Chef Dave creates excellent chili verde in the Instant Pot

In this video, my wonderful husband and videographer Dave shows us how to cook delicious and super easy chili verde in your Instant Pot, while I watch over his shoulder and enjoy my glass of wine :-) Here's his recipe: Cut 4 to 6 boneless pork chops into 1-inch chunks. Heat 2 tablespoons canola oil in your Instant Pot and then SAUTE the pork until brown, about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove pork to a plate. Add two diced sweet onions to the pot and cook until translucent (about three minutes). Remove husks from a pound of tomatillos (about eight tomatillos) and cut those into chunks. (If you don't have tomatillos, substitute medium-size tomatoes. Results will be different, but still good!) Add tomatillos to the pot with 2 teaspoons ground cumin and 6 cloves chopped garlic. Scrape any brown bits from the bottom of your pan. Drain and rinse two cans white beans (Navy beans or cannellini beans) and add beans to the pot with two 4-ounce cans diced chiles (mild or hot or one of each), 1/2 cup of chopped pickled jalapenos, and the pork. Add two teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Stir well. No need to add extra liquid to this one... Secure lid on your pot and set pressure valve to SEALING. Cook at high pressure (or manual) for eight minutes. Then allow for a 10-minute natural release. Release remaining pressure, remove lid and serve in soup bowls with chopped cilantro if you like and grated cheddar or pepper jack cheese. ENJOY!

Haven't purchased an Instant Pot yet? A great purchase for anyone who loves to cook: https://amzn.to/2T0GKp5

Potato corn chowder a perfect wintertime supper

This is a delicious creamy corn soup to make in your Instant Pot. We like to be pretty generous with the cayenne pepper, but use less or none if you don't like spicy. To start, dice six slices of bacon in 1-inch pieces and saute in the Instant Pot until crisp. Drain on a paper-towel-lined plate. Remove all but about 1 tablespoon of bacon grease from the Instant Pot liner pan. Add one chopped sweet onion, one chopped red bell pepper and one chopped stalk of celery to the pan. Saute for three minutes. While vegetables are cooking, dice five medium-sized new potatoes into 1-inch pieces. Add to Instant Pot with 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander, 3/4 teaspoon smoked paprika, and 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper. Add two and 1/2 cups corn kernels (frozen or fresh), half the cooked bacon, and 3-1/2 cups chicken or vegetable broth. Mix well. Secure lid on Instant Pot in with release valve at SEALING position. Press MANUAL (or PRESSURE COOK, HIGH) and set timer for 4 minutes. When pressure cooking is done, allow natural release for 10 minutes. Release remaining pressure. Press saute button, and cook soup for three minutes to let it get thick. Stir in 1/2 cup of half-and-half and the remaining bacon. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with nice bread and green salad. ENJOY!

Instant Pot Perfect Pot Roast

Enjoy mouthwatering pot roast, even after a long day at the office, with this easy recipe. Here's how: Hit saute button on your Instant Pot and let the liner pot get good and hot for a few minutes before adding about 2 tablespoons canola oil. While pot heats up, rub all sides of a boneless beef chuck roast (2.5 to 3 pounds) with salt, pepper and spices you like. I used Penzey's Quebec Beef Spice. When a couple drops of water sizzle in the oil, add the roast and brown all sides for about 3 minutes per side. When you have a nice sear on that roast, remove from the pan with tongs, and set aside. Add 2 cups chopped sweet onion (big chunks!) and 3 or 4 cloves of minced garlic. Saute for about 5 minutes until onion begins to get translucent. Add a little bit of beef broth to the pan to deglaze the beef bits from the bottom, then add 1-3/4 cups of beef broth and 1/2 cup red wine to the pot. Stir well, then put the roast back in the pot. Add a few sprigs of fresh thyme. Turn off the pot, secure the lid (with the rubber ring securely in place) and set the pot, with valve set to SEALING, to Pressure Cook on High (or Manual if you have a Lux model) for 1 hour. When pressure cooking is complete, use a quick release to vent the steam. Remove the lid, add about three cut-up carrots, a handful of fresh green beans, some chopped Swiss chard if you like, and diced potatoes. Set to Pressure Cook High (or Manual) for 10 minutes. When cooking is complete, allow a natural release for 10 minutes. The meat should be falling apart, tender and juicy, and the vegetables will be completely cooked. Serve with a nice green salad. ENJOY! Looking to purchase an Instant Pot for yourself, or as a gift? Prices are excellent right now: https://amzn.to/2rOqbkI.

