that I didn't know, they are always gone by the next day!

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

It just doesn't get any easier than this.

Three ingredients!

Throw it into your crock pot, forget about it for 12 hours while you go about your day.

As usual, I had to dress it up a bit by adding some spice; but if you want to keep it simple and omit that step I promise you that your pulled pork will still be out-of-this-world yummy!

Slow Cooker Baby Back Ribs

Finally.

I made a batch of baby back ribs in my crock pot that I think are blogworthy!!!

I won't go into how picky I am about slow cooker recipes.  About how I refuse to sacrifice taste for convenience;  to sacrifice texture for the supposed ease of throwing everything into one pot and hoping that it's edible.  

No, I won't go into how I have a love/hate relationship with my crock pot.

I'm just going to say that these ribs have earned a permanent spot in my dinner rotation.

Maple-Mustard Pork Chops

If there were an Olympic competition for displays of disorganization, my preparation of this recipe would probably qualify me.

It all started with 4 boneless pork chops that I was going to cook for dinner.  I was totally uninspired and couldn't come up with a way to cook them.

First, I thought I would put together a honey-mustard-ginger-soy marinade.......but I was out of soy sauce and the fresh ginger that I was so sure was in my refrigerator was playing hide and seek with me.  I know I will find it tomorrow.

I decided to pare it down a bit, forget about the heavy Asian influence.  And then the honey wouldn't cooperate!  There were at least 12 ounces left in the (warehouse-size) container, but it was starting to crystallize and refused to pour.

At this point my patience was really stretched so I decided I'd go with maple syrup instead of honey.  So here we have it--Maple Mustard Pork Chops.  Not what I set out to make, but I think this is one of those times that I ended up with something better than I had planned!

Slow Cooker Parmesan Honey Pork Roast Recipe

Today's recipe is for yet another slow cooker pork roast, but what's not to love about a meal that you can throw together in the morning and then just forget about it for six hours?  And in the meantime, it makes your house smell really good!

This is another recipe from my recipe board on Pinterest.  It's nice that I'm finally starting to cook all these recipes that I've been pinning.  Let's see, this is the second Pinterest recipe that I've made this week, I probably pin one or two recipes a day, at this rate I should be caught up...never.  Oh, well, the browsing and pinning is fun, and even if I "only" make two recipes a week that are worth keeping, I still think it's a win-win situation!

Roasted Herbed Pork Tenderloin With Vegetables

This recipe came about because I wasn't organized.  Another resolution--get organized--.........broken.

Pork tenderloins were on sale.  I thought I would make crock pot pork tenderloin .  All I had to do was throw everything in the crock pot and let it cook for the afternoon.

Maybe if it were one of those crock pot recipes that took eight or nine hours I would have felt pressured to get myself to the store early.  A crock pot recipe that only takes 4 1/2 hours gave me too much time to relax.  

Instead, I puttered around all morning, thinking to myself, "I have plenty of time, as long as I get it into the crock pot by 1 o'clock."  Can you see where I'm going with this?

That's right, the morning came and went, and then I found myself at the supermarket, buying pork tenderloin, knowing that I would not have time to cook it in the crock pot.......and this recipe is what I ended up with.

Crock Pot Pork Tenderloin, And A Giveaway!!

It's been a while since I've posted.......I'm not going to make any excuses.  You've heard them all, anyway!

Thanksgiving was wonderful.  

On Saturday we took a drive to the tree farm.  It took all of three minutes for us to find the perfect tree.

Well, my kids found the perfect tree.  All I did was agree with their choice.

It's been a decorating frenzy since then.

The real tree is in the living room, and there are fake trees in the family room and dining room.

In my sewing room, a.k.a. The Land Of A Thousand Unfinished Projects, I had started making a fabric bunting from a charm pack of Mary Engelbreit prints from her "Isn't Christmas Jolly" line.

I finished it today so that I could decorate the final tree.........my dining room tree, which sort of has a kitchen theme.

Which brings us to the giveaway!

 Aren't these glass peppermint ornaments cute?

How about the gingerchef and snowchef?

I bought these at the Williams-Sonoma Outlet last year, during the after-Christmas sale when all the holiday merchandise was ridiculously reduced.  I stocked up, with my dining room tree in mind, forgetting that it's only a five-foot-tall sort of pygmy tree.

I have three extra sets of these ornaments to give away.  You will receive five ornaments--the three peppermint ornaments, the snowchef and the gingerchef.

All you have to do to enter is 1. become a follower of  my blog.  (If you already follow the blog you are automatically entered.)  Or, 2. you could enter the giveaway by leaving a comment.......about anything from what type of ornaments are your favorites to whether or not you think the Red Sox will actually have a manager under contract before next season starts.  And 3. if  you are a follower and leave a comment, you will be entered twice, which means that you could possibly win two sets of ornaments.

