Garden Salad with Olive Garden Salad Dressing

Olive Garden (Italian Restaurant) is one of the restaurants in our area that we go a lot mainly because they have the best garden salad.  What ever salad dressing they drizzle on it, it's the best!  Every now and then, I personally crave for a taste of their crisp, refreshing salad.  If only, we can enjoy them at the comfort of our home whenever we feel like it without the hassle of driving to the restaurant would be great!  So why not bring them home?  After few searches...I found this recipe, although it's not the authentic one but close enough and the flavor does not disappoint, either.

Really, you can create your own salad mix however you prefer but I tried to put most of the ingredients together that they have in the restaurant to get the looks and flavor as close as I can to satiate that cravings. 


DRESSING:
1/2 cup  mayonnaise
1/3 cup white vinegar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons corn syrup
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons Romano cheese
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt, or one clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon parsley flakes
1 tablespoon lemon juice
sugar (optional)

SALAD MIX:
heart of Romaine lettuce, chopped
Roma tomatoes, chopped
sliced red onions
sliced black olives
peperoncini
Parmesan cheese, shavings (optional)


Place all ingredients in a blender until well mixed.  If this is a little too tart for your own personal taste, add a little extra sugar.  Cover and store in the fridge for an hour or so to meld all the flavor.  Drizzle into your favorite salad mix. 
You can enjoy this Olive Garden salad dressing for about 10 days if stored in an airtight container in a refrigerator. 


Yield: serves 10
Recipe courtesy: CopyKat Recipes

Pork Butt Roast

As much as my dear hubby's love for pulled pork, believe it or not this is my first time making it from scratch.  We went grocery shopping together (which does not happen very often, by the way).  He picked this specific cut of meat and not even knowing what and how to make it.  Considering I'm the main chef at home being a homemaker, I started brainstorming on what to do with it.  And this is what I came up with....a super moist, flavorful pulled pork!  He couldn't even stop raving about how good it was while enjoying his meal, at the same time.  He made himself a "gourmet" (stacked beautifully to his heart and eyes' content) pulled pork sandwich out of it with his favorite barbecue sauce on the side and some homemade coleslaw.  And for little Sweetpea...she ate it carnivore-style!  I mean, just plain meat and nothing else...just the way she liked it!  Needless to say, I had one, very satisfied family with this dish.


1 (3-4) pounds pork butt roast
1 medium yellow onion, cut in rings
1 tablespoon liquid smoke
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
1 bay leaf
barbecue sauce of your choice,  optional

For the rub:
1 teaspoon Adobo seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon Lemon & Pepper seasoning


Mix all ingredients for the rub in a shallow bowl.  Brush all sides of pork with liquid smoke.  Then sprinkle all sides with the seasoning mixture making sure to rub all over the pork.  Rubbing the seasoning onto the pork (giving a little TLC) with both hands add an extra flavor to the pork. 

On a stove top, heat a little oil in a cast-iron skillet or thick bottom pan on high.  Place pork and brown all sides.  Another option, would be to put pork in a shallow roasting pan and put under the broiler for few minutes on each side to brown (but you have to keep an eye on this making sure not to burn the pork).  This seals the juices in the meat and renders any excess fat.

Spread half of the sliced onions and bay leaf at the bottom of the crock pot.  Add pork, then place the rest of the onions on top of the pork, then pour the soy sauce on it.  Pour the water around the pork (this prevents pork from sticking).  Turn on crock pot in low for 7-8 hours, or on high for 5 hours.


Yield: 4 servings

Smothered Pork Chops

One of our best meals during our vacation in Europe were German dishes.  Even though, Disneyland is not known for their great foods but dining at King Ludwig's Castle at Disney was a great experience!  Glad we gave it a chance after contemplating the list of their menu for few minutes.  Another delicious dining experience we had was in Germany itself.  In fact, it was very good that we went back the following evening to try different dishes they offered.  The last one I had, which to this day is still vivid in my mind was a pork dish with creamy sauce.  Boy, it was delish!!!  I was mesmerized by the dish that I was unaware to jot down the name of it, unfortunately.

The recipe I'm sharing today reminds me of that German dish.  It may not be the exact recipe and it literally has a different name but it's close enough and the flavor is actually very good, as well.


Ingredients

4 bone-in pork chops (about 3/4 inch thick)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoons onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 buttermilk
chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, for garnish (I used cilantro since it's what I had)


Put the flour in a shallow platter and add the onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne, salt and pepper; mix with a fork to distribute evenly.  Pat the pork chops dry with paper towels to remove any moisture and then dredge them in the seasoned flour; shaking off the excess.

Heat a large saute pan or cast iron skillet over medium heat and coat with the oil.  When the oil is nice and hot, lay the pork chops in the pan in a single layer and fry for 3 minutes on each side until golden brown.  Remove the pork chops from the pan and add a little sprinkle of seasoned flour to the pan drippings.  Mix the flour into the fat to dissolve and then pour in the chicken broth in.  Let the liquid cook down for 5 minutes to reduce and thicken slightly.  Stir in the buttermilk to make a creamy gravy and return the pork chops to the pan, covering them with the sauce.  Simmer for 5 minutes until the pork is cooked through.  Season with salt and pepper and garnish with chopped parsley before serving.


Yield: 4 servings

Recipe Courtesy: Tyler Florence, Food Network  (with Sweetpea's modification to suit our taste)