35 Minutes to the Heart of San Francisco

On evenings such as this one, I love the fact our farm is only a 35 minute drive to the heart of San Francisco.  I LOVE living and raising our kids on a dairy farm, where it's peaceful, we're surrounded by green grass, soon to turn golden, wildlife and animals all around.

But on this particular night, I took the 35 minute drive, crossing the gorgeous Golden Gate Bridge into the heart of San Francisco to meet a friend for a little shopping, drinks and dinner.

Pin It

The Art of Making Homemade Sausage

It's early on a Saturday morning, and the rain has been falling for hours. But this doesn't dampen the spirits of anyone in the basement of Uncle Jim's house, because soon enough, we know, that we'll have 100 pounds of sausage stored away in the freezer.  Why am I so excited over sausage, you may ask.  Maybe it's because the tradition of making it is just as important as eating it.  This recipe is a long time ranch family recipe passed on from my father-in-law, to Dominic and soon, to Bryce as well. 

The sausage crank {I don't even know if that's the name of the thing} is at least 100 years old.  A big tubular chunk of steel with a hand crank.  The ground meat, a combination of venison and pork and the many ingredients mixed with it,  is placed into the canister you see below.

It is then pressed out by turning the hand crank.

Into the casing that awaits at the other end.

The length of sausage tube is then tied off at various intervals to create individual links.

Each long set of links is hung for a day in the cool basement and frozen the next day in freeze dry packages.
Ready to be cooked or BBQ'd and eaten.  The flavor of this long time recipe is one of  slightly sweet, salty with a touch of cinnamon. 

Happy Thursday!

Pin It

Easy Pulled Pork for the World Series

Once again, we'll be watching our beloved S.F. Giants trying to get one step closer to their 1st World Series win.  No extra time needs to be taken away from game time to cook dinner so once again the slow cooker is in use.  This time, pulled pork.  A perfectly easy and delicious game day dinner.  Slow cooker recipes are my 'go to' meals in the winter time.

Here's what you need...............

Plus a pork butt {shoulder} roast.  This one was around 4 pounds.  I trimmed as much of the fat off of it as I could.  Placed it in the slow cooker.

I then mixed the ingredients above as per directions on the back of the McCormick package and poured it over the top of the pork butt covered it and set the slow cooker on low for 8 hours.

Here's the ingredients of the McCormick's package, in case you're interested.

After 8 hours, it looks like this.

Then I shredded the entire thing with two forks.  At this point, the pork butt roast just falls apart.  Mix it all up really well and serve.

I served it up on hamburger buns.  Yum!

We also have a huge bag of grated mozzarella cheese in the fridge, so some of that became the topping.

Hope you get a chance to try this easy, delicious recipe.

Related posts you may enjoy:

Here's a more of a 'home made' recipe for slow cooker pulled pork.

Grill Thai Pork Tenderloin Cutlets

Maple Chili Glazed Pork Medallions

GO Giants!

Giant's logo from Google images

And if you haven't already seen this, Steve Perry joins in to his own song when it was played at the ball park the other night.  Gotta love when Steve Perry serenades the crowd!

Happy Saturday!

Pin It

Maple-Chili Glazed Pork Medallions

Maple-Chili Glazed Pork Medallions

Photo by EatingWell

I wanted to try something different than I normally do with Pork Tenderloin.  So I searched on-line to find a recipe that was easy and looked really good.  The above photo is what I came up with, the recipe below (with a few of my own modifications) turned out delicious.  The entire family enjoyed it.  I will definately repeat this recipe in the near future.

This is how it went..........
The recipe calls for a one pound pork tenderloin....

Cut into 1" medallions.  Okay, this is NOT going to be enough meat for our family of four (at least not with Dominic in the mix).....

So I added a second pork tenderloin.  This should be enough.  Dominic is usually very hungry at dinner time.  We very rarely have leftovers.

Ingredients (see recipe below).........

Mix the dry ingredients.........

Sprinkle on both sides of medallions.........

Heat olive oil to medium heat in a skillet............

Place a layer of the medallions in the skillet............

Brown 1-2 minutes each side........

Add in liquid ingredients (see below) Bring to a boil then cook on medium heat for around 3 minutes................

Serve drizzled with remaining glaze........

Ingredients
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground chipotle pepper (I used fresh ground black pepper)
1 pound pork tenderloin, trimmed and cut crosswise into 1-inch-thick medallions
2 teaspoons canola oil (I used olive oil)
1/4 cup apple cider (or apple juice for a sweeter taste)
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon cider vinegar

Preparation
1.Mix chili powder, salt and ground chipotle in a small bowl. Sprinkle over both sides of pork.

2.Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pork and cook until golden, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Add cider, syrup and vinegar to the pan. Bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, turning the pork occasionally to coat, until the sauce is reduced to a thick glaze, 1 to 3 minutes. Serve the pork drizzled with the glaze.

Nutrition
Per serving: 180 calories; 6 g fat (2 g sat, 3 g mono); 74 mg cholesterol; 6 g carbohydrates; 3 g added sugars; 24 g protein; 0 g fiber; 354 mg sodium; 441 mg potassium.

Nutrition Bonus: Selenium (47% daily value), Zinc (20% dv).

Happy Sunday!

Pin It