Are you ready to make something super duper easy? I mean so easy that a little kid can do it? And it’s super duper tasty as well? Full of flavor like a party on your taste buds. And it’s easy on the wallet. It consists of only 5 ingredients if you include the Beef Chuck Roast.

I saw this recipe on Pinterest originally and it was cooked in a slow cooker for up to 8 hours. But what the hey, let’s try it in the good ole pressure cooker for only 1 hour.

So are you ready?

Let’s go! I’ll race you to the finish line!

INGREDIENTS:

• 3-4 Lb. Chuck Roast
• 1 Packet of Ranch Dressing Powder
• 1 Packet of Au Ju Mix Powder
• 1 Stick of Butter (Or just half if you don’t want the extra calories.)
• 1 Jar of Peperoncinis aka Peppercinis

Place about 4 peppers into the bottom of the cooking pot first. Then place the chuck roast on top of them. This will lift up the roast off the bottom of the pan and prevent burning and overheating.

Open the packets of the seasonings and sprinkle them both all over the top of the roast, covering it as much as possible. Place a few more peppercinis on top of the roast, and around it. Then pour about 1/4 to 1/2 of the peppercini liquid into the pot. Add 1/2 a cup of water to that, put the whole piece of butter directly on top of the roast as well and you are DONE!

Lock and load the pressure cooker and program it to cook for 60-minutes.

That is it! I swear! This just might be my shortest post!

You can serve this roast any way you like it. It’s got a tangy spicy kick to the taste buds. I shredded the meat since it was falling apart anyway. Sprinkled some cheese on top and sandwiched it in between Hawaiian Sweet Dinner Rolls since that’s all I had laying around anyway. AND I was also starving so I totally rushed through the sandwich making process and took a photo and gobbled it all up in like 2 minutes!!!  O M G! It was soooo good, I wanted to cry! There isn’t anything healthy about this dish though, so for that, I apologize.

ENJOY!

**As a side note and completely optional, if you like my blog, I’d really appreciate it if you’d help me out by clicking on the few ads I have now on the site.  It’s completely safe and no spam or malware, and totally free as well.  But every click a reader makes, will earn me some extra $ to fund this blog.  All you have to do is click on an ad you find interesting, and that’s it.  Thanks!!!

I’m going back to the basics today.  Here’s a simple clean recipe for something that pretty much everyone will eat.  Nothing scary, I promise!

Lentils is the star of the show.  Lentils are super healthy and high in protein.  And there are a variety of lentils in assorted colors.  It’s also one of the main staples in vegan cooking.  But I’m going to screw it all up by adding sausage to it.  Yum!

INGREDIENTS:

• 3-4 Cups Dried Lentils
• 1-2 Cups Chopped Sausage (Whatever kind of sausage to your liking, it doesn’t matter.)
• 2 Cups Crushed Roasted Tomatoes
• 1 Cup Mirepoix (Which is just a fancy word for chopped mixture of celery, carrots and onions.)
• 4 Garlic, minced
• 2 Bay Leaves
• 2 Tbsp Beef Buillion (Or 2 Cups Beef Broth)
• 6 Cups Fresh Water (Less or more depending on the size of your pressure cooker.)
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Turn on the browning feature on your pressure cooker if you have one so you can saute the mirepoix and garlic in the cooking pot until they are fragrant.

Once that is done, turn off the browning feature and add all the remaining ingredients into the cooking pot.

Shut the lid and lock it properly into position.  Adjust the Pressure Valve to “Airtight”.

Program the cook time for 15-minutes and press Start.

That’s it.  Super easy, right?  Super good too!

Let the pressure cooker do its thing.  The longer you cook the lentils, the more they break down.

When the cook time is complete and it’s ready to release the pressure, make sure you be careful.  Since it’s a big pot of soup, there may be some spitting at the pressure valve when you turn it to exhaust.  Sometimes a folded up dish rag or towel over the valve a bit will help.

When it is safe to open the lid, give the soup a good stir.  It may appear a bit watery but depending on if you want to keep it more on the brothy side or you want to thicken it up a bit, you can thicken it by mixing a bit of the broth liquid with flour until it becomes a thick roux and dump the roux back into the soup and stir it up a bit.

Season with salt and pepper to your preference.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream or plain greek yogurt.

**As a side note and completely optional, if you like my blog, I’d really appreciate it if you’d help me out by clicking on the few ads I have now on the site.  It’s completely safe and no spam or malware, and totally free as well.  But every click a reader makes, will earn me some extra $ to fund this blog.  All you have to do is click on an ad you find interesting, and that’s it.  Thanks!!!

So I made something this past weekend that is an acquired taste.  Not everyone will find it appetizing.  But the people who do will find it pretty darn wonderful!

For some reason, Beef Tongue is not something that Americans who are born and raised in the U.S. will eat willingly.  In other countries all over the world, it’s often considered a delicacy.  The meat is super soft and easily infused with flavors when cooked properly.
I think what scares people off is that the actual meat looks like a tongue!  If you eat it, it’s like you’re going to French kiss a cow!  Come on, isn’t it your life long dream to make-out with a cow?

I was lucky enough to get the meat portion already prepped and butchered for me.  In other words, the exterior “coat” of the tongue was already removed for me, so I didn’t have to do that part.  But okay, enough with the squeamish talk.  Let’s get cooking!

