Tuscan Sausage and Potato Soup

In the chilly months of the year, nothing is more comforting for dinner than a bowl of homemade soup for dinner. In addition, a bowl of soup is the perfect meal for a movie night. This is a recipe I came up with after many attempts to duplicate the soup at a very popular chain of Italian restaurants. A blend of flavorful Italian sausage, tender red potatoes, with bright and crisp blanched kale in a creamy broth is an irresistible combination. Easy to make and flavor beyond belief, this is a recipe I'm sure will easily find it's way onto your dinner table frequently. quintessential

1 and 1/4 pound of Sweet Italian Sausage
1 large Onion
Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
3 cloves of garlic
6 cups of Chicken stock
1 bay leaf
About 6 Red potatoes
1 and 1/2 cups of Heavy Cream
Kosher Salt
Freshly Cracked black pepper
1/4 cup of freshly grated Parmesan
8 leaves of Fresh Basil

Place a large pot over medium heat drizzle a touch of olive oil in the bottom. If using a link of sausage, cut down the center and remove the sausage from the casing. Place the sausage into the hot pan with a pinch f crushed red pepper and crumble the sausage as you saute. Once the sausage is browned, carefully remove some of the excess fat.

Next, dice the onion and place it into the hot pan with the sausage and cook until the onions are beginning to become tender. Mince the garlic and add to the sausage and onions and cook for another minute or two but making sure to stir so that the garlic doesn't burn. Add the 6 cups of chicken stock to the pot and add the bay leaf as well.

Thoroughly wash your potatoes until cold water and peel if desired. Carefully slice the potato in half length ways and cut the halves into 1/2 inch slices. Add the potatoes into the pot to allow them to cook.

Fill a medium sized pot with water and place over high heat to bring the water to a boil. While the water boils, add some ice to a large bowl and add very cold tap water. We're going to blanch the kale quickly for a minute or two and then transfer to kale right away to the ice water. this will shock the kale and lock in the beautiful green color.

To remove the kale from the stem, firmly hold the stem of the kale with one hand and wrap your other hand around it just behind the leaves. Pull your one hand down while still griping the top of the steam and the kale will quickly and easily be removed. Give the kale leaves a rough chop.

Once the water has come to a boil, add the kale and cook for only a minute or two. Remove the kale from the water and immediately plunge the kale into the ice water bath and allow the kale to cool. Drain the kale and pat dry with a kitchen towel and add into the hot broth.

Once the potatoes in the soup are tender, add the heavy cream, freshly cut basil, and grated parmesan to the broth and stir. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with an extra grating of parmesan cheese. Perfect soup for a chilly movie night and one that all your friends and family will enjoy.

Sausage, peppers, and onions with Penne

**Back again after technical difficulties kept me from posting**

Flavorful Italian Sausage with peppers, onions and pasta tossed together in a garlicy tomato sauce is one of my favorite dishes.Using both sweet and hot Italian sausage gives your taste buds the best of both worlds but feel free to use all sweet or hot to suit your liking. The key for a perfect dish of sausage and peppers to me is cooking the peppers just until they've become tender but still have a bit of crisp to them. Serve with a nice piece of bread and fresh parmesan cheese and this plate is sure to be a favorite of yours too!

Serves 4-6

1 pound link of Sweet Italian Sausage
1 pound link of Hot Italian Sausage
1 large red onion
1 medium sized Green Bell pepper
1 medium sized Yellow Bell pepper
1 medium sized Red Bell pepper
16oz can of Diced Tomatoes
16oz can of Tomato Sauce
2 cloves of Garlic
10-12 fresh basil leaves chopped
1 pound of penne pasta

Preheat your oven to 375. Place the links of sausage onto a baking sheet with a slight drizzle of olive oil on the bottom. Bake the links for about 10 to 15 minutes. Turn the sausages with tongs about halfway through cooking time. Once done, remove from the oven and set aside for now. Wash the bell peppers and cut them and the red onion into medium sized pieces. Finely mince or grate two cloves of garlic.

In a large satue pan, drizzle some olive oil and heat oven a medium high heat. Add the peppers and onions and cook for 10 minutes stirring frequently during the cooking time. The goal here is to cook the vegetables long enough where they start to become tender but still have a slight crisp to them as if they were raw. Bring a large pot of water season with plenty of salt. When the water comes to a boil, add the pasta and cook according to directions on the package.

