If you love breakfast, make this pasta NOW (in 20 minutes total!) Spaghetti Carbonara

I love bacon and eggs. Always and forever. We eat eggs every. single. day. There's nothing better for breakfast. Nothing. The kiddos agree. And bacon? Duh. (whole foods dry rubbed black forest bacon. get it).

So when I'm feeling lazy/ want to eat breakfast for dinner, I whip out a pasta carbonara. Bacon and the eggs are the sauce. However, I haven't been super successful in making this dish in the past. Don't get me wrong, it's still been delicious, but it hasn't been that creamy goodness that I dream of. Until yesterday.

I've tried Mario Batali''s recipe, and you had to separate the eggs, and it was work, and I screwed it up and made slightly scrambled egg pasta. So last night, I used Clinton Kelly's recipe as my base. Ummmm....AMAZEBALLS. So easy, and the best carbonara I've ever had hands down. Because I was feeling like a lot of veggies but didn't feel like making a salad, I took a few liberties with what I added in there. I'm sure it would have been just as amazing if I had followed his recipe exactly, but I think my stuff put it over the top!

So. You make some bacon. Obvs. And buy good bacon. The one I referenced above will change your life. No exaggeration. Then drain some of the bacon grease (but you save that shit in a mason jar because cooking in it is heaven and you don't have to go try to find a good lard which is exactly nowhere most of the time). At the same time, put on a pot of boiling, salty as the sea water for the pasta.

I cut up cherry tomatoes, scallions, some frozen peas, and some frozen corn. They work really well together and then you don't need side dishes. It's all about the lazy, people.

Whisk the eggs into a bowl with a good dose of that starchy pasta water (obviously, let the spaghetti cook for a few minutes to get starchy enough. And add it slowly to the eggs, because you don't want to cook them. He has all this in his directions, but I figured I'd be thorough. Add salt and a lot of pepper and grated parmesan to the egg mix.

Throw the veggies and the bacon into your skillet that you cooked the bacon in, with the bacon grease and a little olive oil. Once the pasta is almost done, add it to the skillet, along with a ladleful of pasta water (or more as needed). The pasta will finish cooking in the skillet and soak up all the goodness and be nicely prepared to accept the egg mix.

REMOVE THE PASTA FROM THE SKILLET. So important, otherwise, you'll have an egg scramble. Put it in a bowl. Then slowly add in the egg mix. Stir. Grate some more parm over it because cheese. Eat immediately.

Holy. Freaking. Crap. I could seriously eat this every day of the week. Clinton Kelly is a genius with adding the pasta water to the mixed eggs. And it's SO EASY. It took about 20 minutes to throw this together, start to finish.

This will not disappoint.

Cuban Sandwiches- An Immediate Do!

So I have never attempted to make Cuban food. Not sure why. It wasn't super popular where I grew up so I guess I never really thought about it before. We rock Mexican food all the time, but not many other Latin cuisines.

Then, we watched the movie "Chef". And it totally changed our lives. For starters, once the kids are old enough, we're buying a food truck and just traveling across the country cooking.

Also, it inspired us to try to make some Cuban food. And since the hubbs is all about a sandwich (and I'm all about making bread), we started with the Cuban sandwich. And I had a little help from Three guys from Miami. There is a shortage of blogs out there dedicated to Cuban food. But these guys seem to know what they're talking about. I used their recipes for the Cuban bread, the lechon asado, and the Cuban sandwich. I highly recommend all 3.

So here's what I did a bit differently.

The bread.  OH MY GOSH THE BREAD. Hands down, the best sandwich bread (especially for a toasted sandwich) that I've ever eaten. And they are right. ALWAYS USE LARD. Always. It's hard to find a good lard- Whole Foods doesn't sell it for some reason. And our trusted butcher (now BB Ranch because Bill the Butcher closed) only sells it sometimes. This time they only had duck fat. It worked beautifully. Just bring on the fat.

There are not enough words in the english language to describe this bread. But here's what I would do differently. I would not make one ginormous loaf. It was massive. I would break it into at least 3 loaves.

The lechon asado (roasted pork) was also phenomenal. I used all the ingredients they said to (although I did use fresh oranges, limes and lemons instead of sour orange juice. I enjoy fresh squeezed). I did however cook it totally different. I of course did not read the recipe instructions before making it, so I missed the whole poke holes throughout the pork and let it sit in the marinade overnight piece of it. Oopsie. So I improvised. And let me tell you. Deliciousness happened. For starters, I stabbed the pork shoulder all over with a small knife like they say to. Then I hacked up the pork shoulder into 5 big chunks. There is flavor in the brown (thank you Carla Hall!), and as many sides as can be browned, should be. So I threw some lard in a dutch oven, then browned on all sides each chunk of salted and peppered pork. Once it was all browned, I removed the pork, then started cooking all of the other ingredients. I softened the onions, I threw in the garlic, then added the juice and the oregano. I let that come to a boil and get all the bits of pork off the bottom of the pan, then I threw the pork chunks back in. I put that into a 225 degree oven and cooked that for about an hour and a half. Then I put it back on the stovetop and cooked a bit more. Once it was done, I took out all the pork, and I reduced the sauce that was left so it was nice and thick (warning, it gets saltier this way so don't go salt crazy in the beginning). This was a nice dipping sauce for the sandwich. Which is not in the recipe but I super heart a good dip.

We bought some smoked ham from our butcher. And let me just say. I've always hated ham. So has the hubbs. It just is not a flavor I enjoy....although I love EVERY OTHER PART OF A PIG. But this ham? This ham was stupid good. We bought a crap ton of it because it was just. so. good. I've put it in my eggs basically every single morning since we purchased it. SO. GOOD.

