Indy Shamrock Run & Walk

Today was the Indianapolis St. Patrick's Day Celebration Shamrock Run & Walk. It was a 4-mile event around the downtown area, and we passed some famous Irish establishments along the way. You can see more information, including everything you want to know about the St. Patrick's Day Parade on their website.


I am proud to say that I did pretty well! Here are my stats:

• time: 33:19.2, a 8:19 min./mile pace
• 6th in my age group for women 30-34
• 274th out of 1297 total participants

Tomorrow my sister, Jill, is running her first 5K, the Shamrock 5K, in Baltimore, MD. I'm so proud of her and all she's accomplished the past few months. Good luck, Jill!Thanks for stopping by!

Cumin-Curry Pork Chops

A few weeks ago, we picked this recipe up at Meijer. It's supposed to be for a 3 1/2 lb. boneless half pork loin roast, but I used it for pork chops. I buy boneless half pork loin roasts when they are on sale and have the meat counter slice it into 3/4" thick boneless pork chops for me. Then I bag them into family-sized quantities and freeze them.

So here's my adjusted recipe for Cumin-Curry Pork Chops that was inspired by a free coupon from Meijer:

Cumin-Curry Pork Chops

4 pork chops
2 T. brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 medium onion, sliced into rings

Preheat oven to 375F.

In small bowl, combine brown sugar, curry powder, cumin, salt and pepper. Rub mixture onto pork chops.

Place pork chops into a baking dish. Place onion slices on top of pork chops. Bake 30-45 minutes, or until a meat thermometer reads 160F. Cover and let stand 5 minutes before serving.

I hope you enjoy these! We thought they were great, and I am really accumulating quite a few good pork chop recipes. Thanks for stopping by!

Moroccan Beef with Honey Couscous

Last Saturday, I attended a beekeeping seminar. One of the classes I attended during the day was a "Honey in the Kitchen" class. The lady who taught the class, Karen Lackey, was a great teacher, and she gave us some recipes that use honey. This is a dish that she made, but I didn't have a chance to taste it. I made it for us last night, and I really enjoyed it! I'm anxious to eat the leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!

Moroccan Beef

1 1/2 pounds of beef flank steak (or flat iron steak, or whatever you have)

Marinade:

2 T. red wine vinegar
2 tsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. coriander
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 c. honey
1/2 c. olive oil

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Reserve 1/3 cup for preparing couscous. Place steak and marinade in a zip lock bag and marinate in refrigerator for at least one hour or overnight. Remove steak from marinade and cook for 8-10 min. or until browned in a large skillet. Turn steak, cover and reduce heat to low. Continue cooking for 7-10 min. Slice diagonally into thin slices before serving.

Couscous

2 c. water
1/3 c. reserved steak marinade
1-15 oz. can garbanzo beans, drained
1-15 oz. can diced tomatoes
1/3 c. chopped fresh parsley
1 box (10-12 oz.) couscous

In large pan, combine all but couscous and bring to a boil. Stir in couscous. Cover and remove from heat. Let stand 5 min. and fluff with a fork. Serve.

Mexican Chicken Soup

I have had this recipe for years now, and I can't remember where I got it originally. I kept thinking it was a Pampered Chef recipe, but I don't think it is. At any rate, I have made a few changes to it along the way, so I'm just going to give it to you without the original source. It's something different to have for dinner when you're tired of all your regular recipes!

Mexican Chicken Soup

2 c. cooked, cubed chicken
3-14.5 oz. cans of chicken broth
2 cloves of garlic, pressed or diced
16 oz. salsa
1/2 c. rice
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. salt
1-15 oz. can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 c. frozen corn
1-4 oz. can diced green chiles

Let me first say that sometimes I don't precook my chicken. Sometimes I cut up the boneless skinless chicken breast into bite-sized pieces and cook them in the bottom of my soup pot in a little cooking oil. Once the chicken is cooked, I put it in a bowl and set it aside until the recipe calls for it to be added.

Combine chicken broth and garlic in a large soup pot and bring to a boil.

Add salsa, rice, oregano and salt. Cover. Reduce heat to low and cookfor 15 min., stirring occasionally.

Add cooked chicken, black beans, corn and chiles. Continue cooking for 5 min. or until heated through.

Serve in soup bowls with tortilla chips on the side. Top each with a dollop of plain sour cream, or Cilantro-Lime Sour Cream. See recipe below.

Cilantro-Lime Sour Cream

Combine and serve with Mexican Chicken Soup.

1/2 c. sour cream
3 T. chopped fresh cilantro (or more to taste)
1 T. lime juice

I hope you enjoy this great Tex-Mex soup! Thanks for stopping by!

Peanut Butter Blossoms

A friend of our family has been serving in Iraq for the past year. He and his family attend our church, and he arrived home safe and sound last week. He likes my sugar cookies, and his wife likes my peanut butter cookies. I don't know what the kids like, but kids like most any cookies, right?


This peanut butter cookie recipe was originally given to me by my mother-in-law. She makes them with the Hershey's Kisses on top, but I usually make them just as peanut butter cookies without the Kisses.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

1/2 c. shortening
1/2 c. creamy peanut butter
1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 egg
2 T. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 3/4 c. flour
Hershey's Kisses (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cream shortening, peanut butter and sugars. Add egg, milk and vanilla and mix just till combined. Add dry ingredients and mix until well combined.

