General Food Talk

[livin4reality]

I have decided that my next big project will be tamales. I have been intrigued by them for years, but always too intimidated to attempt. Pioneer Woman posted her version of Tamales today The Pioneer Woman Cooks - Ree Drummond and that sealed the deal for me. I will not be using the beef brisket - I gotta have pork in my tamales. It will definitely have to be a weekend project. Does anyone have experience with tamales?

I got the tamale bug last summer and was going to actually make some but then got side-tracked with some other project. I'll go check out PW's. Guy Fieri did a tamale show last year..

Here is a link to another food blog I love. This guy does Mexican etc. I've made several of his recipies but my all time fav (and I've posted it twice on here and nobody has ever tried these :nono) are the pork carnitas..
Carnitas, Houston style | Homesick Texan

[Cootie]

I got the tamale bug last summer and was going to actually make some but then got side-tracked with some other project. I'll go check out PW's. Guy Fieri did a tamale show last year..

Here is a link to another food blog I love. This guy does Mexican etc. I've made several of his recipies but my all time fav (and I've posted it twice on here and nobody has ever tried these :nono) are the pork carnitas..
Carnitas, Houston style | Homesick Texan

Thanks for the carnitas recipe. That looks delicious. I have saved the link and will let you know when I make them!

[prhoshay]

One day, last week, I was told (by more than one person) that the honey-baked hams at Aldi's were to die for, and were cheap. Has anyone experienced them? I've really got to check out that store.

[livin4reality]

Aw thanks cootie. A super easy tasty recipe they are.

Shay-I've never tried the Aldis ham but I'll check them out.

[MRD]

We had a super tasty Publix ham and a super tasty Publix chicken. And right now, I wish there were more rolls left so I could make a super tasty ham sandwich.

I've never been in Aldi's, but I should try it. I hear good things about them and we have a couple in our area.

[CaliLily]

My mom is coming to visit me for the first time in 2 years and I want to make her favorite dish for dinner (to prove that I haven't been living off of take out, which I pretty much have).

Her favorite is shreaded pork bbq's. I have tried to make shreadded pork bbq's before and failed miserably. I can never get my pork tender enough to shread. Any good recipes/tips?

[Ellen]

. . . Ellen, you'll liable to come home to dozens of chocolate bunnies.

That was my hope -- but alas, when we returned home, there were still only two chocolate bunnies. Upon further inspection, though, we found that they were missing some part. (Now they're also missing ears and heads!) Poor bunnies!

[doxie]

It sounds like everyone had a yummy Easter!

We cooked a small ham, potato salad, deviled eggs and the Toll House Pie from the "Just Recipes" thread. Everything was really good and I still have one deviled egg left to go with my lunch tomorrow. I've hidden it very well.

Mr. Doxie did the sweetest thing. I love Jelly Belly jelly beans BUT I am picky about the flavors. So, he went to Target (where they have individual bins of each flavor) and got me a giant bag of "good" flavors (lemon, lime, watermelon, blueberry, tangerine, coffee, coconut and so on...) with no "bad" flavors (cherry, cinnamon, banana, freakishly hot or sour things...). He said it took FOREVER to decide which flavors to get, but he did really well.

Shay - we do shop at Aldi's occasionally and LOVE it. I haven't tried their ham but we bought some Salami there a few weeks ago that was amazing!

[MamaC]

We had what I consider a low-key Easter. Just hubby, son, granddaughter and youngest daughter were around. My older daughter went to her boyfriend's aunt's house and said they might stop in afterward, but never did.

We did up a spiral ham, scalloped potatoes, a yam casserole, couple of veggies and rolls. Had so many leftovers that son went home with quite the stash.

The best part was watching the granddaughter hunt for the Easter eggs we had decorated together on Friday. The worst part was that is was so cold and windy today. (We did the Easter egg hunt inside due to how cold it was outdoors) On the news tonite, the weathergod said that if it felt more like Christmas today than Easter, it should.....since the temp today was EXACTLY the same as it was on Christmas Day, 08, windchill and all!

[MRD]

My mom is coming to visit me for the first time in 2 years and I want to make her favorite dish for dinner (to prove that I haven't been living off of take out, which I pretty much have).

Her favorite is shreaded pork bbq's. I have tried to make shreadded pork bbq's before and failed miserably. I can never get my pork tender enough to shread. Any good recipes/tips?

I put my roast in the crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. I cook it with a large bottle of italian dressing and some water. Then I remove roast, use two forks to pull it apart (shred) and then I mix the BBQ sauce with the meat and reheat it.

I do not cook the meat with BBQ as I have found that it doesn't give it that great a flavor and the BBQ sauce breaks down and mixes with the fat from the pork during cooking.

If you don't have a crockpot, put the roast in a pan, pour the italitan dressing over roast, add some water to the pan, cover tightly with foil and put in a 300 degree oven for 4-5 hours. THen shred and add the BBQ sauce.

The secret to getting the roast tender is cooking it on low temps for a LONG time.