Ribs and Potatoes

When I saw that ribs were on sale at the grocery store the other day, we had a change in our menu! I made the meat with my homemade bbq sauce and these crazy good twice baked potatoes. My two year old loved the meat and my 4 year old LOVED the potatoes. He said, "I could eat these all day long!"

Becky's BBQ Sauce

1 cup chili sauce

4 tbsp Dijon mustard

6 tbsp orange marmalade

4 dashes hot sauce

4 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

4 tbsp apple cider

salt

Mix it all together and dump it over your meat in a crock pot or lather it up before putting in the oven. Sweet and tangy! Makes about 2 cups

Marbled Stuffed Potatoes

food network magazine

4 large russet potatoes

1 large sweet potato

1/4 cup sour cream

3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened and cut up

2 scallions, thinly sliced

3/4 cup shredded sharp cheese

kosher salt and black pepper

olive oil

Preheat oven to 400*. Clean russet potatoes and spear all potatoes with a fork. Bake in oven for 40-60 minutes or until soft on inside. Remove from oven and let cool slightly. Peel sweet potato (skin should slide off if you pull on it) and place in a bowl. Cut the tops of the potatoes off (lengthwise) and scoop out the flesh from the insides and place in bowl with sweet potato. Add sour cream, butter, scallion, 1/2 cup of cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Mix together until well combined. Brush potato skins with olive oil and place on baking sheet. Fill the skins with potato mixture and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake at 375* for 25-30 minutes or until cheese has melted.

Serves 4

Grilled Pork Chops and Baked Sweet Potatoes

I have only one word to describe our dinner last night-DELICIOUS!!!! We recently splurged and finally bought a grill-we have never had one before and we are loving it!! Last night we grilled pork chops. They were amazing! Yahoo for summer!Pork Marinade

4 pork loin chops
2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp ginger

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp olive oil

dash of salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients in a Ziplock bag and add pork chops. Marinate in fridge 30 minutes to 4 hours. Cook pork chops on indoor or outdoor grill and discard remaining marinade.

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

4 sweet potatoes

1/4 cup buttermilk

salt and pepper

paprika

shredded cheddar cheese

green onions, sliced

Preheat oven to 450*. Wash sweet potatoes and coat in olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake on baking sheet for 35-40 minutes, or until tender. Cut potatoes in half and scoop out insides of potatoes. Place potato filling in bowl with buttermilk, and season with salt and pepper and paprika. Mash it all together. Place mashed filling back in potato skins. Place back in oven on baking sheet and cook another 10-15 minutes to heat through. Once heated through top with cheese and onion. Yummy!

A month ago I was called to be young women's president in our ward. Since then, Sunday's have been anything but a day of rest. Valentine's day was full of meetings and therefore-no cooking occurred. We had leftovers. I had a beautiful menu planned, but wasn't able to make it until this week. However, as I got dinner on the table, my kids decided to go wacko on me resulting in no nice tablecloth, no candles, and cold food by the time we sat down to eat. I was frustrated that it wasn't the nice, calm, romantic meal I had been hoping for, but I guess that is life. The food still tasted delicious (even though Tessa wouldn't touch it. I tried not to be offended.). Maybe next year will be a bit calmer-ha ha ha!

Balsamic Pork Tenderloin

1 pork tenderloin

1 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup honey

Bake pork tenderloin at 325* for about 20-25 minutes. Meanwhile, combine vinegar and honey in a small saucepan. Simmer until reduced by half. Remove pork from oven, brush with reduced vinegar. Place under broiler until sauce is bubbly and starting to caramelized. Remove, turn, brush with vinegar and repeat. When finished, remove from oven and let rest 7-10 minutes before cutting. Drizzle with remaining vinegar.

Green Mashed Potatoes

redhead recipes

6 russet potatoes

1/2 bag frozen peas

4 tbsp butter

4 tbsp sour cream

salt and pepper to taste

milk

Boil potatoes until soft. Add in peas for last 2 minutes of cooking. Drain peas and potatoes. Add butter, sour cream, salt and pepper. Mash. Add milk as needed to obtain desired texture. Serve.

Roast Pork and Apple Dinner

This is one of our very favorite fall dinners. This is a little bit nicer than normal pork chops and applesauce, but it has the same great flavors. The whole dish only takes one pan, so less dishes to wash too-can't complain about that!

Roast Pork and Apple Dinner

4 pork chops, about 3/4 inches thick

1 onion, sliced

2 cups sliced mushrooms

2 Tbsp balsamic vinaigrette dressing

1 1/2 cups minute rice, uncooked

1 can (10 1/2 oz) condensed chicken broth

1 broth can water

2 red apples, sliced

1 tsp dried thyme leaves

Spray a large skillet with cooking spray. Add chops-cook on med-high heat 4 minutes on each side or until browned. Add onion, mushrooms and dressing, cook an additional 3 minutes. Stir in rice, broth, water, apples and thyme. Reduce heat to MEDIUM; simmer 10 minutes or until heated though and rice is cooked.

Serves 4

Cafe Rio Pork and Refried Pinto Beans

So I had a bunch of people over for dinner this weekend and I wanted to try something new. These recipes sounded too good to pass up. They were crowd pleasers and I will most definitely be making them again!Cafe Rio Pork

4-5 lbs pork roast (boneless is best)

12 oz bottle of La Victoria Taco Sauce (red and mild)

20 oz bottle of regular Coca Cola

1 cup brown sugar

1 TBSP taco seasoning

Place pork in crock pot and fill half way with water. Cool on low for 10 hours. Drain water. Premix ingredients for the sauce and pour over roast. Cook on low for 4 hours. Shred pork and cook on low for another 2 hours. So yummy!!

Refried Pinto Beans

adapted from Rachael Ray

2 (15 oz) cans pinto beans, drained

1 (4 oz) can diced green chilies

dash of ground cumin and coriander

salt and pepper

In a skillet or saucepan, add 1 can of the beans and chilies and cook, mashing them up with the back of a spoon or with a potato masher. When one can has been smashed up, add the remaining can of beans and continue to cook until heated through. Season to taste. Serves 4

For dessert we enjoyed a nice summer treat-strawberries! I would recommend putting bananas in this recipe-but that is just me. My son LOVES this dessert! He ate most of it!

Vanilla Pudding Dessert

Taste of Home

2 3/4 cups cold milk

1 package (5.1 oz) instant vanilla pudding

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

1 carton (12 oz) frozen whipped topping, thawed

4 cups crushed vanilla wafers

3 cups sliced fresh strawberries

2-3 cups sliced bananas

In a large bowl, whisk milk and pudding for 2 minutes. Let stand for 15 minutes; fold in condensed milk. Set aside 1 TBSP whipped topping and 2 TBSP wafer crumbs. Also set aside 2-3 strawberries and bananas (slices). Fold remaining whipped topping into pudding mixture.
In a 3 qt serving bowl or trifle bowl, layer a third of the strawberries and bananas, wafer crumbs and pudding mixture. Repeat layers twice. Sprinkle with reserved wafer crumbs, whipped topping and fruit. Refrigerate until serving. Serves 12-14