Wow, this blog is still a thing!

It has been more than 10 years since I've posted to this blog, and in that time, I have done a lot of cooking, just not a lot of blogging. I've created some YouTube videos, mostly focused on how to use an Instant Pot pressure cooker, a kitchen gadget that I don't think existed 10 years ago. Check out all my videos here. My video on how to cook pulled pork has garnered more than 100,000 views, much to my surprise. Here's how to do it, and it is delicious:

Cut a 3-to-4-pound pork butt roast into four pieces. Prepare a rub of two tablespoons brown sugar, a tablespoon of cumin, a tablespoon of chili powder, salt and pepper to taste, and two teaspoons smoked paprika. Rub that mixture evenly over the meat pieces. Heat two tablespoons canola oil in the Instant Pot on SAUTE mode, then brown the meat on all sides for about five minutes. Turn off the Instant Pot, and add a 16-ounce bottle of your favorite barbecue sauce and 1/2 cup apple juice (for a total of about 2 and a half cups liquid). Set lid to SEALING and secure the lid. Set Instant Pot to Manual (or Pressure Cook, High) to pressure cook for 45 minutes. When pressure cooking is complete, allow a natural release for 15 minutes. Remove the meat from the pot, let the sauce thicken up on SAUTE mode for about 10 minutes. Pull the meat apart with a fork and then pour about a cup of the sauce over the meat. Serve on soft white bread (King's Hawaiian rolls are perfect!) Serves 4-6. Yum!

Instant Pots are available at great prices now. If you haven't jumped onto this bandwagon yet, now's a good time!

Potluck surprise: Orzo and veggies with ricotta cheese

Is there any better venue for Sunday lunch than an awesome church potluck? We had some 500 people show up today for a party to help christen our beautiful new facilities at St. James Church in Wichita. And everyone brought excellent food.

I was among parishioners alphabetically assigned to bring a vegetable dish. I got up early this morning and made up this recipe; wasn't sure how it would turn out, but it was good, and I'm happy to report there wasn't much left by the end of the party:

Zucchini , spinach and tomatoes with orzo, ricotta and basil

15 ounce container of ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1 cup orzo
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
4 small zucchini , sliced
2 small yellow squash, sliced
7 medium tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons freshly grated Romano cheese
1/2 pound fresh spinach leaves
Olive oil

Cook orzo according to package instructions. In a medium bowl, while pasta cooks, combine ricotta cheese, 1/2 cup Romano cheese, eggs, basil and garlic. Mix well. Rinse cooked pasta and drain. Add to ricotta mixture.

Brush a 9-by-13-inch casserole dish with olive oil. Place a layer of zucchini in the bottom of the casserole dish. Top with 1/2 of the ricotta/orzo mixture. Top with half the spinach, a layer of zucchini and tomatoes, then add remaining ricotta/orzo mixture. Top with yellow squash and the remaining zucchini, spinach and tomatoes. Top with 3 tablespoons grated Romano cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Remove from oven. Brush top lightly with olive oil. Bake for another 10 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.

Leftover steak is lovely in spinach salad with Romano

Dinner last night was fresh spinach leaves topped with tomatoes, slices of carrot and green pepper, just a few walnut pieces and diagonally sliced strips of rare flatiron steak Dave had grilled the night before. Here's my balsamic dressing: 1/2 cup olive oil, mixed with 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar and about an 1/8 teaspoon sugar. (That bit of sugar is essential.) Mix well and dribble over your salad, then top with shaved Romano cheese.

Top healthy pasta with shrimp, roasted veggies

It's harvest time; a great time to cook up an abundance of healthy food. Tonight, I grilled green, red and yellow pepper pieces on skewers along with big sweet onion chunks, all brushed with olive oil. (The key to grilling veggies on skewers just right is to keep the gas grill temp at around 350-400 degrees and let the veggies cook on an upper rack until they're soft and juicy, but not charred.) Then I mixed those veggies with shrimp and fresh-from-the-vine tomatoes to make this pasta dish:

