Carnitas Two Ways

I knew when I made the carnitas a few days ago that I was going to make carnitas pizza with the leftovers, but I had so much left after I made 1 pizza that I decided to make creamy taquitos too. I used a recipe from the CPK cookbook for the pizza dough and we loved it; I'm excited to try their honey wheat pizza dough recipe next.

Carnitas Pizza
Pizza dough (I made my own but store bought it
1 cup carnitas, shredded
1 cup shredded cheese, mexican blend or mozzarella
1/2 sweet onion, finely sliced
1/4 cup verde salsa
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cook the onion until soft without browning it.
Stretch the dough into a circle.
Spread on salsa, cheese, onion, and meat.
Bake for 10 minutes.

Carnitas Taquitos
2 cups carnitas, shredded
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayo
1/4 cup salsa verde
1 avocado
tortillas
Smash the avocado with a fork, then mix in the sour cream, mayo, and salsa.
Add the meat and combine.
Put a 1 inch wide line of meat on the tortilla and roll it up.
These can either be baked at 350 for 15 minutes or fried.

The sauce I mixed up for the taquitoes can also be used as a sauce for the pizza; just double the salsa so it's not so thick. The taquitos freeze and reheat well so you could make a batch to freeze and then microwave for 30 seconds when you want one. Hubby likes to microwave and then pan fry them when he comes home for lunch.

Carnitas!!!

My mouth is watering just thinking about them. I feel like Homer Simpson thinking about a doughnut. Winco had pork carnitas on sale last week so I picked up a pack. Once I got home I looked for a recipe because I've never made them before. I found a few for carnitas tacos and it looked so easy (and sounded so delicious) that I went back and got 3 more packs. The recipes I found all called for the meat to be cooked MUCH longer than needed so I came up with one I thought would give the carnitas a nice crispiness without drying it out. They turned out great and now I'm going to make carnitas pizza to use up some of the leftovers.

Carnitas Tacos
Approx. 4lbs carnitas, cut into 2' chunks
1 cup orange juice
Juice from a handful of limes
1 Tablespoon salt
1/2 Tablespoon cumin

Put everything in a cast iron dutch oven and add enough water to cover the meat.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer. Cover and let cook until the meat is falling apart.
Once the meat is done remove the lid and kick up the heat so the liquids boil off.
Continue to cook, stirring when needed, until the meat has had a chance to fry in its own fat.

We served on tortillas (flour because it's all we had) with a little cheese and salsa.

Upcoming Recipes

Last month I ordered more diaper covers from Mom's Milk Boutique and when I got the package there was a caramel taped to the thank you note. It was the best caramel I have ever tasted. I got online and ordered more that same day. Now my mission is to replicate them. I will make celtic sea salt caramels that are so good you want to stop everything and enjoy while it melts in your mouth.
Bread baking is also on my mind. There are a few recipes I've been meaning to try: banana bread, brioche, pita, and pizza just to name a few. I got a dough whisk and I'm so excited to put it to use. The Bread in Five Minutes books look interesting so I might get a 6 quart food container to try those as well.
If the kids give me a minute of peace tomorrow I'll start on some bread. Mmm banana sounds good but I'm out of walnuts. Naan is great with just about anything. No, I think pitas would be nice. That would give me a reason to make honey chipotle bbq shredded chicken again. It is by far my favorite barbeque sauce and is really simple to make. There's a smoky chipotle flavor and it's not overly sweet.

Easy Make and Freeze Meatballs

It recently dawned on me that I've never made spaghetti & meatballs. Meatballs are great so I'm not sure how this happened. They're so versatile; you can make meatball subs, add them to spaghetti, cook them in a wide variety of sauces, and they freeze and reheat well. So while hubby was at work I put Baby Boy in the carrier and got to work mixing up a big batch of meatballs. I had been looking for a recipe online and wasn't happy with anything I found so I made my own.

2 lbs ground beef
1 lb ground pork
1 onion, minced
1 egg, beaten
1 Tbs salt
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 - 2 1/2 cups quick oats

Mix everything except the quick oats. Then start adding in the quick oats until you've reached the correct consistency. You want it to hold together when formed into a ball.
Next form the mix into balls. I like to make smaller, bite sized meatballs but if you want them bigger just remember to increase the cooking time.
Finally put them in a baking dish and bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees.