Happy Veteran's Day!

After a long hiatus to take care of some personal issues, I am back!

     So to start, I want to wish a happy Veteran's Day to all the men and women who bravely served our country! May your sacrifices never be in vain and you always get the respect you deserve!

 

     Secondly, I am working on some stuff and while I can't talk about all of it yet, some of it does include new recipes for you all to enjoy so stay tuned!

Talk Like a Pirate Day and Cooking Without Power

Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day to you all!

 

     Because of Hurricane Irma, I decided not to have the giveaway this year but I do have a new post that will help you all in the future with hurricanes and power outages.

Here's how to heat up some soup when the power be out for very little money and some patience.

Items Needed:

Cans of soup or vegetables

4 bricks*

Commercial-grade sterno with wicks**

Small set of camping pots***

Directions:

1) Place the sterno on a non-wooden surface such as your porch.

2) Take off the lid of the sterno and fluff the wick.

3) Place 2 bricks on opposite sides of the sterno, flat side down, touching the sterno.

4) Light the sterno.

5) Open the soup and pour it into the smaller of the pots and place it over the sterno, resting on the bricks.

6) Place the lid on the pot and let cook, stirring occasionally.

7) When the soup comes to a slow boil, cook for another 3-4 minutes and you're done.

8) Put the lid on the sterno and let it go out and cool off before putting away.

Notes:

*You can get the bricks for less than $1 a piece at most hardware stores. I believe I paid $0.50 per at the local Home Depot.

**You can buy commercial-grade sterno from restaurant supply stores for less than $5 each and they run for about 4 hours. My local one charges about $2.50 per.

***I used the small pot and the lid from the Ozark Trail Cookware Set, which I bought at Wal-Mart for $9.88.

So all in all, not counting the soup and extra sternos, I paid around $15 for the basic setup and was able to cook up two cans of soup the first night. The sterno wasn't even halfway gone when I was done so I am able to use it at least one more time without worry.

Pork Carnitas

     Today I have a slow cooker recipe for you the lot of ye! It's for a wonderful dish called pork carnitas which can be used for tacos, burritos, salads, rice, or whatever you would like!

     This dish came out so tasty and wonderful that I don't have a picture of the final product, but the one you see is from the internet and it's pretty close. This made enough to feed two of us for a whole week and we never got tired of it! This has to be one of the more versatile dishes I have made as we used it for tacos, burritos, and I even added it to some homemade pasta salad for a delicious bonus to it!

Pork Carnitas

by The Pirate Chef

 

Ingredients:

4 1/2 Lb Boneless Pork Shoulder (Boston Butt)

1 Medium Onion, chopped

2 Jalapenos, seeds removed and chopped

2 1/2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Black Pepper

4 Cloves Garlic, minced

3/4 C Fresh Orange Juice (or the best quality you can find)

1 Tbsp Dried Oregano

2 tsp Ground Cumin

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

Directions:

1) Rinse and dry the pork shoulder, trim off any large chunks of fat on the outside (don't try to get all

     the fat off the outside you see, just the largest piece or two).

2) Mix salt and pepper in a small bowl and rub all over the pork shoulder.

3) Combine the oregano, cumin, and olive oil in a small bowl (making paste) and then rub all over the

     pork shoulder.

4) Place the pork in a slow cooker (4-6 qt) with the fattier side facing up.

5) Top with the onions, garlic, and jalapenos.

6) Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook for 8-10 hrs on low

7) The meat should be tender and wanting to fall apart, so remove from the slow cooker.

8) Skim off any fat you may see in the slow cooker then put the l back on and turn to high to reduce.

9) While the juices are reducing, shred the pork with two forks and put into a container if not eating

     right away.

10) Once the juices have reduced to about 1 1/2 - 2 cups worth (it's not exact so just guess when it's

     done) put into another container if not using right away.

To Serve:

1) Heat 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil in a saute pan over medium-high heat.

2) Place shredded pork in pan and let cook until bottom side is golden brown.

3) Add in a small ladle-full of the juices and stir with a spatula (breaking up the pork and scraping up

     all the delicious bits stuck to the pan)

4) Cook until all the juices are absorbed/evaporated and you can't see any in the bottom of the pan.

5) Enjoy!