Pasta with shrimp, tomatoes and roasted peppers

3 cups uncooked whole wheat rotini
7-10 medium fresh tomatoes, diced
1/4 cup chopped basil leaves
2 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup red wine
Juice from 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup water
1 pound cooked medium-sized shrimp, shelled, with tails removed
2 cups green, red and yellow pepper chunks
1 large sweet onion, cut into large pieces
3/4 cup feta cheese
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 tablespoons cup fresh parsley, chopped
Fresh grated romano cheese

Grill pepper and onion pieces on skewers as described above. Set aside. Cook pasta according to package directions. While pasta cooks, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add chopped tomatoes, basil and garlic. Stir well. Add vinegar, red wine, lemon juice, water. Cover and simmer for about 6 minutes. Add peppers, onions and shrimp. Simmer 'til shrimp is heated through. Stir in feta cheese. Drain pasta; spoon sauce over rotini. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Top with parsley, pine nuts and fresh romano cheese.

Shrimp, peppers and lemon sauce over rice, so nice

Tonight I was determined to cook something beautiful for dinner. I'd picked up a loaf of ciabbata this morning that was so appealing, it inspired me to come up with a dish that would go well with -- and look good with -- the bread.

While rice was cooking in the microwave, I heated 3 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat, then added a diced sweet onion and two cloves garlic, chopped. I cooked 'til onion was soft, about 8 minutes. Then I added a diced red pepper and half a diced green pepper and cooked about five minutes. I added 1 cup fresh mushroom slices, then added juice from one lemon and 3/4 cup Sauvignon Blanc, along with 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes. I threw in a pound of cooked cocktail shrimp, and heated just for a couple of minutes. Tasting the broth, I realized it was pretty sour, so I added 2 teaspoons sugar and let the dish simmer. I added three tablespoons chopped fresh parsley from my garden, just before dishing the shrimp and sauce over a platter of rice. I served this dish with fresh steamed farmers' market green beans. Very pretty. And tasty too.

Easy, easy chicken in peanut sauce

Summer meals at our house have been all about the grill, but this weekend it cooled down a little so I decided to wok it on out. Thanks to a couple shortcuts in the way of Asian sauces, I managed to put together a beautiful and very tasty dinner in about 20 minutes.

While cooking a batch of rice in the microwave, I heated about 2 tablespoons canola oil with a couple shakes of peanut oil at medium high heat in my electric wok. I added one pound of chicken tenders, chopped into bite-sized pieces. After four minutes, I stirred the chicken to brown the other side for a few more minutes. Then I set aside the chicken on a plate.

To the oil in the wok, I added a handful of chopped carrots and a half of a Vidalia onion, diced. I stir-fried those 'til carrots were lightly browned, about 7 minutes. Then I reduced heat to medium, added a cup of fresh green beans, and covered the wok for five minutes. Then I added chopped red and green pepper and two tablespoons of Kikkoman Classic Stir-Fry sauce. I heated that 'til the peppers started to turn soft. Then I added a shake of red pepper flakes and some sesame seeds. I emptied that into a small bowl and covered to keep warm.

Then, I put the chicken back into the wok with about a cup of House of Tsang Bankok Padang Peanut Sauce. I heated that for five minutes. Then I added two tablespoons chopped fresh parsley from my garden. I served the veggies and chicken with rice with Man Vintners Chenin Blanc, a wine we've come to particularly like this summer. Mmm.

Make the most of summer tomatoes and basil

So far only one tomato from our crop has ripened and omigod it was so delicious. Now we have six tomato plants in the garden heavy with green tomatoes, so we're looking forward to more garden goodness in the coming weeks.

'Til those ripen, the farmers' market is a great place to pick up tomatoes. We've been eating a lot of Caprese Salad, one of my favorite summer side dishes; tomato slices with fresh mozzarella, fresh basil and a dribble of balsamic vinegar. Sometimes I vary the formula a little by adding Greek olives, pine nuts and avocado slices.

For brunch on the Fourth of July, I served Caprese Pesto Bruschetta-- a very easy appetizer that everyone seemed to enjoy. To make, spread pesto on baguette slices (I used storebought pesto for ease, as I don't have enough garden basil to make pesto). Top slices with one ripe tomato slice, then fresh mozzarella, and a fresh basil leaf. Add a couple pine nuts. Place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and golden. Serve right away.

Summer's almost here; time to savor fresh flavors

What's to love about this time of year? Tomatoes from the farmers' market, topped with fresh mozzarella, basil from my garden and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Yellow and red bell peppers with sweet onions, brushed with just a bit of olive oil and grilled to perfection. Simple green salad of fresh-picked romaine topped with a light vinaigrette, a few dried cranberries, pecans and shaved parmesan. Fresh cut chives to garnish grilled new potatoes. A sprig of garden parsley on every plate. Dinner on the deck.

