Carla's Kitchen Capers: Porketta My Way

Carla's Kitchen Capers: Porketta My Way: This is a perfect Sunday dinner with little fuss. Start with a nice bone in pork shoulder, make a marinade with lots of garlic, parsley, fen...

Porketta My Way

This is a perfect Sunday dinner with little fuss. Start with a nice bone in pork shoulder, make a marinade with lots of garlic, parsley, fennel seeds, olive oil, salt and pepper, blend in a paste. Score the skin of the pork shoulder and rub the marinade all over making sure to get it into all the score marks. Roast at 350 for at least until the meat falls off the bone depending on how many lbs the roast is, mine was 8lb and I cooked it about 5 hours. Halfway through I added baby yukon, red and purple potatoes. Simple as that and the leftovers make great sandwiches.

Carla's Kitchen Capers: It's Chili Season

Carla's Kitchen Capers: It's Chili Season: We had our first snow fall yesterday so I thought it be a perfect day to put a big o'pot of chili on the stove. I've tweaked this over the...

It's Chili Season

We had our first snow fall yesterday so I thought it be a perfect day to put a big o'pot of chili on the stove. I've tweaked this over the years but its not set in stone. I'll give you my basic recipe but I never make it the same way twice, for example today the ground beef was on sale so I used that instead of meatloaf mix, I had white onions on hand instead of red, I also used some poblano peppers today, ect....


                                      


2-3 lbs meatloaf mix
2 cans goya pink beans
1 each yellow, orange and jalapeno pepper
1 large red onion chopped
5 or more cloves of garlic
2 14 oz cans fire roasted tomatoes
wostershire sauce
cumin
goya adobo
paprika
cayenne pepper
chili powder
cinnamon
salt and pepper to taste

dice up all the veggies meanwhile brown the chop meat, I think it very important that you add all the seasonings while the meat it browning, when the meat is brown add the veggies and cook another 10 min. Now add the beans and diced tomatoes, if it seams a little too thick sometimes I add a can of beef stock or you can use water. You MUST simmer it at least 4 hours. Taste and re season if needed. 
*I always serve it with garnishes today I used grated cheddar, green onion, sour cream, cilantro and lime
*I decided to make some cheese bruchetta at the last minute
**It ALWAYS tastes better the next day

Carla's Kitchen Capers: Basic Mac n' Cheese Many Ways

Carla's Kitchen Capers: Basic Mac n' Cheese Many Ways: The possibilities are endless. A basic bechamel with an addition of any cheese you like (turns it into a mornay sauce), and add in anythin...

Basic Mac n' Cheese Many Ways

The possibilities are endless. A basic bechamel with an addition of any cheese you like (turns it into a mornay sauce), and add in anything, and I mean anything gives you an artist palate of mac n' cheese. For the basic sauce I used:

4 tblsp of flour

4 tblsp of butter

2 cups of milk

1/4 tsp of paprika

salt and pepper

melt the butter, add the flour and seasonings and mix well, add milk

then decide on the cheeses, any combo is good I used 3 cups of white cheddar but used multiply combinations many times, like I said the possibilities....

boil 1 lb of pasta and add anything, I used pepperoni tonight (shrimp, buffalo chicken, lobster, broccoli, mushrooms, combos, ect.....) Combine and top with panko bread crumbs, bake at 350 until bubbly and then broil until brown.