Baked Pork Ribs, Smashed Potatoes and Roasted Asparagus

Super Bowl Sunday, or Puppy Bowl Sunday!

Started with some appetizers. Nachos! This is something we use to have more often. Simple to prepare. Round nacho chips. Topped with salsa and sliced jalapeno peppers and jack cheese. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes at 375 degrees.

Next I made Cheddar Olives. The recipe is from A Nod is as Good as a Wink to a Blind Horse. These are always good. Only problem is they disappear so fast!

 For dinner I made my favorite Super Bowl meal, Baked Pork Ribs with Hoisin Barbecue Sauce. The recipe is from Epicurious.com. Perfect for the game because they don't require of hands on time. Of course if the Saints had been in the Super Bowl that would have mattered...

For side dishes I tried 2 new recipes. One was Smashed Potatoes. I found the recipe on Culinate. Looked like something different.

The other side was Roasted Asparagus. I am a fan of the Cake Boss. I also watch Kitchen Boss. He cooks food that my mom use to cook. One thing that I saw him make was new to me. Roasted Asparagus. Actually his wife made the dish. I love Roasted Cauliflower so I had to try it. Out of all the dishes I think this was my favorite!

Monkfish with Olives

Tonight we had Squardo Alla Matalotta, Monkfish with Olives from La Cucina. The recipe is from Sicily. My mom put monkfish in her sauce for Christmas Eve. I don't think I have used it in a recipe before. The dish had wonderful flavors. The recipe called for 2 lbs of fish but I used 1 lb for the two of us. The other ingredients I used the amounts the recipe had listed.

Ingredients
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 med onion, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced (I did not mince the garlic, just cut it in half for easy removal)
12 green olives, pitted and chopped
1 tbsp. capers
2 tbsp. flat leaf parsley
A few basil leaves
1/2 cup tomato puree (I added more than a 1/2 cup)
2 lbs monkfish or halibut fillet, sliced

Method
Heat the olive oil in a pan and saute the onion and garlic.
Add the olive, capers, parsley, basil and tomato puree.
Stir, then add the fish and cook for 15 to 20 minutes depending on the thickness of the slices.

We had couscous and zucchini and yellow squash as side dishes and Chris picked up a nice bottle of Gouguenheim Valle Escondido Torrontes.

And speaking of Chris, he has some great pictures of the birds who have visited our yard posted on his blog, The Bird Station. I can't wait for the Hummingbirds to come back!