Roast pork with fresh rosemary, oregano and lemon

I love springtime, when we can make use of our first cuttings of fresh herbs from the garden. Tonight for dinner, I roasted two pork tenderloins. I like to buy the unseasoned variety so I can jazz it up myself. In a foil-lined pan, I brushed the tenderloins with olive oil, then rubbed fresh rosemary (does anything have a nicer scent?) and chopped oregano leaves to coat, sprinkled on juice from half a lemon and cut some slots to insert slices from two cloves of garlic into the meat. Roasted at 425 degrees for about an hour. Halfway through the cooking time, I added boiled potatoes to the roasting pan, brushing those with olive oil also. Mmm. Fresh herbs sure beat dried, every time.

What do you know? We love Merlot

Good friends who know how to throw a party hosted a Merlot tasting at their home last night. Great event. We blind-tasted and rated a variety of inexpensive Merlots, all under $20, except the one we brought that cost more but didn't win more raves. (Good perspective in these economic times.) Dinner was elegant deep-dish pizza with salad. Top rated wine among guests was a Ravenswood 2006 Merlot, $9.99 a bottle. I'm off to my favorite outlet, Jacob's Liquors, to pick some up today.

A brilliant Wall Street Journal column inspired our hosts to put the party together and guided them in wine selection. Each guest was asked ahead of time to write a poem about Merlot, and we recited these between sips at the party. Allow me to share:

Merlot - A Tribute
by Nancy

It's for Merlot I write this verse
'Tis both a blessing and a curse,
that the wine gets such bad reputation
when in fact it's cause for celebration.
It's the wine to drink with lamb I'm told,
soft and smooth, not brash and bold.
It's one of few with aroma of grapes
and a hint of floral that escapes...
Blackberries, blue, eucalyptus and dill,
this wine's got nose that demands refill.
Merlot's oft mentioned as jammy and plummy,
and with low tannin content, it tickles the tummy.
Grapes are suited to regions warm and bucolic,
but don't buy from France, wine's less alcohlic.
So to all who will hear me, I'll lay on the line...
"Hail thee, Merlot, you're an excellent wine."
________________________________

Merlot
by Angela

I think that I shall never know
A grape as lovely as merlot.

In the "Sideways" movie, you were defamed.
Paul Giamatti should be ashamed.

You're not as rich as Cabernet
But you give Bordeaux its bouquet.
You're not as fruity as zinfandel
But paired with chocolate, you excel.

Some people call you overripe.
I say don't believe the hype.
Your hints of berry make me merry.
At the taste of plum, I start to hum.

So my merlot, do not go, gentle into that good night.
But stay and play and guide me with your ultraviolet light.

_________________________________________

To a Modest Merlot
by Dave Knadler

I think that I shall never know
A wine so useful as merlot,
A modest grape that won't offend
When crowds of people must attend.

Though other wines may have more fame,
Its alcohol is much the same.
It's not too heady, nor too light,
And usually the price is right.

Although we gather just to taste,
To spit it out would be a waste
And though it's just a tiny pour,
It's never wrong to have some more.

But so that you will not seem dumb,
Pretend to note "a hint of plum"
And give your lips a thoughtful purse
Allowing that you've tasted worse.
________________________

And here's what I wrote:

Tasting notes

Friends,
let us vow to be
for one another
what we know we can expect
from a bottle of good Merlot,
to be uncorked and spirited,
straightforward,
true.
Unpredictable,
not jarring,
serious, not dour,
engagingly dry
and not too sweet.
Never sour.
Never cold.
At the ready
for an elegant supper,
a joyful toast,
or quiet conversation
any time.
Generous.
Inviting.
Unpretentious.
Memorable.
Good for the heart.

___________________

Our host e-mailed us these words of wisdom this morning:

A Belated Poem about Merlot
By David K.

If you want to make your friendships grow
invite your friends to taste Merlot
For some, it's the lowliest grape
But its wonder is hard to escape
Tobacco and currant are mixed with smiles
Nancy's stories, Dana's wiles
Tannin, plum, laughter, cheer
The goodness of friends is all in here.
So raise your glass and give a toast
to our friends - the ones who matter most.