While the peppers and onions are cooking, slice the sausage links on a bias. Add the sausage and garlic into the satue pan with the vegetables and continue cooking for about 3 minutes to give the garlic time to cook.

Add the can of diced tomatoes and tomato sauce and stir together. Add the freshly chopped basil and salt and pepper. Allow the sauce to simmer while the pasta finishes to boil. Once the pasta has been cooked, drain and add the pasta straight into the pan with the sauce. Stir together to coat all the noodles with the sauce. Serve hot with parmesan cheese.

My favorite Grown up Grilled Cheese - Cheddar, Apple, and bacon on Sourdough

Who doesn't love a grilled cheese sandwich?? It's one of the first foods we fall in love with as kids and that love affair never really goes away. A grilled cheese doesn't have to be just boring old melted American cheese on white bread. My favorite grilled cheese consists of nice sharp cheddar cheese with a few sweet slices of apples and salty and smokey apple wood smoked bacon. Grilled to perfection on some sourdough bread and this is the perfect grilled cheese for me.

(Ingredient quantity is per sandwich)

3-4 pieces of apple wood smoked bacon
5 slices of Cheddar cheese
About 1/2 of one apple sliced (whichever kind you like)
2 slices of sourdough bread
Softened butter

First step is to fry the bacon until it's nice and crispy. If you're making a few grilled cheese and good way to cook all the bacon at once is lining it onto a sheet pan and baking it in the oven at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes or until the bacon is crisp. When the bacon is done, remove from the pan and allow it to rest on some paper towels and pat off any excess grease.

While the bacon rests for a minute, slice your apple pretty thin and get your sliced cheddar out. If you're getting the cheddar from a deli counter just ask for it to be sliced on the thinner side or if you're cutting it by hand from a block of cheddar just do the best you can.


Now it's time to assemble the sandwich. First butter one side of two slices of our sourdough bread. I will mention here that I'm normally not a sourdough fan but when I was developing this recipe out of all the breads I tried I liked this one the best for this particular grilled cheese. Next lay down two slices of cheddar cheddar cheese on the opposite side of our buttered bread. Place our sliced apple over top, then one slice of cheddar cheese, the crispy bacon, the rest of the sliced cheddar, and cap the sandwich off with the other slice of bread with the buttered side facing you.

Place the sandwich buttered side down on a skillet that's been preheated over medium heat. Grill on each side for about 5-7 minutes or until the bread is golden brown. Remove from the pan, slice in half, and serve next to a Harvest House salad for a great Autumn time meal.

Down Home BBQ Rib Dinner with the film Crazy Heart

Head on down to the Southern region of the United States and you're guaranteed to find more BBQ shacks than you can image. All of them have their own secret sauce, spice combinations, and cooking methods to help set them apart from their competition. Though these BBQ shacks truly do have the world's best, good barbecue can be made in your own kitchen. Throw in some classic side dishes of buttermilk biscuits and crispy onion rings and we'll be bringing the South right to our own kitchens. Of course the only thing more loved in the Southern states than barbecue may be country music. In 2009, the world was told the emotional story of the fictional Country Music singer Bad Blake in the outstanding film Crazy Heart. A fantastic story, superb acting, and great music make this movie one of the best films made in recent years.

1 rack of Pork Ribs
1 cup of Ketchup
1/8 cup of Apple Cider Vinegar
1/8 cup of Light Brown Sugar
2 Tablespoons of Honey
2 Tablespoons of Mesquite Grill spice
2 teaspoons of dried mustard
1/2 teaspoon of worcestershire sauce
1 Tablespoon of Siracha Chilli Paste
1 Shallot (Grated)
1 clove of Garlic (Grated)
Kosher Salt and Black Pepper

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees. Generously season the ribs with salt and pepper and sprinkle on a bit of our grill seasoning. Tightly wrap the ribs in aluminum foil and place them in the oven to bake for 2 hours.

Whisk together the ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar, honey, grill spice, mustard, chilli paste, worcestershire sauce, shallot, and garlic in a medium sized sauce pan. Simmer the sauce over medium low heat for about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let stand until ready to baste our ribs on the grill.

Onion rings are a great side dish to go with these ribs. Here is the link to my full recipe for the onion rings. While the ribs continue to bake, slice the onions and get them soaking in the buttermilk. Before you pour the buttermilk over the onions, pre measure out 1/2 cup that we'll need for our biscuits.

To make our biscuits. We'll need 1 cup of flour, 1/2 tablespoon of baking powder, 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda, 1/2 cup of buttermilk, 3 tablespoons of very cold butter, 1/4 cup of freshly grated cheddar, 2 chopped scallions, and 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt. Start by combing the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Using a pastry cutter, a fork, or even a food processor - cut the cold butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is very coarse. Add the buttermilk, scallions, and cheddar cheese and mix together just until the dough has formed. Flour a cutting board or your counter top and gently pat the dough ball flat. Use a large glass or a biscuit cutter to cut out the biscuits and place them on an un greased  cookie sheet. Place the biscuits in the fridge until we're ready to bake them off.

Once the ribs have finished baking, remove them from the tinfoil. Heat your grill to a medium high temperature and transfer the ribs to the grill. Using a silicon barbecue brush, load up our ribs with our homemade sauce on both sides. Grill the ribs for about 15 minutes on each side, keeping a close eye on them and adding more sauce throughout the grilling process. Once the ribs have about 10 minutes left, heat your oven to 400 degrees and bake our biscuits for about 10-12 minutes until they're golden brown on top.

By now our ribs are grilled perfectly and because we baked them for low and slow before we grilled them, they'll be nice and tender. Cut the rack of ribs up into portions. Serve next to our southern style buttermilk biscuits, and our crispy friend onion rings. I'm hungry now just thinking about it!!

Crazy Heart was instantly hailed by audiences and critics as one of the best movies of the year in 2009. Jeff Bridges earned himself an Academy Award for his complex performances as the the fictional country singer Bad Blake. Bad was once on top of the industry as one of the best singer/songwriters in all of music. His fall from grace now has him struggling to make ends meet. Life on the road has taken it's toll on Bad's personal life and his health. Failed marriages, a distant son he has no connection with, and the once sold out crowds he'd play too are now a handful of people in bowling alley's and side bars.

Bad can't help himself but reach for the light and a reserection of his life and his career when journalist Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal) asks to interview him. Despite the apparent differences between the two, they begin a romantic relationship and soon Bad has the closest thing to a family. Jean and her four year old son Buddy may be what Bad needs if he can only free himself of the demons he still battles and the grip they have on him. Robert Duvall and Collin Farrell costar in one of great American films that I think a lot of people missed.

Jeff Bridges gave the performance of a lifetime in Crazy Heart and his Oscar award was well deserved to say the least. His role as Bad Blake was one he was destined to portray and he makes what would have been just another ordinary movie into something truly spectacular. Click here to watch the trailer on YouTube to Crazy Heart.

Grilled Pork Chops with homemade Barbecue Sauce and Days of Thunder

The smell of the charcoal grill burning on a summer night never fails to take me back to my childhood. Add the smell of fresh barbecue cooking away and you've got one of the classic scents of summer. There are quite a few good quality BBQ sauces on the store shelves these days but I'm going to share my quick recipe to make your own. Sweetened with brown sugar, a splash of cola and spiced up with some chipotle peppers, it's the perfect balance of sweet and hot. Since the smell of charcoal brings me back to my days of summer as a kid, I wanted to pair this dinner with a movie that did the same. Few things capture the attention of a little boy than race cars and in the late 80s and early 90s, NASCAR was one of the hottest trends going.  Hollywood caught on fast and the movie Days of Thunder was released in the summer of 1990. Though I'm no longer the race fan I was a as a kid, I still love the watch this film every now and then to help me relive the excitement it brought me as a child. Here is how we'll make our dinner before we start with this weeks film.

2 thick cut boneless pork chops
For the BBQ Sauce
1 cup of Ketchup
½ cup of Apple Cider Vinegar
1 tablespoon of butter
1 shallot (minced or grated)
2 cloves of garlic (minced or grated) 
2 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
6 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of paprika
1 canned chipotle pepper chopped finely
¼ cup of Coca-cola
Freshly cracked black pepper and kosher salt

In a sauce pan, melt the butter and sweat the the shallot and the garlic together for about 2 minutes. Sweating is different than when we sauté because we aren't looking to achieve a browned color. All we are doing is heating them so that they literally sweat and release moisture. Next, add the ketchup, brown sugar, and the mustard to the pan and stir together until the brown sugar dissolves. Add the remaining ingredients to the sauce and bring to a low simmer. Simmer the sauce for about 30 minutes stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper.
 
Sprinkle a little paprika, salt, pepper, and garlic powder onto the pork chops and rub the spices into the meat. Spoon a bit of sauce on each pork chop but make sure you don't touch the pork chops with the spoon and then dip it back into the sauce, you don't want to contaminant the whole pot of sauce. Once seasoned and sauced, leave the chops sit in the refrigerator while you prepare your charcoal, or gas, grill. If you don't know how to prepare or cook with a charcoal grill, an entire post is coming either this week or next on how to do so.

Pour a bit of our homemade barbecue sauce into a separate bowl that you can take out to the grill with you. Add just enough for the amount of pork chops you are grilling because like before, once we spread the sauce onto the pork and dip our brush back into the sauce we won't be able to use the sauce at a later time. You can always pour more sauce into your dish if need be. If you don't have a BBQ brush, look for a heat resistant silicone one like mine. There are much more sanitary and easier to clean.

Once your grill is ready, place the chops on the grates and grill for about 6 to 8 minutes on each side. After you flip your chops the first time, spread a bit of your BBQ sauce on top. Continue grilling on the opposite side until done. The FDA recommends pork to be cooked to 145 degrees so if you're unsure you can always use a meat thermometer to see if your chops are cooked. Once your remove the pork chops from the grill, pour a bit more sauce over top and just like with steaks we want to let these rest for a few minutes before we cut into them. I know it's tempting to but slicing into the chops now will only allow all of our delicious juices to escape. Serve up your pork chops with any of your favorite summer sides and a nice cold coke and dinner is served.


Days of Thunder starring Tom Cruise, Robert Duvall, and Nicole Kidman was a film based in the fast and unpreditable world of stock car racing. Robert Duvall plays Harry Hogge, a sucsessful pit crew chief who left the world of racing when his driver died in a crash during the Daytona 500 the year prior. When car owner Tim Daland (Randy Quaid) comes to try and talk Harry into working for a new race team he's putting together, Tim guarantees that he'll get Harry a driver capable of driving their car to victory. They turn to the young hot headed driver named Cole Trickle (Tom Cruise).

While Cole has raced his way to the top in other forms of racing, he'll have to learn to trust Harry's knowledge to survive in the world of stock cars. Cole's level of talent only rivals his temper, and it's not long before her builds a strong rivalry with other racers on the track. Just as Cole and the team begin to hit their stride, an accident threatens to keep the young driver off the track for good. In the world of racing, Cole soon finds you are forgotten about faster than he can drive a lap around the track. Cole will have to use every bit of determination he has to get in the drivers set and make his way back to the top. John C Riley, Cary Elwes, and Michael Rooker co-star in this fast paced early 90's classic. Check out the trailer here for Days of Thunder.

Grilled Brats with Beer Braised Onions and "Moneyball"

What food is classically associated with baseball? A grilled hotdog and a nice cold beverage. Since this week I'm focusing of films about baseball it was easy to think of what we'd cook up this week. To mix things up a bit, I'm using beer brats for my recipe but feel free to use a classic hot dog instead of a brat. Brats are similar to a hot dog but contain different spices. You still serve them up the same way, on a bun with your favorite condiments. Top these grilled brats off with some shredded cheddar and beer braised onions with a side of french fries or onion rings and I think we have ourselves dinner. Of course we always have a movie to go with dinner and this week we have the reveal of my #1 baseball movie from Monday's post - the 2011 film "Moneyball."

