Dumplings and Pineapple Fried Rice

I decided to try and participate in the Daring Cooks challenge this month, which was to make homemade dumplings. The challenge was put together by Jen of Use Real Butter. She has an awesome site and I've been a loyal follower for quite some time now. I was pretty excited that she picked dumplings, but was curious as to how difficult the process was going to be. I'll let you know right from the get-go I wasn't too thrilled that this would involve dough. The whole reason I never even contemplated doing Daring Bakers is because I'm a bit of a doughphobic. It's just sticky, finicky and destroys a clean kitchen. But this recipe only involved flour and water - how hard could that be? Ha.

Although time consuming, the pork filling was simple to make and smelled delicious. The dough also came together very easily and was pretty manageable to shape into little circles. Making those gash darn pleats were near impossible though. After throwing away like a whole dozen, I decided to scratch the original plan, and to fold them all like mini calzones. Way easier, and they worked fine in the cooking process.

I decided to try all three methods of cooking: steaming, boiling and frying. Steam and boiling were super easy, and yielded tender little pork filled pockets. Frying though, destroyed my kitchen. I've been cooking long enough to know that dumping water into hot oil is going to cause a serious (not to mention dangerous) mess. Not my brightest moment. Did you ever see that episode of The Newlyweds where Jessica Simpson was yelping as the oil burned her? Yeah, that was so me. Frying paid off though, as these were the tastiest of the three methods. No surprise, frying is always the tastiest. 

If you would like to a give these a shot for yourself, please visit Jen here for a step-by-step guide. Thanks Jen for a great challenge! 

I served these along side a fantastic pineapple fried rice, courtesy of Susan from Food Blogga. You can find that recipe here, and should definitely give it a try. It was the perfect mix of sweet and salty, and was devoured in no time!

Bobby's Italian Meatloaf

It seems like everyone has a meatloaf recipe. Whether it's their grandmother's or even their own adaptation, meatloaf is just such a staple food and everyone has their own version they like to turn to. Well trust me when I tell you, that no matter how much you like your own meatloaf, you must make room for this Italian version in your repertoire.

This is the most moist and flavorful meatloaf I have ever tasted. It has tons of beautiful veggies, grated Parmesan and Japanese breadcrumbs inside along with a tasty balsamic crust. It's not much to look at, being meatloaf and all, but it was really tasty and made the most amazing leftovers (I swear a meatloaf sandwich the next day is enough of a reason to make this).

The only drawback I see to this amazing Italian take on an old staple is time, cause it takes a lot of it! There is a lot of chopping involved to get all the veggies prepped and then the meatloaf itself took over an hour to cook. If I hadn't still thought it was delicious the second day I might have attributed a major part of it's yumminess to the fact that I was famished by the time it was finally ready.

I will definitely be making this again, but not anytime soon. We are off to the wedding in exactly two weeks and time is the one ingredient I don't seem to have any more. Yes, Culinary Wannabe has regressed. I have a feeling the only form of cooking going on in our kitchen for the next few weeks will involve pouring cereal into bowl and fighting over who gets the last of the real milk and who is stuck with the soy (we're practicing that compromise thing people always tell me is needed to make a marriage work).

I'm going to try and experiment a bit more before the wedding and hopefully will share some good finds (or bad ones for that matter!), but in the meantime be sure to try this meatloaf - if you have the time. :)

Please visit the link below for the recipe:

Bobby's Roasted Vegetable Meatloaf with Balsamic Glaze

Adapted from Throwdown with Bobby Flay - Bobby Flay

Giada's Stuffed Pork Chops

Every time I think of pork chops all I can picture are those tasteless, rubber-like pieces of shake 'n baked meat that I dreaded having for dinner as a kid. To this day I will never order a pork chop in a restaurant, and certainly never thought I would bring that kind of disaster into my own home. That is until my soon-to-be-hubby caught a glance of Giada making these little chops. "I want those!" he eagerly pronounced, which is one of the few times he has actually requested something for dinner rather than just being perfectly content with what I pick (we're definitely one of those couples who do the "what-do-you-want-for-dinner" fight at least a few times a week). So, being eager to please and feeling slightly tempted to tackle a few pork chop demons of my own, I caved in and agreed to make them for dinner.

Boy am I glad I did! That's right - I'm a pork convert. Not only were these totally delicious and moist, they also looked beautiful on a plate. They are stuffed with an array of wonderful flavors like sundried tomato, spinach and goat cheese. And the sauce that finishes them off gives this nice lemony taste that rounds the whole dish out. So, maybe it wasn't so much the pork I was in love with as the stuffing and sauce, but hey, it's a pork chop and I liked it. Add in the fact that they came from my very own kitchen and I think this was a pretty big accomplishment!

Even though they looked pretty complicated, they were surprisingly easy to make. Essentially you just mix some stuff together, jam it into a piece of meat, fry it up and serve it with a little bit of sauce from the same pan. I found the hardest part was attempting not to scald myself as the hot oil continuously flew out of my pan. I kept picturing Jessica Simpson in that episode of the newlyweds where she is trying to fry up some chicken and keeps screaming cause she's getting pelted with hot oil. I laughed then, but now I feel the girl's pain! It was worth the little bit of effort though, and I would definitely suggest giving it a try.

Mothers of America, put down the Shake 'N Bake!!

Stuffed Pork Chops
Adapted from Everyday Italian - Giada De Laurentiis

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves minced garlic
6 diced sun-dried tomatoes
1 10-ounce bag of frozen spinach, thawed
Salt & pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 cup (2 ounces) goat cheese
1/3 cup reduced-fat cream cheese
4 4-ounce center-cut pork chops
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/2 lemon, zested
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

• In a saute pan, warm about 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
• Add garlic and cook for 1 minute or until the garlic becomes fragrant.
• While the garlic is cooking, squeeze all water out of the frozen spinach and add to the pan.
• Add sundried tomatoes, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of pepper and 1/4 teaspoon of thyme.
• Cook for a few minutes until all ingredients are warmed through and combined well.
• Remove spinach mixture from pan and place in a medium mixing bowl.
• Add the goat and cream cheeses to the bowl and combine well with the spinach mixture.
• Cut through the middle of each pork chop, just short of all the way through, so that it can fold outwards like a book.
• Stuff the spinach mixture inside each opening.
• Season the top of the pork with salt and pepper.
• In the saute pan, warm 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
• Place the pork into the pan with the hot oil and season opposite side with salt and pepper.
• Cook for about 4 minutes on each side or until a golden crust forms on both sides and the meat is cooked through.
• While cooking, combine the broth, Dijon mustard, lemon zest and juice from the half lemon in a small bowl.
• Remove pork from the pan and transfer to a plate.
• Cover plate with a loose layer of aluminum foil to keep warm.
• Add the chicken broth mixture to the pan, using a wooden spoon to scape all the pork droppings off the bottom.
• Cook the broth for around 8 minutes or until it has reduced by about half.
• Place pork on serving dish and poor reduced broth over top.