For the Love of Pork

LOVE THIS DISH!!

Pork loin's are a great protein that can be cooked easily and even more easily be thrown in the freezer for a later day.

I have made this marinade multiple times and overtime I want to drink the sauce. I should bottle this sauce or something. It's so tasty.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup of olive oil
1/3 cup of soy sauce
1/3 cup of balsamic
1/4 cup of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of thyme
2 springs or tablespoons of rosemary
Pork Loin

I start by creating the marinade and then put in a bag with the pork to marinade it for a few hours (a day is ideal). I like to rose sprigs of rosemary. In the past, I have used rosemary "leaves"and it makes it a little messy as you don't want to eat a "leaf" of rosemary. So when I have use the "leaves" I make sure to strain the sauce first.

To cook the pork, I start by browning it in a pan on the stove for just a few minutes.

This just puts a little color on the pork before placing it to finish in the oven for about 20 minutes on 400 degrees.

Putting it in the oven makes the pork really tender and juicy and delicious. Grab and fork and dig in!

Artichoke Garlic Bread

This is sure to be a show stopper. I have friends who won't come over for dinner unless I am making my artichoke garlic bread. 

Ingredients: 
Bread loaf/roll
Jar of grilled artichokes
1 stick of melted butter 
1 tablespoon of garlic
Mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese


I typically use some kind of soft dinner roll. You can really use any bread you want though. 

Start by pre-heating the oven to 375. 

I start by finely chopping up artichokes . The finer the better in my opinion. I usually just eye ball how much I want to use since it depends how much you want.

After chopping up the artichokes, I put it in a bowl with some garlic and butter. If the butter isn't melted, then I put it in the microwave. Once the butter has been melted, I pour the butter and artichoke mixture over the bread. 

Then I put mozzarella cheese on top of the bread (depends on how much you want) and then sprinkle some parmesan on top of that and put it in the oven. 

It usually takes around 10 minutes for the cheese to melt. 

I finish it off by dipping the bread in balsamic as I eat it. 

I promise you that this bread is BOMB! 

Pan Seared Salmon with Parmasean Farro and Carrots

Whenever Chris is around we always end up making something what most people my age would consider to be "fancy."

This dish was inspired by mom who loves farro. Farro is grain similar to rice rich in fiber and considered a complex carb so it's healthier than rice. It is not very well known or commonly used and I am not quite sure why because it is delicious. And I love salmon so why not combine the two.

NOTE: the farro recipe was derived from a recipe I found in the New York Times but I made a few tweaks

Ingredients:
Salmon
4 cups of water
1 1/2 cups of farro
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon of Paprika
2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup of Olive oil
3/4 cup of Parmesan
3 or 4 sprigs of Parsley

Cooking Instructions:
Farro: To start, boil 4 cups of water on the stove. I also add no more than 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar to the water. This eliminates the very earthy/intense flavor that farro can have. Once water is boiling, add 1 1/2 cups of farro to the water. Cook the farro on low heat for 30 minutes until there is no more liquid in the pan.

Cut up some parsley (just a few sprigs of it) while the farro is cooking.

After all the liquid is gone, spread the farro out on a sheet tray. Drizzle olive oil, parmasean cheese, parsley, and salt and pepper over the farro.

Salmon: Before cooking the salmon, we put garlic powder, salt, and paprika on it. Then once the pan is hot, we put the salmon in the pan skin side down. Cook the salmon with the skin side down for about 7 minutes then flip it over for about 2 minutes. Put in the oven on 350 degrees for about 5 minutes skin side down. At this point, it really depends how you like your salmon cooked. I like mine slightly raw in the middle so it's pink in the middle.

Also, I made my sinful carrots (from my previous blog post) to accompany this dish.

I made this dish for my parents and my boyfriend and they loved it. The farro provided texture to accompany the salmon and the carrots were sweet and delicious.