Easy Pork Shoulder

Tonight, I made something that Wanda recommended from the Martha Stewart website, Easy Pork Shoulder.

Easy Pork Shoulder

Ingredients

• 1 boneless pork shoulder (7 pounds)
  
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
  
• ½ cup water

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Using a sharp knife, score the fat (but not the meat) on 1 boneless pork shoulder (7 pounds) in a diamond pattern. Season with coarse salt and ground pepper. Place pork, fat side up, in a roasting pan or large Dutch oven with ½ cup water. Roast until some fat has rendered, about 45 minutes. Remove pan from oven and reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees. Tightly cover pan with foil or a lid. Cook until meat is very tender, about 4 hours. When cool enough to handle, remove fat from top of roast. Using two forks, shred meat into bite-size pieces, discarding any large pieces of fat.

It took all night to cook, so we’ll eat it tomorrow, along with another recipe recommended by Wanda. It smelled wonderful while cooking, and the little nibble I tried while shredding the pork tasted pretty good, too.

Roast Salmon

I've been wanting to try this recipe ever since I saw it in the February 2012 issue of Food & Wine magazine.

Roast Salmon with Whole-Grain-Mustard Crust
Ingredients

• ¼ cup whole-grain mustard
  
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
  
• 1½ tablespoons minced chives
  
• Four 8-ounce skin-on wild salmon fillets
  
• Salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400° and line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. In a small bowl, stir together the mustard, olive oil and chives.
   
2. Season the salmon fillets with salt and pepper and place them skin side down on the prepared baking sheet. Spread the mustard mixture over the tops of the fillets. Roast the fish for 6 minutes.
   
3. Preheat the broiler. Broil the salmon 6 inches from the heat for about 4 minutes, until the mustard crust is browned and the salmon is almost cooked through. Using a spatula, carefully slide the salmon fillets off their skins and transfer to plates; leave the skin on, if desired. Serve immediately.

I halved the recipe, but since there were still four fillets, only thinner, there wasn't enough mustard mixture to completely cover the fillets. While cooking, this dish smelled wonderful. The flavor didn't live up to the smell, in my opinion, but then again, I'm not a huge fan of salmon. Tom scraped the mustard mixture off of the salmon, but said the flavor still infused the fish, and that it was good. And that's all I can ever hope for.

Purple Friday

This Purple Friday celebrated the Conference Championship game. It was pretty exciting, and there was a lot of talk about the Ravens' SuperBowl prospects. We did most of the usual things: restaurants, schools, supermarkets and business places across the Baltimore area. There were a lot of new items as well, from new band members participating, to the stop at a mall where Matt Stover and Quadry Ismael were interviewed, and to the stop at a YMCA - and we were running on time. The gig ran later than usual, since there was only one shift, but it really got us pumped up for the game!

Guitar

A fan of the band and it's "new" rhythm section, that has season tickets on the 40 yard line (right in front of where the rhythm section sets up for our performances), came to band tonight. He made a fabulous guitar out of wood from an old barn.

He presented it to the band, and the band played a few tunes for him, which featured the guitar he had made. I think it'll be put on display rather than be played, but it's still pretty darn cool.

Alfredo & Spicy Chicken

For dinner this evening, I decided to try two things.

Fettuccine Alfredo Recipe

INGREDIENTS

• ½ pound dry fettuccine pasta
• 3-4 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
• ½ cup cream
• Nutmeg

DIRECTIONS

1. Bring a large pot of salty water to a boil and drop in your fettuccine.
2. Melt the butter in a large sauté pan set over low heat. Add the cream to the butter as it melts. Stir often to combine the two, do not turn off the heat, but keep the heat at its lowest setting while the pasta cooks.
3. When the fettuccine is al dente (cooked, but still a little firm) lift it out of the pot with tongs and move the pasta to the sauté pan. Do not drain the pasta. You want it dripping wet with the cooking water. Turn on the heat under the sauté pan to medium and swirl the pasta and butter together to combine. Add half the cheese, then swirl and toss the pasta until it has incorporated into the sauce. If needed, add a few spoonfuls more of the pasta cooking water. Add the rest of the cheese and repeat.
4. Serve at once with either a little black pepper (for classic version) or nutmeg (for creamy version) ground over the pasta.

The Alfredo sauce turned out really well. My standard for that type of dish is from the Tidewater, and this recipe stood up to the test.

Popeye’s Fried Chicken Copycat

Ingredients:

• 3-3 ½ lb frying chicken , with skin cut up
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons white pepper
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 1 tablespoon salt

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 425°F. Melt butter in 13x9-inch pan in oven.
2. In shallow dish, mix flour, paprika, salt and pepper. Coat chicken with flour mixture. Place chicken, skin sides down, in pan.
3. Bake uncovered 30 minutes. Turn chicken; bake about 30 minutes longer or until juice is clear when thickest part is cut to bone (170°F for breasts; 180°F for thighs and legs).

This chicken did not turn out as well as the pasta did. I love Popeye's fried chicken, and after searching the Internet for clones, I thought that this version had the least amount of wierd stuff. It was also the closest, ingredient-wise, to a recipe for Oven Fried Chicken that I make from the Betty Crocker Cookbook. So, I used the clone's ingredients, and Betty Crocker's directions. Oh my, was it spicy. Way too spicy for Tom, and almost too spicy for me. It was so spicy, I couldn't tell if the flavor was even close to Popeye's! Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

Ravens vs. Texans

Boy, I wish the Ravens would play consistently. At the beginning of the game, it looked like the Ravens were going strong, but somewhere before halftime, they began to slack off, and even though they won, 13-20, the Ravens could’ve been beaten by Houston at any minute! What a nail biter that game was. I just hope they step up their performance for the New England game next week.
The band didn’t perform at halftime, since the NFL had designated the halftime of the 1:00 game on Sunday to recognize Punt, Pass and Kick nationally.

Crab Imperial

I've been in the mood for snow crab legs lately, and after going to the grocery store and seeing how expensive they were, I saw a can of lump crab meat that was on sale, and decided to do a crab imperial.

Crab Imperial

Ingredients

• 8 oz jumbo lump Phillips crabmeat
  
• 3 oz mayonnaise
  
• ½ t parsley
  
• 1 T half and half
  
• ¾ t fresh lemon juice
  
• 5/8 t Phillips Seafood Seasoning
  
• 2 T whole egg, beaten (½ egg)
  
• ¾ t Worcestershire sauce
  
• ½ t melted butter
  
• 2 ramekins for baking (or empty natural crab shells)
  
• Pinch of paprika

Directions
Combine parsley, ½ t fresh lemon juice, egg, ½ t Phillips Seafood Seasoning, ½ t Worcestershire sauce, 1½ oz mayonnaise and melted butter in medium mixing bowl and whip until smooth. Place crabmeat in separate mixing bowl and pour mixture over top. Blend all ingredients together by tossing gently to avoid breaking lumps of crabmeat. Place 4 oz of the mix into each ramekin and bake at 400°F for 12-15 min. Meanwhile, combine remaining 1½ oz mayonnaise, half and half, 1/8 t Phillips Seafood Seasoning, ¼ t fresh lemon juice, and ¼ t Worcestershire sauce in mixing bowl. Whip until smooth. Top each ramekin of baked crab imperial with sauce and pinch of paprika. Broil until golden brown. Serves two.

I've made this recipe before, and I think it's delicious. Tom, of course, loved it, too.