Crockpot Carnitas

This is a wonderful recipe for crockpot carnitas. I make this and have tacos and any leftovers we make green enchiladas with.

I just rub this mixture all over the pork and let sit a few days before I put in crockpot.

Crockpot Carnitas

Serves 6-8

• 1 (4 lb) pork shoulder or pork butt
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh garlic
• 3 teaspoons seasoning salt 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 1/2-2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)
• 2 onions, thinly sliced

Put meat in crockpot and cook on low for 8-10 hours or high for 4 hours. If you have too much you can use the left overs and put BBQ sauce on it and then make BBQ beef sandwiches.

Homemade Clam Chowder

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while. Things have been busy with work and keeping up with the kids. Today was a nice cool and rainy morning and I wanted to make some sort of soup. Just seemed like the perfect day. I decided on making Clam Chowder. Everyone in my house loves Clam Chowder so it was a safe call.

Here is the Simple recipe.

CLAM CHOWDER

Serves: 4-6

2 Cups Water

1 pinch of Salt

4 Cups of peeled chopped potatoes (I cube mine)

1/2 C finely chopped onion

1/4 cup butter

3 T all-purpose flour

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp celery seed

2 T dried parsley flakes (I used 1)

1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk

2 (10oz) cans baby clams (I only use 1 can as it was way too many clams for us) It's your preference.

salt and pepper to your taste

1. Cook potato in 2 cups of water with pinch of salt until tender, but DO NOT drain.
2. In a small pan, saute onion in butter until tender, add flour, cayenne, and celery seed; stir well.
3. Drain juice from clams into potatoes and reserve clams for later.
4. Add parsley and milk to potato mixture, and stir well.
5. Heat potato mixture, and add onion/flour mixture, stirring constantly until thickened slightly.
6. Stir in clams, and season to taste with salt and pepper.
7. Cook for 5-10 minutes till heated through.

Enjoy with some nice crusty french bread.

"T's" Pizza Dip

This is a dip that my friend Tina makes all the time and it gets rave reviews ALWAYS. You can do your own variation of it adding different toppings of your choice but I am the kind of gal who likes to keep things simple. Here is my version of the Pizza Dip.

Pizza Dip

• 2 (80z) Cream Cheese; softened
• 1/2 tsp Italian Seasoning (McCormick)
• 3 garlic cloves, pressed or crushed
• 1 jar pizza sauce
• 1/2 onion chopped
• 1 cup Mozzerella cheese; shredded
• Pepperoni (they have some cool mini ones in the grocery store) any will do.

Directions:

1. In a bowl mix cream cheese , italian seasoning and Garlic. Spread into a baking dish.
2. Pour pizza sauce over top and spread evenly over cream cheese mixture.
3. Spread chopped onions over sauce evenly.
4. Top with cheese and pepperoni.
5. Now you can add whatever extras you want like: Olives, Bell Peppers etc... its all up to you

Bake at 350 until cooked through. Serve with Tortilla chips.

Halloween Spider Eggs

These were some fun eggs me and alyssa made for her soccer party. We were really happy with the way they came out. We used olives to make the spiders.

Deviled Eggs

1. Store your eggs in the carton sideways in the fridge (see pic below). this will center the yolk.

2. Place eggs in pan and cover eggs with cold water. Bring water to a boil.

3. Once water is rapidly boiling, shut off heat and cover with lid. Let sit for 15 minutes.

4. Drain and run cold water over eggs until completely cooled.

5. Peel eggs and cut in half. Remove yolks from the centers and place in a bowl.

6. Mash eggs add ingredients and mix well.

Ingredients:

• 12 eggs; boiled
• 2-3 T Mayo (add one at a time to get desired consistency)
• 1 tsp pickled relish
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• Couple drops of yellow mustard (I use for color)

Note: On ingredients, add a little at a time so you don't make too wet. You may end up adding more mayo or other ingredients to your taste.

Bakerella

Last week me and Wendy went to South Coast Plaza to meet and get our cookbooks signed by Bakerella. For those of you who are not familiar with Bakerella you need to check out her blog http://www.bakerella.com/southern-california/. She is the Cake Pop Queen. She makes the cutest cake pops and cake balls. Wendy and I have been following her blog for over a year know and were really excited to meet her. Now that I am working at The Shirt Cannery I made us a couple cute shirts to wear. Today I got onto facebook and WE MADE HER BLOG!!! I was so excited. You need to pick up her cookbook, its filled with so many great cake pop recipes and amazing decorating tips. I have to do some handy work on my pics my color didn't come out like I would have liked. I will post some pics of us with her and of her book as soon as I go clean them up a bit. Here is one that Bakerella posted on her blog of me and Wendy. This is a gal who works at the Mission Viejo mall William Sonoma she hung out with us.

Carnitas Chili

The Fall weather is finally looking like its here. I love fall. I love soups, chili's and all the warm comfort foods that come along with it. This Chili recipe was shared with me by a friend Laura Benvenuto. She saw it at a Trader Joes demo several years ago and kindly shared it with me and it's been a favorite since.

Carnitas Chili

• 3-4 lbs of Pork Roast (precooked & shredded). Traders has a great microwaveable one in there meat dept. or make your own.
• 16 oz can of chicken broth
• 1 can white kidney beans (or whatever beans you like) I use pinto, chili and white beans because I can.
• 1 diced onion
• 1 half of package of TJ's frozen bell peppers (red, green & yellow).
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, pressed
• 1 large jar of salsa verde (the green stuff)
• 2-3 tsp cumin
• Cilantro; fresh

Bring all ingredients to a boil, reduce and simmer for 1 hour. Top with grated cheese and tortilla chips.

Sorry I have been MIA

Note: You can click on the recipe and right click your mouse and save to your computer.

Sorry to be MIA. I finally got a part time job and have been working a lot the past 3 weeks. Anyways, thought I would pop on here really quick and post a recipe. This recipe was given to me by my friend Keri Garcia who makes this chili every year for her school Halloween Carnival Chili cook off. I ran into her in the grocery store last year and was stumped on what to make for my Halloween Party and she gave me the recipe on the spot. The best part is its a crockpot meal and only 5 ingredients. Its really called White Bean Chili but she named it Zombie Chili for Halloween so I am sticking to that.

I made it up on a recipe card in my Creative Memories Storybook software to make it festive.