All I can say about this dinner is...
I wish my stomach was bigger. I'm not usually a huge fan of pork, because to me, it's just one of those blah meats. But I now have two recipes that really kick butt. One is the ever-popular Roast Pork Tenderloin with Balsamic Ginger Sauce, the recipe that gets a hit every single day on this blog, and the second is this one.
I kind of stumbled on making this because I didn't have the right ingredients for another recipe, so I improvised. :-) And this I think turned out way better than the other might have (though I think I might still try the other...maybe.)
Glazed Pork Tenderloin
1 2-3 pound pork tenderloin
1/4 cup chili sauce
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 1/2 tablespoons honey
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix spices together, rub meat with half of dry ingredients and reserve other half to mix with honey. Set aside. Drizzle meat with chili sauce, then bake for 15-20 minutes. Baste with honey/spice mix, blending with the chili sauce as you do (otherwise, all that great baked chili sauce will just fall off the meat). Bake until meat is done and meat thermometer registers 160-degrees F. About 30-40 minutes. Remove from oven, let sit on a cutting board for 5 minutes before slicing.
This second recipe for penne rapini I got from the April 17th issue of Family Circle magazine. I didn't have any broccoli rabe, which is what the recipe calls for, but I found that buying the "premium" frozen broccoli gives you really tiny broccoli florets, and those seemed to work just fine. I also forgot to buy fresh mushrooms, and used canned instead, but they worked out fine. This was really good. Another one that everyone had seconds on, so I knew it was a hit :-). So click here for that one and see their much better picture, LOL.
Third is my yummier take on baked apples. I threw these in with the pork, for the last 30-40 minutes or so of the pork cooking time. I don't really remember exactly how long I cooked them, but it was around 30 minutes at 425 degrees F. I had the candied walnuts from another recipe for a salad that I haven't posted yet (I keep forgetting to take a picture because I'm always too hungry for lunch and end up eating it first!). FYI -- I usually quadruple the walnut recipe and make a ton of them so I have them for this kind of thing and for the apple-feta salad I've been eating for lunch.
Candied Walnut Baked Apples
6 tablespoons butter, divided
1 cup walnut pieces
1 tablespoon white sugar
1/8 teaspoon pepper
4 Gala apples
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in small saucepan. Add walnuts, white sugar and butter. Stir until sugar is melted. Spread on baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned, stirring every few minutes.
Meanwhile, core apples and scoop out centers. Set apples in small baking dish. Fill centers with half a pat of butter, evenly divided amounts of the brown sugar, then other half of pats of butter (basically dividing the butter and brown sugar between the four apples). Top with candied walnuts. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake at 425 for 30 minutes, or until fork-tender.
The kids saw this as dessert, so that was great. Everyone loved the apples, and wished I'd made more. :-)
Shirley
I wish my stomach was bigger. I'm not usually a huge fan of pork, because to me, it's just one of those blah meats. But I now have two recipes that really kick butt. One is the ever-popular Roast Pork Tenderloin with Balsamic Ginger Sauce, the recipe that gets a hit every single day on this blog, and the second is this one.
I kind of stumbled on making this because I didn't have the right ingredients for another recipe, so I improvised. :-) And this I think turned out way better than the other might have (though I think I might still try the other...maybe.)
Glazed Pork Tenderloin1 2-3 pound pork tenderloin
1/4 cup chili sauce
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 1/2 tablespoons honey
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix spices together, rub meat with half of dry ingredients and reserve other half to mix with honey. Set aside. Drizzle meat with chili sauce, then bake for 15-20 minutes. Baste with honey/spice mix, blending with the chili sauce as you do (otherwise, all that great baked chili sauce will just fall off the meat). Bake until meat is done and meat thermometer registers 160-degrees F. About 30-40 minutes. Remove from oven, let sit on a cutting board for 5 minutes before slicing.
This second recipe for penne rapini I got from the April 17th issue of Family Circle magazine. I didn't have any broccoli rabe, which is what the recipe calls for, but I found that buying the "premium" frozen broccoli gives you really tiny broccoli florets, and those seemed to work just fine. I also forgot to buy fresh mushrooms, and used canned instead, but they worked out fine. This was really good. Another one that everyone had seconds on, so I knew it was a hit :-). So click here for that one and see their much better picture, LOL.Third is my yummier take on baked apples. I threw these in with the pork, for the last 30-40 minutes or so of the pork cooking time. I don't really remember exactly how long I cooked them, but it was around 30 minutes at 425 degrees F. I had the candied walnuts from another recipe for a salad that I haven't posted yet (I keep forgetting to take a picture because I'm always too hungry for lunch and end up eating it first!). FYI -- I usually quadruple the walnut recipe and make a ton of them so I have them for this kind of thing and for the apple-feta salad I've been eating for lunch.
Candied Walnut Baked Apples6 tablespoons butter, divided
1 cup walnut pieces
1 tablespoon white sugar
1/8 teaspoon pepper
4 Gala apples
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in small saucepan. Add walnuts, white sugar and butter. Stir until sugar is melted. Spread on baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned, stirring every few minutes.
Meanwhile, core apples and scoop out centers. Set apples in small baking dish. Fill centers with half a pat of butter, evenly divided amounts of the brown sugar, then other half of pats of butter (basically dividing the butter and brown sugar between the four apples). Top with candied walnuts. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake at 425 for 30 minutes, or until fork-tender.
The kids saw this as dessert, so that was great. Everyone loved the apples, and wished I'd made more. :-)
Shirley
Shirley,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the recipes and tips. With the economic news, I'm trying to get myself excited about preparing more food at home. Some days, that's a pretty tall order, LOL.
BTW, how do you get any writing done when you're making all this fab food?
Are you going to be writing about recipes again? Miss those!
Cathy
Gosh, they all look so yummy.
ReplyDeletePat L.
Thanks, Cathy and Pat (and Cathy, not sure where my reply to you went! I did answer it the other day--sorry!). LOL because I should be writing, but boy is cooking so tempting, too, especially as it gets cold!
ReplyDeleteI gear my meals for the week entirely around what's on sale and what I have coupons for, to keep the costs down. And I try to buy "odd" ingredients when they're on sale (I keep a running list of them on my fridge, when I see them in recipes I want to try) so that they don't end up costing me a fortune. Or I look for other places to buy things, too (like Asian ingredients are FAR cheaper at the Asian markets).
There are no more food books planned --good for my hips, maybe not so good for readers, LOL. :-)
Shirley
Frozen broccoli? Seriously?
ReplyDeleteDepending on the time of year, sometimes things like broccoli rabe are hard to find where I live. It was a good substitute and worked for me, but if you have the fresh stuff, definitely use that! If you read my blog, you'll see that whenever I can, I use fresh. :-)
ReplyDelete