How to Make Roasted Pork Shoulder

When I used to cook meat, I found that it was usually hit or miss as to whether it came out well or not. It would come out well and I would think I had the hang of it, only to have it turn out tough and flavorless the next time. It turns out, intuition isn't enough. I would like to learn more about food chemistry, either by taking a course or reading some books. For now, I'm glad there are lots of recipes available for the culinary challenged.

One thing that made a huge difference was actually trying to follow the recipe. A lot of times I would do a different cooking temperature or use a different cut of meat than recommended, and not get the desired results.

Now I go to the store FIRST, see what cuts of meat are available, and then find recipes based on that.

One day a few years ago, I bought a chunk of pork and translated the name of the cut from Russian to English: "shoulder." That led me to a recipe which is now my favorite fool-proof way of roasting pork shoulder. It's not a slow cooking, pulled pork kind of recipe. It's a roast that will be done in a few hours depending on its size and how long you want to brine it (easily put together the night before or the morning/afternoon before cooking).

Of course checking the doneness is still a little tricky. Learning how to use a meat thermometer is on my list of cooking goals! I still have great success with this recipe, though.

Here's the recipe, and my photo is below. Roasted Pork Shoulder from Foodnetwork.com

How to Make Tender Chicken Morsels

I really want to keep up with this blog, but it's SO hard to find the time! We'll see how it goes. Here is a chicken success I had recently.

Somehow I got the idea of looking for recipes for "popcorn" chicken. I think it was after I experimented with wings (I'll get around to posting that, too).

It can be hard to keep chicken breast moist, but this method works. Note that the chicken bites are baked, not fried.

The technique is a combination of these two recipes here and here: the "shake and bake" flavoring idea mixed with a baking technique.

Kid-friendly, but could be jazzed up?

The visual side of cooking

Some say that Americans as a people are obsessed with food. We either eat too much junk or we spend too much time planning and making gourmet meals.

I do become obsessed sometimes. I don't know if I can really justify it, but it's one way to express creativity while serving a common need at the same time. 

A beautiful summer salad!

Since being pregnant and having a baby, I've had to have other family members do the cooking quite frequently (dinner time= fussy time!). I've been spoiled in a way, but I've also missed my kitchen experiments. So I look for ways to either make simple food more special, or to dress up food that's been precooked.

Here are some garnish ideas I was looking at. This is going to sound like Martha Stewart, but have you noticed how even some chopped green onion makes a bowl of soup look outstanding? I'm inspired by the photo compositions on food blogs such as this one.

Fun food garnishes:

http://www.prettyfood.com/garnishes/index.html

http://angiesrecipes.blogspot.com/2009/04/quick-and-easy-garnishes-in-response-to.html

http://prettytastesbetter.com/garnishing101/

http://www.passion-for-parties.com/vegetable-garnish.html

You can also do a search for "plating" to learn how the professionals do it.

How to Make Thin-Crust Pizza

So I tried a new pizza crust recipe recently. I'm not sure what I did right or wrong, but I was able to roll it out nice and thin and it yielded a near-perfect crispy crust.

I'll have to try it a few more times just to make sure. :) The crust doesn't really draw attention to itself. It's not the main feature. But it is a great vehicle for toppings, and is ready in under an hour due to not needing a lot of rising time. Note: mine was cooked through in 10 minutes or less, instead of 25 as per the recipe. Hence the need to experiment a bit more, but it was probably due to having my oven nice and HOT.

Check it out: http://thisweekfordinner.com/2007/01/31/uncle-tonys-pizza-crust/