For the Brats and Onions

1 Package of Beer or Stadium Brats
1 large onion
Kosher Salt and freshly cracked pepper (About ½ teaspoon of each)
1 teaspoon of sugar
¾ cup of Beer (Any regular beer you like to drink)
8 ounces of freshly grated cheddar
1 package of good quality buns

For a side of fries or onion rings, click below to go to those posts:
Onion Rings
Fresh cut French Fries

Start by peeling the onion and slicing the onion into thin slices. Melt the butter in a saute pan over medium heat and add the onions to the butter. Cook the onions in the butter for 7-10 minutes, stirring them frequently. Add your salt, pepper, and sugar to the onions and mix.

Next add the beer to the onions and stir everything together to combine. What to do with the beer you don't add to the pan? Well if your of age I'll let you decide how to handle this but I think we both know the answer. Lower the heat slightly and allow the onions to cook for about 20 minutes until the onions are slightly browned and have absorbed some of the beer. Season to taste.

Once the onions and beer are simmering, fire up the grill. If you're using a gas grill, have your flame on medium heat. Charcoal grillers should evenly distribute their coals and wait until the charcoal has turned white before placing the brats over the heat. Place the brats on the grill, keeping them apart from each other if possible so the heat can surround them. If you're cooking fresh brats, cook the brats for about 17-20 minutes or until they've browned and are cooked through. If you're cooking with brats that have been smoked and precooked, cut the grilling time in half as all we have to do is heat them through. Remember to always turn your brats with tongs so that we don't pierce the skin.

Once the brats are cooked, it's time to assemble. I like the put the cheddar on the bun first and then place the brat over top the cheese - the heat from the brat will melt the cheddar. Add your desired condiments to the brat and top it off with some of our braised onions. Serve with your desired side dish and dinner is served. Since we won't be going out to the ball game tonight, lets bring it to our living rooms.

Thanks so much to everyone who commented on Monday's posts. There are so many great films about baseball, it's difficult to pick which one is our favorite. For me there was little competition once I saw the 2011 film "Moneyball." It's not only the best movie I've seen about baseball, it's one of the best movies I've ever seen in general.

Based on a true story, Brad Pitt plays the real life general manger of the Oakland A's - Bill Beane. After loosing to the star filled and super rich roster of the New York Yankees, Billy approaches his team owner to ask for more money so that he can sign and resign players so that they can compete with New York. The trouble is, there is no more money to be had and Billy sees most of his skilled players leave Oakland for other teams and bigger contracts. 

While meeting with another team and trying to discuss possible trade deals, Billy meets Peter Brand (Jonah Hill). Brand was an economics major from Yale and brings new insight on how teams should choose their players. Beane is automatically hooked on the idea and soon hires Peter to help him find quality players that his team can afford simply because other teams in the league under value them. Not everyone in the organization is sold on Billy's new concept including his scouts and his teams manager Arte Howe (Phillip Seymour-Hoffman). When the team begins to flounder and find themselves in last place in their division, Billy must find a way to rally his team together and get over his past and the lingering affects it has on him or he may soon find himself out of a job. A gripping drama, an underdog story, and an interesting look at what happens behind the scenes for a baseball team all rolled into one- "Moneyball" is a very solid film that I can watch over and over again.

Both Pitt and Hill were nominated for Academy awards for their performances, as well as the movie for Best Picture. The true beauty of "Moneyball" is that it's a film that can easily be enjoyed by anyone. Viewers who aren't even a fan of sports will find themselves getting lost in the story and pulling for the Oakland A's to shock the baseball world. Fan of the game or not, don't let "Moneyball" be a film you miss viewing. Watch the trailer first, then go out and see this film anyway that you can!

Croque Monsieurs and "It's Complicated"

 I still remember the first time I saw the movie "It's Complicated" back when it was in the movie theaters in December of 2009. In the film, Meryl Streep plays Jane Adler who is a very passionate cook and owns her own Bakery/Bistro type establishment. In one scene, she's making dinner for herself and her architect Adam, played by Steve Martin, and I see her put something delicious looking onto their plates. When Adam comments how delicious they look, Jane tells him they are Croque Monsieurs. My first thought was, "Holy cow I don't know what that is but I want to make one!" With a little research I found that a Croque Monsieur is a traditional French sandwich with ham and Dijon mustard that's smothered with a cheese sauce and then broiled until sinfully delicious. I've made a few variations to the classic recipe and I think I've made this sandwich even better!