Winners will be drawn by noon on Friday.

{This giveaway is sponsored by me.  I am in no way affiliated with Williams Sonoma, and I can say with certainty and conviction that they have no idea that I even exist.}  

Today's recipe was something I sort of stumbled upon in desperation.  Pork Tenderloins were on sale, I bought two, and then I didn't know what to do with them.  I couldn't just sit and stare at them!  I had to cook them!  What to do?!  Google to the rescue!

I scrolled through the recipes that popped up and settled on this one.  Which I just had to tweak, of course.  I read through a few of the comments that were left and made some adjustments.   

Recurring themes throughout all the comments--"Tasty!" "Flavorful!" "Tender!" "Easy!"-- I agree!  Mr. Terrific, Sean and Erin all agree--this recipe is a keeper.

Crock Pot Boneless Country-Style Ribs

Well, it's about time I posted a crock pot recipe.

I haven't used my crock pot in months.  It takes up too much room in my kitchen, so I keep it on a shelf in the basement.  Out of sight, out of mind.

And then, when I finally get around to using it, I can't help but wonder:  why don't I use this more often? 

This is one of my favorite crock pot recipes.  I've tweaked it quite a bit over the years.  In its original incarnation, I just poured a bottle of BBQ sauce into the crock pot, dumped in the ribs and let it cook for 8 hours.  I've come a long way since then.

The playlist is very short today, as it will only take about 10 minutes to prep the ingredients!

Creamy Pork Marsala With Mushrooms

The inspiration for today's recipe just sort of materialized out of thin air.

I had no idea what I was going to make for dinner.   As usual, I wanted to try something new.  As long as it had mushrooms in it.

I was wandering around the supermarket, in the meat department, and I happened upon some boneless pork sirloin chops.

I haven't made pork chops in at least ten years.  Or fifteen years.  Nah, probably closer to twenty.  My decision was made.  Pork chops it is!

But how to cook them?  All I could think of was pork Marsala.  So I grabbed a bottle of the lovely supermarket Marsala cooking wine.  It'll have to do.  And a package of baby bella mushrooms.

It's been awhile since I've made anything Marsala.  I'm having a flashback to the early years of my marriage, inviting my mother-in-law and father-in-law over for chicken Marsala. 

I remember my mother-in-law asking me where I got the recipe, and I replied that I didn't have a recipe, I "just cooked it."  She was perplexed that I didn't have any cookbooks, I was baffled that she thought it was weird that I made something without a recipe to follow.

For Christmas that year, she very thoughtfully gave me a lovely cookbook.  It was the biggest, grandest cookbook I had ever seen.  It was about four inches thick, and it must have weighed at least ten pounds.  She obviously bought me the nicest cookbook she could find.

And then one day I opened the cookbook, and the first recipe I saw was for tripe-something-or-other (the urge to gag is suddenly very strong).  I will not go into what tripe is, because I know that my college daughter reads this blog when she is looking for recipes and I don't want to gross her out.  And I know that she is going to google tripe, in which case I am warning you, Caitie, you are about to lose your appetite.  And if you can't help yourself and insist on googling it, do not google the images because you will totally gross yourself out.  Do me a favor and just take a picture of the look on your face, sweetie, because I could use a good laugh.

There were other recipes in the cookbook besides tripe.  There were pigs feet and tongue and brain recipes, too.  I kid you, NOT.

I kept the book for about ten years, and never cooked a single recipe in it.  I felt so bad that my mother-in-law had bought this book and I was going to throw it away.  I remember feeling like I had to justify throwing it away, so I started reading the recipes to Mr. Terrific until he said something like, "That's enough!  Just get rid of it!"

I guess the point of all this rambling is that here I am, 24 years later, still throwing ingredients together without a recipe.

As I was cooking, Sean and Erin both wandered through the kitchen.  Erin:  "What're those?" Me: "Pork chops."  Sean: "Have I ever had those before?" Me:  "I don't think so."

As we were eating, Mr. Terrific said the pork chops were good.   Sean said, "They're good.  You should make them again.  Just don't start cooking meat loaf!"

(For the record, I have never cooked a meat loaf.  He has never tasted meat loaf.)

"My Favorite Things" Lo Mein

I guess it's a recurring theme in this blog, encouraging you to stray from the recipe instructions.

This recipe for lo mein is no different.  I change it up every time!  Depending upon which ingredients I have on hand, it could be a side dish (heavy on the veggies) or a main dish (heavy on the protein).

The following list of ingredients is just a starting point........maybe you don't have to change the seasonings, but you definitely should change the meat and veggie ingredients to reflect your (and your family's) favorite foods.