Seasoning grilled meat with garlic and a sugary marinade produces a Thai-style barbecue that works well with pork loin or chops. Adapted from The Barbecue Bible by Steven Raichlen (Workman, 1998).

So, the changes I made….one of the first instructions was to use the food processor on the garlic and sugar to form a paste. Well, I completely skipped this step. Instead, I put all the ingredients (minus the pork chops obviously) into a blender instead and just liquidized it. The garlic didn’t get mashed up as much as it would have in a food processor, but I also didn’t add as much garlic as they did either. We’re also giving this to our son, who’s only 18 months, so we didn’t want it too garlicky; but we still wanted the flavor, so I added about half of what is recommended.

I think we only marinated it for about 45 minutes and it still came out pretty good.  I’m not a fan of pork, so I really didn’t have much, but the bite I did have was pretty good.  I’ll let Jesse give an accounting for the taste, so check for his comment.

Ingredients:
4 (1-inch thick) or 8 (1/2–inch thick) pork chops (2 pounds total)
1 head garlic, broken into cloves and peeled
3 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons rice wine
2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:

1. Make 1 or 2 cuts in fat side of each chop to prevent curling.
2. In a blender, combine garlic, sugar, soy sauce, honey, wine, sesame oil, ginger, salt and pepper. Spread over both sides of chops, place chops in baking dish, cover and marinate in refrigerator 1 to 2 hours.
3. Preheat grill to high. Brush and oil grill grate. Place chops on grate and grill until brown 6 to 8 minutes per side for thick chops and half that time for thin, or until temperature on an instant-read thermometer is 160F. Serves

One thing I was told was that I have to use Hellman’s real mayo, not Mircle Whip or any other kind. It has to be the Hellman’s since it’s actually mayo and not the lab generated stuff. Plus, it can’t be the light version either. The reasoning is the Hellman’s has actually eggs in it and all the others don’t.

Ingredients:
16oz soft cream cheese
1 cup mayo (real Hellman’s)
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
2 cups chocolate chips melted
2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Beat cheese and mayo at medium speed until smooth. Gradually beat in sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in chocolate and vanilla until smooth. Pour into crust, place on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 F for 50 to 55 minutes.

GRAHAM CRACKER CRUST
Ingredients:
8 tbsp butter
1-1/2 cups crumbs (about 21 squares)
4-1/2 tbsp sugar
2-1/4 tsp heaping cocoa

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Mix all ingredients together and pour into spring form pan. Bake at 375 F for 8 minutes.

When I add fruit to pancakes, I don’t throw all the fruit into the batter and then pour into a pan. My father does that and I’m not crazy with the end results. You can end up with fruit cooking straight on the pan instead of in the pancakes and it can taste a little funny. Instead, I will pour the pancake batter into the pan and then put the fruit on the pancake after a couple of seconds sitting in the pan. Once the fruit is in the batter, I’ll take more batter (usually using either a fork or whisk) and dab it on top of the fruit, making sure all the fruit is covered. This way, when I flip the pancake, none of the fruit is touching the pan and it’s being cooked from the inside.

Anyway, here’s what we’ve found with the following fruit:

Raspberries:
It’s not bad, but it can be a weird combination with maple syrup. Something I found that works out really well is smashing the raspberries before putting them in the batter. The first pancake I tried, I didn’t smash the berries and when Jesse cut into it, he found molten areas of raspberries that wasn’t all that fun to be burned with. The second time around, I smashed them and they came out great. It took fewer raspberries for each pancake and you did get overpowered in a single bit. Instead, it was spread out a lot more.

Jesse wasn’t crazy about the raspberries in the pancakes, but he only had that first pancake where I didn’t smash them up. So that may make a difference.

Peaches:
This was really good. The peaches added a sweetness that worked well with powdered sugar and even maple syrup. I made sure I cut the peaches up into small tidbits and sprinkled them all over the pancake and it cooked really beautifully. The flavor wasn’t overpowering and it added something a little fun.

Bananas:
Ian loves bananas and we had a couple sitting around, so I thought I would throw a couple into the batter for a change. I thought they were really good, but Jesse doesn’t think he liked it to well. The bananas did add a strange texture and taste to the pancakes, but it was a good contrast in my opinion. Again, I cut the bananas into small tidbits and sprinkled around the batter.

Apples:
This was also a surprise. I can’t remember what type of apple I used, but again, I cut them into tiny tidbits and they came out really good. I want to say I used a macintosh, but don’t quote me on that since I remember the apples adding a bitterness to the pancake that counterbalanced the sweetness of the maple syrup. I’m not a fan of maple syrup, it’s too sweet for me, but with apple pancakes, it was actually really good.

