Crock Pot Adventures – Butternut and Sausage

This week’s Crock-Pot Adventure is once again based on marked down finds during a grocery run. Selecting items seemingly at random to combine into a meal is always fun and often challenging to the adventurous cook.

Butternut Squash & Sausage sounds pretty simple, and likely something that would take a couple of hours and two or three separate pans to create. I prefer to use my crock-pot whenever possible to create one dish meals. It leaves less of a mess and fewer pots to scrub in the wake of the meal.

The squash, Pancetta, onion and mushrooms all came from selected markdowns discovered during the weekly grocery run. While you might find all of these things in one store, our weekly run starts at Aldi, them moves to WalMart, Kroger, and sometimes HEB. The stores are all along a one mile stretch of road here in Conroe, making it fairly simple to make all those stops. The dishes that come out of our kitchen have shown a remarkable upswing in variety and healthier ingredients since this shopping regimen began.

Prep Time: About an hour (includes veggie handling)
Cook Time: 4-6 hours on low
Servings: 6-8

INGREDIENTS:
Olive oil or canola cooking spray
1 butternut squash, seeded, peeled and diced
1/2 medium sweet onion, diced
4 oz Pancetta, diced
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 pkg mushrooms, crimini or button, sliced or quartered
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp dry parsley
1 tsp garlic powder
18 oz sausage, cut to preference
Salt & pepper to taste

Set up your crock-pot and insert a liner if desired. Lightly spray sides and bottom with oil.

 

 

 

Arrange the squash, onion, Pancetta, diced garlic, and mushrooms in layers, spread to cover the bottom of the crock. Sprinkle dry spices evenly across the top of everything.

Lay in sausage in an even layer. I cut 2 links into quarters to arrange around the sides of the pot, then laid the remaining 2 links along the top middle, as shown below.

Seal up the crock and cook on low for 6-8 hours, depending on your pot’s heat levels.

 

Serving suggestions:
When serving, add a sprinkle of grated Cheddar on top of the veggies for an added burst of flavor.

 

Offer garlic toast or crescent rolls on the side. Biscuits are also good, split and covered in the veggies.

 

The juices from this dish are fairly clear and may be used to just stir the whole thing into a soup style serving.

 

 

 

Other suggestions:
Reserve the seeds when you open and core a squash like the butternut or acorn varieties. I do this and give the seeds to a friend who is very into gardening and raising vegetables. Simply pop the seeds into a zippy bag and refrigerate it until you can deliver it to your gardening buddy or plant it yourself.

Enjoy!

–Ann Cathey

Crock Pot Adventure – Pork Chops

In my kitchen, the “manager’s markdown” items at our local groceries are a boon. Today’s dinner menu is based around several of them that had been purchased and frozen for use on days such as this – when I can’t immediately think of anything to cook.

As I perused the freezers (a top and a chest), my mind began to formulate a plan. Here was a bag of pork chops, there a pack of fresh chives; here a red wine/onion broth from a previous crock pot adventure, there a package of sliced Pancetta. In the dry cabinet there were three large white potatoes. I pulled out a casserole style crock pot and some olive oil spray, and began to compose.

I sprayed the inside of the crock as it does not easily accommodate the liner bags I prefer to use. This one is a 3.5 quart, long and sleek and low. Perfect for chops and other such cuts of meat.

The potatoes were washed and sliced in rounds. This is how they are sliced for German potatoes (potatoes, onions, and butter, baked into a lovely hot side dish). they were layered into the bottom of the crock with a little seasoned salt and a light spray of olive oil in between the layers. This was topped with a sprinkle of diced chives, and a thin layer of the Pancetta.

Essentially bacon and potatoes – what could be a better base?

Roasted garlic schmeer

The next layer was the pork chops, the meat of the meal, as it were. They were arranged in a neat, single layer. A bulb of roasted garlic was squeezed out and spread on top of the meat. Already aromatic and slightly sweet to the taste, it would become moreso with this second roasting, flavoring the meat and the potatoes beneath in one fell swoop.

