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Parrilla Mixta Italiana

May 19, 2015 By Becky 8 Comments

This Italian summer grilling post is sponsored by Colavita.

To me, a mixed grill is the epitome of summer eating. When I spent a semester in Buenos Aires during college, I loved to go out with friends and order a parrilla mixta, which usually consisted of grilled steak, chicken, chorizo, and often organ meats as well, with a big bowl of herby chimichurri sauce and an even bigger bowl of french fries on the side. Add a bottle of wine and you have yourself one happy evening!

I don’t know why it took me so long to recreate a parrilla mixta at home, but when Colavita asked me to write a post on the theme of Italian summer grilling, this was the first thing that came to mind.

Here I’ve given the Argentine parrilla an Italian twist, marinating the steak and chicken with Italian seasonings and adding capers to the chimichurri. Argentine cuisine is heavily influenced by the food of Italy to begin with–even the Spanish spoken in Buenos Aires sounds uniquely reminiscent of Italian–so Colavita’s oils and vinegars work really well with all the components of this South American meal.

Slow-Cooker Pulled Pork with Peach Barbecue Sauce

April 17, 2015 By Becky 49 Comments

I’m not sure where to start: there are so many exciting things going on here! We’ve got a tangy, sweet, paleo peach barbecue sauce, spice-rubbed, slow-cooked pork that’s perfect on its own or drenched in the aforementioned sauce, and a pair of hard-core, handy-dandy meat claws.

Was that too many adjectives? Is it possible for a tool to be both hard core and handy dandy? I apologize–there’s just something about pulled pork that makes me a bit verbose. It’s so tender, so easy, so versatile, and so GOOD.

For this recipe, a pork shoulder is coated in a simple spicy-sweet mix and popped in the slow cooker with an onion and a bit of olive oil. While the pork is cooking, you can put your feet up and enjoy the wonderful aroma permeating your house.

Or, you can make some peach barbecue sauce to go with it.

Braised Chicken with Leeks & Scallions

May 8, 2014 By Becky 4 Comments

Coq au vin is one of my favorite classic French dishes. Chicken braised slowly in wine of any kind is almost guaranteed to be delicious, and I’ve made this coq au riesling recipe several times over the past year. It’s become my go-to dish for whenever company is coming. However, wine is not truly part of a paleo diet, and many people try to avoid all alcohol, even in cooked dishes. The question on my mind was this: can you make coq au vin without the vin? Without any wine, is braised chicken still something exceptional?

You may have guessed that my answer is a resounding yes. This recipe is proof: wine is not necessary for making delicious braised chicken. In fact, I liked this dish even more than the coq au riesling I’ve been making, and to me, the chicken and sauce still had all the flavor benefits of dishes made with copious amounts of wine. I’m eager to see if you agree, so if you try this recipe, please let me know what you think!

Want to know why this recipe is so good, even though there’s no wine in it? My theory is that it’s because of the following three reasons. First, this recipe uses Pure Indian Foods’ organic, grassfed ghee. Ghee is by far my favorite cooking fat, because it has all the delicious flavor of butter paired with the higher smoke point of oil. In fact, I think ghee tastes even better than butter, and it’s also a much healthier choice than canola or vegetable oil. If you haven’t heard me talk about the wonders of ghee, you can read more about what it is and how it’s made here.

Chocolate for Breakfast: Ghirardelli Intense Dark 72%

April 7, 2014 By Becky 8 Comments

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and also my favorite. Today I’m sharing how to make Ghirardelli Intense Dark 72% chocolate part of a complete breakfast. Don’t tell me chocolate for breakfast is strange–I promise that if you love chocolate at night, you’ll love it even more in the morning.

Do you remember those cereal ads that used to run in the nineties during kids’ shows–the ones that always said the cereal being advertised was “part of this complete breakfast?” I never considered cereal a meal, even as a kid, and I always wondered: what ELSE is part of this complete breakfast?