Busy Week!

     This week i have been off work from my day job and my wife has been out of town. So I have been busy in the kitchen! I made some vegetable beef soup. I also broke in my new pressure canner by canning the soup I made SUCCESS!!!

      I have been trying to make some smoked chorizo for the past few days. Normally I will have a sunday where i can assemble, smoke and freeze the sausage. But between cleaning up messes ( I'm a messy cook) and getting the to and from school. It took 3 days. 1 to thaw, 2 to grind mix and case, 3 to smoke and freeze.

     The chorizo came together fine, but I had skipped a crucial step in sausage making to save time. Always, before you case your sausage, fry up a small patty of it so you will know if you need to add anything. Turns out that it needed more salt. Don't get me wrong. its good. When you fry it up it has that nice pleasant chili aroma, but when you taste it you can tell off the bat its lacking salt. Oh well, its a learning process right? And man-o-man is it SPICY!!!

     I had also carved pumpkins with the kids in the middle of all this cooking. Amazing i can find time! But we had fun doing it!

     I hope you guys have a Happy and Safe Halloween!

All American Pressure Canner/Cooker Review

     Hey there gang! I had finally broke down and got me a pressure canner! Why do you ask? As the months get colder this year I do more inside cooking and baking. Mostly soups and stews. I also make socks which I use for several things. I could buy canned stock from the store, but home made is WAY better! But leftover soups, stews, and stocks end up in my freezer. And if I need them, I have to thaw them. So I looked into canning. Soups, stews, and stocks perfectly preserved in a mason jar, just pop the lid and they are ready to go. No refrigeration needed. But learning about high acid, low acid canning and the risks if botulism. A pressure canner was the safest bet. The model I got is the All American model 921. It's a 21.5 quart pressure canner/cooker. All I can say about this is. This thing is a BEAST!! Check it out!

     Its also probably the more expensive brand to buy as far as pressure canners go. The price tag was also the reason holding me back on making the purchase $199 on Amazon. I originally was going to buy the Presto 23 quart. Which was about half the price of the All American $99 on Amazon. On reading reviews, they both can and function the same. The only difference between the two besides construct, is that the Presto can work on a magnetic induction stove as where the All American can not. Me having a gas range, this was not an issue. What sold me on the All American was its built more heavy duty. Very thick cast aluminum all around. Plus it has a metal on metal seal, no rubber gasket to replace down the line.

     Other things that come with this model of pressure canner/cooker is a big user manual/canning cook book. Covers lots of the do's and don'ts of using this product and canning it self. Plus some recipes. Two canning racks, so if you are using small mason jars, you can double stack the jars. The presto model only comes with one.

     And lastly the thing you will need that for some god knows reason why the presto model sells this separately but the All American includes is a pressure regulator weight. Which can be adjusted for canning or cooking at 5, 10, and 15lbs. pressure.

     What this thing does is it sits on the pressure release, blocking it so the pressure will build to the desired amount. Once the canner has exceeded the desired pressure the weight will start releasing pressure blowing off the excess steam to keep a steady pressure through out the canning or cooking process. Can you can with out this? Yes. But you will be constantly babysitting the canner watching pressure, adjusting heat. Trust me, you want this thing if you are pressure canning. I actually used it for the first time yesterday. Worked well! But thats another post!

Posole My Way

     Hey!! I get to post my first recipe! I have had a mad hankering for some good posole a couple of weeks ago. I have been asking co-werkers and friends where i can get my hands on some. Most replied that they had an aunt, uncle, mom or grandmother that can make some kick ass posole! Un fortunately that does nothing for me, considering that i dont have a hispanic grandmother that can just whip me up a batch of posole. So since homemade was the way to go, I did some asking on how to make it. This is what I came up with.





     POSOLE:
                     pork soup bones
                     Water
                     3lbs. pork shoulder boneless (cubed)
                     3lbs. beef shoulder or chuck (cubed)
                     2lbs. tomatillos
                     some chilies of your choice for flavor or heat
                     2-3 dried chili pods
                     6 cloves garlic (peeled)
                     2 large onions
                     large can of white hominy
                     salt and pepper to taste
                     1 tsp pepper corns

     First we will need to make a stock with the pork bones. A good stock is the foundation of a good soup!

     Place soup bones in a pan to roast in the oven @ 425F for about 60 mins, turning them at 30 mins. also fill a stock pot 3/4 full of water, bring to boil.

     Once the soup bones are brown and that water is boiling add bones, 1 onion (quartered) 3 cloves garlic, pepper corns and a good hand full of sea salt. reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours, skimming off foam.

    Place chilis in a pan and roast them under a broiler. Now i know what you are thinking, thats a lot of chilies! For this recipe i only used the tomatillos and about half of the red ones you see to the left. Also take time to place the dried chili pods in a bowl of warm water for 15-20 mins to reconstitute them.

     After the chilies have roasted remove the stems and place in a pot, cook on medium heat to render chilies. once they have become basically mush place chilies and the chili pods with 3 cloves of garlic in a blender. Salt and pepper to taste and set aside. Once stock is done strain and reserve liquid.

     Brown meat with some cooking oil of your choice in a stock pot. One meat is brown return stock to pot and bring to a boil. Add 1 onion (chopped) and the peppers that were processed in the blender. reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour stirring on occasion.

     Now add giant can of hominy. Stir and simmer for another hour. And presto! You have posole!

First blog YAY!!!!!

     Hey gang! Yep I have a blog now, so I can stop clogging your guys FaceBook with all my crazy photos! Believe it of not, I have been trying to get this thing up for weeks! But trying to figure out how this blog thing works so I can post on top of work and my day-to-day life. It's been crazy to say the least. Ive taken time off work this week so i can get things taken care of, like for instance, this blog! So, what have I been up to? Still lots of cooking on Sundays. I have been doing a lot of reading on new things to do in the kitchen like canning and curing meats. But now the holidays are fast approaching, I'm already getting excited on baking again! So, now that I have this Fancy-shmancy blog i can now post recipes!!!