(And I know, I know. I’ve also been pressure cooking a lot of interesting things lately such as oxtail, pork belly and now beef tongue.  What can I say?  I’m an adventurous eater.  The only thing I won’t eat are land insects.  HAHA)

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 Cup Red Wine
• 2 Cups Crushed Tomatoes
• 2 Cups Chopped Carrots
• 2 Cups Chopped Mushrooms
• 1 Cup Chopped Onions
• 1/2 Cup Chopped Olives
• 2 Tbsp Minced Garlic
• 1 Tbsp Paprika
• 1 Tbsp Cayenne Powder

• and a 2-3 lb Beef Tongue (Enlarge image at your own risk! hehe)

I’ve made the image of the beef tongue as small as possible.  But just imagine it as a nice chunk of beef roast or something.  And ignore the tongue piercing scar, I don’t know how that got there.  hehehe

In the main cooking pot of your pressure cooker, place the beef tongue in first.  Then the rest of the ingredients, just pour it right in.  The sauce that these ingredients make will be a super flavorful pasta sauce or gravy once the fat is drained from it.

Close the lid to your pressure cooker and lock it into position.  Adjust the Pressure Valve to AIRTIGHT.

Beef tongue need to be braised and cooked for quite a long time, especially on the stove top.  Since I’m cooking mine as a whole piece without cutting it into portions, I programmed my pressure cooker to pressure cook for 60-minutes.  Press START.

While the pressure cooker is doing its thing, you can prepare some noodles or some rice or even mashed potatoes to serve with the goodness.

Flash forward.  The pressure cooker is done cooking.  I would actually recommend allowing it to drop in pressure on its own naturally.

Adjust the pressure valve to make sure all the pressure is already gone before unlocking the lid.

Give everything a good stir and season with salt and pepper.

Remove the meat with tongs and place it onto a platter.  You can slice it up into 1-inch slices like I did, or cut it up into small chunks.  Once finished, put it back into the sauce in the pot.

You can serve it immediately or if you allow it to cool down and refrigerate it over night, the fat in the sauce will become solid and can easily be removed.

The meat is super tender, soft and juicy.  If you like beef tongue, you will enjoy this immensely!

**As a side note and completely optional, if you like my blog, I’d really appreciate it if you’d help me out by clicking on the few ads I have now on the site.  It’s completely safe and no spam or malware, and totally free as well.  But every click a reader makes, will earn me some extra $ to fund this blog.  All you have to do is click on an ad you find interesting, and that’s it.  Thanks!!!

Thanks to Pinterest, I stumbled across this recipe and thought it was interesting.  So what the heck, let’s give it a try.  Speaking of Pinterest, is anyone else obsessed with using it?  I recently got my friend into it and I’ve now created a pinterest monster!  There should be a Pinterest Anonymous for addicts.  Who else agrees?  Raise your hand!

And speaking of friends, check out my other friend’s new website.  Fifty Shades of Flavor.  She just started the blog but please give her a visit so she can feel the love.  It’s all about her eating, cooking and dining experiences.  It’s a blog with an interesting twist.  :)

Anyway, let’s get back to some Pressure Cooking!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 lbs. Chicken Thighs (You can use chicken breast to cut down on the calories.)
• 1 Ham Hock (I used this because the recipe called for Pancetta, and I didn’t have any.  Oops)
• 2 Cups Chopped Carrots (Frozen of fresh, but for the love of god, don’t use baby carrots anymore!)
• 2 Cups Pearl Onions (Frozen or fresh)
• 1 Cup Dried Mixed Berries (You can use any kind, a mix or just golden raisins.)
• 2 Bay Leaves
• 4 Cloves of Garlic
• 1 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
• 1 Cup Red Wine Vinegar
• 1/2 Cup Chicken Broth (You can honestly omit this ingredient since the chicken itself releases a lot of liquid already.  I was going to say chicken juice but changed my mind.  :P)

Alright, there is no easy way to say this but……put everything into the pot!

Do it!  Do it quick!

See if you can do it all under 30 seconds!

Ready, set, GO!

In all seriousness, season the chicken a bit on both sides with salt and pepper.  Then put the ham hock and the chicken down first into the bottom of the inner cook pot.  Then everything else in no particular order.  The chicken will brown a bit on the side that is touching the bottom of the pot.

Close the locking lid on your pressure cooker.  Make sure the Pressure Valve is set to Airtight.

Depending on the model and brand of pressure cooker you have.  Press the POULTRY or CHICKEN program button on your machine.  OR you can program it to cook for 17-minutes.  Press START and it’s ready to go!

Let’s see…..what did I do while my chicken was cooking?  Oh, that’s right!  I did absolutely nothing!!!  YAY!!!

When your precious beloved pressure cooker gives you the signal, *beep beep*, it’s time to release the pressure.  You know the drill.  Carefully turn the Pressure Valve on the top to EXHAUST or RELEASE or whatever it says and wait for all the steam and pressure to release.  The Float Valve will drop, allowing you to unlock the lid.

You’ll notice that the level of liquids inside the pot has doubled almost.  I’m telling you, chicken loves releasing their chicken juice!  Use a pair of tongs and carefully remove all the chicken.  And I do mean carefully.  Chicken also loves to fall apart when it’s pressure cooked.  Set the chicken aside and go back to the remaining sauce.  Ladle out or pour out about half of that liquid and return it back to the pressure cooker to reduce/thicken the sauce.  Press the START button to turn on the heating system.  Reduce the sauce so it becomes nice and thick.  Help it along by adding flour or cornstarch if you like.

