Guinness Chops

1 can Guinness

4 bone-in pork chops

spoonful of bacon grease

ground sage

mustard powder

garlic powder

rice vinegar

water

Put the bacon grease and some of the Guinness in a pot. Add the chops. Sprinkle with rice vinegar and seasonings.  Add the rest of the Guinness.  Top off with enough water to cover the chops.  Cover and let sit for an hour or two.  Boil, then simmer until the chops are fully cooked.  Brown the chops in a skillet before eating them if you wish.  

Guinness Gravy: 4-5 ladle-fulls of the Guinness stock from the pot, 2 tbsp corn starch, c 1/2 cup of flour.

Yes, my gravy is lumpy.  I was in a hurry...

I didn't decide to make gravy until I was already halfway through eating the meal.  

Guinness Bacon Joes

Guinness Marinade Part 1 (fish)

Guinness Marinade Part 2 (pork)

Guinness Marinade Part 3 (ground beef)

Bacon Guinness Sloppy Joes

Used up the remainder of the marinade, and I must say, I put it to good use!

So glad I didn't just pour it out like I would normally do to a leftover marinade. 

I don't think I've ever made sloppy joes the same way twice, but it's been my favorite thing to do with ground beef for awhile now, and they always end up delicious.  Tonight's were made with onion, bacon, garlic, tomato sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, and the guinness marinade.  I let them cook til they were pretty thick and delicious looking.  

Pictures from the Making

Dinner is Served

Here's the sign of a good meal:

oh and I had a salad too.  gotta eat those veggies.

Guinness Marinade, Part 2

Part 1: Guinness Fish

Part 2: Guinness Pork

I put the pork in the marinade around 10:30 this morning, and didn't get around to cooking dinner until about 8 PM.  Plenty of time for the pork to soak up all that delicious Guinness flavor. 

(Check out Part 1 for the marinade ingredients)

this is what the marinade looks like after a night in the fridge...mmm congealed olive oil...haha

after 30 secs in the microwave to un-congeal the olive oil before I removed the pork

 pan-fry til it looks yummy like this:

don't forget the pasta!

Pasta w/peas & spinach

(tossed with pesto, mustard, and olive oil)

And now I will share with you some pictures from the Allegheny Trail, where I spent some time this evening. Absolutely stunning.  My camera doesn't begin to do that view justice, but I tried anyway.  Totally worth getting home late for dinner.  We saw a bald eagle, flying waaaayyyy overhead, I took a picture but it was so far away it doesn't even show up.

there was a stunning sunset on the drive home

Guinness Marinade

Ingredients

I didn't measure any of them...but used roughly half the can of Guinness.

Not pictured: 3 cloves of garlic, smashed and chopped.

olive oil and rice vinegar

add the guinness

whisk it up

admire the work of art

add some seasonings

I discovered that the back of a spoon is very useful for garlic-crushing

whisk some more

put in some meat: I used catfish this evening

I think I'm going to try pork chops in the leftover marinade tomorrow

let sit for awhile...I think I only let the fish sit for about half an hour, I was too hungry to wait longer

pan fry the meat

I fished the garlic out of the marinade and added it to the pan as well

dinner is served

fish with bacon and onions

gouda mac n cheese

avocado

Veggie-Quinoa Soup

Sopa del día

2 broth-y soups in 1 week!  I must be sick.  Oh yeah, I am.  Apparently having a sore throat makes me like broth.  I'm actually eating soup for the second time today!  (This has got to be some kind of record) I had the last bowl of Chicken-Veggie Soup for lunch today.  I found that Tostitos Multigrain chips went really well with it, their saltiness was great with the not-so-saltiness of the soup.

I ended up making soup again tonight partly because I knew the broth would be nice to my throat, and partly because I was just itching to try again for a successfully flavorful veggie stock.  I was in luck, this soup is delightfully tasty.  I'm not itching to pour a bucket of salt in it, like I was with the chicken soup. (although I should probably admit the fact that I didn't measure the salt this time...I just kind of shook some out over the pot).  Also, the quinoa is way tastier than the whole grain pasta I used in the chicken soup.  I'm about to give up on whole grain pasta, it just does not taste good. I'm pretty sure the tiny bit of health benefit I get from it vs regular pasta is not worth the nastiness.  I mean, seriously.  I put whole wheat flour in my cookies; surely I can get away with eating regular pasta all the time.

Veggie-Quinoa Soup

the oils: butter, bacon grease, olive oil
the veggies: carrots, celery, radishes, bok choy
the leaves: bok choy, spinach, basil
the seasonings: garlic powder, onion powder, sage, thyme, turmeric, rosemary, salt
other: fresh grated ginger, 6 garlic cloves
quinoa: 1/2 c

directions: Brown the vegetables in the oils.  Include the bok choy stems but save the leaves for later.  Once the veggies have begun to brown, add 2 c water.  When the water boils, add the quinoa and another cup or so of water.  Bring it to a boil, then simmer.  Add the bok choy leaves, spinach leaves, and basil leaves when the quinoa is just about done.  Remove from heat when the quinoa is fully cooked (grain is translucent, germ ring is visible)

Dinner is served.

Of course I had some chicken next to this bowl of soup.  And a spinach roll similar to my arugula rolls, but with spinach, roma tomato, and gouda cheese.  And I think I'm still hungry.  That's why I don't like broth-y soups.  They are so. not. filling. At least it was super tasty!

Chicken Veggie Soup

My first ever attempt at a non-cream based soup!  I've never been a huge fan of broth-y soups, but my immune system went on vacation last night and I succumbed to a cold.  I decided that was as good an excuse as any to attempt chicken noodle soup.  I know you're supposed to buy a whole chicken and boil the whole things to get a nice chicken broth, but there was no way I was going to that much trouble.  Nor was there any way I was going to the grocery store for a whole chicken.  I just bought some b/s breasts yesterday.  No need to go back to the store.  

I didn't get the chicken started until after I'd already started browning the veggies, so the veggies ended up having to simmer for a long time waiting for the chicken to finish.  Next time I will be sure to start the chicken first, and brown the veggies when the chicken is almost done!  

The broth was not quite as flavor-full as I had hoped.  I added some salt to my bowl at dinner, but it still tasted a bit watery.  I don't want to just dump a bunch of salt into it, I've been trying not to eat excessive amounts of sodium because it causes leg cramps when I run.  I'll have to experiment more with the seasoning next time to see if I can get more flavor into the broth without just relying on salt.