Half Moon Bay Trading Company - Garlapeño Sauce

     So this past weekend I tried Half Moon Bay Trading Company's Garlapeño sauce on some chicken tenders. I just heated them up in the oven, put them in a mixing bowl and tossed with some of the sauce.

     It was so good, just the right amount of heat from the jalapeños and I love the cilantro in it as well. The sweet from the cane sugar does a great job of sweetening up the whole thing but you still get a nice acidic flavor from the vinegar and the lime juice. I also truly enjoy the nice strong garlic flavor that you can taste throughout, but also never overpowers the other flavors in the sauce.

     I think cilantro is an underplayed flavor in a lot of cooking today, specifically tex-mex style, and was thrilled to see it in this sauce and to be able to taste it as well!

So far, there has not been a sauce in their Pirates Blend line that I don't like.

I can't wait to try this on some wings this weekend!

Half Moon Bay Trading Company - CocoMango Sauce

This week I will review Half Moon Bay Trading Company's CocoMango sauce.

   Let me start by saying that I do not like mango nor coconut, I know, it's weird but it's the way I am. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed this sauce!

   They blended together mango, coconut, cayenne pepper, spices, and orange juice for a fantastic sauce. You can taste the mango and the coconut (as there are pieces of coconut meat in the sauce), but at the same time, you get that nice tang from the orange juice and the little bit of heat from the cayenne pepper.

   Overall, the sauce is quite tasty and hits on a little of every taste bud with everything blended together beautifully.

   Now, how I used it was a marinade for some nice grilled chicken. I put a couple of boneless, skinless chicken breasts in a bag and poured the CocoMango sauce into it. I pressed as much air out as I could and kneaded the bag to evenly distribute the sauce and make sure the chicken was fully covered. After letting it sit for a couple of days, I fired up the grill and cooked the chicken until they were done. As there are different types of grills and cooking fuels, grilling times will be different and it would be best to cook the chicken the time and temp you normally do.

   The chicken came out beautifully with wonderful flavors from the sauce and remained juicy inside (a wonderful part of marinating). The coconut developed a more toasted flavor, picking up a strong nutty flavor with some sweetness, but never overpowering the other flavors in the sauce.

   Half Moon Bay Trading Company's CocoMango sauce will definitely become a standard for marinating chicken for the grill for us, it was absolutely delicious.

Happy Independence Day!

A happy Independence Day to all my brethren on this July 4th!

   Today we celebrate not only our freedom from the tyranny of England's reign 241 years ago, but we also celebrate the freedom that our brave men and women in uniform fight everyday to defend for us!

   So to them I say thank you; thank you for all that you have done, thank you for all that you have given, and thank you for all you have sacrificed.

We are truly in your debt and today, we show you just how much it means to us!

 

 

Half Moon Bay Trading Company - Caribbean Condiment

     So this week, I have the first of a 4-part review for a series of products from Half Moon Bay Trading Company. These 4 sauces/marinades come from their "Pirates Blend" line of sauces.

 

 

     This first one is called Caribbean Condiment and is a tico sauce from Costa Rica. A tico sauce is a staple in Costa Rica, kind of like ketchup in the USA, although not sweet. It's a blend of different spices that gives itself a spicy flavor, but there's no heat with it.

     This one from Half Moon Bay Trading Company is a blend of ginger, cumin, mustard, garlic, celery and cayenne sauce. The flavor is reminiscent of a nice yellow curry but slightly different.

     I decided to test out it's adaptability this past week by trying it out as a dipping sauce for some chicken tenders from Publix (some of the best tenders around) and mixed in with some basmati rice I made for my lunch at work.

     I have to say, it did not disappoint at all! The spices added some wonderful flavor to the chicken tenders, making them even tastier than normal. When I mixed it in with the basmati rice I had, holy crap was that good! The cumin, ginger, and garlic made a nice strong presence without being overpowering. The mustard provided a wonderful base that carried all the flavors. While the celery and cayenne made a nice finish to this beautifully crafted sauce.

     This sauce is a perfect blend of spices and will definitely becoming a major part of my kitchen staples! I can't wait to try out of one of the other four sauces or put this on some grilled food next weekend!

     The Caribbean Condiment sauce is available in stores, but if you have trouble finding it, you can always order online from them at http://www.halfmoonbaytrading.com/sauces/pirates-blend-caribbean-condiment

Enjoy and have fun experimenting with this wonderfully tasty sauce!