Once the sauce is thickened to the desired consistency.  Return the chicken carefully back into the sauce.  Set the pressure cooker to Keep Warm until it’s ready to serve.  You can serve it with rice or mashed potatoes.  The chicken, as usual, was super duper incredibly moist!  And the flavors were a bit tangy and sweet.  I had expected the vinegar to be overpowering, but they weren’t at all.  The dried berries added a slight touch of sweetness so make sure you get a bit of that with each bite!

**As a side note and completely optional, if you like my blog, I’d really appreciate it if you’d help me out by clicking on the few ads I have now on the site.  It’s completely safe and no spam or malware, and totally free as well.  But every click a reader makes, will earn me some extra $ to fund this blog.  All you have to do is click on an ad you find interesting, and that’s it.  Thanks!!!

Anyway, I wanted to post about the actual birthday party for my friend’s daughter.  It was a Wonderland theme, which I know, is pretty popular.  But I thought I share it anyway.  We did a lot of DIY crafts and had a small budget.  I say our party was still a great and fun success.  Everyone was impressed and had a wonderful time.

And the birthday girl loved every minute of her party!

(Note:  The above flamenco photos were found on the web.)

Anyway, the restaurant we went to was called CAFE SEVILLA.  Our dinner show came with a prix fixed menu of a Salad, Seafood and Chicken Paella and a Creme Brulee dessert.  We also decided to order some add-on tapas.  I took my trusty camera with me to dinner but forgot to actually insert a memory card, so we had to resort to using our cell phones for pictures of our meal.  :(  We had braised short rib, empenadas, mussels, tuna tartar and bacon wrapped dates stuffed with blue cheese.  Yeah, I know, we sort of over ordered.  We originally only ordered the dates and the tuna and then I realized Yelp had a check-in to receive a tapas trio platter for free so we got that as well.  We were STUFFED!!!  And that was before we even got to the actual paella.  Olé!

So in honor of Spanish cuisine, I’m making some oxtail today influenced by Spanish flavors.  I’ve been craving oxtail for the past few months anyways, so I’m going to kill two cows with one stone.  Olé!

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 lbs Oxtails
• 1/4 lb of cured Chorizo, chopped
• 1 can whole Tomatoes
• 1 cup Red wine
• 1 large Onion, chopped
• 4 medium Carrots, chopped
• 4 Garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 Bay leaves
• 1 tsp Paprika

SERVE WITH:

• Chopped Parsley or Chopped Green Onions
• Splash of Red Wine Vinegar or Apple Cider Vinegar

Place the oxtail into the main cooking pot of your pressure cooker.  Then add the rest of the ingredients into the pot in no particular order, however, put the carrots in last so it sits at the top. Avoid stirring and mixing.

Lock the lid by turning it and adjust the pressure valve to Airtight.

Program the cook time for 40-minutes and press Start.

That is all.  I love one pot meals!

I went and watched an episode of HOTEL IMPOSSIBLE while it cooked.  This show is my new go-to filler show to pass the time.  That and RESTAURANT IMPOSSIBLE.  What is up with the hosts from both shows being bald?

When the cooking cycle is complete, let the pressure cooker drop down in pressure naturally by itself.  Once all the pressure has dropped, on my pressure cooker, the flashing Keep Warm light will stop flashing and become solid.  Just in case, I turn the Pressure Valve to Exhaust to see if there is any remaining pressure.  Make sure the Float Valve has dropped as well.  Now it’s safe to turn the lid to open it.

The pot smells divine.  The chorizo has tinted all the ingredients into a red and spicy hue.  Putting the carrots towards the top helps them to retain their shape and not turn into mush.  Give everything a gentle stir.

Serve with white rice.  Add a splash of Red Wine Vinegar and chopped green onions or parsley.  The vinegar actually cuts through the bold flavors and give it a tangy-ness to it.  I was pleasantly surprised by it.  The oxtail meat falls off the bone and melts in your mouth and the chorizo adds a soft and spicy texture.  The paprika also adds a bit of smokey flavor.  Feel free to substitute the oxtail for stew meat such as beef chunks and cook for also 40-minutes.  Olé!

**As a side note and completely optional, if you like my blog, I’d really appreciate it if you’d help me out by clicking on the few ads I have now on the site.  It’s completely safe and no spam or malware, and totally free as well.  But every click a reader makes, will earn me some extra $ to fund this blog.  All you have to do is click on an ad you find interesting, and that’s it.  Thanks!!!

Seriously……..I am joking.

I’ll admit it, I eat some weird stuff sometimes, but snake has not been one of them.

Today’s recipe is actually Braised Pork Belly, also known as Dong Po Rou 东坡肉 / Braised Pork Belly.

For those of you who are not familiar with what pork belly is, it’s a boneless cut of fatty meat from the belly of a pig.

Now that you have calmed yourself and know that I am not making snake, let’s get pork belly dancing!

I seem to have a bad habit of constantly going on some kind of cooking break and neglecting this blog.  But I really do have a good excuse this time.  I had surgery around December, so I was out of commission for quite some time.  Then my sister’s little dog passed away while I was babysitting him and that was devastating.  The desire to cook and play with recipes were pretty far from my mind.