Shape into walnut-sized balls and roll in granulated sugar. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for approximately 14 min. Remove cookies from oven and place an unwrapped Hershey's Kiss on top until cookie cracks around edges. Return to oven for approximately 2 min. longer.

If not using Hershey's Kisses, bake approximately 15 min. until cookies are lightly browned on the edges. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before removing from cookie sheet.

Thank you, all military personnel, for doing what you do. Thank you, all their families, who have also sacrificed a great deal. Your sacrifice allows us all to enjoy the life of freedom we have here in this country. Because of you, I don't have to worry for the continual safety of my family on a daily basis. Thank you.

Thanks for stopping by!

Lasagna Soup

Here's another soup recipe I received in a Family Fun weekly cooking email. It looked like it made a lot, so I made the recipe with 1 lb. of hot sausage and cut the rest of the recipe down to 2/3 as well. It made enough for us to have dinner and then leftovers for Jim to have for lunch.


Lasagna Soup is an interesting recipe, unlike most other soup recipes I have made. Jim really liked it. The boys and I weren't blown away by it, but it was ok. It was something different, which is what I was looking for. We're all getting bored with being cooped up in the house for winter. The boys and I will be glad when spring is here! Thanks for stopping by!

Cider-Roasted Pork Loin

Back in October 2004 we had dinner with some friends of ours. They had recently moved away, and we had gone to visit them. They made dinner for us, and Cider-Roasted Pork Loin is what they made for the main course. Matt and Kathy are probably the ones who first introduced me to Cooking Light magazine.

This is a delicious recipe to try. I have made it frequently for our family ever since. I make it more often with boneless pork chops instead of a full pork loin roast. When I do that, I reduce the amount of salt to 2 T. and use 2 c. of apple cider and 1 c. of water. I have started buying apple cider on sale in the fall and then freezing it in pint freezer boxes to be used all year long just for this recipe.

Also, I rarely make the cider reduction sauce/glaze. Jim's not big on the sweet sauce over his pork, and I think the pork is flavored just as well without it. Thanks for stopping by!

Umbrella Cookies

Posting about the Rabbit Cookies last week reminded me of when we made the snack last year during "U" week at preschool. I couldn't come up with anything except for umbrellas! Coincidentally, that was the theme of the week. They had patio umbrellas set up in the room and children's umbrellas hanging upside-down from the ceiling for a paper toss game. So our Umbrella Cookies were a hit! Preschool is so much fun--for Mommy too! Thanks for stopping by!

Rabbit Cookies

It's time for another installment of fun baking on the Cookin' with Melissa blog.


My son was snack leader one day this week at preschool. It was "R" week, and he thought we should make Rabbit Cookies. I was skeptical that we could come up with such a thing. I did some research and found an answer online. As usual, the creative people at Family Fun created a way to make Easter Bunny Cupcakes. We only do cupcakes at preschool on birthdays, so I adjusted the recipe to make them into Rabbit Cookies. He loved them, and we had a great time chatting while we made them. Thanks for stopping by!

Braciole

Here's another recipe I was inspired to try because of a a TV sitcom. (See the post about Mulligatawney here.) There's an episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond" where Deborah tries a recipe for braciole. It turns out to be delicious, upsetting the whole family balance. So one day when I saw Giada De Laurentiis make her version of Braciole on "Everyday Italian" on the Food Network, I had to try it. It's been a family favorite ever since.

Here are some simplifications I make to this recipe:

• Instead of Pecorino Romano cheese, I use grated parmesan.
• Instead of provolone, I use mozzarella.
• I use round steaks from freezer beef from my parents' beef farm instead of flank steak. I'm not sure how they differ.
• Finally, I use a jar of Ragu spaghetti sauce instead of making my own, as suggested in the recipe.

I don't know much about wine. I have been using Oliver Winery white wine for a few years now whenever I have a recipe that calls for white wine. I really like it. It's a winery in Bloomington, IN and can be found in most Indiana grocery stores. Thanks for stopping by!

30 Day Gourmet

My dear friend, Olivia, told me about this cookbook, The 30 Day Gourmet Freezer Cooking Manual, a few years ago. It's a cookbook that promotes the idea of cooking in mass quantities and then freezing the food in smaller, family-size quantities. You can then pull out a meal, thaw it, and have it ready for dinner in a very short amount of time. I purchased one of these cookbooks, and I've tried a number of recipes from it. Some recipes I've tried from this book are ham loaf, stuffed shells/manicotti, granola, and brocolli cheese soup to name a few.


I like these type of cookbooks, and I posted about another one here. Thanks for stopping by!

Shrimp and Broccoli Fried Rice with Toasted Almonds

Every now and again, I'll make a dish with shrimp for dinner. Seafood can be expensive, but Meijer had 2-lb. bags of precooked, deveined frozen shrimp for $8. That's a pretty good deal, so we bought some. I also used these shrimp for the shrimp and grits recipes I posted about previously. Recipes for shrimp often call for raw shrimp, so I adjust the recipe to account for the fact that the shrimp are precooked. I just cook them enough to get heated through, because shrimp get tough if they are overcooked.


In the current Cooking Light magazine, there is a collection of recipes that are lighter, healthier versions of popular restaurant foods. I decided to try this recipe for Shrimp and Broccoli Fried Rice with Toasted Almonds. I thought it turned out pretty well, and we liked it. I may try it again, but use chicken instead of shrimp for a cheaper version. Thanks for stopping by!