Frozen broth

 

The broth was set into the microwave on low to thaw from the frozen brick it had become. Full of onions and based in a red wine, the broth was reserved from a previous pork chop crock. Waste not, want not, as they say. In this case it came in quite handy for another dish of pork chops when I had a noticeable lack of red wine available in the kitchen.

Broth over the pork, you can see the previously cooked onions

The broth was gently poured over the contents of the pot, covering every available surface. It was followed by a light sprinkle of seasoned salt, then the pot was sealed for the next several hours.

While the pork was roasting, the bread and cheese side was conceived, discussed, and executed.

Pulling out all the leftover cheeses in the fridge, we cubed them and tossed them in a bowl. This included all the odds and ends from a party and some bits that had just not yet been consumed. There was a bit of Monterrey Jack, a couple of different cheddars, a tomato and basil mozzarella, some Romano and parmesan, and I don’t recall what all else.

Using a can of crescent roll dough, it was laid out flat and instead of being cut into the recommended triangles, the seams were pinched shut and it was sliced into 6 squares.

The squares lined a pan of large cupcake cups. The cheese was liberally spooned into each shell. The tops and sides were pulled over the cheese and patted into place. The tray baked at the recommended temperature for 12-15 minutes.

The resulting savory pasty was nom-o-rific!

When the pork was ready, we emplated with the potatoes and pastry for a fantastic meal.

 

 

 

 

— Ann Cathey

The Garlic Festival

The Texas Renaissance Festival is not only a lot of fun to visit, it is an incredible marketing venue for small businesses of a certain flavor. We were lucky enough to encounter an incredibly wonderful flavor during our first visit to TRF this year. Garlic.

The Texas Garlic Festival has a booth offering all sorts of garlic based goods, from rubs to pickled cloves, and bread and popcorn seasonings in a variety of flavors. You get to taste them all as you circle the booth like a garlic shark. At least, I did.

The Pickled Garlic was my top pick among the offerings available. The pickling process maintained a definite crunch to the cloves, while bringing out the sweetness of the garlic usually only found when roasted. I tried all four varieties: Spicy Herb, Mustard Dill, Teriyaki, and Jalapeno. I wanted to run off with a case of the Mustard Dill! It’s like candy for me, and fits into my diabetic diet. The Teriyaki was extremely tasty, though the sugar content may put some folks off. The Spicy Herb and Jalapeno, while very flavorful, were a trifle hot for me personally.

The company maintains a blog that touts, “Our Garlic Festival Blog is a great resource for all things garlic.  Here you can learn about the health benefits of garlic, some great garlic recipes for healthy eating, how to grow your own garlic and updates of garlicky events in your area.” There is information about meats and veggies, recipes, product reviews and mroe.

They also offer a listing of events where they will be hawking their delicious garlic products. Select your state and find out where they will be. If all else fails, you check them out their online store, and even place orders on the website.

If you happen to be out to TRF this season, definitely stop by and give these folks a try. They are located in a kiosk style booth across from the Polish Pub, near the Falconry stage.

— Ann Cathey
(Who ate enough garlic that Christopher avoided kissing her for several hours)

Joe’s Italian Cuisine – Conroe, Texas

You probably wouldn’t give this place a second glance if you drove past it, but it’s an amazing discovery. Joe’s Pizza and Pasta in Conroe, Texas, is one of those places that was built out in an existing building, giving it a second-hand feel.

 

There’s an old gondola out front to help you find it, too. Inside it still has a bit of the economy feel, but there’s a comfort zone that draws you in. The smells that fill the place encourage you to take a seat, review the menu, and start to salivate in anticipation.

Our first visit to Joe’s was several years ago. they still had plastic table cloths and folding chairs in the main dining area. We had followed a friend there, and knowing nothing about Conroe at the time, though for sure we were getting lost. It’s actually pretty easy to find.

We decided Joe’s was a good candidate for this blog based solely on that first experience. It’s a good things we went back for lunch last week. the place has really changed inside. Dark, cozy and intimate are all good descriptions of the current Joe’s dining area. Rat Pack era music wafted down from hidden speakers as a nice undercurrent of sound for the conversations that abounded.