But I have been researching and pinteresting (is that a verb?) lots of potential recipes ideas so the future of this blog can flourish once more.  “As God as my witness, I will never go hungry again!”

Browsing around Pinterest, I came upon a particular recipe that was pinned repeatedly, and in different variations.  It involved cooking the recipe in a slow cooker for hours.  I believe it was a good 6 hours and it only involved 3 ingredients.

Well…………..homie don’t play that.  I turned 3 ingredients into 6, or was it 7?

I’m sure you’ve all seen the recipe of Chicken, Pineapples and BBQ sauce.  Throw it all into the slow cooker pot and wha la, you’ve got Hawaiian BBQ Chicken, the end.

Not if I can help it!

The trusty Peggy (which seriously needs a thorough bath time soon) whipped up my version in just 15 minutes!  I can always depend on Peggy to never fail me.

So shall we begin?

INGREDIENTS:

• 3lbs. Chicken (Frozen or Fresh; Breast, Thighs, Wings or Drumettes, the world is your oyster….or chicken coop)
• 1 Cup BBQ Sauce
• 2 Cups Diced Pineapples (Canned or Fresh, don’t matter)
• 1 Cup Coconut Milk
• 1 Tbsp Chili Flakes (Of more if you like more kick)
• Shredded Coconut (garnish)
• Juice of Limes (garnish)

I used chicken thighs that the skin have been removed from and have been deboned.  Mix the BBQ Sauce, Coconut Milk and Chili Flakes together.  In the main cooking pan of your pressure cooker, put down the pineapples at the very bottom.  The reason why I put it on the bottom is that it will be closest to the heat source and will therefore render out the pineapple juice so the pressure cooker will use the juices to steam up and pressurize since the BBQ sauce mixture is quite thick and may burn if you put it on the very bottom.

Start dipping your chicken pieces in the BBQ sauce mixture, a thin coat is fine.  And put them into the pot one by one.  Pour the remaining sauce mixture over the chicken when you’re all done.

Shut the lid of your cooker, turn to lock it.  Set the pressure valve to Airtight.  Program the cook time for 10-minutes and away we go!

La la la la……..

Ten to fifteen minutes is way better than 6 hours!

Once the cooking cycle is finished, your pressure cooker will beep and let you know that the chicken is ready to hula dance!  Release the pressure and unlock the lid.  The chicken and the pineapples will release a lot of juices during the pressure cooking process so everything will look extra liquidy.  Never fear.  Remove just the chicken with a pair of tongs and set aside temporarily.  Turn on the BROWNING feature on your pressure cooker by pressing the START button if you have this feature and reduce the sauce mixture so it’s nice and thick.  I also took out my trusty potato masher and mashed down the pineapples so they were more pulpy.  (If you want the sauce extra thick, you can also make a flour roux with a bit of the liquid ladled out in a little bowl, mix a bit of flour with it until smooth and pour it back into the pot.)

Once the sauce has thickened to your desired consistency, put all the chicken back in.  Now it’s ready to serve!  Serve it with rice or just eat it on its own.  Garnish with a healthy heap of shredded coconut and a squeeze of lime juice.

Seriously, the chicken was melt-in-your-mouth and super flavorful.  Tender, sweet and spicy…..just like me!

If you use wings and drumettes, this might be a good Super Bowl Sunday dish!  Go for it!

And if you remove the chili flakes, this would be totally a kid-friendly recipe.

**As a side note and completely optional, if you like my blog, I’d really appreciate it if you’d help me out by clicking on the few ads I have now on the site.  It’s completely safe and no spam or malware, and totally free as well.  But every click a reader makes, will earn me some extra $ to fund this blog.  All you have to do is click on an ad you find interesting, and that’s it.  Thanks!!!

So anyway, I’ve decided that I am going to attempt a Soup Diet for the next few weeks since I can’t go to the gym for about 2 months max. It seems to help with water weight (if you stay in the low sodium content) and gets you full quicker.  Yet you eat less and it goes through your system faster as well.  I’m all for anything that promotes extra weight loss, on top of regular exercising of course.  Sheesh, I sound like an infomercial!

I’ve made a couple of soups from old blog entries already but today’s recipe is a newbie.

It’s Lasagna!  But a soup version of it!

So let’s get cracking!  It’s souper easy as well!  (See what I did there?  haha  And sorry about my photos, it was a rainy and cloudy day and by the time I got around to taking a pic of the final product, it was pretty dark already.)

I’m also going to include some recipe tweaking/suggestions to lower the calorie and sodium count for us loony health nuts.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 Lbs. Spicy Italian Sausage (You can also use lean ground beef or even ground turkey)
• 2 16oz. Cans of Chopped Tomatoes (Omit one can if you want less calories)
• 1 8oz. Can of Tomato Paste (Omit completely if you want less sodium and calories, which I did so I don’t have a photo of it)
• 1 Whole Yellow Onion, chopped
• 3 Cloves of Fresh Garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp. Italian Seasoning (Forgot to take a picture of it)
• 4 Cups of Chicken Broth (Forgot picture again.  Damn!  Omit completely and just use water, or use vegetable stock if you want less sodium)
• Package of Mafalda Pasta, which look like cute little pieces of lasagna (You can use broken pieces of lasagna as well, which is what I did. Or fusili pasta)

I had a small little dinner gathering this weekend, with a delicious Italian Pot Roast made in the pressure cooker.  Yum!  Followed by a trip to the local theater to watch the latest James Bond installment, SKYFALL with Daniel Craig.  DOUBLE YUM!  And to make it all that much sweeter….November 11th was suppose to be the birth date of James Bond!

