Fall is for Pho and Trix are for Treats

So, one thing I love about cooler weather is the fact that I can make foods that warm our soul! There is a soup called, Pho that is seriously one of my favorite cooler weather delights! It's spicy, it smells wonderful all day while cooking, it's warm and delicious! You really can't beat that! Dee Jay's co-worker was telling him about some Pho he had the other day and came home all excited about it, so I looked up the recipe and remembered what I could from previous times of making it and got to work! The recipe that I went off can be found at steamykitchen.com. Now let's get to work!

Pho is a Vietnamese chicken noodle soup. You can also make it with beef, but for this recipe, I used chicken. To start out you are going to slice up a yellow onion into thin slices and get about an inch of ginger off the root. Turn on your broiler and put the onion and ginger on a cookie sheet and set under your broiler to cook. It took about 10-12 minutes total until the onion and ginger started to brown. You are going to want to check on it and turn over the pieces to make sure you cook evenly on both sides. Once your onion and ginger are finished, you are going to empty two containers (64 ounces total) of chicken stock into a big pot on the stove. Put the broth in a large pot on your stove and add one cinnamon stick and one package of chicken thighs (probably a pound or little more). Add the cut up, broiled ginger to the broth as well. Add about 2 tablespoons of sugar, and I used about one teaspoon of salt. Bring all this to boil and then lower the temperature to simmer the chicken for about 45 minutes or until it's cooked through. Now you are going to remove the chicken thighs from the stock and remove the skin and fat and bones. (We saved the skin for a crunchy surprise to top the soup with). Once you have the chicken meat pulled apart, you are going to put it in a separate bowl and add a little of the broth to keep it moist. Now you are going to strain the stock, and add sliced green onion (about 5-6), two tablespoons of fish sauce and your broiled onion slices. Bring all this back to a boil then simmer until ready to serve.

 

The chicken ready for the soup in a bowl with broth!

 

Now you are going to boil rice noodles as the package directs. It's going to take about 20 minutes total to cook the pasta, so while that's cooking let's get the garnish plate ready! You are going to take the rest of your onion slices that you haven't broiled and set out on a plate. Chop up some cilantro, serrano peppers, jalapenos, thai peppers, and add some bean sprouts to the plate. You are going to want to put out Sriracha hot sauce and Hoisin sauce to add to the bowl once you're ready to eat. By this time your noodles should be cooked, so go ahead and strain the water and rinse off the noodles with cold water! 

This is our garnish plate (minus the bean sprouts which I forgot to pick up at the store because Wal-Mart was out and I forgot to stop by the second store on the way home)

This is the broth simmering and waiting to be served!

Now you are going to prepare the soup to eat! Here is my ideal way to put this all together:

I add a good amount of noodles to cover a little less than half the bowl. I add the broth on top of the noodles until my bowl looks yummy and full! Then I add a little bit of each of the garnishments. (I know the Hoison sauce looks really "not appetizing" in the picture, but trust me that it is is soooo delicious)! Now all that is left for you to do is eat it ALL!!! I'm not kidding you, once you start on a bowl Pho, you are not going to want to stop! We're talking lick the bowl clean, fantastic!!

I warned you that the sauce does not make a pretty picture! 

But you're going to want it in there!! Trust me :)

 Now, onto a little dessert time! This recipe can be found on a fantastic blog titled Cravings of a Lunatic. This is so simple and extremely delicious. The only thing I would add to my description is to make this to eat right away (for parties, or work lunches etc). We let this set (covered) for a day or two and it went stale!! I was sad I only got two huge chunks of it before I had to start it over! All you are going to do it melt a bag of mini marshmallows and 1/4 cup of butter, and pour in about 10 cups of Trix cereal and stir. Put the mixture in a greased 9x13 pan and press down to fit the pan with a greased spoon (so it's doesn't stick), wait for it to set and then eat! It's that easy!!

So Delicious! And very colorful and fun for parties! 

If you have questions or would like to send me your favorite Fall recipes, feel free! I always love to hear your feedback and suggestions!

~Happy Eating~

 

Pork Tenderloin and Chocolate Dipped Pretzels

I love that Fall is finally here! This means football parties (yummy dips and chili), and cooler weather (soups and hearty dishes)! I really needed to "rearrange" the freezer to see what all we had in there and came across my pork tenderloin which I had almost forgot about! So, I whipped up an easy pork tenderloin in the crock pot while I cleaned house and made a fun little dessert that I knew Dee Jay could take with him to work and snack on! Both were a hit and very easy! A caution to the "snackers" out there, I almost ate ALL the filling to the pretzel sandwiches which would have a disaster because they were ridiculously fantastic, so hurry and make the pretzel sandwiches so you won't be tempted! :) Now on to the good stuff....let's get cooking!

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. It is very easy and so delicious so let's get started! You are going to start with 1 pork tenderloin (I had tenderloin "chops" so I used those). Put the pork in the bottom of your crock pot first. Then you are going to add one envelope of dry onion soup mix on top of the pork. Then add one cup of water, 3/4 cup of red wine, 3 TB minced garlic, and 3 TB of soy sauce. Mix this together and turn the pork to make sure both sides have been introduced to the sauce! Sprinkle in a little pepper and cover your crock pot and turn it on low for about four hours! See how easy that was? You can literally make this while running out of the house for errands, or pick up the kids from school, and come home to a delicious pork tenderloin for dinner!
NOTE: I had a few extra potatoes left that I needed to use before they went bad, so I sliced them in thin rounds and threw them in with pork! I would recommend this, you won't be sorry!

Now, on to the dessert! I am not a big fan when it comes to food in the sweet department, but I could have devoured the entire batch of these bad boys! For a little added bonus, these are just as easy (but more time consuming). I found this recipe on Two Tiny Kitchens which is a fun site with lots of great recipes! Now...let's get to making these! You are going to start by combining 1 cup of creamy peanut butter, 2 TB of softened butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar (you might need a little extra), 3/4 cup of brown sugar (you might need a little extra). Mix all these ingredients in a bowl (this is where I almost lost the whole recipe due to my lack of not being able to stop eating this sugar packed yuminess)! Now grab a bag of mini pretzels and spoon about 1/2-1 tsp of the mix inside the pretzels and squish together to make a sandwich. I rolled the peanut butter mix into a small ball and it made it much easier and the perfect "sandwich" was formed! Now put these on a pan and let them sit in your freezer for about 30 minutes. Next you are going to need some Baker's dipping chocolate!

Pop this in the microwave and follow the directions on the package to melt the chocolate! Now you're going to dip the pretzel sandwich into the chocolate and place them back on the cookie sheet and stick them back in the freezer until you are ready to serve! Something we noticed is that they will melt (not so much the chocolate but just overall) pretty quickly, so try to keep them on a chilled plate when serving or you could have very messy hands and fingers when it's all over!

Both of these recipes turned out wonderful, and the pretzel dessert was a hit with the guys Dee Jay works with! I sent him to work with an extra bag of them just so I wouldn't be tempted to eat the whole tray before he got home!






Hope everyone is having a fabulous start to your Fall season! I can't wait to share Fall recipes and hear what you all are cooking up in your own kitchens! Until then...

~Happy Eating~