We were seated in the back area, that now includes a secluded little corner with a romantic fireplace. The waitress was friendly, even with the busy lunch crowd. She made sure we had our drinks and a basket of garlic rolls as quickly as possible. She wasn’t pushy about taking our order, either. That’s always a plus for us as we like to peruse the menu and take our time.

Let’s start with the menu. It may look a little spare at first glance (the wine list takes up as much space as the Homemade Pasta Dish portion) of the menu, but that’s because Joe’s is an Italian place through and through. There are chicken, veal and shrimp dishes served with a variety of pasta styles including spaghetti, angel hair, ravioli, cannelloni and penne.

The brick oven New York style pizzas take up a large portion of the menu. They are available in 14″, 16″ and a whopping 18″ pie. You might feel the topping options are limited, but in truth they are about as traditional as pizza gets. The portions are large, even on the lunch menu. We didn’t order a pizza this trip, but we will try to squeeze on in soon and report back on it, with pictures.

Everything on the menu seems to be right out of one section or another of old Italy, with a very Sicilian feel and flavor. Tomatoes and spices are prevalent, but not exclusively used. The red sauces are very red, the cream sauce very creamy, and everything is a shade more intense without being overpowering.

The first item to hit the table was a basket of the house rolls. While they seem to be nothing more than fancied up pizza dough, let me assure you that the pizza dough here is more than adequate to the job. The rolls are allowed to rise to heights, then droned in a mixture of butter, garlic, and cheese. The look good and taste much better. The spicing allows them to accompany most of the menu items without clashing.

 

Both myself and my dining partner found it difficult to leave the rolls alone long enough to actually save some to eat with lunch!

The lunch menu is indeed small. It’s a header announcing Lunch Specials for $6.95 (at the time of that visit), and two lines of standard items including chicken or eggplant Parmesan, cannelloni, manicotti, and spaghetti with or without meatballs. We chose the chicken parmesan and manicotti.

The green salad served with lunch is a typical iceburg/carrot sliver/purple cabbage mix. tI as fresh with no cooler burn and included a topper of grated mozzarella on top.

I chose the chicken Parmesan and was not disappointed. The chicken breast was breaded, and took up half of my plate. It and the pasta were then doused in red sauce and topped with plenty of mozzarella. The chicken was tender and the pasta al dente. Neither arrived at the table with the overcooked-because-it-sat-under-a-heat-lamp feel.

 

My lunch partner chose the manicotti. He is a bit of a connoisseur of manicotti, it being his favorite Italian dish. He approved of the dish and wished there had been more of it. He proclaimed it delicious. The red sauce on his dish, while appearing to be exactly the same as on the chicken, had a sweeter flavor. The al dente shells were stuffed with a marvelous mix of cheeses, creamy and spiced just right. Overall an excellent balance spicing and cheese to sauce flavor ratio.

Joe’s menu is not a way to get skinny, but when you make the best Italian comfort food in Conroe, who cares?

Joe’s Pizza and Pasta is located at 1604 N. Frasier in Conroe, Texas, and is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11am until 10pm. They offer dine in- take away and catering for all occasions.

On the 1-5 scale, Joe’s gets:
Cleanliness – 4.5
Service – 4
Quality of food – 5
Flavor – 5
Pricing – 4
Overall experience – 4.5

— Ann Cathey
Photos by Christopher (or taken with his phone)

Food Porn 2

Welcome to the second installment of Food Porn on our blog.

Writing about food can work up a great appetite, but looking at food can make your stomach complain that you are not paying it any attention.

Being a photographer as well as I writer, I am often confronted with photos that I have taken that don’t quite make the grade as stock photography, but are too good to be wasted. They get lonely when they are simply  archived.

Just like the first time, rather than let these photos sit, allow me to share these tasty items with everyone. Enjoy!

Homemade Pickles

Muffin Assortment

Commercial Snack Tray

Condiments

Roasted Garlic Loaf

Ham and Turkey

–Ann Cathey