My husband always complained that suits are so uncomfortable and so restricting.  But I think that’s a load of crock!  Look at all the things that James Bond can accomplish looking GQ 24 hours a day!  Okay, fine, he’s a fictional character.  No, but still!!!  Drooool……

The pot roast was super easy to make.  And I paired it with creamy mashed potatoes that my husband made from scratch.  And some roasted lemony Brussels sprouts and asparagus.  I originally found the pot roast recipe on The Pioneer Woman and decided to adapt it for the pressure cooker since I was in serious need of cooking inspiration.  It turned out to be a big success and only took like 30-minutes cook time instead of 4 hours in the oven.  Maybe a total of 45-minutes if you include the prep work.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3-lbs Beef Rump Roast (Cut into 2″ chunks; you can choose to leave the roast whole, but cooking time will be 60-75 minutes)
• 1 Jar/Can of Roasted Red Bell Pepper
• 1 Jar/Can of Sun Dried Tomatoes in Olive Oil
• 1 Jar/Can of Marinated Artichokes in Water
• 1 Whole Onion (Finely Sliced)
• 4 Whole Garlic (Minced)
• 1 Package of Mushrooms (Chopped)
• 2 Tbsp Italian Seasoning (Forgot to photograph)

Remove the fat from the roast and use a sharp knife to cut the meat into whole 2 inch chunks.  We’re going to precook the meat in the pressure cooker first to do a “wash”.  This removes all the unwanted grime and gristle from the meat so it leaves the end result cleaner.

Place all the meat into the pressure cooker and pour in 3-4 cups of water.  Season with salt and pepper if you wish.

Shut the lid and lock it into position.  Set the valve to AIRTIGHT and program the pressure cooker to cook for 10-minutes.  Press START.

When the pressure cooker is pressurized and cooks for 10-minutes, it’ll automatically beep and go to Keep Warm.  You can release the pressure by setting the pressure valve to EXHAUST.  Remove all the meat into a bowl.  Discard all the grimy water.  Rinse the meat in the bowl to remove any remaining residue and then put the meat back into the cooking pot of the pressure cooker again.

Now you can add all the remaining ingredients in with the meat.  Julienne slice the bell peppers, and chop the artichokes.  Leave the sun dried tomatoes as is unless they are huge and need chopping as well.

Include all the olive oil and water from the jars of bell peppers, sun dried tomatoes and artichokes.  Do not drain.  Pour them all into the pressure cooker pot.  Add the onions and mushrooms and garlic.   Add the Italian Seasoning and any other herbs you wish to add.

That’s pretty much it.  It’s super easy!  Lock the lid and set the pressure cooker to cook for an additional 20-minutes.  It can’t get any easier than this!!!

THE END!

Okay, not really.  I’m just kidding.  But really, that’s the whole basis of it.  Let the pressure cooker do its thing and when it’s done, you know the drill.  Release the pressure before opening the lid.

I chose to use the cooking juices from the cooking to make a gravy.  So use a slotted spoon and ladle out all the meat and vegetables, everything, and put them into a separate serving platter.

In a small bowl, mix half a cup of water with 1 tbsp of flour and mix until it becomes a runny white goo.

Press the START button on the pressure cooker so it’s starts to simmer the cooking juices remaining in the pot.  Stir it while slowly pouring in the flour mixture and keep stirring and simmering until the gravy becomes a nice thick consistency.

That’s it.  Turn the pressure cooker OFF and serve your awesome pot roast that will melt in your mouth, not in your hands.  :P

Serve over mashed potatoes or some pasta.  Or with a side of roasted potatoes.  Top with the fresh gravy.

And oh yeah, don’t forget your dinner drink.  Shaken, not stirred.  :)

A lot of you have probably been wondering why I have taken such a long hiatus.  Truth be told, it’s a combination of many things.  Life, the universe, everything!

But the main thing is that both my husband and I have been trying to eat healthier and eat less.  And it’s just the two of us, so making a big meal to last us a whole week, and by us….I usually mean ME, just wasn’t cutting it!  My husband works unpredictable hours so sometimes, he’s not even home for dinner.  So eating the portions I make for my blog as leftovers was not necessarily great for the strict diet and exercise regime I put myself on before I got married last October.  And it sort of just carried over after we got married and into the this past 2012 year.
I’ve since lost several pounds and I fit my clothes so much nicer.  I went from wearing usually a size 12-14 to a size 8.  It’s not much but I kind of want to keep it this way.  So trying to maintain a healthier lifestyle and eating less meant I had to put the pressure cooker away.

Poor Peggy.  I mean, I didn’t tuck her away into some deep, dark cabinet in my kitchen, she was still out on my counter where I could see her pretty much every day!  I occasionally put her to work on large meals when I was having people over and I cooked a few dishes that I have already blogged about before.  But she was seriously on a nice long vacation.  :)

Recently, I started to realize that I’m beginning to lose my cooking mojo.  I was drawing a blank whenever I was trying to come up with something to eat or cook.  I had to resort to Pinterest sometimes to get inspiration.  And of course, The Pioneer Woman.  The majority of the foods I eat these days rarely need a lot of “cooking”.  It’s mostly non-processed whole foods that barely even need a microwave.  (BTW, I hate using the microwave.)  So not “cooking” was just totally killing my cooking mojo…..

