Balsamic-Roasted Red Pepper Sauce with Shrimp and Chicken

 The aforementioned balsamic-roasted red pepper sauce with chicken and shrimp, 

garlic couscous, and a spinach salad with a cranberry-balsamic vinaigrette.

In January, I was given a free ticket to go visit my fantastic friend Michael in St. Paul, Minnesota. I've never been there, hadn't seen him in aaaaages, and was super excited. As always, it was a fantastic couple of days of mocking each other, watching ridiculous movies, and going on exciting thrift store hunts. Micheal's prize-find was a couch for his office, super cheap! Mine was a pair raspberry Doc Martins, also for super cheap. We were pleased.

Pleased and hungry.

Now, we ate out once and had pizza another night. But! I also made pumpkin-ginger cupcakes (which I NEED to post on here, they are my most requested cupcakes, and he had informed me from the first time I said I was visiting that I would, in fact, be making them) and Michael made a balsamic roasted red pepper sauce for some chicken.

Holy deliciousness, Batman. I demanded the recipe.

Then, promptly, I altered it. Because that's what you do. He did it too! It's the delicious way.

Seriously, nom. Make lots of variations. It was originally based on a recipe from About.com for Spicy Cornish Hens. I do quite a lot of variation, as you can see. It is spicy, it has some sweetness to it, and it goes deliciously with chicken and/or shrimp. I also like to add couscous as a grain. I prefer them to be whole wheat, but it is up to you.

My Ingredients!

- 10 oz roasted red peppers (I have also done roasted red-and-yellow peppers)
- 3 tablespoons seedless, all-natural, blackberry jam
 - 2 teaspoons French mustard
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2/3 teaspoon rosemary
- 2 -3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- dash sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne (or less or more, depending on how spicy you would prefer)

Put all the ingredients in a food processor/blender/silver-bullet style zoom-machine. Whizz until smooth, taste, and adjust seasonings as you prefer.

On the stove, have a deep skillet and spray a non-fat cooking spray (actual oil would also work...) and cook your protein and/or veg. When partially cooked, pour sauce over it and let finish cooking - the sauce will reduce somewhat.

Enjoy with a glass of wine! 

Or any beverage. Or none, but this is a chance to get your eight glasses of water a day. 

No joke, this smells and tastes amazing. It has received rave reviews and I can not encourage you enough to try this. Lock it down - it's delicious.

A Delightful Sunday Roast!

 EAT ME. NOM NOM NOM.

Things are going on! Lots of them. Have been for ages. Thus, no me.

But before things went pear, I did manage to cook a few things (and am, slowly, starting to cook more things again SO that's nice even with my piece of shit oven SORRY ARGH RAGE) and this is one of them.

Now, you may or may not know that I don't eat a lot of non-bacon pork. I just don't, there's no reason, and I was gathering some meats at the store for a fantastic "four for twenty" promotion and decided, on a whim, to snap up a pork roast. Now, I never feel confident when I'm cooking steak or beef that is not hamburger and I've been a similar mind about pork that is not bacon. I'm sure it's possible, but I'm not sure it's worth it.

IT IS.

I owe one Jamie Oliver a huge thanks for this, as I ended up buying the pork because I knew that he addressed pork in the two cookbooks of his that I own and sure enough, in the pages of Food Revolution, he had everything I wanted to know about making a pork roast. So I did!

And now you can!

Ingredients (serves 4 -6 people, or me and my roommate for a few days)

- one 3 pound boneless loin
- two medium onions
- two carrots
- two celery
- lots of garlic cloves (Jamie asks for a bulb, which I somehow did not have, and so I did a fair amount of cloves sliced in half, this can be changed depending on your garlic love)
- olive oil
- salt, pepper
- a potato or two, cut into bite size chunks (my addition)
- other herbs you may want include - rosemary, sage, thyme, etc. do what you like!

Take the loin out a half hour before it goes in the oven. Why? I'm not sure. Jamie says so. I trust him!

Preheat your oven to 475 F. Swear profusely at your oven for taking so damn long.

Don't peel the veg unless you want to, but wash and chop them. I do peel my garlic cloves before hacking them in two pieces, but you don't have to do anything to them if you don't want. Just pile all of the vegetables, garlic, and herbs in a roasting pan and drizzle with olive oil. I like to stir them about a bit, perhaps lightly season.

Now, to the pork! You'll want a nice sharp knife to score the skin at 1/4 inch intervals - just do the skin/fat! Drizzle the pork with olive oil, sprinkle your salt and pepper over it, then rub it all over to really get it in there. I like to add a fresh basil leaf in between each score. Do what I do! :) Now, place your delicious pork on top of the veg.

Pop the roasting pan in the preheated oven and directly turn it down to 400 F and cook for an hour and twenty minutes. If you've got a bone in your pork loin because you, unlike me, don't mind dealing with bones in your food - then you will want to add another twenty mins. Baste the pork half way through (note to self, buy a baster) and if the vegetables look dry, splash in some water to keep them, well, not burnt. When the pork is cooked to your liking, take it out of the oven and let it rest.

Not the best picture, but shhhh, it's resting.

Now, I like to have my pork pretty much juuuust cooked through, which is when my meat thermometer hits 170 F when jabbed into the center of the thickest part of the pork. You can do what you like, but I wouldn't really suggest cooking it to a lesser temp. Be careful not to dry out your pork! That can be tricky.

Serve with roasted veg or mashed potatoes or something. A simple salad! Also feel free to get make gravy or applesauce. I've yet to actually make gravy, so I will let you know when I do!