About ¾ of a pound good quality lunch meat ham (Off the bone ham or something similar)
¼ of a pound shredded Swiss cheese

¼ of a pound shredded sharp Cheddar

1½ cups of warm Half and Half

2 tablespoons of butter

2 tablespoons of flour

1 shallot finely diced

Black pepper and Kosher Salt

Pinch of Nutmeg

Italian Bread cut into long thin slices or any regular sandwich bread of your choice

Dijon Mustard

Turn your oven onto broil

Melt the 2 tablespoons of butter in a sauce pan over medium low heat. Add the diced shallot and sauté for 5 to 7 minutes stirring occasionally. Meanwhile in another sauce pan, heat the half and half over very low heat. It doesn’t need to be scalding hot, we are just heating it through to take the chill off. You could also measure out the half and half, place into a heat proof mug or bowl and heat in the microwave. Once the shallot has cooked, add the flour to the pan and stir constantly for about 2 minutes. What we are doing here is making a roux. It’s a classic and essential technique to know when making many sauces and gravies as this step is what allows the sauce to thicken. The roux should look similar to what I have pictured below.

 

All at once, add the warmed half and half into the pot that we've made our roux in and mix together. Add the nutmeg, salt, pepper, and the cheese to the sauce and continue to mix everything together until the cheese has melted and created our thick and creamy cheese sauce for our sandwiches. Taste your cheese sauce for seasonings and adjust to your pallets liking.

Next, place your slices of bread on a cookie sheet and carefully toast them under the broiler - about 4 minutes on each side or just until they have that ideal golden brown color. On one side of each slice of bread, spread on the Dijon mustard and then layer with a few slices of ham. Pour a little bit, or a lot, of the cheese sauce directly over the ham and then top with another slice of bread. Finally, pour more cheese sauce over top the entire sandwich and repeat. You should get between 6 to 8 sandwiches depending on the size of bread. If you have any cheese sauce leftover, either do what I do and just go overboard on your sandwiches or save it for dinner the next night because it's great over steamed cauliflower or broccoli. 

 

Once the sandwiches are assembled, place them under the broiler for about 5 minutes until the cheese sauce on top starts to bubble and gets brown in spots. Keep a watchful eye on the sandwiches however, we don't want them to burn! I like to serve these Croque Monsieurs with either a nice salad or with just some salty potato chips and a crispy dill pickle! Now as I mentioned before I was inspired to make this dish from the movie "It's Complicated" so of course that's our movie of the week.

Writer/Director Nancy Meyer's delivered us another great romantic comedy with her most recent film, "It's Complicated". Meryl Streep plays Jane Adler, a middle aged divorced mother of three who after 10 years of being separated with her ex-husband Jake (Alec Baldwin) has finally gotten some balance back into her life. Owner of a successful bakery and with plans to finally put an addition onto her house, Jane has a lot going for her. Still, with all her children now moved out of the house she still finds herself lonely. After all, Jake has been remarried for quite some time to a younger woman and Jane has barely had any love interests at all since the divorce.

While in New York City for their son's graduation, Jane and Jake find themselves together in the hotel restaurant sharing a meal together for the first time since their divorce. A few drinks and dances later, the previously married couple discover that the past might not be dead and buried after all. Jake now finds himself having an affair with his ex-wife while Jane struggles with her conscience on if she can continue playing the role of "The other woman". Add on top of that the fact that Jane and her architect Adam (Steve Martin) share a mutual attraction for one another, Jane's situation is a complicated one to say the least. 

"It's Complicated" is really a funny and enjoyable film from start to finish. I found myself laughing out loud quite often the first time I saw the movie and it continues to rank as one of my favorites. Streep, Martin, and Baldwin all give some of their best comedic performances in years. "The Office" star John Krasinski also gives a great performance playing the role of the future son-in-law who happens to see Jane and Jake sneaking off to a hotel together. If you're looking for a great film to watch that will deliver more than a few good laughs, check out "It's Complicated".