But I’m back.  And I’m taking baby steps.  Easy recipes and hopefully healthy recipes.  I have to find a happy medium where I can cook, cook healthy, and still maintain my weight.   Let’s hope this works!!!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 Package Kielbasa Sausage (Chopped into half-moon size)
• 2 Cups Chopped Butternut Squash
• 1 Onion, Chopped
• 4 Cloves Garlic, Minced
• 1 Shot Glass Sherry, Cooking Wine or White Wine
• 1 Cup Wild Rice (I ran out, so I just used brown rice)
• 4 Cups Chicken Broth
• 2 Sprigs of Fresh Rosemary
• 2 Cups Fresh Kale
• Water (Not pictured)

In the pressure cooker inner pot, add a bit of olive oil and press START to turn on the Browning feature.  Or if you have a different model of the Elite Pressure Cooker, set your cooker to Brown.
Put in the first 4 ingredients into the pot and saute for about 4 minutes.

Pour in the shot glass of cooking wine or sherry and saute for another 2-3 minutes.

Turn off the Browning feature.  Add in the wild rice and the chicken broth.  Depending on how much soup you want, you can fill up the rest of the pot with water.  Add in the sprigs of fresh Rosemary.

That’s pretty much it.  Don’t put the Kale in with the soup yet until afterwards.  Kale needs just a little bit of heat to cook and wilt slightly.  Look up Kale on wikipedia and you’ll find out about all the wonderful and healthy nutrients it has.  Slightly cooking it is the best way to eat it.

Lock and load the pressure cooker.  You know the drill.  But for the newbies, turn the lid to lock it into place.  Set the Pressure Valve on the top to “Airtight”.  Press the Pressure Cook Time button and set it to cook for only 10-minutes.

That’s pretty much it.

If you are making a really large pot, almost full pot, the pressure cooker will take quite a while to heat up everything inside and come to pressure.  It took almost 30-minutes to build up pressure.  Once the pressure has been reached and the float valve has sealed, the letter P will appear on the LED screen and the 10-minutes will begin to count down.  Once the 10-minutes has reached 0, the cooker will automatically beep and go to keep warm.

Using a dish rag, carefully release the pressure by turning the Pressure”Valve to “Exhaust”, I threw my dish rag over the valve too so the pressure didn’t spit all over the place and it also minimized the hissing sound since my new dog doesn’t seem to like the sound.  She runs and hides under my bed.

Once the pressure has been completely released, the float valve will drop which will release the locking mechanism on the lid.  Now you can turn the lid to unlock it.  Be careful of looking into the pot too closely.  It’s hot stuff inside!

Give everything a good stir.  When the soup is ready to serve, you can add the kale to it and let the heat of the soup cook it just slightly.  It will take less than a minute.  Add salt and pepper to taste as you serve and eat.  YUM YUM!

I didn’t expect to post this as a recipe so I didn’t take photos until afterwards and it was all photos taken with my cell phone.  I intend on making this again in a couple of weeks so I’ll take photos then and update the post.

I made this for my little THE WALKING DEAD Season 3 Premiere get-together.  I found the idea originally on pinterest and have since lost that link.  (I’ll try and dig it up later.)  But this recipe is also ghastly perfection for any Halloween party!!!  It is TO DIE for!!!

*This was Simon.  He had beautiful baby blue eyes and perfect straight teeth.  He also had a full head of curly blonde hair.  But alas, he became a victim of the Walkers and his death was not in vain.  He was able to feed about half a dozen crazy people with his delicious corpse!!!

So are you ready to make your own version of Bloody Simon?

INGREDIENTS:

For the Skull -
- 1 Plastic Fake Skull (I got mine at the 99 Cent Store)
- 1 Package of Proscuitto or Pancetta (aka the muscle fibers on face)

For the Ribcage -
- 2 Racks of Pork Ribs (Can be trimmed to adjust)

For the Organs, etc -
- 1 Red Bell Pepper (aka the heart)
- 1 Package of small hot dogs or sausages (aka the intestines)
- 6 Chicken Thighs or Breasts (aka misc organs such as the liver, kidneys and pancreas.)
- 2 Large Filets of Salmon (aka the lungs)

(You really can put anything within the rib cage cavity to represent any body part.)

For the Blood -
- Your favorite BBQ Sauce will be perfect.

This was cooked in stages and part of it was cooked in the oven towards the end.  You will need a large rectangular oven-save platter or foil pan to fit the “body” in.

We’re going to work on the chicken first.  Season the chicken with salt and pepper and marinade it in the BBQ sauce.  Pour half a cup of BBQ sauce into the inner cooking pot of your pressure cooker and dilute it with half a cup of water.  Mix well.  Add the chicken to the mix and close the lid to your pressure cooker.  Turn to lock it and set the pressure valve on the top to Airtight.
Program the pressure cooker to cook for only 10-minutes.

Mean while, you can prep the ribs.  Season them with salt and pepper and lather them with BBQ sauce.  Cover and set aside.

