The ODB Grilled Cheese

Little known fact: I used to be a big Wu-Tang fan---in fact, my 21st birthday was spent at a Wu-Tang Clan concert---hence the inspiration for the name of this sandwich. However, in the case of this sandwich, ODB stands for Onion-Dill-Bacon. This sandwich was incredibly flavorful, thanks to the caramelized onions (cooked in bacon grease :), and it was great paired with a bow of tomato soup.

Ingredients (makes 3 sandwiches)
-6 slices good bread (I recommend oatmeal)
-15 slices Dill Havarti cheese (5 per sandwich)
-6 slices bacon
-1 red onion
-Tomato soup (optional)
-3 T butter
-3 T mozzarella

Steps
1. Cook your bacon until crispy. Remove bacon slices and set aside, reserving bacon grease.

2. Thinly slice your red onion. Using your bacon pan with reserved bacon grease, saute the red onion for about 6 minutes on medium. Once the slices start to brown, turn down the heat to low-medium and cook onion slices for about 20 minutes or until caramelized. You'll want to watch them and stir them about every 30 seconds.

3. Butter the outsides of your bread. Layer the sandwich with the dill Havarti, bacon, caramelized onions, and 1 T mozzarella.

 4. Grill in a panini press, George Foreman, or large skillet until golden brown.

5. Enjoy with a bowl of tomato soup.

Grilled Pork Chops and Baby Bok Choy

This was my first time grilling either of these, but the meal turned out great. If you have another person to help you cook, have that person be in charge of the rice. If you don't want to use a grill, I'm sure you could cook the pork chops in a skillet and then you can follow these instructions for sauteed bok choy.

Ingredients
Pork chops
4 boneless pork loin chops
1/4 cup olive oil
3 T soy sauce
1 T steak seasoning
1 clove minced garlic

Baby Bok Choy
-6 heads of baby bok choy
-1.5 T sesame oil, divided
-3 T soy sauce
-3 T mirin (you could sub 2 T sugar and 1 T wine or water if you don't have mirin)
-1 clove minced garlic

Cashew Rice
-1 bag instant brown rice, cooked as directed (I used the 10 minute boil in bag kind)
-1 T butter
-4 T chopped cashews

Steps
1. Mix olive oil, soy sauce, steak seasoning, and garlic in a small bowl and pour into a one-gallon resealable plastic bag. Add the pork chops and set the bag in a baking dish. Marinate in the refrigerator for 3-8 hours (no more than 8). Flip the bag half-way through marinating.

2. Light your coals (I put enough down to get the temp up to 400).
3. Slice the bok choy heads in half vertically, from leaf to stem. Chop the leafy tops off (so they don't char on the grill). Chiffonade the leafy tops and set aside. Put the bok choy in water in a large bowl for about 10 minutes, to get any dirt off and also to help them steam on the grill. Pat dry. Drizzle with about 1 T sesame oil.

4. Put a pot of water on to boil for the rice.
5. Once coals are ready, put the pork directly over the coals and cover. Cook for about 5-6 minutes (more for thicker chops...mine were about 1/3 inch thick).
6. Flip your chops and put the bok choy on the grill, cut side down. Cover grill.

7. Let chops and bok choy cook another 5-7 minutes.
8. Take chops and bok choy off. Place chops in tented foil and let chops rest 5 minutes. Place bok choy in a serving dish.
9. Go back inside. Your rice should be done now. Put rice in small sauce pot on low; stir in the chopped bok choy leaves, butter, and cashews. Stir until melted.
10. Make bok choy dressing by mixing 3 T mirin, 3 T soy sauce, 1/2 T sesame oil, garlic. Pour bok choy dressing over bok choy.
11. Serve chops and bok choy over rice.

Breakfast Strata (aka Erik Estrada)

This is a great recipe to make for a brunch because you make it the night before, so all you have to do in the morning is pop it in the oven. Strata is one of my husband's favorite things that I make (and he tends to be overly protective with food he likes), so I was really surprised when we had some friends over and Jonathan offered to heat them up some of the left over strata. I have to say I thought it was really sweet that he kept telling his friends, "Oh, man you have to try this Estrada. It's out of this world." It was all the sweeter because he really thought it was called Estrada, and so now it has been renamed after the eponymous Chips character.

Note 1: You need to prepare this the night before you make it.
Note 2: These pictures aren't very good because I took them with my phone.

