Finding My Inner Chef: Paula Deen Style

So, I've never been much of a cook.  I guess you could say it doesn't come naturally and I also just don't have much experience with it.  However, after living with sweet G in Houston, she got my cooking and hosting juices stirring.  We'd have many a conversation about food, cooking and preparing and she gave me plenty of pointers and tips.  I miss those conversations and I'm sure I'll make sure they happen more often. :)  Once I moved to San Diego, I knew my life would be taking on quite a different pace then it was in Houston, ie. much slower.  I committed to wanting to cook something for myself and/or others at least once a week.  Sadly, I cannot say it necessarily happened that way, but I did cook and bake more than ever before - and I actually enjoyed it!


Now that I'm married, I decided I needed to step it up even more.  However, I must say that the first 2 weeks of marriage - post honeymoon - anytime we weren't eating out, it was Jeffrey that was cooking the dinner.  Isn't that nice?  I thought so too.  However, on Thursday of last week I had a "I'm failing you as a wife" moment and told him I was going to step up my game.  Hence, the hours of meal planning and grocery list writing (4 times) to prepare it in such a way that would be easy for him since HE did the grocery shopping for us on MLK Jr holiday while I was at work and he had the day off.  Don't mind me, I just had to brag a little. I'm hoping that over time, I'll get a little better at the meal planning, grocery list writing and, "wifing up" - but at the end of the day, I'm still me and that's what makes life fun.


Here's what we had this week:


Paula Deen's Brooke's Homemade Meatloaf
*I saw this recipe on one of her "Paula Deen's Best Dishes" episodes and knew that I had to make it immediately.  It was a success and we both liked it - I'll definitely be making it again!  I also made green beans as the side.

Ingredients 

Glaze:
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons packed light brown sugar

Meatloaf:
2 pounds ground beef
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 tablespoons ketchup
2 large eggs
1 slice white bread, torn into pieces
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small bowl, whisk together all the glaze ingredients and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine all the meatloaf ingredients and mix well. Press the mixture into a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and brush some of the glaze over the top of the meatloaf. Bake for 30 minutes more. Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes. Turn the meatloaf out onto a serving platter and spoon the remaining glaze over the top before serving.

Easy Barbecued Ribs

*I saw this recipe on pinterest and thought I'd give it a whirl.  It's a crockpot recipe which made cooking a bit easier since a lot of the cooking was done while I was at work.  This might have been our favorite meal of the week - it was extremely tasty and Jeff's final words were, "My favorite California barbeque is Annie's barbeque".  It meant a lot coming from him since, as I mentioned in a previous post, we've been on a mission for some good bbq out here in California! 

Ingredients - Full recipe quantities are in parenthesis

1.5 tbsp sweet paprika (3tbsp)

1 tbsp light brown sugar, lightly packed (2 tbsp)

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (1/4 tsp)

S&P to taste (about 1 tsp each is what I used)

2 lbs pork (baby) back ribs (6 lbs) - leave the membrane on the ribs to help hold them together

1 cup barbecue sauce (3 cups)

Vegetable oil spray.  

Directions

In a small bowl, mix together paprika, brown sugar, cayenne and S&P.  Rub this mixture all over both sides of your ribs well.  Arrange ribs in the slow cooker by standing them up against the wall of the stoneware pot, thicker side down and meaty side against the pot.  Pour barbecue sauce over the ribs, cover and cook for 6-8 hours on low (mine cooked for 9 hours since that's how long I was gone from work and they still came out tasty).  

Now comes the only stove/oven work involved, we need to reduce the sauce and then brown the ribs under the broiler.  These steps are what turn the ordinary into the extraordinary, so don't you dare skip them even if your ribs already look pretty good.  Once the initial slow cooking is done, very carefully remove the ribs to a baking pan which you have lined with foil and put a rack on, bone side up.  Set to the side.  Skim any fat that has risen to the top and strain all of the remaining juices from the slow cooker through a mesh strainer into a small saucepan.  Bring to boil and allow to simmer and reduce by about a third, approximately 15 minutes.  Put your oven's broiler on to heat up and make sure that there is an oven rack about 10 inches below the broiler element.  When the broiler is preheated, brush the ribs with sauce and broil for 3 or 4 minutes.  Take them out and very carefully flip them over, brush with sauce and broil again, meat side up, for approximately 9 minutes, taking them out once or twice to baste with more sauce.  Serve any remaining sauce on the side with the ribs. 

