me make food

My brother had us over for fathers day and he made some cheesy bake taters with our meal and they were really good. I inquired about the recipe and this is what I got.

Boiled the taters until just done, I think it is ok to have them just a bit raw since you will be baking them again.

Melt butter and olive oil in a small pan with a good amount of garlic (chopped). You should be on low heat to just cook the garlic not brown it. You are just releasing the essential oils out of the garlic.

Add some milk or half and half to taters and mash. Add butter/oil/garlic mixture and mix.

Salt, pepper, and what ever other seasoning to taste.

then added Parmesan from a can and some cheddar cheese and mix well. Taste and re-season if needed. Put into a baking dish and cover top with more parmesan cheese from the can and bake for 30-45 minutes at 350.

He makes some really good stuff and we picked up a pork loin to go along with the taters. The pork loin I got was actually two that were the same as a PSMO and I carved them up into 4 hunks, 3 for later meals.

Saw this over on slashfood and I am really intrigued. Theirs look mostly like meatballs made with pork, but I think I can one up them. My goal is to get a nicely coat of crunchy sweet goodness around the smaller ham ball kind of like pig candy.

I will be doing a bunch of cross posting this week on beerorkid cuz I will be messing with lots of stuff Theresa wont eat since she is gone. Will be cranking up metal and bluegrass while cooking up a storm in my underwear.

I picked up a brinkman bullet smoker from an auction near my house about 5 years ago. This would be my second time using the thing in that whole span. It will get used a lot more after grubbing down last night. Theresa is not a big fan of smoked meat, but I dig it. I smoked some baby back ribs and two pork shoulder steaks. 7 hours with a stoking of the coals 1/2 way through and many additions of hickory and mesquite wood chips did wonders. I did not season them all that much so the pure flavor could shine through.

Hmmmmm…. I coulda sworn I have done a post on brining pork chops before, but I guess going over it once again will not hurt. First off this comes from Alton Brown on good eats.
pork chop episode part 1
pork chop episode part 2

So why brine? Well pork these days are really lean. Brining will help lock the moisture in the pork. I am sure you would rather have a juicy chop over the dried and tough one.

The brine (for about 5 chops)
# 3/4 cup kosher salt (DO NOT use regular white table salt!)
# 1 cup brown sugar
# 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
# 1 tablespoon mustard powder (do not use prepared mustard!)
# 2 cups cider vinegar (heated until hot)
# 1 lb ice cubes

We are only having 2 chops picked up from Hy Vee so I chopped (tee he he) the brine in 1/2

We have tried au gratin taters a few times before, but this recipe worked well this time.

Tried some pork cutlets from Hollenbeck. Different than I thought, but good. Will bread these next time with some gravy.

Trying out the new pork line from Hollenbeck, it was really good.

It is no secret that Windsor loins from Faltiens meat in Howells NE is one of the reasons I married my wife. Delicious smoked pork loins are amazing. I usually bulk up big time every year. I have tried some other smoked chops from other sources and nothing compares, but Hollenbeck Farms smoked chops totally satisfy. Perfect smoky flavor and juicy. We used our last package of T’s grandma corn, it was a great meal.