Sass!

Suz and I have been making this torta for a couple of years for party’s and caterings. We love this recipe because it is so very tasty and it makes for a beautiful presentation. People always ohh and ahh over this torta. Trust us when we say that this is always a party pleaser.

Get these ingredients together-
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
6 -8 pears, chopped into bite sized pieces
3 tablespoons pear preserves
32 oz cream cheese, softened
2 cups grated Gruyère or swiss cheese
1 1/2 cups pistachio nuts, chopped and salted

This is what you are going to do-
Break out a large non-stick sauté pan and add your butter. Melt over medium-high heat. Slowly sprinkle sugar in while stirring. Next, add your pears to the pan and stir around real good, making sure that the pears are coated in the buttery sweet goodness. Reduce your heat to medium and cook for about 10-15 minutes. You want your liquid to thicken and pears to begin to caramelize. Next reduce your heat to low and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Stir in the pear preserves and continue to cook until preserves melt.
Transfer pears to a bowl and let them cool down. While your pears are cooling, get you a medium mixing bowl out and add the cream cheese and grated cheese. Use your handy dandy hand mixer for easy mixing. Season with a dash or two of salt. Liberally spray an 8-inch round springform pan with cooking spray. Now it’s time to layer. You know the sisters love them some layers of goodness. Spread half of the cheese mixture on the bottom of the pan. Then spoon half of the cooled pear mixture over the cheese and spread evenly. Add the remaining cheese mixture over the pears. Save the remaining pears for the top, you will add those later on. Pop your torta in the fridge and let it chill for an hour or so. Carefully remove the sides of the springform pan leaving the torta on the bottom of the pan. Cover the sides of the torta using 1 cup of the chopped pistachios. Spread the rest of the pear mixture on top of the torta and then sprinkle the remaining pistachios around the edges of the pears. Pop it back in the fridge for about 30 minutes. Serve with crackers or French baguettes slices.

Growing up our parents always cooked a huge lunch to bring in the New Year. For as long as I can remember we always had the same thing each New Years Day. Each part of the meal was made because it was going to bring us something in the New Year. Mom would always have fried pork chops and they were always seasoned to perfection and fried perfectly. Pig/pork represents progress in the New Year. Mom would have a huge pot of greens cooked in pork neck bones. The greens symbolized money or economic fortune. She would make an Army pot full of black eyed peas. The black eyed peas symbolized luck and prosperity; the peas were also cooked in pork. We liked to have plenty of pork so that we were sure to have some progress in the New Year. To sop up the pea juice and pot liquor from the greens she would make a big black skillet full of cornbread. The cornbread represented gold. We would also have mac and cheese. I don’t remember the mac and cheese having any significance. We just had it because it goes great in between the greens and black eyed peas. Those flavors just work well together. Our mother did not use panko back in the day because quite frankly, we didn’t know about panko. The Sister’s wish you a lot of progress, economic fortune and luck in the New Year! Happy New Years!!!
Get-
2 eggs
1 ½ cups panko
1¾ cups flour
8 thin cut pork chops
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup vegetable oil (for frying)

How to make-The first thing you need to do is take your pork out of the fridge and season your with the salt, pepper and garlic powder. Get you 3 shallow dishes out. We are going to set up a little station. Add your flour to the first dish. Season your flour with salt, pepper and garlic powder. In the second dish add your eggs and give it a whisk. Go on and season your eggs with a little salt, pepper and a few shakes of hot sauce. In the third dish, you guessed it, add your panko. Keep the dishes in that order-flour, egg and then panko. Dredge pork in the flour, then run through the egg and then coat that baby with panko. Put your pork on a plate and let them hangout for about 10 minutes or so. This will help all that yummy coating set. Go on and get you oil hot. Heat the oil in large heavy bottom skillet over medium to medium high heat. You don’t want your oil too hot. Fry the pork for about 3 to 4 minutes per side or until golden brown. Do not overcook the chops.

This recipe is the bomb digity! So good that we even made it on The Food Network for Paula’s Best Dishes. This recipe holds a special place in our heart. We would have had no idea of the greatness of this recipe if it were not for our beautiful Mama Hazel. We can just see that little French lady standing in her kitchen in Marksville, Louisiana, chopping the holy trinity, making the rice in her rice cooker and throwing it all together in her big black iron pot. All while we were salivating over each task that she performed. What a masterpiece she created. Later in life our cousin Kurt shared with us his recipe of adding the eggplant which makes it so creamy and delicious. Just another added bonus thanks to Kurt. So it is with great honor that we share this recipe with you.
Note- This recipe makes a lot of dirty rice. Does not have to be stuffed in peppers.

Stuffed Bell Peppers (Eggplant Rice Dressing)
Ingredients:
2 large eggplant, peeled and diced
4 cups water
2 tablespoons bouillon granules
1 pound ground beef
1 pound breakfast sausage
½ pound chicken gizzards and chicken necks
¾ stick butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
5 stalks celery with leaves, chopped
3-5 cloves garlic, chopped
½ cup parsley, chopped
1 cup green onion tops, chopped
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 can chicken broth, or boil chicken/turkey giblets (neck and gizzards) to make broth
2-4 cups uncooked long grain or parboiled white rice
Cajun seasoning
4-6 Bell Peppers (or more if you want to use all of the rice dressing)

Directions:
Add eggplant and granules to boiling water, reduce the heat to medium and cook for 15 minutes or until tender. In a separate pot boil the chicken giblets (necks and gizzard) in some of the chopped onion, bell pepper and celery, and cook down to one cup of stock. If you do not want to make your own stock, use 1 can of chicken broth. Drain gizzards and reserve stock. Grind the cooked gizzards. Brown the ground beef and sausage in a lightly greased heavy cast iron pot, add gizzards. Pour off the excess grease. Remove the meat and melt the butter and add the chopped onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic and sauté until tender. Return meat to pan and add Worcestershire sauce, and cup/can of broth. Add Cajun seasoning to taste and slowly simmer for 1 ½ to 2 hours. Add the eggplant with the broth, chopped green onion tops and parsley, and simmer for a few minutes longer. Cook 2-3 cups long grain rice or parboiled rice. Mix cooked white rice into heated dressing mix just before serving. Add the rice a bit at a time until you achieve the balance that you like of rice to dressing mix. Remove tops from bell peppers. Bring a large pot of water to a rapid boil. Submerge peppers for about 3 minutes. Remove and dry. Scoop rice mixture into peppers. Place peppers in a larege casserole dish. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 35-45 minutes.