Cuban-Style Pork and Black Beans

I had no idea I liked Cuban food. Not that I was surprised, but I hadn’t ever had it before. Now I don’t know how authentic my improvised and make-due-with-what-I-have Cuban food is, but it sure was delicious! Served with white rice and mix all three together… Awesome!  All it needed was a mojito…

Pork Roast

1-2 pounds of pork roast

5 limes, juiced

1 orange, juiced

3 heads (not cloves, whole heads) garlic, peeled and chopped

1 onion, rough chopped

salt

ground black pepper

Place roast, juices, garlic, and onion in your crock pot. Season with salt and pepper. Turn on high and cook for 4-7 hours, or until roast shreds easily with fork.

Shred the pork with a fork and stir into the liquid it cooked in.

Black Beans

1 can black beans, undrained

1 Tablespoon olive oil

3-6 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

1/4 cup green pepper, finely chopped

1/4 cup onion, finely chopped

1-2 Tablespoons ketchup

cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper, to taste

Heat olive oil in a skillet and sauté garlic, onion and green pepper until tender.

Place beans, ketchup and seasonings in a saucepan. Stir in sautéed veggies. Heat, over med-high heat until they are thoroughly heated.

Serve the pork and beans with white rice.

Make Your Own Yoshida’s

I LOVE Yoshida’s teriyaki sauce/marinade! It is so versatile and I use it in my stir-frys, rice recipes, teriyaki dishes, as a dipping sauce… everything! I was so disappointed when I learned that it had high fructose corn syrup in it! :o(  (I’m not uber anal about the whole HFCS thing, but I like to avoid it whenever possible.)

But it is ok, because I discovered a substitute that is pretty darn close and pretty darn tasty, too! And now I know why it has HFCS… it has THREE kinds of sugar in it!

This recipe makes enough but not too much. If you need more, I suppose you can double it.

1 cup soy sauce

3 oz (3/8 cup) sugar

3 oz (3/8 cup) brown sugar

1/8 cup finely sliced green onions

1 teaspoon of ground or finely minced ginger

2 cloves of minced garlic

1/2 cup honey

Place all ingredients in a small saucepan. Heat over med.-high heat, stirring often, until it comes to a boil and sugars all dissolve. Remove from heat and let cool before serving as a dipping sauce or marinade. You can use it right away as a sauce.

Breakfast Ring

This is the perfect dish for a potluck brunch or a Christmas breakfast. You can fill it with whatever you like and make it your very own!

2 tubes of crescent rolls

scrambled eggs

bacon strips, slightly cooked

grated cheese

sautéed veggies of your choice

First lay out the separated crescent rolls on a round or square baking sheet. Overlap the flat ends in the center, points facing the edge of the pan. Lay a strip of bacon on top of each triangle.

I forgot about the bacon, don’t cook it too much!

Top with eggs, veggies and cheese.

I topped our ring with mushrooms, peppers, and onion.

   

Carefully bring the points to the center of the ring and press slightly to seal.

Bake at 375 for about 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Cut into pieces and serve hot. If you like, you can top it with a dollop of salsa and sour cream or a scoop of country gravy.

Biscoff Fruit Dip

This dip is just stellar with sliced apples, bananas, strawberries… in a spoon!

1 pkg cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup Biscoff spread

1 cup whipping cream

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat cream cheese and Biscoff until smooth. Add cream, sugar and whipping cream. Beat until smooth and creamy. Chill until ready to serve.

More Biscoff Cookies

The great thing about Biscoff spread is you can use it in just about any recipe that you would use peanut butter or Nutella in.

I know, these are more suggestions than recipes… but they are good suggestions! ;o) You really should try ‘em!

I used it in some no-bake’s…

And in some peanut butter cookies, too!

These little babies were fantastic warm from the oven! But then what cookie isn’t???

Someday, I’ll try some other peanut butter recipes with Biscoff… if only there weren’t so many recipe to try someday! ;o) 

Biscoff Brownies

This is a super simple recipe that combines two flavors that don’t necessarily seem like they would go together but do!

First make a pan of your favorite brownies. But don’t bake them yet!

Here is the recipe for my favorite brownies… Click HERE.

Then plop some Biscoff spread in 1 Tablespoon portions randomly on top of the brownie batter.

Take a knife and swirl the spread through the brownie batter.

Bake a directed. Enjoy warm with a big glass of cold milk! 

Sipping Hot Apple Pie

On a cold winter evening, this drink is a lovely way to warm up! It’s reminiscent of a slice of hot apple pie with whipped cream on top… And it is even tastier with hand-pressed apple cider!

But first you need to make a batch of hot buttered rum batter… (you can use it for rum, too. But why would you use water when you can use cider??? On the other hand, you can use both rum and cider… for grown-ups only, of course!)

1/2 stick of butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

pinch of cloves

pinch of salt

Mix together well and store in jar in fridge.

Then heat up some apple cider. To each mug add 1-2 teaspoons of batter (use more or less to taste). Stir until sugar dissolves. Top with whipped cream.

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Biscoff

It started out with a simple trip to Big Lots to look for a bag of spaetzle for our Oktoberfest potluck at church. While looking in their “international food” section, I stumbled upon a package of Biscoff cookies. Touted as “the airline cookie” and “Europe’s favorite cookie with coffee” just seemed to need to come home with me. These rather uninspiring little biscuits are made in Belgium and upon your first bite don’t scream These are the best cookies in all of Europe! In fact, they really aren’t all that delicious… I mean, they don’t even have any chocolate on them!

But somehow, you are compelled to try another one… and then another and another. I actually think you could eat the whole package before realizing what you’ve done.

I had to ask myself why??? Why do I love these seemingly boring crispy cookies??? I don’t even really like crispy cookies!!!

I came to a simple answer: CRACK! They must make them with crack! It’s the only logical conclusion as to why they are so darn addictive. Those sneaky Belgians! ;o)

Thankfully these little buggers are now available at our local grocery store! And just when I thought I could keep control of my cravings, I saw this on the shelf right next to its evil twin Nutella…

It’s like eating a delightful creamy version of the cookie!

Oh, yeah! They’re made with crack… LOL

Croissant French Toast with Blackberry Sauce

This recipe makes me wish that I had stale croissants more often… Not that I will since, a: they are pretty expensive (and my boys can eat a whole lot of them!) and b: we usually eat them WAY before they get stale.

On the other hand, the blackberry sauce was so delicious and easy that we will probably have this quite often on pancakes, waffles & cheesecakes!

All you need to do is cut croissants in half, dip them in your favorite French toast batter and cook as usual.

Blackberry Sauce

4 cups fresh or frozen blackberries

2/3 cup sugar

1 Tablespoon instant clear gel

Place berries in saucepan and bring to a rolling boil. Let boil for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Mix sugar and clear gel in a small bowl. Pour into boiling berries. Reduce heat to low and continue to stir until sugar dissolves and sauce becomes thicker.

Pour warm blackberry sauce over French toast and serve immediately.

Ok, so I may have overdone it on the sauce but I had two pieces of French toast and the sauce was super yummy! ;o)