Ingredients:
3 cans of grand biscuits
2 pk cream cheese
1 pk sharp shredded cheese (16 oz)
1 pk of ham lunch meat - diced or sliced (if sliced, chop ham into bite size pieces)

Directions:
Bring cream cheese to room temperature. Combine cream cheese, shredded cheese and ham. Flatten grand biscuits and place into muffin pan. fill biscuit with cream cheese mixture. Bake in oven at 375 for 15-18 min (or according to pk directions)

Serves 24

Ingredients:
2 packages of Dark Chocolate cake mix
3 packages of whipped chocolate frosting
2 packages of Jell-O banana pudding mix
2 cups of cool whip
3 cups milk
bananas (optional)

Directions:

1. Combine 3 cups cold milk and 2 packages of banana pudding mix in medium bowl. Beat with wire whisk 2 minutes or until well blended. Stir in 2 cups thawed cool whip. Refrigerate at least 1 hour or until set.
2. Prepare and bake both cakes according to box directions. Cool completely.
3. Take one cake and level the top off, making it flat. Layer banana mousse lavishly onto cake. Once completed, gently add the second cake on top of mousse.
4. Frost all sides of the cake.

I’ve made this a lot in the past too.  This is one of those recipes that works really nice with the Salsa recipe and everyone seems to enjoy it.

Ingredients:
1 pkg of Fajita Marinade Mix
1/4 cup Water
2 tbsp canola oil
1 lb chicken breasts
1 pkg of original country gravy mix
2-1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup salsa
2 cups colby jack cheese
6 (10in) burrito style flour tortillas
1/4 cup green onions (optional)
shredded lettuce (optional)
tomatoes (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine Seasoning, water and oil in a self-closing plastic bag. Add cubed chicken. Close bag and turn to coat chicken. Refrigerate 15 minutes, or longer for stronger flavor.
2. Prepare gravy according to package directions, except use 2 1/4 cups milk instead of water. Remove from heat; stir in salsa. Pour 1 cup gravy mixture into a 9×13-inch baking dish. Set aside.
3. In a large skillet add chicken and marinade. Sauté over medium-high heat 7-8 minutes.
4. Place 1/4 cup chicken in center of each tortilla. Top with 2 tablespoons of cheese. Fold over edges of tortilla and roll tightly. Arrange rolled tortillas in a single layer in prepared dish. Pour remaining gravy mixture over tortillas and top with remaining cheese. Bake 25-30 minutes or until heated through. Garnish with black olives and green onion. Serve with lettuce and tomato, if desired.

The recipe is pretty basic, but if you’re looking to add some color to it, try adding a bunch of red, yellow, and green peppers. They really add to the color and texture of the salsa and I’ve yet to hear any complaints when I do add them. You can also make this as spicy as you want. My mother’s husband really likes spicy hot foods, so when I made this for them awhile ago, I added as many hot peppers I could get my hands on as well as Habenero sauce and it really came out spicy hot.

As for the directions, I typically use a blender to make it since it’s an easy and effective way to do it. However, this method does liquefy it a little more, so if you’re looking for a chunkier salsa, try using a food processor.

The salsa can be served right away after you make it; however, it’s better when you make it a few hours before you need it and stick it in the refrigerator for a time. The longer it sets in the fridge, the thicker it will be come and the spices have more time to blend together.

Ingredients:
1 large can of tomatoes (whole, stewed, or diced)
1/4 chopped onions (or to taste)
1 chopped jalapeno pepper
Salt
Pepper
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/t tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
cilantro

Directions:

1. Add peppers, 1/2 of onions, and juice from tomatoes in a blender. Blend for about a minute or until onions and peppers are small enough or pureed. Pour into mixing bowl.
2. Add tomoatoes, salt, pepper, cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, rest of the onions, and cilantro in a blender. Pulse blend 3 or 4 times, just enough to break up the tomatoes. Add to pepper mixture. Stir.

The recipe itself is pretty easy, but time consuming. The most time consuming part was crushing the graham crackers and melting the pound of chocolate (thank you Jesse for doing this part); however, once you get over this hurtle, the rest is pretty standard baking.

Once we got all the components put together, the cheesecake itself is pretty good although I am changing the amount of extract. You really couldn’t taste the raspberry in the cake. I’m not crazy about the raspberry sauce on the cake. I’m not sure if it’s the combination of the two together or if the sauce needs more work or a different recipe entirely needs to be used. I’ll be interested in peoples thoughts.

Here’s the recipe with my few changes…

Chocolate Graham Cracker Pie Crust:
For the pie crust, I used the above recipe, but I did change a couple of the measurements. Since I’m making a cheesecake and my springform pan was 10″ instead of 9″, I increased the amount of graham crackers to 2 cups and the butter to 1/2 cup. I didn’t change the amount of sugar only because I am making a chocolate cheesecake and it should be rich enough without adding more sugar.

Ingredients:
2 cups chocolate graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Mix together graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter until well-combined.
3. Press mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie plate or tin.
4. For baked pies, preheat oven to 350 F and pre-bake crust for 7 to 9 minutes. Cool before filling. For no-bake refrigerator or freezer pies, no baking is necessary.