When the chicken is done, release the pressure by turning the pressure valve to Exhaust.  Using a pair of tongs, remove all the chicken and put them into the lower half of your platter or pan.  Pour more BBQ sauce over them.

Open the package of small hot dogs or sausages and pile them on top of the chicken.  Add a bit more sauce.  Cover and set aside.

The pressure cooker should still have a lot of remaining liquid inside the pot.  So using the same liquid, you can cook the ribs now.  Leave the ribs as two whole slab and put it into the pot in a wrapped C shape.  I was able to fit 2 slabs into my 8 quart machine with no problem.
Shut the lid and turn to lock it.  Adjust the pressure valve to Airtight.
Program the pressure cooker to cook for only 20-minutes.  You don’t want to cook the ribs completely otherwise they will start to fall off the bone when you try to remove them later.  You want to keep them whole as much as possible.

Mean while, you can work on the skull.  Make sure you wash the plastic skull really well and dry thoroughly.  You can dab a few drops of BBQ sauce on the skull to help with sticking if you have trouble with the prosciutto or pancetta.  Take strips of prosciutto and start wrapping it around the skull.  Tear or shred the pieces to make it look more authentic.  Make sure you don’t cover the eyes or the teeth completely.  Once it is to your satisfaction, you can wrap it with saran wrap and put it into the fridge temporarily.

Back to the platter or pan of chicken.  Add the salmon filets to the top half of the pan to represent the lungs.  I added a few pieces of mini sausages under the filets to prop them up a bit so they weren’t as flat looking.  Put the red bell pepper in the center between the salmon.  Add some BBQ sauce to them as well.

Preheat your oven to 375-degrees.

Now, back to the ribs.  When they are done cooking inside the pressure cooker.  Release all the pressure by adjusting the valve to Exhaust.  Unlock the lid and using a pair of tongs, CAREFULLY remove each slab and gently place them into your platter over the chicken and salmon and sausages.  I preferred to have the ends with the rib bones sticking out facing inwards.  If you need to trim off a few ribs to make it fit, go ahead.  Lather on more BBQ sauce and put the whole pan into the oven and cook for 20-minutes.  (Do NOT put the skull into the oven!)

Once the the ribs have a nice caramelized texture to it, and the bell pepper has roasted and softened.  You can remove the pan and check to make sure the salmon is cooked.  Just be careful lifting the ribs to check.

Unwrap the skull from the saran wrap and place it at the head of the platter.  Drizzle more sauce all over if desired to get the full bloody effect.

This looks seriously gruesome!  And the more I look at it, the more grossed out I get….but my friends and I ate up everything!!!  Finger licking good!  Yes, we are demented!

*Disclaimer:  I did not kill a real person!!!

Sorry I haven’t posted any recent recipes.  I seem to always be so busy these days.  With work mostly.  And when the weekends come around, I just want to vegetate and not do anything at all!

But today I am going to post a new recipe, darn it, I will!!!

This recipe I totally made up on my own.  I used ingredients I already had at home and some of the ingredients were frozen. So this makes it a really great spur-of-the-moment-have-to-make-dinner-real-quick kind of recipe.  Seriously, don’t be afraid to experiment.

This particular dish is the entree and the sides all cooked together, except I separated it using a trivet and a small stainless steel pan.

INGREDIENTS:

• 4-6 6oz Steaks.  (8oz ones are okay too.)
• 1 Onion, sliced
• 1 Cup Beef Gravy
• 2-3 Cups Gnocchi
• 1/2 Cup Water
• 1 Cup Shredded Cheese
• 1 Cup Chopped Broccoli

Inside of the cooking pot of the pressure cooker, pour the 1-cup gravy in.  Then place the Steaks over the gravy, making sure to coat each side.  Top it with the sliced onions.  (In fact, some mushrooms would’ve been cool too!  But I didn’t have any.)

Now, if you have a small stainless steel pan w/o handles, this would be useful.  I had one but I have no idea where it came.  Fill the pan with the half cup of water.  Add the gnocchi to the pan.

Place the trivet into the cooking pot over the steak and put the pan of gnocchi onto the trivet.

Shut the lid and turn to lock it into position.  Adjust the Pressure Valve to the “Airtight” position.  (Remember, this valve never gets tight.  It will spin if you manually go and touch it.)

Program the pressure cooker to cook for 10-minutes.  Or you can also press the Meat & Chicken menu function button.  It doesn’t matter which you choose.

While the steaks and the gnocchi cook.  Prepare the broccoli and cheese.  Chop up the broccoli into smaller bite-size florets.  Put them into a small bowl and mix in the cheese.  Set aside until the pressure cooker is ready for them.

Once the pressure cooker has finished pressure cooking steaks and gnocchi, it will beep and automatically go to Keep Warm.

Using an oven mitt, carefully turn the Pressure Valve on the top to “Exhaust” so all the pressure releases.  As soon as the float valve drops, you turn to unlock the lid.  Lift up the lid carefully and lift out the pan with the gnocchi.  Shut the lid again so the heat inside the machine does not get lost.

Quickly drain all the water from the gnocchi.  Toss the broccoli and cheese in with the gnocchi and put the whole pan back into the pressure cooker again.  Shut the lid and leave it at Keep Warm for about 5-minutes.  The broccoli will steam inside and the cheese will melt using all the retained heat and keep warm function.  If the broccoli needs a bit more time, leave it in longer.

