Ranch house pork chops & Parmesan mashed potatoes

recipe from Chef-in-Training

Ingredients

• 6 boneless pork chops
• 1 packet dry ranch dressing
• 1 (10oz) can cream of chicken soup
• 4lbs potatoes cubed (skins on or off)
• 5 Tbs real butter
• 1 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese (grate your own, trust me!)
• 6 cloves roasted garlic (instructions below)
• 1- 1 1/2 cups warm milk
• 1/4 cup sour cream (not in original recipe, but I like sour cream in my mashed potatoes)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Roasted Garlic
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place bulb of garlic with skins on, wrap lightly in tin foil and bake for 1 hour. Remove from foil and let cool for 15 minutes. Remove garlic from skins, place in a bowl and mash with a fork until completely mashed. Set aside. One garlic bulb will have around 12 cloves.

Place pork chops in crock pot. Mix ranch dressing with cream of chicken soup, pour over pork chops. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 hours. *This is one where you shouldn't let it cook to much longer than called for because you want the pork chops to stay whole for the most part.* About 1 1/2 hours before serving, start the garlic. Then 30 minutes before serving, place potatoes in a pot of cold water, then boil. Continue boiling for about 12-18 minutes, depending on size of potatoes. Once fork tender, drain. Pour potatoes into stand mixer or large bowl. Add in butter and start to mix until potatoes break up, then add remaining ingredients (including roasted garlic) and continue to stir until well combined and to desired consistency.
Remove pork chops from crock pot and set aside. Stir the remaining liquid with whisk and add a good shake of dried parsley. This is now your gravy to go over mashed potatoes (the way I will be making them from now on btw) and pork chops. I served with peas.

Review : My husband and I do this thing, where if it is really good, we say we would order this and pay for it at a restaurant. Needless to say, that is how good this is! It reminds me a lot of the turkey and gravy you have on Thanksgiving...but better! I've never been a huge fan of pork chops, but I think I could make and eat this every week!
*I would have added pictures, but they didn't come over very clear. The link to the recipe above has some amazing pictures!*

~Tried and Loved by Jordan~

"Boyfriend" Cookies

My 9 year old and I love to have Sunday afternoon baking days.  So last week, after we got done making the amazing Spaghetti Casserole, we got on to Pinterest and looked through my "Yummy Treats" board and settled on the Boyfriend Cookie recipe (original recipe found here). These cookies have a little bit of everything, and went over quite well.  They were excellent, and did not send me into a sugar coma like I was afraid they might do!!!

What you need

• One softened cup of butter
• 1/4 cup of white sugar
• 3/4 cup of brown sugar0
• 3 1/2 ounces of instant vanilla pudding mix
• 2 eggs
• one teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups of flour
• one teaspoon of baking soda
• One cup of milk chocolate chips
• One cup of semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup of peanut butter chips
• 1/2 cup of M&M’s, any kind you like
• 1/2 cup of Reese’s Pieces

Preparation

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the butter and sugars
3. Add the pudding mix, eggs, and vanilla into the mix and stir well
4. Next add the flour and baking soda to the mixture, and continue to mix well
5. Finally, mix in the chocolate chips and the rest of the candy
6. With a regular spoon or a scooper, drop a spoonful of the dough onto regular ungreased baking sheets
7. Bake for about 10 minutes or until golden brown
8. Remove and cool before packaging

 I used placed them on parchment paper to keep them from sticking to the sheets, and they came out baked perfectly even, with no sticking.  Stick to this recipe, and you will fall in love with these cookies!!!

Tried and loved by Cora

Spaghetti Casserole

I found this recipe on Pinterest (original recipe found here) and figured I would give it a try.  My family is notorious for picky eaters, so it is very hard to please a family of 6 picky eaters with one meal, but let me assure you, this did the trick.  Our 4 year old, possibly the pickiest of all, ate this meal like he had never eaten before.  Needless to say we will be having this again.  It was also very good reheated, and was good for several days. 


Spaghetti Casserole

8 ounces spaghetti

8 ounces sour cream

8 ounces cream cheese (cut up)

1 lb ground beef, cooked and drained (crumbly)

30 ounces spaghetti sauce

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

season with salt and pepper (or anything else as you see fit)

 

Directions:

1. The recipe calls for a 9x13 casserole, but I usually split it between two 8x8 pans (increasing the spaghetti, beef, sauce and mozarella slightly if needed) and freeze one of them for another time.
2. Cook the spaghetti and drain, but don't rinse.
3. Put it right back in the warm pot and add the cream cheese.
4. Blend the cream cheese until melted with the spaghetti and then blend in the sour cream.
5. Put spaghetti mixture into greased pan.
6. Layer some of the mozarella, then the beef, then a little more mozarella.
7. Spread the spaghetti sauce across and then put the rest of the mozarella on top.
8. Bake at 350 (or maybe 375?) for 30- 35 minutes- until a knife comes out clean.
9. Let it stand for 5 or 10 minutes.
 

 This was so incredibly good!!  If you love spaghetti your family will love this meal.  It was creamy, yummy, delicousness. (And best of all, cheap and easy to make!!)

