Mini-Pulled Pork Cocktail Samiches

This is an absolutely party perfect recipe- that was super easy and totally delicious! I took these to a pool party over the summer and they were a huge hit. The great news is you can always make the pulled pork one day prior and refrigerate it, then you can prepare the little sammies the day of the party.





Here's what you'll need~
makes about 70 cocktail sammies

2lb pork tenderloin
2 12oz. bottles root beer
1/2 cup bbq sauce
2 pkgs refrigerator biscuits
mini-muffin tin

Each "grands" biscuit makes 2-3 mini samiches

Place pork and root beer in the crockpot and cook on low for 6-7 hours (so it is easy to fork apart and not dry). Remove cooked pork from crockpot with a slotted spoon, and place in a large bowl, add bbq sauce and fork apart to shred. Let cool and refrigerate 1 hour to overnight.
Open the package of biscuits and split separate the biscuits, use a little round cookie cutter to cut circles out of the raw biscuit dough. Pull the circle apart (in half, the layery biscuit dough comes apart pretty easily.




Grease a mini muffin tin with non-stick spray. Place a circle of biscuit in the muffin cup. Fork on some pulled pork, add a dab of bbq sauce and top with another biscuit circle.






Cook on 425 15-20 minutes or until biscuits are golden brown.



We've made this pulled pork before, and used the leftovers in a pulled pork omlette HERE

Grilled Lamb Pita Pockets & Garlic Yogurt Sauce

This summer we drove up to Lake Tahoe for a weekend away and to celebrate a good friends birthday. While we were there we spent nearly 3 hours floating in tubes down the Truckee River and drinking beer in the sun. It was glorious. One of those days that you think couldn't possibly get any better. Then, we got to dinner. A fabulous local had recommended we hit up THE RIVER GRILL, and we were SO glad we listened!! Not only was it a beautiful night out on the patio with the river we'd just floated down moving slowly by, the food was exceptional. I ordered the lamb, which was one of their specials that night and it was the best lamb I'd ever had. A week after we got home I was still craving it, and decided I was going to make something lamb-tastic, even though I'd never cooked lamb before.
Nate picked out these chops and I improvised a marinade and crossed my fingers. We were both happy with how this turned out and look forward to making it again and marinating it longer (we only had time to do about an hour).
Nate also wants to do homemade pita bread the next time we make this- so stay tuned!



Grilled Lamb Chops
1 package of lamb chops
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 tsp/cloves chopped garlic
2-3 T olive oil
kosher salt
pepper
1 1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp thyme


Mix the garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano, cumin and thyme in a medium bowl.
Place the lamb on a large plate (or baking pyrex)and massage the spice mixture all over it. Cover and let marinate in the refrigerator at least one hour and up to 8 hours.

Over medium heat, grill the marinated lamb chops 3 minutes then flip it, grill another 3 minutes and remove from heat. (for medium rare)

Let sit 3-5 minutes before slicing up.




Garlic Yogurt Sauce
1/2 of a large container of fat-free plain yogurt
2 tsp chopped garlic
1 T olive oil
3 tsp raw sesame seeds
Kosher salt (about 1 tsp)
1 Tbsp Dill

In a small skillet over medium low heat cook the oil and seeds, stirring pretty constantly for about 5-6 minutes (until golden brown but not burnt) add the garlic and satuee 2 more minutes. Place the yogurt in a medium saucepan over medium low heat and add the salt and dill, stir in the garlic, seeds and oil, whisking/ stirring until smooth and well combined. Remove from heat and let cool serve room temp or refrigerated.

Tuesdays With Dorie~ Black & White Banana Loaf

YAY! I'm back!! We took a little vacation up North to visit Nate's best friend Charlie and had an incredible weekend with him, his wife Molly (who makes the best Bloody Mary I've ever had in my LIFE) and our first experience at the Oregon Brewers Festival. (more to come on that...)

So, though be it late, this marks my return from vacation, and return to TUESDAYS WITH DORIE

This weeks TWD recipe was chosen by Ashlee of A YEAR IN THE KITCHEN visit her site for the recipe if you don't have the fabulous book Baking~From My Home to Yours...You can also go to the TUESDAYS WITH DORIE site to see EVERYONE'S creations~



I LOVE banana and LOVE chocolate, though I've never made a bread combining the two flavors. Because I didn't want to eat the whole loaf myself, I opted to bake some muffins which was fun and easier to share with Nate's office!!

Thank you Ashlee for an awesome pick of yet another delicious Dorie recipe that I will no doubt make again!!

ALOHA and GOOD MORNING- Hawaiian Breakfast

What a weekend!! So this past Saturday was the Los Angeles Underwear Affair, and we took a big walk with our weenie(dog)s in our undies! Nate was big hit in his "Statue of David" spandex shorts and the doggies got lots of love! This was an awesome event that we would love to participate in again next year!


Now, time for breakfast! I wish this was our post-5K breakfast on Sunday, but no such luck...this was our post-4th of July breakfast (you knew I was behind in my blogging!) that was not only incredibly delicious but just the trick after a night of way too much fun :O)



Thanks to LIA for not only making this AWESOME breakfast for us, but for sharing the recipe with me to blog about!

Hawaiian Bread French Toast, satueed Portuguese sausage, white sticky rice & soy sauce scrambled eggs...
With guava juice, of course!!

This is TRUE home cookin' so there are not exact measurements- just play around with the recipe and due to the fabulous ingredients, I think you'll be just fine...

Get a large loaf of King's Hawaiian Bread and slice it into "toast" slices.
Crack eggs into a bowl and whisk together with a little milk, a pinch or two of cinnamon, a dash of nutmeg and about 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract.
Dredge the bread in the egg mix and place on a large heated non-stick (or sprayed with non-stick) frying pan or griddle and cook on medium high heat until toasty (about 3-5 minutes) flipping at least once, twice if necessary...

If you're feeding a crowd like Lia was, keep the toast warm while you make the eggs by putting it on a foil lined cookie sheet in the oven.

For the eggs, whisk the eggs in a bowl, pour into heated non-stick pan and stir in a genourous (probably around a tablespoon for 6 eggs) pour of SOY SAUCE, scramble until they are "done" to your liking~

Lia served the toast and eggs along side some good ole white sticky rice ala rice cooker and some sliced and sauteed Portuguese sausage (or I think you can have it with SPAM which I'll have to try next time for SURE!), with a glass of guava juice!!