Steamed Kielbasa,Sauerkraut and Pierogies

 

This is from Family Circle January page 97.  The reason this caught my eye is that it combines 3 of my favorite things, as noted in the title.  I did not follow the recipe exactly.  I used the sausage pictured instead of the one in the recipe.  I also did not use only 7 of the mini pierogies, I used the whole box.

 

 

Kielbasa, mustard, onions, brown sugar and vinegar mixed together.

 

 Sauerkraut at the bottom of crock.

Sausage mix on top.

 

Disclaimer, I do NOT like mustard.  In fact, I hate mustard.  I went ahead and got the kind of mustard the recipe called for.  It actually wasn't that bad.  It works in the recipe.  Don't get me wrong, I don't plan on smearing this stuff all over my sandwiches...

All the kids in the pool.

After about 4 hours on high, add the pierogies.

On eating this right away... YUMMY!!!!!  Obviously I couldn't eat it all at once so I threw the leftovers in the fridge.

Day 2, still good, but a little tangy.

Day 3, very tangy and barely able to finish.

I'm going to do this again.  I think I'm going to double the sugar and leave out the cider vinegar.  The saurekraut has enough vinegar on it's own. I liked the mustard flavor but might cut that back a bit.

I also think eating this with some sour cream would cut some of the sourness.  Also might add a can of diced tomatoes.

Pork Lo Mein

Hi!

Been a while.  A few months I believe.  Don't know what to say except I've had a lot going on. Personal issues, work issues, family issues and in between that sick with various stomach and sinus problems.  I've been in a bad place for a while and as a result, I've gained almost all 20 pounds I lost over the past year.

I haven't been cooking because frankly, I've been doing nothing but stuffing my face with fast food and beer. 

I'm slowly getting back in the swing of things because I hope to be going on my first cruise this spring.  I haven't told my mom I gained all the weight back and I don't plan too.

So here we go with a recipe for pork lo mein full of veggies!


Tried something new here.  When I have take-out chinese I always noticed the noodles are brown.  This is a pot of water with soy sauce and sesame oil.

This is what I used for noodles.  Use whatever you like.

This is what the noodles looked like after boiling to al dente.  I tasted them and they did have a slight taste of soy sauce but not over powering.

The rest of the ingredients.  The meat is pork, use whatever you like. 

I don't like to bite into even the smallest bit of ginger so what I do is put my sesame oil in and slowly "fry" the ginger.  I let this go at low heat for 10 -15 minutes to get the flavor of the ginger.

When you're done with the ginger, stir fry your pork until no longer pink in the same oil.

When meat is done, add veggies according to how done/crisp you want then to be.

When veggies are done, add meat and pasta and mix everything together to combine and cook for another few minutes.

After combined and everything is heated through, take everything out with a slotted spoon.  The juice that is left will be your sauce.  At this point I added a few more squirts of soy sauce, a good handfull of brown sugar, a few squirts of Siracha and thes some cornstarch to thicken it up.

Pour in sauce and mix to combine.

Enjoy.

Pasta Salad with Poached Shrimp and Lemon-Dill Dressing

 

I was just flipping through Pinterest and saw this pretty pasta salad.  I love shrimp and had all the ingredients on hand so I figured this would be nice for lunch.  I got the recipe here.  

 

It was ok.  For me very lemony.  I think what my mistake was was that I used bottled lemon juice instead of fresh.  I also only had dried dill, not fresh. 

 

I think I might like to try this again and follow the recipe exactly. 

 

The dressing mixed up.

My skrimps.

Skrimps in the dressing.



Finished product.

After thinking about it, I think one thing that kind of turned me off of it was just the fact that when I think "pasta salad" I think mayo based.  The pasta in the dish was really dry to me and I'm thinking a little mayo would make it better.  I'm also thinking same salad but without the pasta.  Maybe some more veggies like green peppers and carrots.