Slow-Cooked Pork Carnitas for Tacos

After I determined I wanted to make homemade tortillas, I needed to figure out what to put inside of them. I'd been thinking about making carnitas for a while, so that's what we went with. I thought a crockpot recipe would be best, as I knew we'd be busy making everything else from scratch and wouldn't be able to devote much of the stove top, or our time, to making the carnitas.

I found this recipe for slow-cooked pork carnitas on Outpost General Manager Pam Mehnert's blog, A Year of Inconvenience (for an entire year, Pam made everything she cooked at home from scratch--pretty crazy AND awesome). I followed the recipe exactly, except for one thing: I substituted chipotle powder for the ancho chile powder, since I had some in the spice cupboard.

The carnitas were great and perfect for our tacos (it doesn't appear that I took a picture of the finished product. Oops!). This would also be a good filling for tamales (another thing we plan to make sooner than later). Nate also put some leftovers on a sandwich. I'd definitely make the recipe again. Next time, though, I think I would bake the pork for a few minutes after taking it out of the crockpot to get that crispness carnitas usually have.

Queso Fresco

It never really occurred to me to make queso fresco from scratch, until I saw a JSOnline article and recipe for it just a few days before our big Mexican meal. It sounded wonderfully simple, so I figured we should give it a try.

We followed the recipe exactly (I'm guessing it's best to do so!). The whole process really only took 10-15 minutes. We didn't let the mixture strain for too long (maybe 10 minutes?), which we should maybe do next time. I wonder if that would make it a little harder and more crumbly?

The cheese was good, but not quite as good as store bought queso fresco. It wasn't quite as salty, either, which is probably good for me, but doesn't taste quite as good.

I'd definitely make this again, though, and I'd try adding more salt next time and letting it strain for longer.

Salsa Verde

When we were at our cooking class in Zihuatanejo, Monica, the chef, told us salsa verde is very easy and quick to make. It only contains tomatillos (which stink before you cook them, by the way), onions and garlic.

So last weekend, for our big Mexican meal, I picked up some tomatillos at El Rey's when we stopped for supplies. I loosely followed this recipe from Simply Recipes. Here's what I used and did to make the salsa verde:

• Six tomatillos, husks removed


• 1 jalapeno (seeds and all), cut in chunks


• about 2 Tbs. cilantro


• 1/3 of an onion, cut in chunks


• about 4 garlic cloves, cut in half


• salt to taste

Place tomatillos in sauce pan, filled with water. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Put everything in a blender or food processor and mix until smooth.

You could just stop right there, but I simmered the salsa for about 10 minutes to kick up the flavor. I realized it needed some more salt as I kept tasting it. I think it's best to salt after you try it so it doesn't turn out to salty.

The salsa was really tasty with tortilla chips and on the tacos, and, like Monica said, really easy to make. We'll definitely be making this again. I'll probably make a bigger batch next time and freeze more of it for future use.

Mexican Food From Scratch

Since coming home from our fantastic Mexico trip, I've been wanting to make some of the delicious foods we had. We still need to set aside some time to make the chiles rellenos we made in our cooking class, but for last Sunday's dinner we opted for something maybe just a little more simple: carnitas in the crockpot, white corn tortillas, queso fresco and salsa verde.

It definitely takes longer to make tortillas, cheese and salsa from scratch than to buy it premade, of course, but it's SO worth the time and effort. After making the tortillas, I declared I'll never use store-bought tortillas again.

Because there were so many steps for each of these foods, I figured they each deserved their own blog post, complete with lots of pictures. So visit the individual webpages for the carnitas in the crockpot, white corn tortillas, queso fresco and salsa verde.

What Are You Doing May 21?

If you're around Milwaukee, you should definitely stop by Best Place at the Historic Pabst Brewery to check out the Cookies for Kids' Cancer bake sale and silent auction. There, local foodies, bloggers, chefs, bakers (really, anyone who wants to help out!) will be there, selling our homemade goods. Additionally, there will be a silent auction going on throughout the afternoon.

Cookies for Kids' Cancer is a nonprofit that two parents started to help raise money for their son's cancer by hosting one huge bake sale. Over the years, more and more bake sales throughout the country (and even in Canada, I believe) have been held by people who want to raise money for kids' cancer effective therapies.

Here are the details for the bake sale that is being held in Milwaukee:

WHEN: 1-4:00 p.m. Saturday, May 21

WHERE: Best Place, 901. W. Juneau Ave.

WHAT: Bake sale with tons of homemade goodies plus a silent auction

RSVP: If you're on Facebook, RSVP here. Or, just feel free to show up!

MORE INFORMATION: Learn more about the organization

Now, just to whet your appetite, here is a sampling of what I'm going to be making for the bake sale:

• Dark chocolate bark with nuts (maybe hazelnuts?) and dried fruits (I'm thinking cranberries, apricots and maybe something else?)


• Indian-spiced rice treats. I've made these before, and they are SUPER tasty! The recipe calls for cardamon, cashews and golden raisins.


• Coconut macroons. I've never made them before, but they're always delicious, and I think they'll go over well.

So what are you waiting for? Sounds like a pretty great event, right? You get to buy home-baked goods from people who really love to cook and bake all the while supporting a great cause. See you there!

Honey-Mustard Glazed Salmon

We bought some great-looking wild salmon fillets from Outpost when they were on sale a while ago. I've had a hankerin' for salmon lately, so when we decided to make them, I busted out my Betty Crocker Cookbook to find a recipe.

I found a great, super easy one that turned out really well and tasted great (although, as usual, we cooked the salmon a little too long).

Honey-Mustard Glazed Salmon

• 1 Tb. packed brown sugar


• 1 Tbs. butter, melted


• 1 Tbs. soy sauce


• 1 Tbs. honey


• 1 Tbs. mustard (we used Dijon)


• 1 Tbs. olive oil


• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped


• 1 lb. salmon fillet

Mix all ingredients (other than salmon) in a bowl. Place salmon in a baking dish and coat it with marinade. Place in fridge up to an hour (but at least 15 minutes).

The recipe says to broil the fish, but we don't have a broiling pan, so we just baked it. We baked the fish (if I remember correctly--I should have written it down!) at 375* for about 20 minutes. But be sure to check the fish every five minutes or so to make sure you're not overcooking it.

We served the fish with a random package of flavored chickpeas I got at Trader Joe's a while ago (they were pretty good!) and asparagus with our favorite sauce (much like the salmon marinade, we just combined 1 Tbs. honey, 1 Tbs. mustard and 1 Tbs. olive oil. Drizzle over asparagus).

Pasta Puttanesca

This recipe from the May 2011 Cooking Light for pasta puttanesca (curiously enough, the Italian translation means "whore's style spaghetti." Interesting.) caught my eye as I was flipping through it a while ago. The finished product looked tasted and it seemed very easy to make. I was also intrigued by cooking with anchovies for the first time.

I was right--the recipe was super simple and very tasty. I followed the recipe exactly, except that I used shredded, rather than grated, Parmesan cheese. I would definitely make this again. I think I might actually use more anchovies next time, as you really couldn't taste them and the dish wasn't nearly as salty as I thought it would be with the anchovies, olives and capers.

This sauce is also a good base to use for future sauces and to stop buying the jarred/canned sauces. Sauce is so easy to make, and if you start with a plain base you can do anything you want with it!