Easy Chili Verde Stew

Gathering the ingredients and showing off my new pot!

Christmas came early today and I am the happy recipient of a 7 quart oval enameled cast iron casserole. A RED one!!!!  What better way to break it in than to prep the second meal from my roast pork trilogy. Must say I am getting my money's worth on this .97 a pound pork shoulder roast.  Most of the ingredients are staples in my pantry so this is quick to pull together. I am excited to see how the roast with the Number Nine Rub compliments a family mainstay. This easy stew can really feed a crew, and you could add other veggies to suit.  I stretch it out with by serving with white rice and we like either flour tortillas or tortilla chips on the side with a nice beer. If you have leftovers, even better the next day.

What is your favorite way of making your meat choices stretch over a few dishes? I have one more meal up my sleeve, just wait and see....

Easy Chili Verde Stew

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Brussels Spouts, Toasted Walnuts and Bacon

What's not to like? Tender little cabbages, walnuts toasted in Limerock Orchards Walnut Oil and a smattering of bacon. Again I am working hard to make a star of the side.

Mushrooms, brussels sprouts and toasted walnuts.

Fresh, sauted in a combination of olive oil and walnut oil, carmalized onions and finished with a sprinkle of white balsmatic vinegar and chicken stock in the oven. Served with a bit of toasted walnuts and bacon. Love these little cabbages.  How do you like your brussels sprouts?

Spicy Pork Roast with Butternut Squash & Apples

Spicy Roasted Pork

Our autumn cold weather has set in and I am conjuring up stews, soups and other seasonal dishes. Are you doing that too?

Read on and you will catch me, I am guilty of being grocery thrifter (well sort of.... ) I look for the cheap meats and bargains in the adverts and plan my menu around them. You know you do it too, don't you? We all need to save money somewhere and sometimes it is our food budget that seems to have the most flexibility. At times, that means a whole-lotta-chicken! But this week large pork shoulder roasts were less than a buck a pound... less that a buck!   A massive chunk of meat can feed us nicely for most the week, but the trick is to mix it up. Otherwise we get bored and end up wasting it. I feel guilty when that happens, ack.

First on my wishlist is to satisfy my hankering for pork chili verde, a family favorite. But, for a Monday night, that takes just  too much cooking time. So I opted for roasting it for Dinner Number One. It is then easy enough to divide up the cooked meat and later whip up some nice pulled pork sandwiches and my verde in short order. Makes my work week cooking go so much faster.

Spicy Pork Roast
To flavor the roast I wanted to be sure to compliment and support the future dishes I have in mind. I jumped at the chance to revisit the wonderful spice rub I discovered over the summer. Thanks to Alton Brown and the recipe at Food Network, Rub Number Nine.  Supported by a delish concoction of butternut squash, apples, oranges and red onion and dinner is served. Guess what other secret ingredient made this roast extra special? It rhymes with October.  Curious? Post a comment to ask and I'll give it up.

Prep the roast by generously rubbing in the spices on all sides. Let rest 30 minutes to 1 hour before roasting. Would be even better if you had time to do overnight, the favors would really sink in.
Roast at 350˚ until meat thermometer reach about 170˚ at thickest part of roast. Put one half secret ingredient in roasting pan at beginning and balance when you put in the squash apple mixture the last hour of roasting. Let the roast rest for 15 minutes before slicing.

Roasted Butternut Squash, Apples and Onion
Serves 4
Cut vegetables/fruit in uniform pieces - about 1/2" pieces
1 medium size butternut squash, peeled, seeded
1 large apple, cored, peel on (granny smith or other baking apple)
1/2 red onion cut up
1 orange peeled, segments cut into thirds
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
Pinch of kosher salt

Place fruit, squash and onion in bowl. Toss with lemon juice, olive oil and pinch of salt. This will need to roast for about 45 min - 1 hour with the pork roast. The spices in the rub mixture will gently flavor this mixture so no need to add more spices (for me.)  If you are prepping this for just a side without the above spicy pork roast a bit of nutmeg, cinnamon, chili powder, smoked paprika might go nice.