Pook's Pantry Recipe Blog

A Life in Food by real-life Chef Cheryl Bennett

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Dinner Divas Weekly Menu Plan: Week 8

Dinner Divas

Dinner Divas is back!  Can you believe it’s already the second week of June?!  I can not.  The weeks are FLYING by and I feel like I need to press “pause” so I can catch up.   Although it isn’t officially summer, it is in full swing here.  Summer in Florida means rain and lots of it.  I can’t complain though, because it’s better than three feet of snow in January.

How it works:  Every Friday morning, a new meal plan will show up in your email.  It will consist of 5 dinner options, plus 2 extras.  Those two extras could be side dishes, dessert, drinks, etc.   The Dinner Divas weekly menu plans will feature (mostly) healthy, seasonal foods that don’t take all day to prepare.   Getting the weekly menu delivered to your inbox on Friday morning gives you the chance to make your shopping list and get organized for the week ahead.  We’ve got so much good stuff this week!  I’d love to hear from you & see your creations!  Post a pic using #DinnerDivas and tag @pookspantry!   I hope this weekly menu plan provides inspiration and makes life a little easier… one meal at a time. 

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Italian Sausage Burger with Peppers

It’s the quintessential Brooklyn street fair food. There are food trucks at every single fair or festival selling that spicy sweet mix of sausage, peppers and onions. The scent of it wafting through the air brings back memories of walking through booths of games, cotton candy vendors and frozen lemonade stands. That is the inspiration for my sausage burger with peppers and onions.

Sausage Burger with tomatoes, peppers and onions with knife
When I realized that after 5 years of doing this blog, I didn’t have a single burger recipe on here, well… you can imagine my dismay. I have failed. In an attempt to make it up to you, I made a burger with the flavors of Italian sausage and peppers.  

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How to make pickled banana peppers

Pickled banana peppers are quick and easy, plus they are a tasty addition to sandwiches, pizza or just as a snack. Another quick and easy pickle is my curtido recipe.

Banana Peppers

My banana pepper plants have been rather prolific and for this I am grateful.  As most of you who are regular visitors to this little space already know,  I went a little overboard in planting.  I have a tendency to overdo things and this was no exception.

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Spending so many years living in an apartment with zero outdoor space, I may have gone a little crazy when I realized that I could grow some of my own food.  This had been a goal of mine for a very long time (growing food, not going crazy… that ship has sailed).

I am fascinated by the entire process of planting a seed, taking care of it and watching it grow into something that will actually feed you.

The very first time I had a banana pepper was on a pizza, my Freshman year in college.  A small group of us had descended on the pizza place next to campus.  We were there under the pretense of “studying” I’m sure.

There were pool tables, dart boards (which I became quite skillful at playing), air hockey tables; all the things one thinks of when looking for an appropriate place to “study”.

Anyhow, there we were and one of the guys went to order our pizza and when the waitress came to the table and set it down in front of us, I noticed that it had peppers on it.  Not wanting to draw any attention to myself, I dug right in but in my head was this little voice shouting “are you nuts?!”.

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BBQ pulled pork recipe with orange and garlic

This BBQ pulled pork recipe is a game day favorite. Pork shoulder slow roasted in garlic and orange juice until it is fall-apart tender is mixed with your favorite barbeque sauce and piled high on toasted buns.

BBQ pulled pork with orange and garlic

This is the kind of food I want to have bubbling away in the oven making my kitchen smell of divine porkiness while I am preparing to entertain a group of friends waiting for my beloved Buckeyes to take the field.
(whew…  how’s THAT for a run-on sentence?!)

For most people, this is summer food… For me however,  I equate having my oven going for over 4 hours with cooler temperatures and for me, cooler temps automatically mean football.

I’m sure this seems absurd to most of you.  Everyone else in the blogosphere is making pumpkin this and cinnamon that and here I am making pulled pork.  Well, I’m sure someone somewhere understands my particular brand of crazy…  it’s called football people and it’s not just football, it’s my Ohio State Buckeyes. 

If you are from the Midwest or the South where meetings are rescheduled and Saturday afternoons are off limits “on account of there’s football”, then I needn’t explain any further. 
To the rest of you who can’t quite conceive of this, it’s irrational.  Those of us that love football with the fervor of a sale-seeking Jersey Housewife with a platinum card understand what it’s all about.

BBQ pulled pork sides

This garlic and orange pulled pork is great on its own or in a sandwich. It is one of those great “make ahead” meals that you can cook the night before and then put in a crock pot to stay warm for game day.

Here a few options for side dishes to go with your BBQ pulled pork recipe:

Ingredients for slow-roasted pulled pork

Pulled Pork

5 lbs boneless pork shoulder, cleaned
4 cloves garlic, smashed
1 large onion, quartered
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp black peppercorns
2 cups orange juice
4 cups water
1/4 cup canola oil
2 + cups of your favorite BBQ sauce – try my blueberry bourbon BBQ sauce or pineapple mango BBQ sauce

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

In a heavy-bottomed Dutch oven, heat oil over medium high heat.  Season pork with salt & pepper.
Sear pork on all sides.

Add onion, garlic, peppercorns, bay leaves, orange juice and water.  Cover and place in oven for 4 hours. Check liquid level after 2 hours and add an extra cup of water if needed.

After 4 hours, remove pork from oven and let it sit for 10 – 15 minutes, then place in a large bowl or on a platter. With two forks, pull the meat apart until all of it is shredded. While warm, add BBQ sauce and mix well to completely coat pork with sauce.
Pile onto your favorite roll or hamburger bun, sit back and watch some football…

17th of May

These days my neighborhood is primarily Italian,  but rewind a couple of decades and you’d see a very different picture.  A few blocks over from where I live now used to be Scandinavian, specifically Norwegian.   The streets used to be lined with Norwegian bakeries, stores, restaurants, etc. but unfortunately the majority of these have disappeared.  However, all is not lost…  every year there is a 17th of May parade, which is a national holiday in Norway marking the signing of their constitution and the best part (besides the food) are the people dressed in traditional clothing showing off their Norwegian pride.

photos courtesy of Keith Alexander
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