Once it is ready, give all the cheese, broccoli and gnocchi a good mix and remove the pan.

Remove the steaks and serve with the gravy and onions.  Add a side of the gnocchi and dinner is done!

The end!

(Don’t be afraid to change up the recipe.  Maybe add some garlic and mushrooms.  Or use wine instead of gravy.  The world is your oyster.)

**As a side note and completely optional, if you like my blog, I’d really appreciate it if you’d help me out by clicking on the few ads I have now on the site.  It’s completely safe and no spam or malware, and totally free as well.  But every click a reader makes, will earn me some extra $ to fund this blog.  All you have to do is click on an ad you find interesting, and that’s it.  Thanks!!!

Name the Tarantino movie that line is from!

So, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day this year, I decided to make some British grub in the tub that’s often eaten in a pub. (And yeah yeah, I know, I’m late.  Like SUUUUUUPER LATE!)

Bangers and Mash!

Now….if you don’t know what that is, don’t feel bad, because I didn’t either!  I had to rely on my trusty Google pal.  Turns out it’s a popular comfort dish consisted of Sausages and Mashed Potatoes.  It’s as simple as that!

Why are the sausages called Bangers you ask?  Let’s see….according to wiki:
“Although it is sometimes stated that the term ‘bangers’ has its origins in World War II, the term was actually in use at least as far back as 1919.^[1] The term “bangers” is attributed to the fact that sausages, particularly the kind made during World War II under rationing, were made with water so they were more likely to explode under high heat if not cooked carefully; modern sausages do not have this attribute.”

The sausages are usually cooked on a grill or a pan and the mashed potatoes are made in a separate pot.  What we’re going to do today is going to attempt cooking it all together in just the pressure cooker alone.  I love walking on the wild side!  (Update:  The bangers failed as far as the look is concerned.  But the Mash turned out yummy!)

So let’s get crackin’!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 Package of 6-8 Bangers (Pork Sausages or whatever sausage you like)
• 5-6 Baking Potatoes (Peeled and Diced)
• 1 Cup Milk
• 1/2 Cup Butter
• Salt & Pepper
• 1 Whole Onion (Sliced into rings)

• 1/2 Cup Sour Cream
• 1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese

I’m pretty sure the sausages I purchased are not going to explode on me, but just to be on the safe side, I’m going to jab it a few times with a fork just in case.  Poke, jab, polka!

Peel and dice up the potatoes and put it in the bottom of the pressure cooker pot.  (I chose to leave the peels on, just scrub them real good if you do.)  Lightly toss them with salt and pepper.  Add the cup of milk.  Slice tabs of the butter and place them over the potatoes.

Carefully lay a sheet of foil over the potatoes and put all the sausages onto the foil and make sure they do not risk rolling off.  Top the sausages with the onions.

Shut the lid and secure into place.  Adjust the pressure valve to “AIRTIGHT”.

20 Minutes is all you need.

Let the machine do its thing.  It will heat up the heating element and build the inside pressure up.  Once the pressure has been reached, the letter P will appear on the screen, the float valve will pop up and the heating element will shut off automatically.  The 20-minutes will begin to count down and the internal hot pressure will continue to cook the food.

Once the allotted time has expired, the machine will beep and go to keep warm automatically.  You can choose to either release all the pressure manually or let it drop down naturally.  I prefer manually.  So flip the top black knob valve that says Airtight/Exhaust to Exhaust and all the pressure will start to release.

When all the pressure has released, the float valve will drop down and allow you to turn and open the lid.

Remove the sausages in the foil.  You’ll noticed that the sausages are cooked but look grey and unsightly.  Don’t worry, they’re just steam cooked and look kind of blah, but they still taste just fine.

Now on the mashed potatoes.  Start mashing them carefully with a potato masher directly inside the pressure cooker pot.  Add more milk, salt or butter if you prefer to get the potatoes to the consistency you like.  We preferred ours a little creamy, yet lumpy.

Unfortunately I didn’t take too many final photos of the end product.  I should have sliced up the sausages instead of left them whole for the photos.  It just looks a bit wrong with them whole.  :P

Still delicious though!!!

I’m still here, in sunny California.  I am just…..not having good luck with my cooking lately.  I seem to have temporarily lost my cooking mojo.  I’ve tried three recipes in Peggy in the last few weeks and they were all decent, but not great and the photos of the end result just weren’t doing it for me either.  That’s why I didn’t post them.

1)  I did a Bangers & Mash.  The Bangers (Sausages) part of the dish came out so-so.  It was kind of like steamed sausages which wasn’t very appealing.  However, the Mash (mashed potatoes) part of it was pretty darn good.  So I think I will at least post that part of it soon.

2)  Next I tried a Steak and Broccoli & Cheese Gnocchi recipe, which again, turned out alright.  But the photography of the final product looked pretty blah.  The recipe also needed a bit of tweeking.  So basically I just wasn’t 100% happy with it.  But you know what, I will post it up as well, since it’s all about learning by trial and error!!!

3)  Lastly, I recently made a Mexican Margarita Fiesta Chicken.  That turned out actually pretty darn delicious!!!  But the final product was not very nice looking, therefore the photo result was blah.  I actually shredded the chicken and rolled them up in tortillas.  And I took photos of that.  Then I realized that you can’t even see the chicken in the photo so what was the whole point?  But I guess, it’s the idea that counts right?

So stay tuned!