Holy Mole Pork Carnitas- So versatile!

Yay! Something else I can do in a crock pot! Easy peasy. Pork shoulder, rubbed with Love Abounds Holy Mole, seen HERE. Crock pot on low all day. Shred the pork and serve on tortillas with sour cream, salsa, guacamole, cilantro, lime wedges and olives. Put the pork in enchiladas, stews, soups, burritos or a skillet meal with potatoes, eggs and cheese.  I also blogged this here.

You can add salt, fresh garlic, onion slices etc to the crock pot also.
Smokey Ancho Chile Spice
Crock pot Carnitas
Chipotle Carnitas (Crock pot)
Carnitas 
Holy Mole Carnitas
Carnitas as leftovers for breakfast
Carnitas as leftovers in Green Chile Stew

Firecracker Pork ribs

I made these easy pork ribs in the oven. Rubbed with Love Abounds Firecracker Sweet N' Spicy, these ribs are a hit with the family. Not to spicy for my kids, but try Sweet N' Spicy original for bold flavor with less heat.

Some other posts with Firecracker Sweet N' Spicy Rub from Love Abounds

Matzo Ball Soup (Turkey)

Used up all that turkey and turkey stock yet? I used the last in this soup. I pulled some out of the freezer to make some Matzo ball soup. Turkey and stock that is.
Recipe for matzo balls HERE. I didn't add any bouillon on the actual matzo balls. Other than that,  I made them as posted. For the soup, I heated leftover frozen stock to boiling. Seasoned to taste, added the cooked matzo balls and match stick carrots. Then I let it sit covered with the heat off. Just enough to get the flavorful stock in the matzo balls and let the carrots cook. Serve garnished with celery leaves and with Black, White and Spice!

Nantucket Cranberry Pie

I know right, this isn't a pie. Who cares, it's good. I don't do much with cranberries, I make cranberry sauce, cookies and breads. That's it. Well, I also put dried cranberries in a post Thanksgiving chicken salad. That's about it. When I came across this recipe, I had to try it. This is INCREDIBLY simple and easy. You can search for the recipe, there are several- Food network, cooking blogs, and Laurie Colwin's More Home Cooking cookbook.

I made one without  nuts for Diva who insisted she loves cranberries. She only tried it. But it was at least something.  DH and I really liked this. It is more like a cake, like a dump cake. The crust on top from the sprinkling of sugar is almost like taking your spoon and tapping the top of a Creme Brulee. Crisp. I liked this warm and room temperature, with a dollop of fresh whipped cream. This Nantucket Cranberry pie does have a lot of sugar, but considering how tart cranberries are I didn't adjust the amount, I did substitute regular sugar for Love Abounds Vanilla Bean Specialty Sugar. I also added a grating/dusting of nutmeg over the filling and in the batter.

Filling

Butter to liberally grease the pie pan/oven safe skillet (about 10 inches)

2 cups of fresh or frozen cranberries- if they are frozen don't thaw them

1/2 cup Vanilla Bean Specialty Sugar

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans- optional

nutmeg

Batter

3/4 cup melted butter

2 eggs

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon of almond extract

pinch of salt

nutmeg

Topping

1 tablespoon Vanilla Bean Sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Liberally butter the pan/skillet/cast iron. Put the cranberries in the bottom of the pan. Grate a tiny but of nutmeg over the top of the cranberries or add a pinch to the sugar before sprinkling it on the berries.

Sprinkle sugar and nuts on top. (Or just omit the nuts.)

Stir the butter, sugar, eggs, extract and salt in a separate bowl.

Add the flour and nutmeg to the sugar mixture. Stir.

The batter will be thick. Pour it on top of the cranberries and smooth out as much as you can.

Bake for 40-45 minutes. Five minutes before removing from the oven sprinkle with Vanilla Bean Sugar.

YUM.

Diva's no nut pie.

Taco Salad (Love Abounds Mexican Seasoning)

Taco Salad

Everyone likes taco salad here so it's a great go to meal. I don't even have to remember to thaw the meat or go buy meat. We like taco salad with either ground beef or ground turkey. There are very few things I like with ground turkey... actually maybe two things tacos and turkey burgers- if done right.  I don't mine turkey in meatloaf as long as it's with a mixture with some pork in there somewhere. OK talk about a tangent.
If I don't remember to thaw ground meat for taco meat I just put it in a hot pan frozen and cook it as it thaws in the pan. With Love Abounds Mexican seasoning I brown the meat, drain and rinse if needed. Saute some chopped onions with oil if you want to use them, return the meat to the pan. Sprinkle with Mexican Seasoning, 2-3 heaping tablespoons to taste. Stir over medium low heat, add some chicken broth and simmer until most of the liquid is absorbed.  Add salt and pepper to taste. Sometimes I add dried Mexican Oregano.

Serve on a bed of greens, in taco shells, taco soup, on nachos, in Confetti Rice or in burritos.
Great in enchiladas too.

