First week out of school has been relaxing and fun. When the hubs has a night off on a "school night" during the school year we often opt for take-out. Now that I'm out for summer, however, I'm in the kitchen cooking up a storm. Last night we were in the mood for some down home comfort food before I start cooking food from around the world. I centered our meal around one of my favorites, greens! I've never met a green I didn't like. I was helped along by acquiring some beautiful kale (they think) from my parents' greenhouse. Can anyone tell just from looking at the picture? They threw it in there and it grew, never mind they don't know what kind of green it is- we eat any of them anyway.

I was feeling down home as I said, so I had to start with some ham hocks. I often try to "skinny" them up a bit though, with just a mere slice of bacon for flavor. Last night we were going full-out.

Not so appetizing in the package, but adds great flavor.

I threw those in the pot with a touch of olive oil while I chopped an onion and a couple cloves of garlic. Those go in with the hocks to sweat out about five minutes. In go the greens along with some S & P as well as some crushed red pepper and about 6 cups of water.

I let the greens simmer and get yummy for only about 45 minutes last night because we were starving, but I like them really tender and could have let them go longer.

The greens were what we really wanted out of the meal, but I also had some great young potatoes (again from Mom and Dad) and made my fave pork chop recipe from allrecipes.com:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/rosemary-sherry-pork-chops/detail.aspx

End Result:

That's my version of comfort on a plate (a rooster plate nonetheless).

Now I'm ready for my kitchen to venture around the world with the recipes I've picked from Signature Dishes from Around the World.

New Adventure (My First Post)

Being a teacher who is off (well, at least part time) for the summer, I began searching for my first fun summer project. Along with trying my hand at this blogging thing, I've decided to try and expand my cooking horizons. I'm from a southern family that has inspired me to become proficient in cooking their staples, but now I'm up for something more. This book seemed like a good start:

http://www.amazon.com/Signature-Dishes-Around-World-Paolo/dp/8854406082/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339027671&sr=8-1

 

I'm pledging to learn at least 10 dishes from this book this summer. As my hubs and I looked through the book last night (he's always up for eating my food, the dear guy), we chose 10 dishes, plus an extra in case something fails miserably. I padded myself with some that I'm at least familiar with or have eaten (pierogi and tzatziki) and some that will be a total adventure. One of the more adventurous that I'm looking forward to trying is Mafe from Gambia. It is described as a beef stew made with peanut butter. Sounds a bit unique, but the picture looks pretty tasty.

 

I'm starting out first with the safest of the ten and attempting tzatziki. Will post pics and review from the hubs when it's done and eaten.