Chocolate Cheesecake:
When I found this recipe, I was debating on adding the raspberry liqueur to the cheesecake and just relying on the raspberry sauce for the berry taste. But then it would have been a chocolate cheesecake with a raspberry sauce and that isn’t what I really wanted, but I didn’t want to use the liqueur. When I found the raspberry extract, I went hunting for a conversion ratio and found one - Raspberry Liqueur to Raspberry Extract - 2:1 ratio (e.g., 2 tbsp’s Liqueur, 1 tbsp extract). So instead of using the 2 tbsp of raspberry liqueur, I changed it to 1 tbsp raspberry extract. Either works fine, it just depends on which you want to use.

One thing I did learn from making this, you cannot leave a cheesecake out over night to cool before refrigerating it. Since I made the cheesecake after Ian went to bed, it didn’t come out of the oven until well past midnight. So instead of waiting up another 45 minutes just so it could cool before putting it in the fridge, I covered it with a towel and went to bed; with the intention of putting it away in the morning. Well, when we woke up the next morning, my cheesecake had a little gorge in the middle of it. It doesn’t seem to have affect it, but it’s not something I’m going to do again.

Ingredients:
1 lb milk chocolate, chopped
4 - 8oz pkgs cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/3 cup milk
2 tbsp raspberry extract
4 eggs
1 egg yolk
Sifted powdered sugar (optional)
Sifted unsweetened cocoa powder (optional)
Fresh berries (optional)

Directions:

1. Melt 1 pound chocolate in a heavy saucepan over very low heat, stirring constantly; cool. For tips on melting chocolate, I would check out Hershey’s guide, it’s the one I use.
2. Beat melted chocolate, cream cheese, the 1/2 cup butter or margarine, 1/3 cup milk, and extract in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer on medium to high speed until combined. Add whole eggs and egg yolk all at once. Beat on low speed just until combined.
3. Pour filling into the nut-lined springform pan. Place the pan in a shallow baking pan on the oven rack. Bake in a 350 degree F oven about 55 minutes or until 1 to 2 inches of outside edge appear set when shaken gently.
4. Remove springform pan from baking pan. Cool cheesecake in pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Use a small metal spatula to loosen cheesecake from sides of pan. Cool 30 minutes more. Remove sides of pan. Cool 1 hour; cover and chill at least 4 hours.

Raspberry Sauce:
So I did some of the directions a little backwards with this one. Instead of mashing the raspberries through a sieve/strainer, I started heating them with the sugar first and then once they became pliable, then I mashed them through a strainer. It seems to be working alright, but without doing the other method as well, we’re not really sure which way would have worked better. I did end up using all of the cornstarch mixture in order to thicken it up.

One good thing about this recipe and heating the raspberries first, when you mash the berries through the strainer, what you are left with is essentially jam. Jesse liked this aspect since it gave him homemade jam.

Ingredients:
12 oz. pkg. frozen raspberries in syrup
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. cornstarch
3 tsp. cold water

Directions:
Mash raspberries through strainer, throwing away seeds. Add sugar to raspberries and heat in saucepan to almost boiling. Mix cornstarch with cold water. Add cornstarch mixture little bit at a time to raspberries, stirring constantly, until mixture starts to thicken. Cool in refrigerator and serve with just about anything.

Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients:
1 (1/4 ounce) package yeast
3/4 cup water (110-115 degrees)
1/2 cup shortening
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup cocoa
2-1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon softened butter
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
chopped nuts (optional)

Icing ingredients
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2-3 teaspoons cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1. In medium bowl,dissolve yeast in water.
2. Stir in shortening, salt, sugar, egg, cocoa, and 1 cup flour.
3. Beat 2 minutes on medium speed of mixer, or 300 vigorous strokes by hand.
4. Scrape side of bowl, stir in remaining flour; blend well.
5. Cover and let rise in warm place until double (about 1 hour). Stir dough down by beating 25 strokes.
6. Turn soft dough into well floured surface; roll into 8×12-inch rectangle.
7. Spread with softened butter and sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar mixture.
8. Roll up beginning with wide edge.
9. Pinch edges together.
10. Cut into 12 pieces.
11. Place in greased 9×13-inch pan.
12. Let rise until doubled (about 40 minutes) Bake at 375°F for 25 minutes.
13. Combine icing ingredients, adding enough cream for good spreading consistency.
14. Spread on rolls immediately and then sprinkle with nuts if desired.
15. Serve warm.
16. Can also use favorite cream cheese icing to frost.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
1 can of green enchilada sauce
corn tortillas
cheddar cheese (at least 1 8oz bag)
jalapenos
onions
garlic
salt
black pepper
chili powder
garlic powder
onion powder

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Saute a little onion, jalapenos, and diced garlic in pan.
3. Add meat. Season with a dash of cumin, salt, pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, and onion powder.
4. Drain the grease from the meat.
5. Mix in bowl 3/4 bag of cheese, half the can enchilada sauce, meat and tortilla strips.
6. Put in casserole dish. Drizzle remaining can of enchilada sauce over, and cover with rest of cheese. Bake in oven for about 20 minutes.