Stuffed Pork Roast and "What Lies Beneath"

I'm a sucker for bread stuffing! It's my favorite dish on a holiday dinner table and I could make a meal alone out of it. The other day I woke up with a craving for it but instead of stuffing a chicken or a turkey, I thought I'd make a stuffed pork roast. Being in the last full week of October, I wanted to still take advantage of the delicious apples I'm able to find at the Pennsylvania orchards. Pork and apples are a classic combo so why not add some right into my stuffing? Sweet, savory, and delicious this pork roast is a great meal for any night of the week and any time of the year. I also have a great movie recommendation for you this week. Hey, we are a week away from All Hallows Eve so of course I had to pick one that might make you sleep with the light on for a night or two.

Stuffed Pork Roast - serves 4 to 5

3lb boneless pork roast
7 tablespoons of butter
1 large apple (diced)
2 shallots(diced)
1 clove of garlic (diced)
1 stalk of celery
5 slices of fresh bread cut into cubes
1 cup of chicken stock
2 tablespoons of Freshly chopped Parsley 
Salt and Pepper

Start by melting 4 tablespoons of butter in a medium sized skillet over medium low heat and sauté the apple, shallots, and celery until they’ve become tender – this will take about 10 minutes. Add the diced clove of garlic and cook for just about a minute. Next, add the freshly cut bread cups into the pan and mix everything together. The bread will quickly absorb the melted butter and all the flavors from the shallots, apple, and celery. Add the fresh parsley and stir in the chicken stock. Stir together so everything is incorporated and turn off the heat. Take a little taste of your stuffing and season to your liking with salt and pepper. Set the stuffing aside for now.

To prepare the pork roast:

Step 1: Slice about a half inch down from the top and make an incision almost completely across.

 

Step 2: Where the first cut ended, make the same kind of cut but going in the opposite direction.

Step 3: Your roast should look almost like an open book. Season with 1 teaspoon of kosher salt and ½ teaspoon of black pepper.

 

Step 4: Spread the stuffing onto the pork roast and roll the roast up starting at one end and ending at the other. Secure the roast by either using kitchen twine or sticking a few toothpicks where the edges come together. Season the top of the roast with a little more salt and pepper.

 

 


Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and melt 3 tablespoons of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a cast iron frying pan over very high heat. Take a few paper towels and pat the pork roast dry - this is very important because the meat won't sear properly if there is moisture. Once the pan is hot, carefully place the roast down on one side and leave it set. We are looking to get a nice golden brown crust on the meat, this should only take about a minute or less so watch carefully. Do this to all 4 sides of the roast and then transfer into your preheated oven. Roast the pork for 30 minutes and then lower the heat to 350 and roast for another 30 to 45 minutes. Use a meat thermometer to test the meat, if it reads between 150 and 160, remove the roast and allow it to sit for about 10 minutes before you start to slice. Don't forget to remove the toothpicks or twine before serving!

Dish up your plate with a side fresh green beans or any of your favorite vegetable. For my green beans I simply blanch them in boiling water for a few minutes and shock them in some ice water to stop the cooking. I saute a diced clove of garlic with some olive oil in a small pan and toss the string beans right in there. Just cooking them enough to heat the green beans through again. Season with salt and pepper. Serve this pork roast with a nice chilled glass of white wine and fire up that DVD or Blu-ray player because we've got a great movie to watch this week! I'm really excited to review and recommend one of my very favorite movies, What Lies Beneath.

What Lies Beneath is the 2000 film starring the great Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, What Lies Beneath is a mystery/horror film that will leave you on the edge of your seats. When a series of strange events begin happening at the couples lake front home, Michelle Pfeiffer's character, Claire, believes her house is being haunted by a woman's spirit. Claire's husband Norman, played by Ford, doesn't believe his wife and fears the stress of their only daughter going to college is causing her to imagine things. Soon the events become more intense and Claire begins searching for the identity of the spirit that has evaded their home.

I'm not a huge fan of the horror movie genre, and while this movie might not be the most frightening film you'll ever see it still gave me a sleepless night or two after my first viewing. Pfeiffer and Ford are two of my very favorite screen actors and they both give great performances in What Lies Beneath. One thing I will say about this film is if you haven't seen the movie already - DO NOT WATCH THE TRAILER. Remember last Monday's movie post about how some movie previews give up way too much information?? Yup, this one falls into this category and gives away major spoilers. So instead of showing the trailer for the film like I usually do, here is a quick clip of one of Michelle Pfeiffer's encounters with her haunting spirit.