 

Slow-cooker Balsamic and Brown Sugar pulled pork

I almost forgot to take a picture (hence the food is in tupperware).

Original recipe from this website, I found on Pinterest, but this is my adaptation! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 (2 pound) boneless pork tenderloin (or regular pork loin)

1 teaspoon ground sage

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 clove garlic, crushed

1/2 cup water

Glaze

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons soy sauce

Directions

1. Place pork tenderloin (or sometimes I use boneless pork chops, whatever is cheaper) in the slow cooker. Rub with sage, salt, pepper and garlic. Pour water over pork. Cover and cook on low 6-8 hours.
2. About an hour before cooking, using two forks, shred the pork. Drain most of the remaining liquid from the crockpot. In a small saucepan, combine glaze ingredients, heat over med-high heat until thickened. Pour over shredded pork. Turn up to high, vent lid and continue to cook for about an hour. Serve over rice.

I have made this recipe several times and it is husband...and brother-in-law approved! Any meal that I look forward to the leftovers is a keeper in my book! It now has a permanent place in my recipe binder!

Tried and loved by Jordan

Beef tips over mashed potatoes

** my version of this recipe**

-1 1/2 - 2 lbs beef (stew meat, cut up steak, whatever)

-3 Tbs vegetable oil

-3-4 Tbs flour

-1 tsp minced garlic
-1/2-1 onion sliced

-1 can or fresh mushrooms

-1/4-1/2 cup red wine(I use the cheap stuff, then freeze the rest in ice cube trays)
-2 cups water + 1 3/4 tsp beef bullion powder

-1/4 cup LOW SODIUM! soy sauce
-1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

-1 packet brown gravy
1.  Heat oil in medium sized pot over medium high heat. Combine beef and flour in a ziplock bag and shake to coat. Brown meat in oil, you don't have to cook it all the way, just browned. Remove from oil and set aside.

2. Pour red wine in the same pot, bring to a boil and add in mushrooms, garlic, and onion.

 Cook until onions are soft and pinkish. Add beef back in and add water/ beef broth mixture,soy sauce, worcestershire, and if you really like wine, you can add more wine. 

See that is the cheap stuff! Less than $3 a bottle!

3. Bring to a boil, then turn down to about 3 to simmer, cover for about an hour(or until the meat is tender and to your liking) stirring occasionally.
4. Add brown gravy (without any extra liquid) stir, and simmer for about another 30 minutes.

5. Serve over mashed potatoes, homemade or instant!
***Don't add any extra salt! This is plenty salty enough, and can easily be too much***

I served it with southern green beans and biscuits. This is one of our favorite meals and my brother-in-law was over for this and he said it was awesome!

Tried and loved by Jordan

Meet the sisters salmon part 2

Hey! My name is Jordan, and I have been married for just under 1 1/2 years. As we have mentioned, we met in person for the first time just a few months ago, and quickly we have become best friends or sisters. We have something in common that is hard to find when you have such a rare skin condition. Our husbands are also very similar and have a lot of things in common as well, so that helps! 

About 5 years ago, I moved in with my then fiance only 5 months after graduating high school. I quickly felt the need to become domesticated! I have yet to learn to love cleaning, but I fell in love with cooking. It started off slightly rocky, but I eventually got the hang of it! I love to share recipes with my friends (such as Cora), and figured this would be a perfect way to do so! 

Meet the Sisters Salmon

Hi! And welcome to our blog.  I guess I could start out by explaining how it is we came up with our blog name. My name is Cora, and I am a wife, and a mom to 4 amazing kids. My oldest daughter, Ashlynne, is 9 years old, and has a rare skin disorder called Ichthyosis (for more info on this you can visit the FIRST website). Because of her skin disorder and looking differently, she has always been drawn to rare animals, and all of the creepy crawly things that most people wouldn't consider to be beautiful. She, however, finds beauty in all of these things, which I find to be incredibly heartwarming, and sometimes, downright hillarious.

 On our recent trip to the bi-annual FIRST Confernece in Denver, CO this summer (where we finally met Jordan in person for the first time) we stopped at a huge Bass Pro Shops. Right when we walked through the door, there was a huge bin of 4 1/2 ft tall giant fish pillows. Ashlynne immediately focused in on one, and carried a giant stuffed salmon around the whole store. I had to make her put it back, because looking ahead, I didn't know how we were going to fit that, and all of our luggage, plus all of us back in the car when we headed back to KS 4 days later. She was none too pleased. Somewhere along the way, she had named this fish "Sweat Salmon".

  When we got back to the hotel that night, all she was talking about was that ridiculous sweat salmon, and it very quickly became an inside joke between all of us. We she started getting tired and cranky at night, Jordan and I nicknamed Ashlynne "brat Salmon". I became "Mommy Salmon",  and Jordan and I somehow became "Sister salmons".

  So that is the long and short of it. A 9 year old and her quirky love for all things strange became the inspiration for our blog name. But more importantly, this 9 year old, and her struggles, and my desire to help her be comfortable in her own skin, took me to Denver, CO this summer, where I was finally able to meet one of my best friends, my "sister salmon".