Ingredients for the Meat Strata (feel free to mix and match)
~1 lb sausage
-2-3 C shredded cheddar cheese
-1 pepper, diced
-1 onion, diced
-8 eggs
-1-2 C milk
-1 loaf day old French bread cut into cubes (it's best if you leave this out to air dry so it gets really crusty, but if you forget to do that you can can toast the bread cubes in the oven
-1 TBSP Worcestershire
-salt & pepper

Ingredients for the Veggie Strata
-1 package soyrizo or other fake meat product
-2-3 C shredded cheddar cheese
-2/3 package fresh spinach
-1 onion, diced
-1 small tub of white mushrooms
-3 handfuls of cherry tomatoes, quartered
-8 eggs
-1-2 C milk
-1 loaf day old French bread cut into cubes (it's best if you leave this out to air dry so it gets really crusty, but if you forget to do that you can can toast the bread cubes in the oven
-1 TBSP Worcestershire
-salt & pepper

Steps
1. Cook your meat (or fake meat). Remove from pan.
2. Saute your veggies in the meal drippings.
3. Layer half the bread cubes in a greased 13X9 pan.
4. Sprinkle half the cheese, half the meat, and half the veggie mixture over the bread cubes.

5. Repeat layers with remaining bread cubes, cheese, and ingredients.
6. Whisk eggs, milk, Worcestershire, salt & pepper together.
7. Pour egg mixture evenly over bread mixture.
8. Cover and let sit in refridgerator over night.
9. In the morning, bake at 325 for about 50-70 minutes or until completely set in the middle.

Taco Soup

Big thanks to Lauren and Dylan for passing on this amazing recipe. It's so simple but so super tasty. Perfect for the colder weather. We've done both ways of preparing and both were great.

Ingredients:
-1 lb. ground beef (we used Morning Star Veggie crumbles)
-4 links Andoullie sausage (optional, but adds a lot of flavor)
-2 cans kidney beans, not drained
-2 cans stewed tomatoes, not drained
-2 (4 oz.) cans chopped mild green chilies, not drained
-1 (29 oz.) can tomato sauce
-2 cups frozen corn (or 2 cans of corn, drained)
-2 pkgs. taco seasoning mix
-1 onion, diced (optional)

Optional toppings: tortilla chips, sour cream, shredded cheese, cilantro

Preparation #1
1. Put all ingredients in a large crock pot and cook on low for about 6 hours. Add onion 30 mins before you serve.

Preparation #2
2. Brown onion and meat (or faux meat) in a large pot. Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, then simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occaisionally.

Pork Chops and Warm Spinach Salad with Soy-Butter Glaze

This recipe comes together in 30 minutes or less. I did the pork chops a bit differently than I normally do. Previously, I actually stuffed them with the apple-raisin mixture, but that was kind of a pain so this time I just put the "stuffing" on top, and I actually preferred them this way.

The spinach salad is one of the few things I've totally made up myself, hence the kind of ridiculous name. I don't think you're supposed to call mixing soy sauce and butter together a "glaze" but...whatever.


Pork chop ingredients:
-4 boneless pork chops
-4 T honey mustard (or Dijon if you prefer)
-2 T raisins
-1/2 an apple, diced
~12 Ritz crackers, crushed
-1 T brown sugar
-salt&pepper

Warm Spinach Salad with Soy-Butter Glaze Ingredients
-2/3 package fresh spinach
-1 medium sized red onion, finely sliced
~3 T butter or margarine (I use the fake yogurt butter)
~3 T soy sauce

Steps:
1. Crush Ritz, add raisins, apple, brown sugar, and mustard. Mix in an oven safe bowl and heat in oven (until everything else is ready) at about 200.

2. Lightly baste pork with mustard and sprinkle with salt&pepper. Grill for about 15 minutes or until done.

3. While pork is grilling, caramelize your red onion (saute over medium to medium-high heat for about 5-7mins).

4. Once onions are slightly brown, turn heat on the stove OFF. Dump half the bag of spinach into your pan, add butter and soy sauce and begin tossing. The heat from the pan and onion will begin to wilt the spinach. For this salad you only want the spinach barely wilted, so if it starts cooking down too much, remove pan from heat.

5. Once spinach begins to wilt, add another handful or two of spinach and continue tossing. Although it looks like you're making a lot, this salad is SOOO good that I could eat the whole pan.

6. Top pork chops with apple-raisin mixture and serve.