Jalapenos & Rhubarb

Memorial Day: Part II

Allow me to preface this post by saying that as Peter & I were departing for our picnic Monday afternoon, he asked me why I couldn't just make potato salad like a normal person. Well, that would be boring I told him... easy, but boring! I also told him that he should be proud of me for being so adventurous & embracing such an undertaking... I don't really recall his response, but I'm sure it included him rolling his eyes...

Alas *sigh* I was excited for a Memorial Day picnic because my most recent issue of Food Network Magazine had a couple recipes I wanted to try. So, in addition to my sangria making, I decided to venture into the world of jalapenos & rhubarb. Recipe #1 was for jalapeno poppers. They just sounded yummy. Pulled pork & cheese in a fried pepper- sign me up! I should've known this was going to turn into a debacle when the only jalapenos I could find were giant mutant ones.

Peter insisted something was wrong with the peppers I purchased

Once washed I had to take out all the seeds & membrane. I wasn't looking forward to this, but how bad could it be, really? Answer: bad. My hands are still infested with capsaicin. Apparently my gellish manicure that I've been raving about likes to absorb capsaicin & not let it go. I begged Peter to take my contacts out for me the night after dealing with these peppers... he refused. After he refused I began to quote our vows, "for better, for worse, etc." That didn't sway his decision at all. So, I had to stick my jalapeno contaminated fingers in my eyes to remove my contacts. It burned. My husband's gonna regret not helping me one day.

The next step was soaking the peppers in milk. I'm assuming this was to get rid of some of the heat. Side note: Soaking my hands in the milk did nothing to remove the pepper remnants from my hands.

Peppers in milk

Lots of jalapenos

For some reason this next step didn't seem weird for us to do, but now it kinda does... I do always say, "go big or go home." Since we needed pulled pork for the stuffing Peter went to the Brighton Farmers Market & bought a pork shoulder that we cooked in the slow cooker.... We used half a cup of the pork for the peppers... the pork shoulder was 2.5 lbs. Good thing we like pulled pork!

Pork shoulder in the slow cooker

Peter pulling pork for the peppers & for dinner

Around this point in the night (this was all Sunday night prep work) Peter noticed that my peppers were drying out & weren't really closing ... that's a problem... I'd prefer the stuffing to stay inside of the peppers. I got to thinking about it & realized that there was no way these peppers were going to cook adequately by just frying them in a pan for a few minutes as the recipe called for. These puppies were thick peppers! So, after refrigerating overnight I popped them in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes before frying.

Stuffed, partially dried peppers

Close up of my peppers

Post baking peppers... honestly, they could've used even longer in the oven

My breading station

The finished product

They looked pretty nice upon completion. Despite that, I told Peter that unless someone told me they were the best thing they've ever eaten, I would not be making these again. While I was complimented numerous times on the peppers, no one said they were the best thing ever... this recipe is history!

Finally, the last recipe I was ready to dominate was Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp! I was really excited about this one. Peter even went to the farmer's market to get me some rhubarb! This recipe was far easier that the jalapenos!

Fresh, homegrown rhubarb

Strawberries & rhubarb

The recipe called for a 8 x 11 pan, but all I had was a 9 x 13, which actually worked out perfectly & I didn't have to worry about it "boiling over"

Crumbs on top!

Voila!

The final product served with ice cream

The crisp recipe is definitely being saved. It was a big hit & not difficult at all!

Mmmmm, Sangria!

Memorial Day Post: Part One

We had a picnic to go to for Memorial Day, so I decided to be ambitious and try some new recipes I've been dying to give a shot!

First off- Sangria! This idea actually came to me when my husband pointed out that we have far too much random alcohol in our liquor cabinet. I took a look in there, and he was right. There were random things purchased that I had only used once for a particular recipe (as I just mentioned in a previous post!). After examining the cabinet I decided that my goal would be to use the Cointreau I purchased to make my Pomegranate Cosmopolitans for our holiday potluck back in January. I never used Cointreau before that & hadn't used it since. Luckily, I came across a sangria recipe that would put it to good use! Unfortunately, the peaches & plums I needed for the recipe are not currently in season! Grrrr! However, I was able to improvise & use apples I already had on hand & some white peaches I randomly located at Wegmans (not the ripest peaches, but they would have to do).

Fresh fruit for Memorial Day Sangria!

Lots of fruit... too much fruit if you ask my husband!

Wine + fruit = yummy!

Ready to hang out in my fridge overnight!

Since I wanted to do 2 batches of Sangria & my original recipe was already tweeked, I decided to get creative with the second batch!

Upon closer inspection of my liquor cabinet I discovered some Chambord that I had purchased back in February for the Valentine's Day dinner I prepared for Peter. I decided to make a berry sangria that turned out to be even better than the above sangria!

I only have one glass picture, so the classiness of this sangria had to suffer!

Blackberries, raspberries & blueberries

Tried a different rioja with this one

In case anyone is interested, this is the recipe I came up with:

Berry Sangria
1 bottle of Rioja Wine;
3 Tbsp sugar;
3 Tbsp dark rum;
3 Tbsp Chambord;
1 container of blackberries;
1 container of raspberries;
1 container of blueberries;
1 cinnamon stick

I don't really think the quantities of berries matter too much. Peter's pretty sure all the berry flavor came from the Chambord... regardless, it was good. Then the wine soaked berries were wonderful to snack of afterward! Enjoy!