Back to cooking...

This week actually was normal for me - nice when juxtaposed to the last month of holiday running around and such... I had bible study, went to the gym, AND AND AND - got to cook some stuff...

I made two fantastic meals this weekend - The first was kung pao pork; I used crimini mushrooms, bean sprouts, baby bok choi, a leek, water chestnuts, a serrano chile, a pack of kung pao seasoning and some nice lean pork.

I chopped up the pork and tossed it on the grill while I washed and prepared the veggies.

I like big crunchy chunks of vegetables in my Chinese food (the veggies are always mushy at panda express)

The end product was awesome - I made enough to share, but it was so good I ate the whole thing myself, right down to drinking the juices at the end...

The second dish I made for Carmen this weekend; Carnitas tacos with fresh salsa verde. I made the carnitas by throwing big chunks of cheap pork into the crock pot with some salt, pepper, and some green enchilada sauce from a can.

The salsa verde to top the tacos, I made from scratch; for my first time it came out amazingly tangy and wonderful. I peeled about 15 tomatillos - they are so pretty and fresh, though gross if eaten uncooked (I am told)

I threw them into a boiling pot with a serrano chile till they became soft and pale green. (please ignore that strange foam)

Then I tossed them into the blender and flipped the switch.

In the background I had chopped up a bunch of cilantro and an onion which I threw in after the blending.

The tacos; outstanding... It makes me happy to cook for people, even happier when they like what I have made... or at least politely lie and say they liked it... ;-)