My family is FULL of great cooks, and now that I have people of my own to cook for, I have been trying my hardest to use what I learned growing up watching my dad, mom and grandparents. Some meals are old family classics, sometimes we like to switch it up with a new recipe. Some meals are delicious and some are total flops! Slowly but surely, I am finding my groove in the kitchen. Here are some eats and treats from the Forderhase/Ploof kitchen as of lately....
Sausage and Kale soup is a favorite around these parts, no matter what time of year. This is a recipe from Cory's Grandma Ruth that is super easy to throw together and ready in no time. Always a winner!
Chipotle BBQ chicken with homemade mango guacamole. Ever since my mom and step-dad gifted us with a grill, we are obsessed with finding yummy new grilling recipes to try-and this one did not disappoint. I found it on Pinterest (where else?). Super yummy and a little messy-but that's what makes it fun-right?!
Cory is a steak and potatoes man-BIG TIME-so sometimes I have a hard time convincing him that we need to venture to chicken and pork, too. This BBQ peach-glazed pork made for easy convincing. ;) With kale/romaine salad and wild rice, this was quick and easy, perfect for busy weeknights!
For Father's day Cory requested steak (I told you) and "something with pudding in it" for dessert. I can take no credit for any of the grilling over here-that is all Mr. Ploof's doing, and he is getting better and better! We threw on some steaks and a few shrimp, and I tossed together an AMAZING kale poppyseed salad from Sam's Club. Seriously, you need to go to Sam's RIGHT NOW and buy 32 packages of this stuff. Its that good. I promise.
The "something with pudding in it" as requested. Snickers brownie trifle. It was good. But rich. REALLY rich.
If you thought I was joking about the steak.....I wasn't......My dad had sent us some fresh Missouri garden goodies and I sent this to him to tell him we were enjoying homegrown green beans with our steak!
I realize this does not photograph well, but this right here is one of my top 3 favorite meals ever...my daddy's chicken fried deer steak with mushroom gravy and rice. I'm drooling just typing this. I was craving it BIG TIME and my dad had given us some deer steak with all of our garden goodies, so I decided to attempt it. It turned out better than I thought it would, although will never be as good as dad makes it.
This may look like a beautifully roasted chicken on the outside, but looks are not everything, people. You know that old saying, "Don't judge a book by it's cover", yea well this chicken is that book. Grandma Ruth was nice enough to give us not 1, but 2 beautiful Hutterite chickens. I had never roasted a full chicken before.......and my rookie-ness was about to shine through. Long story short, I reviewed a few different recipes, took bits from each and popped it in the oven. A few hours later, we had a smokey apartment with windows open, fans going, from the butter burning in the oven. When I opened the oven I thought I was going to fond a ball of ash but to my surprise it was a "perfectly" golden brown, crispy skin roasted chicken. The temperature checked out, juices ran clear, so I cut it open to find an almost completely PINK uncooked chicken. UGHHHHHHHH. I picked/cut/mutilated off the few pieces that were cooked through, and put the rest back in the oven. More smoke, more fans, still more pink meat, so I turned off the oven and called it quits. Pretty sure we ended up eating a frozen pizza after it all was said and done. FLOP! I still have another to bird to take a whack at, hopefully it will turn out better the second time around....
I WAS able to scrounge enough "good" chicken from the chicken we shall never speak of again to make homemade BBQ chicken pizza-which is on repeat every few weeks around here. Always a fave. I mean, it's pizza...why wouldn't it be.....
My mom's family is Columbian, and my grandpa always made arepas. His were the BEST EVER and no one will ever be able to replicate them. But I was craving them, and had to at least try. It is near IMPOSSIBLE to find PAN here in good ole' Bismarck, but a tiny little gas station turned Mexican market carries it and when I found it, it was like the heavens opened up and I could here the angels singing. Pretty sure Cory just stared at me like I was nuts and slowly walked away like he didn't know me. Who gets that excited over corn meal? I do. That's who.
My first attempt ever at arepas wasn't too bad....I was pretty proud of myself.
My first attempt ever at arepas wasn't too bad....I was pretty proud of myself.
Spicy pulled pork, black beans and rice and arepas. One word: YUMMM.
Not pictured are some other flops, including the entire pot of hamburger hot-dish that we had to throw away because someone who shall not be named (whose name starts with an E) accidentally added sour spoiled milk to it. Qdoba takeout that night at 8:00PM for the win!
Orrrrrrr the steaks that may have been freezer burnt or just decided they wanted to try and turn into pork because when they came off the grill and we cut into them, they were white. Yea. Like shaped/smelled like a steak, but color of pork. We feasted on garden cucumbers with ranch and wild rice that night.
Live and learn.....errrr I guess Cook and Learn. That's all you can do. In the mean time, I'll just be over here, trying to not make superficial chicken and hanging out with my corn meal.
-Emma
Not pictured are some other flops, including the entire pot of hamburger hot-dish that we had to throw away because someone who shall not be named (whose name starts with an E) accidentally added sour spoiled milk to it. Qdoba takeout that night at 8:00PM for the win!
Orrrrrrr the steaks that may have been freezer burnt or just decided they wanted to try and turn into pork because when they came off the grill and we cut into them, they were white. Yea. Like shaped/smelled like a steak, but color of pork. We feasted on garden cucumbers with ranch and wild rice that night.
Live and learn.....errrr I guess Cook and Learn. That's all you can do. In the mean time, I'll just be over here, trying to not make superficial chicken and hanging out with my corn meal.
-Emma