MDW/MKE

A few weekends ago, I took a brief but fantastic journey to visit friends in Chicago and Milwaukee.  We ate a lot of delicious things, and I can't help but share some of the pictures.

Pequod's Pizza- amazing.  If only Pittsburgh had good Chicago-style deep dish.

:(

Not pictured: Late night stop at Cheesie's, where I ate a sandwich involving cheese (duh), bacon, french fries, and chives! 

En route to Milwaukee- purchasing of cheese curds.

After a brewery tour at Milwaukee Brewing Company, we stopped for dinner and liters of Spotted Cow.

The giant-est pretzel.  Quarter shown for scale.

Fried cheese curds with a dusting of parmesan on top.  Wisconsin is serious about cheese. (We also ate brats on pretzel rolls with cheese sauce, which were great but not so photogenic)

Comet Cafe breakfast, rounding out a weekend of gluttony with the special titled "Breakfast in Your Face".  French fries, sausage gravy, sausages, egg, cheese.  

I can't wait to go back!

Hasselback Potatoes

These things have been absolutely blowing up Pinterest.  Yet every single time, without fail, I read it as "Hasselhoff Potatoes."

So I decided to see what all the fuss was about- to be honest, I'm still not 100% sure.  It was good, I suppose a fancier alternative to a baked potato.  I'd still opt for garlic mashed or roasted, but this was easy enough and would look nice if you're having company.

I couldn't just cut it and bake it.  So here's what I did:
- Thinly slice potato (not all the way though! and if it rolls a lot place it on a wooden spoon)
- Take a clove of garlic and thinly slice (or run through your magical garlic crusher/slicer)
- Place garlic slices in between every other potato slice, or however much you want
- Drizzle with olive oil, salt, and pepper
- Bake @ 400 degrees for 30-50 min (depends on potato size)
- Sprinkle generously with parmesan cheese (could also add some melted butter here)
- Eat.  Enjoy the garlic breath that may follow.

Black Bean Soup

Now that it is cold out, it's time...for soups! And slow-cooker recipes.  This satisfies both, and is quick to throw together (then it just cooks for awhile).

Not the most beautiful photo, but I promise it is delicious!

Inspired by recipes in the Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook.

Serves 6-8 as a main dish

Ingredients:

1 lb dried black beans

1 lb pork tenderloin, cut into approximately 1-inch cubes

2 medium onions, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

2 (or more) serrano peppers, stemmed and diced (I threw the seeds in as well)

1 10-oz can of Rotel (tomatoes + green chilis)

6 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 bunch of cilantro, chopped

1 T dried oregano

1 T cumin

3/4-1 T chili powder

2 C chicken broth (I used bouillon cubes for this)

1 C water

1 15-oz can black beans (optional; I added because the ratio seemed off to me but it doesn't matter much)

Garnish ideas: cilantro, cheese, sour cream, corn chips

1. Soak black beans overnight in a large pot filled with water.
2. The next morning/around lunchtime:  in a pan on the stove on medium-high heat, brown the pork tenderloin pieces in 1-2 T of canola oil.  Then put the pork in your slow cooker.  Keep the canola oil and juices in the pan, or if there seems to be a lot of fat then drain off about half of it.
3. Cook the onions, garlic, and red pepper in the pork juice/oil over medium-high heat until onions are translucent.
4. Dump onion/garlic/pepper and juices into slow cooker Add the black beans that you soaked, as well as the serranos, Rotel, cilantro, spices, broth, water, and extra can of black beans (if desired).
5. Cook on high for 5-6 hours until black beans are tender.  About a half hour before you plan to serve, either take a potato masher to the soup (less to wash this way) or spoon out some of the beans (avoiding pork chunks) into a food processor/blender and blend.  This will give the soup a thicker consistency.
6. Serve- garnish with cilantro, cheese, sour cream, chips, etc.  This would also be good over some rice!

Grilled Cheese

I'm not going to post a recipe for grilled cheese.  But I wanted to share this gem:

Why?  How can a cracker be "grilled"?  Why not just "cheese crackers"?  It makes no sense.

But I did make a real grilled cheese today with the bread I made on Tuesday.  Great success.  And no weird crackers were involved.

Cilantro-Ginger-Garlic Dressing

One of my hobbies is buying bunches of cilantro at the grocery store (it is the same price or cheaper as the silly little plastic boxes with a few sprigs of cilantro) and then only using half of it for the recipe I had planned.  So then it sits there for awhile until I give up and throw it out.  This week I put my foot down- I would not waste the rest of the bunch!  Salad dressing it is.

Ingredients:
1/2 to 3/4 bunch of cilantro
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 T minced ginger
1/2 C olive oil, more if needed
1 T sugar
2 T red wine vinegar
crushed red pepper
pinch of salt

Pulse all ingredients in a small food processor until it is at your desired consistency.  Someone around here doesn't love vinegar too much, but you could certainly do more vinegar and less olive oil.