Welcome to our Blog!

We are Jen and Marisa, graduate students at the University of Delaware and we LOVE food! So we decided to start a food blog as a fun and creative way to share our ideas and recipes. Enjoy :)

Monday, October 4, 2010

Rosemary pork loin and Cannoli


After a very long week of studying and quite arguably the hardest exam I have ever taken in my life, I decided it would be nice to cook a delicious relaxing dinner for Travis and I on Friday evening. I decided to go with a rosemary pork loin, my uncle (Uncle Merlot) and aunt Jan make this when Christmas is at their house and it is always a big hit. I had decided it would be a good idea to try to make a rub or a paste to coat the pork loin before I cooked it. I took some fresh rosemary, extra virgin olive oil, chopped garlic, fresh cracked pepper, basil leaves, and some flour and blended it together in a blender to create a paste. I then rubbed the mixture all over the pork loin, mainly the fat side and the lateral sides. I set my oven to 350 and let it cook for about an hour and 15 minutes. I had never cooked a pork loin before, so I was hoping it could come out good. Well my hopes had come true - this meat was perfectly cooked, it was dripping with juice when I sliced it up and was so tender you could cut it with a butter knife. The rosemary had seeped into the meat and created a wonderful burst of flavor with each bite. I paired the loin with garlic mashed potatoes and honey glazed carrots along with gravy ( I actually used turkey gravy, couldn't find pork in the store). I boiled red skinned potatoes and blended them with chopped garlic, cracked pepper, some milk, and half and half using an electric mixer. Once they were blended I added a little bit of olive oil for an extra smooth flavor. The potatoes were fantastic and worked nicely with the pork. How can you not love taking a nice hunk of pork covered in gravy and dipping it in your mashed potatoes? That's what I call the perfect bite.


Next was dessert. I love love love cannolis, they are tied for my favorite italian dessert (the other number one being panna cotta - which I should make a blog entry soon). I will admit, these cannolis I made are something that would go well on Semi-homemade with Sandra Lee on the Food Network because I purchased the shells at the grocery store. I would like to make my own, I have yet to get the necessary cylinders from my mother, I will soon! Anywho I added my own touch to the shells by dipping each end in melted chocolate. While the chocolate dried, I mixed whole-milk ricotta (If you are eating a cannoli, go all the way and use whole-milk ricotta, who cares about calories at this point) with powdered sugar. Again, I do not measure, I add maybe 3/4 of a cup at first and see how it tastes, if I think more is needed I add more. You can also add vanilla extract to the mixture as well. It is also best to let the ricotta sit in a cheesecloth overnight so that the moisture is drawn out and you don't end up with runny filling. So once I had the mixture all ready, I put it into a ziploc bag that I had cut a corner off of the bottom (in order to imitate a piping bag). Then I squeezed the filling into both ends of each shell and put chocolate chips on each end. I dusted each cannoli with powdered sugar when done. They were great and very easy to make!

An Italian Feast!
















I had been craving sauce and meatballs for a few weeks so I decided to make fresh "gravy" and meatballs one Sunday afternoon and a nice dish of eggplant parmesan (my all-time favorite food). I have been cooking with my Dad since I was younger so the meatballs and gravy recipes are what I have learned from him. The eggplant parm comes from my mama - she makes the best eggplant ever.
So a good sauce starts with some fresh chopped garlic and olive oil. I also added some chopped shallot to the pan for a little extra flavor. Once the garlic and shallot had browned a bit in the pan, I added some diced tomatoes flavored with oregano and basil. Next I added a can of Tomato paste and a large can of tomato sauce (usually I use the Cento brand). I also add a small amount of water to the pot as well. Next comes the seasoning. I added fresh rosemary and basil, along with fresh cracked pepper and a small amount of salt. Then comes some granulated sugar. I don't really measure amounts, I just sort of throw it all together and taste it occasionally to see what I need to add. The last ingredient to a good gravy is a can of beer. I used miller lite, but you can go with any beer really, light beer is preferable. You could even add some red wine, who doesn't love a good merlot??
Now time for the meatballs. For these meatballs I used ground turkey in an effort to be a bit more healthy. I will say though - you can't beat meatballs with ground beef, the flavor is unbeatable. I mixed up the ground turkey with an egg, breadcrumbs, fresh cracked pepper, salt, fresh chopped garlic, fresh basil, grated parmesan cheese, and some italian seasoning. Again, I don't really measure anything out, I just mix it and then smell it to see if it smells seasoned enough (my Dad taught me that, I was always the "smeller" to make sure the meatballs smelled good). I think the more garlic, the better, can you really ever use too much garlic? As long as you don't plan on making out after, I really don't think you can have too much garlic. Once I had all the meatballs rolled onto a plate covered in paper towels, I put them in the microwave for about 3 minutes so they would cook mostly. Then I dumped them into the pot of gravy and let it simmer for hours. The longer it simmers the better!


Now onto the eggplant parmigiano - yum! First i sliced and peeled the eggplant - no skin is best. Then I dipped each slice of eggplant into beaten egg and milk, then dipped it straight into the breadcrumbs which were seasoned with pepper, salt, garlic, basil, italian seasoning and parmesan cheese. Then I fried each piece of eggplant in olive oil and transferred it into a casserole pan that had a layer of sauce in it. The eggplant was then covered in another layer of sauce and then a layer of shredded mozzarella cheese. This was repeated until the pant was full, usually ends up being 2-3 layers of eggplant. Then I baked it in the oven for about 20 minutes, until the cheese its melted golden brown. Mmm and the first bite - just magical. There is nothing better than the crispy eggplant with the tartness of the sauce and creamy melty cheese.

Apple Pie Pancakes...Breakfast of Champions!



So it's finally my favorite season - Fall. Nothing is better than crisp fall weather, warm sweaters, cute boots, and of course savory fall dishes. That being said, who doesn't like pancakes? No matter what time of year it is, pancakes are a timeless classic. If you don't like pancakes, I feel bad for you. My boyfriend is basically obsessed with pancakes, he might even love them more than he loves me. Just kidding, but seriously, he might. Anywho, one day he told me he put cinnamon in his pancake batter and it came out good, then I thought to myself how delicious it would be if you added some apple and cinnamon sugar to the mix and made apple pie pancakes. Thus, this recipe was born. So I went to the store and ended up buying a can of apple pie filling - possibly the best idea ive had in a while, along with a spice container of cinnamon and sugar. First we mixed up the batter (the just add water from Aunt Jemima, it really is the easiest and tastes great), then we added the can of apple pie filling. I cut up the apples first though, because they are large slices, so chopped up into smaller pieces goes much better in the batter. Lastly, we added a bunch of cinnamon/sugar to give a nice apple pie flavor.
To cook the pancakes, I put a small dab of olive oil in the pan and then place the batter on top of it. The olive oil gives the edges a nice crisp but leaves the inside moist and fluffy. Once we were done cooking we dove right into these pancakes. They were thick and heavy - the goo from the apple pie filling had moistened the batter even more and given the pancakes a very cake-like consistency. These pancakes were seriously amazing. They were very very filling though so I recommend eating them once in a while!