Maple Specialty Sugar

I got a convo today that Love Abounds Maple Specialty Sugar was blogged about! YAY! You can see the blog pot here on Autumn2May's blog. So what can you do with Maple Specialty Sugar? 

-You can use to to glaze carrots, peel carrots and slice them on the diagonal. Saute them in a pan with a little bit of butter. Pour 1/4 cup of water and sprinkle some Maple sugar on top, simmer until crisp tender and the water has evaporated leaving a glaze on your carrots. Like a little spice? Throw a slice of peeled ginger in with the carrots, remove before serving.

- Perfect in coffee or a tea. Try it with Blissful Blue or a black tea.

-Sprinkle a little on muffin tops, scones or cookies before baking.

- Top a bowl of fresh berries with créme fraiche or heavy cream- whipped without sugar or un whipped and a sprinkle of  Maple Sugar.

- Try Maple sugar in a marinade for chicken wings to make them sweet, sticky, and beautifully caramelized.

Scone recipes
Vanilla bean Scones

Birthday Scones

Simple Scones

Scheduled to be blogged-
Orange Caramel Scones
Cinnamon Chip Scones

Honey Bee Sweet Specialty Sugar and 800 friends!

Meet Honey Bee Sweet Specialty Sugar. FANTASTIC in teas, fruit, fruit salads, muffins, scones, vinaigrette, meats and so much more! Made with organic fair trade cane sugar and organic honey it's the bee's knees! I also got an email telling me it was featured in this blog post at the Brass Paperclip Project! Now THAT'S "sweet". Thanks so much Cindi.

In other news Love Abounds has hit 800 friends, so I am having a little drawing, I know I just did one, but I can't thank you all enough! You can enter here, you'll have to sign up but Hyena Cart will NOT spam you or anything like that and it's a wonderful place to shop anyway. The drawing is totally free! Just make sure you're a Facebook friend, join here.

Scone recipes
Vanilla bean Scones

Birthday Scones

Simple Scones

Scheduled to be blogged-
Orange Caramel Scones
Cinnamon Chip Scones

Coconut Curry Pork Chops

The other night we had coconut curry pork chops. I made them with Love Abounds Curry Powder. You can use any curry powder or even paste that you like.

I marinated the pork chops with curry powder, salt, pepper and coconut milk. Just enough coconut milk to coat the pock chops. Add a little red pepper if you want it spicier. A splash of fish sauce,  coconut amnios,  or soy sauce also. 

I grilled them and served them with coconut rice and asparagus.

I also have a coconut rice kit on Love Abounds.

Chicken Quesadillas with fresh roasted chilies

We had leftover Sweet N' Spicy Chicken, so I grilled some quesadillas and jalapeno poppers. These poppers don't have crab, and they were grilled so I didn't half them.

The girls LOVED this, the green chilies I got weren't spicy really so my oldest DD ate the quesadillas with the green chili, the younger girls ate up the ones I made without. I just realized that the one quesadilla I took pictures of was the one with leftover popper filling so it has a little cream cheese in it which made it so creamy and good. These can be made on the stove also.

Sweet N' Spicy Chicken Sandwiches and Grilled Squash

I'm trying to get pictures up of dishes I make with Love Abounds seasonings and spices. This one is Sweet N' Spicy Rub, but Firecracker, Southwest, or any rubs will do also.

I made the foccacia recipe can be found here. The sandwiches have avocado, chicken, bacon, lettuce and tomato.

GPAC Vanilla bean scones/Strawberry Shortcakes

These scones are light and tender. So very good. I made them with Love Abounds Vanilla bean Specialty Sugar. I didn't use a biscuit cutter to make these into rounds. I shaped them by hand. Make sure your ingredients are cold- especially the butter, cream and eggs. I used them for strawberry shortcakes with Devon cream. I whipped the cream with Vanilla bean Specialty Sugar also.

More scone recipes
Vanilla bean Scones

Birthday Scones

Simple Scones

Scheduled to be blogged-
Orange Caramel Scones
Cinnamon Chip Scones

Firecracker Chicken and Vegetable Soup

More from the Love Abounds Pantry. (PS- if you're on Facebook I would love to have you as a friend on the Love Abounds page, CLICK HERE. I use that page for giveaways, specials and to keep in touch.) OK so Firecracker Sweet N' Spicy Rub, a little sweet with some heat. You can use Original Sweet N' Spicy Rub for this also. I had leftover chicken breasts that were broiled with Firecracker Sweet N' Spicy rub, so that was perfect to use up leftovers.

Firecracker Meatloaf

A little something from the Love Abounds pantry. This meatloaf is made with my Firecracker Sweet n' Spicy Rub found here. YUMMY. 

 It's got a little heat and the yummy topping makes a crust that is slightly caramelized from the sugar in the rub. You can also use Original Sweet N' Spicy Rub.