Paula Deen's Moist and Easy Cornbread

*I made this as one of the sides, along with baked beans, to go with the ribs.  I felt really official homemaking my cornbread rather than using cornbread mix.  It was yums!

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus butter for baking dish
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 
  

• Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly grease an 8-inch baking dish. In a large bowl, mix together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, buttermilk, and butter. Pour the buttermilk mixture into the cornmeal mixture and fold together until there are no dry spots (the batter will still be lumpy). Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish.  Bake until the top is golden brown and tester inserted into the middle of the corn bread comes out clean, about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove the cornbread from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Paula  Deen's Toffee Gooey Butter Cake
*I saw this recipe on her "Paula's Best Dishes" and it was featured on the same episode as the meatloaf.  I made this and we snacked on it for dessert throughout the week.  It was yumsicle!  I'm definitely making it again and maybe one of you will be lucky enough to try it! :)

Ingredients

Cake:

• Vegetable oil cooking spray
• 1 (18.2- ounce) package yellow cake mix
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

Filling:

• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 (1 pound) box confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
• 1 cup toffee bits

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 13 by 9 by 2-inch baking pan with vegetable oil cooking spray.  In the bowl of an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well. Pat evenly into the bottom of the prepared baking pan and set aside.  In a bowl, mix together the cream cheese, eggs, vanilla extract, confectioners' sugar and butter. Beat on medium speed until smooth. Fold in the toffee bits with a spatula.  Pour the filling over the cake mixture and spread it evenly. Bake until the center is just a little bit gooey, about 40 to 50 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. Cut into pieces and serve.

Pulled Pork Tacos

*This is one of the recipes I cooked after my move to San Diego.  I got it from my sorority sister & friend from college's, Shelby, blog.  This was my second time to cook it and I loved it just as much as the first time!  It's another fabulous recipe and I think it could possibly become a regular in the Gritzy household.

Ingredients

2 - 2.5 lb pork tenderloin

1/2 white onion slices thin

1 c BBQ sauce

1 tsp minced garlic

salt & pepper

Directions

Sprinkle tenderloin liberally with pepper and sparingly with salt. Place tenderloins in a slow cooker. Combine onions, BBQ sauce and garlic then pour over tenderloin. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 8-9 hours.

Using two forks shred the meat and place in a large bowl with remaining liquid. Toss to combine.

Shelby's tips: I usually slice some avocado, add some corn and squeeze a lime on top.  Now, let me tell you about the special tortillas featured above. This is a little trick we just learned from a friend and I think it takes this meal to an entire new level. Heat 1/3 cup of olive oil in a skillet on high, place your flour tortilla in the skillet for 30 seconds then flip. 30 seconds on the other side. Pull the tortilla out and it will be a bit crunchier, but still moldable and make them into little shells. It's the best :)

One month Anniversary Wedding Cake Toppers
*Jeffrey will should be deployed on our 1 year anniversary (along with Thanksgiving, Christmas and potentially my birthday...wah wah wah).  One of the things Jeff's parents brought with them this past weekend was our cake toppers.  Since they had gone from storage in the freezer to traveling for 3 days in a cooler in a car, we didn't know what state the cake would be in.  They recommended we celebrate our 1 month wedding anniversary by eating our cake toppers since Jeffrey may not even be around for our 1 year. We thought that was a swell idea, and so we dove in!

*I used the original photos from the recipe source(s), and they can be found by accessing the hyperlink for each recipe.  The toffee gooey butter cake & wedding cake photos were my personal pictures.