And we bought jarlsberg cheese. It's considered a baby swiss...a slightly milder flavor. I love a good, kick you in the teeth swiss, but the hubbs? Not so much. So we tasted a bunch at whole foods and that is the one we agreed upon. It still had some bite to it, but not so much that people in my house wouldn't eat it. And I will say that the pre-sliced swiss cheese? Just. Don't. It doesn't have nearly the same oomph. We bought a good ole hunk of cheese from the fancy pants cheese section and sliced it ourselves. You get more for your money, and you get WAY more flavor. You're welcome.

We also did the yellow mustard and the dill pickles. Organic of course. We were a bit skeptical of the yellow mustard, which neither of us has eaten since we were approximately 8. But it totally works with this sandwich.

And no, we don't have the special, Cuban sandwich maker but we do have a flat cast iron griddle and a bacon press, so we just used that. And the best sandwich in the history of ever was eaten that night.

 And the salad on the side you ask? It's orange slices, avocado, and bacon. With a little salt and pepper. It's amazing. I could eat this every single day of every single month of every single year. And I just might. I believe the idea came from a restaurant, then I saw a pic of it on a friend's Instagram. And I jumped on that band wagon real quick.


And of course, as we made 2 1/2 pounds of pork, we had some leftovers. And since I'm not big on eating the exact same meal 2 nights in a row, I made a sorta dip out of them. And I'll be honest. I think I like the left over meal better than the original!

I just cut up some peppers and onions, and threw them in a cast iron skillet with the pork that I cubed up, and some of that marinade, and added some gruyere. I got a little crisp on everything. Then I threw it in a bowl and topped it with some blood orange slices and avocado slices. (I left out the bacon because the pork acted as that salty, fatty goodness the salad screams for). Then I ate this with tortilla chips.

Brilliance!!!!!!

Seriously. This might be one of my favorite meals ever. And it's funny. What makes me SUPER HEART LOVE LOVE LOVE Cuban food is all the citrus they use. I'm a sucker for lemon, orange, and lime on any and everything. The hubbs? Not so much. He always calls me out on using too much. He obviously is wrong, of course. But I try to make food he'll like.

Anway, you should make this immediately. So good. So worth it. And so trendy right now!

Loves!

Peanut Butter Pork, better than it sounds

So we had some pork tenderloin chops. And I decided to go all Michael Symon on it's ass. This is a really yummy recipe and I suggest you try it. I used what I had on hand for the salad...so no bean sprouts or jalapenos or peanuts. I had cherry tomatoes, radishes, cucumbers, some lettuce and almonds. And I made corn on the cob cause we had it and corn works with everything. It was kind of like eating a deconstructed bon me sandwich. YUMMMMM.

Oh-Zoat Oh-Zoat, aka Risotto- gluten and optional dairy free!

Girlfriend loves her some "oh-zoat oh-zoat". If you have not had risotto, you are missing out. It's Italy's delicious version of a rice dish which means gluten free for all you pasta lovers who can no longer enjoy pasta! Though it looks creamy, the base is just white wine and chicken stock. Bonus points if you use your homemade chicken stock since it's one of the healthiest things on the planet to eat.

Here's my go-to risotto base recipe. It is, of course, Michael Symon. He uses vegetable stock since he was making a vegetarian dish, but I use chicken stock. And I typically only need half the amount he says to use. I also add meat because I'm married to a Serbian who needs meat at every meal. This time, I used zucchini and summer squash and a bunch of garlic scapes (it was clean veggie drawer dump day) and I didn't have tomatoes so I used salami. why not.

I threw in the onions first, then the rest of the veggies, then the salami, and then the rice. but I followed the directions for the most part after that.

pre-rice, all cooking up in the dutch oven

Mangia!

PS- the parmesan at the end is optional if you are dairy free.

Roasted Chicken with Potatoes, Lemon, & Garlic Scapes

It's raining. And cold. And we need more chicken stock. So I decided to roast a chicken tonight. And as fate would have it, I happened to actually get to watch The Chew today. And the ever glorious Michael Symon happened to roast a leg of lamb in the oven on a slotted rack, and put potatoes in a cast iron pan underneath the slotted rack, so that the juices from the meat cooked into the potatoes. HELLO WHAT!?!?!

And decision made. That is what's for dinner. Cause it can totally work with chicken too. And I must say my house smells ridiculously edible right now. Here's the recipe.

Since I used chicken, I left out the coriander and the sugar. And I didn't have fresh oregano so I used fresh parsley instead.

I also rubbed it on the inside of the chicken and between the skin and the meat. I stuck pats of butter under the skin as well. And I stuffed it with a lemon and some onion. Then put it on a slotted baking sheet.

 The potatoes. Oh the potatoes. I just cut them in big chunks, added slices of lemon, garlic scapes, rosemary, salt, pepper, and extra virgin olive oil.

Mouthwatering, right!?!? And then I stuck it in my oven. Based on a different recipe from Chef Symon for roasted chicken, I have the oven on roast at 425 degrees. I'm checking frequently on the potatoes because the garlic scapes are pretty fragile. Oh yeah, I obviously decided to use the garlic scapes instead of just the cloves of garlic he has in the recipe.

And here's the cooking. Don't judge my oven. It's not pretty. Or clean. But it's a hard worker, so I cut it some slack...

And the results are in.

Those potatoes. THOSE POTATOES! I will say that if you would like more of a garlic flavor on your potatoes you may just want to use garlic cloves, but eating the garlic scapes is delish. I would try it if I were you.