Easy BBQ Pork Ribs

Serves 6 people
Prep Time: 20 - 30 mins
Cook Time: 2 hours

Ingredients:

2 racks of pork ribs
Kosher salt
Dried thyme
Dried rosemary
Freshly ground pepper
1 small bottle of soy sauce
1 cup of brown sugar
1 small bbq sauce bottle (your personal favorite)

Instructions:

Lay the pork ribs in a large disposable aluminum tray, cover the ribs with soy sauce and let them simmer for 10 minutes. Get rid of the excess of soy sauce, noticing that your ribs should have a light glaze over them.

In a separate bowl mix a generous amount of thyme and rosemary with the brown sugar, add a pinch of salt and grind enough pepper to sprinkle both racks. Make a nice rub with the igredients.

Cover the ribs with the rub make sure you cover the back and front of the rack and put aside, turn the grill on medium/high heat and wait for it to get into 450 - 500 degrees.

Put the whole tray in the grill and close for 1.5 hours, you will see that the rub melted and the ribs are nice and covered in sugar. With a brush gently cover the front and back of the ribs with bbq sauce and flash seare them on each side. (3 - 4 minuutes at the time) Then set the ribs back into the aluminum tray and with a spoon cover them with the juices that have been dripped on the tray.

Lower the heat to medium and keep smoking them for as long as you want (minimum of 30 more minutes) your ribs will be so tender and yummy everyone will go back for seconds!

Tip: You can slice apples or pears and place them under the ribs in the aluminum tray for aroma. You can also add some honey into the bbq sauce to make it sweeter!

Caldwell Wine tasting

My husband and I in our last visit to Napa had the pleasure to meet the owner of Caldwell Vineyards, John Caldwell is so much fun, filled with anecdotes and love for wine.



We had the best time ever, we sampled over 10 wines and chatted for 3 hours! Can't wait to come back!

The private cave drilled where the barrels are store is breath taking, very personal and cozy perfect for some vino and cheeses!












My favorite wine was the Rose Zinfandel and the Syrah Port! Can't get enough!!!

Tastings are by appointment only, believe me you don't want to miss this opportunity if you around Napa!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Easiest Cold Salad Ever!

 My husband and I always have dinner parties at our house, it is always a hard decision what to serve, specially since we have only one oven and we like to make sure we an appetizer/salad dish, an entree with some side dishes and a dessert.. So it is nice to be able to put together some simple dishes that you can prepare ahead of time and save in the fridge until dinner! This is one of my favorites:

Bowtie pasta with Italian Sausage and Spinach; ingredients:
(serves 6)

1 box of bowtie pasta
5 mild italian sausages (you can also mix hot italian sausages to add a little kick to the salad)
2 bundles of fresh spinach
1 medium white onion
2 garlic cloves
salt and pepper
parmesan cheese

 In a medium size skillet cook the chopped onion and garlic for a couple of minutes, then peel the sausages and add to the mix, cook for around 10 - 15 minutes or until you see the sausage turn brownish instead of red, make sure you cook the sausage all the way. Don't forget to break the sausage in big chunks, so you can have some meat on every bite!

In a separate deep skillet bring water to a boil and cook the spinach, just for a couple of minutes, until it becomes soft and with a bright green color. Remove from the water and put it in a bowl filled with iced water, this makes the spinach maintain it's vivid color until serving!

Chop the spinach into big pieces, you don't want it to be too stringy once people are eating it.

Cook the pasta and mix it with the sausage, you do not have to use the whole box of pasta, it depends of how meaty you want the salad to be, we like to use the whole box an make sure people can have seconds!

After you make sure the stir well the pasta with the sausage add the spinach, making sure you mix it well so you can get everything on each bite, add parmessan cheese to taste.
Cheers!

Chicken with Artichokes and Capers

Oh my gosh, I had never tried to make this, but I will have to say kuddos for me! lol

First I started by pat drying a chicken breast, then with a very sharp knife I cut open the breast into one big thin piece. (My technique, cut 1/3 on the top not getting to the edge of the breast, open it like a book and then from that same end cut another fillet to the opposite end, again not getting to the end)

Season the open breast with salt and pepper, with the mallet gently hit the breast to make sure the thickness is even all around. Set aside and sprinkle olive oil.

Cut 2 garlic cloves in small squares, use 3 table spoons of capers and 1/3 of a can of artichoke hearts, cut one lemon in 4 pieces. (For the artichoke, i like to cut the top part off, to make sure you are only getting the softer ends of the heart)

In a medium size skillet drizzle a little bit of olive oil, mix the capers and artichoke hearts with the garlic and saute for 4 minutes, then squeeze the lemon juice on top of them and add 1 table spoon of butter, keep sauteing for another 3 minutes and add a tiny bit of all purpose flour to add thickness. Afterwards add 1/4 of a cup a heavy whipping cream, and whip it!

