A CONTEST & A GIVEAWAY

I'm looking for some new recipes. So I want to hear yours. Here is what I want. I want one chicken and one rib recipe. They need to be your recipes not something from a book or magazine. Try to keep it under 10 ingredients so it can be posted here. I will cook the winning two recipes and post the recipe and pics on here. Then I will announce the winners and mail them a little something something.

Lets see. My husband loves spice. Not so spicy your lips tingle but spicy enough that he sweats!
However, unspicy recipes are good also because then my kid can eat em.


Rules:

Chicken
Must utilize chicken thighs, bone in or out.
Pouring ketchup on chicken and baking it IS NOT A RECIPE!
No beans or cous cous as my husband will NOT eat it.
Bonus points if there is a vegetarian alternative.

Pork
I am using pork spare ribs
Crockpots, grills and ovens are all up for grabs so give it your best shot
No sesame oil, husband hates it
Pouring soda and or ketchup over ribs IS NOT A RECIPE!

So have at it. I will send you some home made goodies when you win (along with a little something else). You have until the 31st to enter. Sunday or Monday of next week I will make the recipe and Wednesday I will post and announce the winner.

GOOD LUCK!

Wedge salad

1 head iceburg lettuce washed
2 roma tomatoes chopped
1/2 red onion thin sliced
3/4 cup crumbled bacon
3 hard boiled eggs sliced
1 cup ranch dressing (or blue cheese)
salt
pepper

Cut off bottom of salad and cute it into quarters. Place 1/4 on each plate and top with 1/4 of each of the above toppings. I made my husbands with bacon and mine with eggs and the rest of the people got both. Something about cutting my own piece of the wedge is just rad to me and damn, BACON AND RANCH, yeah your husband will definitely ask you for sex before dinner is done!

Crash Hot Potatoes

This was my final recipe from Pioneer Woman. I think my husband wants to buy her diamonds just to thank her for all the great food she taught me to make. Tonight I made CRASH! HOT POTATOES. They were fucking awesome. The only problem I see with this recipe is that if you have any extra potatoes after boiling them IT IS IMPOSSIBLE not to stand there and dump salt on them, eat them and then be full by dinner time!

The recipe her way was:
New potatoes
Kosher salt
Pepper
Rosemary
Olive oil

Shannons recipe is new potatoes
Kosher salt
Pepper
Rosemary
Olive oil
BUTTER
and fresh chopped chives

Preheat oven to 450. Boil potatoes until fork tender. Cover sheet pan with olive oil. Place potatoes about 3 inches apart on pan. Take potato masher and gently press down. I found it worked better to hold a fork over the top of the masher to prevent the potatoes from coming out the top and breaking apart. After that I topped each potato with about 1 tsp of unsalted butter. Then I seasoned to taste with salt and pepper and used about a tsp of finely chopped rosemary. Bake for 20-25 minutes until potatoes begin to brown. Serve with chopped chives THEN DIE OF CRUNCHY GOODNESS!

Roasted Beef Tenderloin

This is another one from Pioneer Woman. Her recipe was Lawrys season salt, Lemon Pepper, and pepper corns. I didn't have the lemon pepper so I created my own recipe. Mine is as follows.

1- 5 pound beef tenderloin
2- Tbsp Lawry's Season Salt
1- Tbsp house seasoning (I actually used a poultry seasoning with garlic, onion, pepper etc)
1- Tsp McCromicks Grill Seasoning Spicy
2- Tsp fresh cracked pepper
1- stick of butter cut into tbsp pieces
3- Tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 475. Combine dry seasonings in bowl. Heat skillet over medium high heat. Add oil and 1/4 stick of butter until butter starts to brown. Season beef on both sides. Make sure you rub it all in and use the entire amount. Place beef in skillet for about two minutes per side until it starts to brown. Remove beef from skillet and place it on a roasting pan. Top with remaining slices of butter. Using an oven safe thermometer place it into the center most fatty portion of the beef. Place it in the oven and cook until about 136. This will make your meet medium rare in the middle and medium well to well on the ends. That is what makes this such a great family meal, the ability to offer meat with a variety of doneness. I allowed the beef to rest about ten minutes and then cut into it. The beef was so tender I hardly had to try to cut it. My husband didn't do much talking but as you can see from the picture below he LOVED IT.

Creamy herbed potatoes

Earlier in the week I discovered Pioneer Woman Cooks. While browsing her archives I had about 15 photo related orgasms. Finally I decided to try out some of her stuff. I made 3 of her things and this is the first.

Creamy herbed potatoes. They killed me y'all. They were so good and the only problem I could see was the fact that she didn't put a warning about how you shouldn't eat it all while it is cooking or you won't have dinner.

I followed her recipe almost exact except I added one clove of shredded garlic. If I had it all to do again I would probably lower the amount of sage I put in because I think I actually did about 2 tsp instead of 1 tsp.

Pioneer Woman's recipe is as follows

PW’s Creamy Herbed Potatoes

4 to 5 russet potatoes
1 stick (1/4 pound) butter
1 medium onion, finely diced
8 ounces cream cheese
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk (half & half works, too)
1 teaspoon finely chopped rosemary
1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley
1 teaspoon finely chopped chives
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped sage

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Slice potatoes very thinly.
Add butter to a large skillet over medium low heat, When melted, add diced onion. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add cream cheese to the pan and stir to melt.
Pour in cream and milk, stirring to combine.
Season with plenty of salt and pepper, then add chopped herbs.
Place potatoes in a buttered baking dish. Pour contents of skillet over the top.
Top with Parmesan cheese and bake for 45 minutes, or until bubby and…bubby. Allow potatoes to sit 15 minutes before serving.

I PERSONALLY LIKED IT WITH THE ONE CLOVE OF GARLIC! I used a mandolin to cut the potatoes, which she also does. I think you could do this with a knife but it would be harder. You can get a cheap functional mandolin for about $30.00 at Williams Sonoma or even Walmart.

When food goes wrong

Remember class when grilling chicken with the skin on it is important to keep it on low, be attentive and TURN IT OFTEN.
If not the fat will catch on fire and your chicken will go down the shitter
Last week I tried out this recipe. I added boneless skinless chicken and the whole thing was awful. The "broth" was bland and boring and greasy. The potatoes were flavorless and the whole thing sucked!

Pork Fried Rice

INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons oil
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 tablespoon sesame oil
1/2 pound cooked pork, chopped
1 1/2 cup frozen peas and carrots, thawed
4 cups cold cooked rice
4 green onions, chopped
1/4 cup soy sauce, plus 1/2 tablespoon

DIRECTIONS
1. Mix egg with ½ tablespoon soy sauce and ½ tablespoon of sesame oil.
2. Add 1/2 tablespoon oil to wok and add egg mixture. Cook egg then remove from wok and chop into small pieces.
3. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in wok. Add meat, peas and carrots, stir-fry for 2 minutes.
4. Add rice and green onions tossing to mix well. Stir-fry for 3 minutes.
5. Add remaining soy sauce and chopped egg to rice mixture and fold in. Stir-fry for 1 minute more.
6. Serve with additional soy sauce, if desired.