In a separate pan put the other garlic clove with a little bit of olive oil and cook the chicken breast, about 5 minutes on each side, or until you see a little bit of brown in the meat. Add the mix of capers and artichoke with it's juices and keep cooking the chicken breast for another 4 minutes.

And voila! It is ready to serve!

Stone Crabs @ Trulucks

If you are in the Houston area on a Monday night, you HAVE to stop by Trulucks! They have $60.00 all you can eat fresh Florida's Stone Crabs!

I have been craving stone crabs for a while so yesterday I asked my husband to take me there, we were so impressed, not only we had to wait for 15 minutes for our table cause on a Monday night at 9 pm, the restaurant was full! Wuju! guess the recession passed through Houston without much damage... But the atmosphere was very cheerful, the piano was playing, jazz in the backgrounds, drinks everywhere and medium size stone crab claws floating around!

We sat down, and you have a choice of soup or salad, or both to start with, portions are very generous, and when you are ready to attack the stone crabs, a group of broken claws come your way, between 8 - 7 on the first serving, giving you enough to cover the $60.00 right there. You also have a choice of any of their side dishes, we choose sweet potato fries that were delicious! and grilles asparagus. After you are done with your first tray, the server asks you if you would like some more and brings smaller servings of 3 claws at a time until you satisfy your appetite. I made it through 13 of them...

We enjoyed a bottle of sauvignon blanc, and finish our evening with a delicious carrot cake! The service was excellent and the environment was fabulous! Highly recommend it!

My Super Special Turkey Recipe!

Thanksgiving time again, and everyone is very vero excited! This is our traditional turkey recipe, I wanted to share it with you!

For a giant turkey you will need lots and lots of herbs (thyme and rosemary)! Butter, garlic salt, pepper, some fresh garlic.

First pad dry the turkey with paper towels! Very important!

Get like 8 little boxes of the thyme and 6 of the rosemary, take out the steams of the middle and chopped very very finely, put in a bowl with fresh ground pepper and garlic salt. Then also chopped 6 - 8 garlic cloves and add in the bowl.

Leave 5 - 6 butter sticks out so they are nice and soft to be used, cut 1/2 an inch squares, one by one dip them in the spices until they are entirely covered and then with a knife go to the rear end of the turkey and cut the skin open, in a way that with your hands you can lift the skin and place the butter squares with spices ALL over the place! Top and bottom...

In a separate bowl melt half a butter stick and mix with some of the spice mix from the previous bowl and you use this to brush the outside of the WHOLE turkey.

Fill the turkey cavity with white onions, chopped celery, carrots, full thyme and rosemary, shallots, it gives aroma, flavor and prevents for the turkey to dry!

Preheat the oven at 350 degree and cover it while cooking for 3.5 hours!
NOTE: every hour you want to go back to the oven uncover the turkey and brush some more melted butter and spices over the skin...

Then uncover the turkey and cook for another 45 - 60 minutes... Make sure to keep an eye on it so the skin won't burn, you just want it nice and brown...

Cooking with Andy...

This past week my husband and I were in Arizona for an oil and gas conference, the committee surprised the wives of the attendants with a private cooking lesson with Chef Andy Broder! We were so excited about it, we certainly did not know what o expect, but the class was so much fun, we actually got to cook our food, we learned a lot a easy to apply tips for our daily cooking, and we got detailed recipe instructions to take home!

Andy graduated from law school, majored in literature and minored in psychology, after practicing for several years in the court room, he decided it was time to follow his true passion, cooking.

He enrolled in the Scottsdale Culinary Institute and graduated with a 4.0 GPA, then interned in Los Angeles Times as their food section editor and finally he decided to share with us his marvelous recipes! He specializes in giving group lessons at his studio located at:

7000 E Shea Blvd # 1740
Scottsdale, AZ 85254-5289
For more information you can contact them at (480) 951-2400

To find out more about Andy and how his private lessons click here, you'll enjoy their site!

Here are some pics from our amazing lunch: Guacamole with goat cheese, home made tortillas, Southwestern Chicken with lime, fish paddies and mixed green salad, and some Mexican chocolate cheesecake cups.

This is the amazing set up, we had all that we needed set up in stainless

steel prepping tables and enlarged step by step instructions to help

us follow each recipe

Chef Andy giving us some helpful tips to make our lives in the 

kitchen not only better but shorter too!

Our corporate group had sent us some vino to enjoy

with our fabulous meal!

I think all of us had an amazing afternoon cooking, talking, 

and learning a little more about Southwestern cuisine in a

very unique way.

Thank you so much Andy and all the wonderful staff for your time,

I will highly recommend anyone who stops by Scottsdale to try and 

visit the cooking studio, and set up a private lesson, it is soooooo worth it!

Thank you to all the wonderful ladies who gratefully allowed me to

take all this pictures of them while they cook and use them for my blog.

If anyone would like a printable copy of any of the pictures just send me 

an email to Veronica Schiller, I will gladly email you back!