Island Pork Tenderloin

My friend Penny gave me this recipe and told me it was her family's favorite, so of course I had to try it!! And boy was it tasty..I did change up the dressing a bit because it was a little too tart for me, after sweeting it up a bit I added some homemade ranch to it and it was creamy and so good. Also, make whatever kind of salad you want, I think I added broccoli and craisins to mine. I don't think you can screw it up, the meat alone is so good. And if you don't want to serve it over salad you don't have to, try rice or red mashed potatoes, I'm sure you won't be dissappointed! 




The Recipe

Island Pork Tenderloin

16 oz. pork tenderloin

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1/2 tsp. chile pepper

1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. olive oil

1/4 c. brown sugar

1/2 Tbs. fresh minced garlic

1/2 Tbs. tabasco sauce (optional)

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees. Stir together, salt, pepper, cumin, chile powder, and cinnamon. Coat pork with spice rub. Heat 1 Tbs. oil in skillet over moderately high heat and brown pork turning about 4 mins. Stir together brown sugar, garlic, and tabasco and pat on top of pork. Place in roasting pan or 9x13 pan and cook for 20 mins.

 This can be made into a salad that is so yummy.

1 sm. can mandarin oranges drained

1 c. fresh spinach

1/2 red bell pepper sliced thin length wise

1 c. cabbage shredded

Dressing

2 Tbs. fresh lime juice

1/2 Tbs. orange juice

1/2 Tbs. dijon mustard

1/2 tsp. cumin powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. black pepper

1 Tbs. oilve oil

Brown sugar or honey to sweeten. I also added homemade ranch dressing to make it creamy and is was soooo good.

Slice your pork and serve over salad and top with dressing!

Berry Good Smoothie

Oh what a slacker I have been! I have so many pictures and recipes I've yet to post out of pure laziness!! And I admit, I haven't been cooking quite as often since being prego, nothing at home seems to sound very good at times. Or maybe it's just the preparing and cleaning that doesn't sound so good...Anyhow, I'm going to try to be better so here is one recipe I've been meaning to post. I have been craving smoothies. So we went to Costco and picked up some bags of frozen berries and strawberries, and I have only made one so far!! SO I need to get blending. The nice things about smoothies, are that you don;t have to follow a recipe, you can wing it and put in anything you want. I actually just got an e-mail from a friend chalk full of smoothie recipes some even made with oatmeal! I actually want to try that one, maybe I will today. I'll let you know how it goes. 

I love these little serving dishes. We usually reserve these for our tea parties, but they were the perfect size for my kids and their appetite!

Topping these with whipped cream made these extra yummy.

The Recipe

Very Berry Smoothies

1c. mixed frozen berries or fruit of your choice

1c. vanilla yogurt or another flavor

1c. crushed ice

orange juice or another juice added for desired consistency

Blend all ingredients and top with whipped cream and additional berries

Brandy enhanced Alfredo Sauce

So Bartel had been bugging me to make some Fettuccini Alfredo, well I didn't have all the ingrediants that I usually use, like shallots, white wine, and fettuccini noodles. So we improvised and came up with this yummy cream sauce that had the kids licking their plates... Careful not boil
Brandy..hiccup!
I should of filled the bowl with more pasta to make it prettier, but it was my bowl, and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to finish it...or worse, I could finish it!!

The Recipe

Brandy Alfredo Sauce

2 Tbs. roasted red pepper oilve oil

2 lrg. cloves garlic minced

1/4 c. brandy

2 c. heavy cream

1/2 c. fresh parmesean cheese

salt/pepper to taste after adding the cheese which adds salt.

Heat oil on med low. Sate garlic until soft. Add Brandy cook until "Au Sec" (almost gone) add heavy cream stir. turn down heat add cheese. Taste, season. Will thicken upon cooking then, cooling. Toss with cooked noodles just barely coating them. Top with more fresh cheese.

Piggy Spaghetti

SO we love pasta around here. And today before we headed out the door to the water park, I remembered I had thawed some pork sausage and needed to cook it up tonight. So I pulled out my crockpot and started adding ingrediants to make a red bolognese sauce. Now, My Co-co loves red sauce, Bartel hates it!! So Co-co was excited for dinner and BArtel was happy with plain noodles with butter and parmesean cheese. Until I made him try the sauce.....He had two more bowls of pasta!! It's a perfect blend of savory, sweet, creamy, and spicy. My family loved it. I am sooo full. I hope you enjoy it too. And I hope I got the measurements right, I kinda added this and that, so make it to your taste, that's most important. Ciao' Yummy Ham, Sausage, and Bacon
I wish I had some fresh basil. Oh well, it was still tasty!

More ham (my son)....
Annie wanted a pic too..
And Co-co.....

The Recipe

Pasta Bolognese

28 oz. can diced tomatoes

15 oz. can tomato sauce

15 oz. can fire roasted tomatoes

1 Tbs. dried basil

1 tsp. dried rosemary

2 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. parsley

1/2 - 2/3 c. sugar

1 Tbs. salt

2-3 shakes red pepper flakes

1 bay leaf

chopped olives (1/2 small can)

2 carrots chopped

1/4 onion chopped

Combine all ingrediants in crock pot. Cook on low for 3 hrs. Remove Bay Leaf. Blend in blender till smooth.

In a deep pot fry 1 lbs. sausage until cooked. Add sauce. Add 1 c. chopped deli ham. Add 2 tbs. real bacon bits (soft kind). Add olives. Add 1 c. heavy cream. Taste. Season with salt or sugar as needed. Serve and top with fresh mozzarella and parmesean.

You can add the Mozzarella to the noodles when ready to serve, then top with sauce, my kids just don't like the fresh stuff so I keep it separate so they don't waste it.

French toast, Eggs And homemade Buttermilk Syrup, breakfast of the Champions!

I Love breakfast!! It's the reason I get up in the morning, it's the reason I have a hard time starting diets. It's just delightful to me. There's nothing like getting up after a long nights sleep (yeah right) and eating something yummy to start your day off. My kids love french toast, especially if it's covered in the "white syrup" aka: Buttermilk Syrup. My mother inlaw gave me this recipe and I love it, I also made a switch to almond extract, it just takes it to the next level, you can eat it by the spoonfuls... And it's it's great on everything, I should try it on veggies, maybe my kids would finally eat them! But really, oatmeal, icecream,pancakes, bread pudding, malt o meal, pretty much anything breakfast or dessert like. Now the eggs, Iam not really an egg girl but I saw a show of the "barefoot Contessa" and she did her's differently with baked eggs but using the same herbs and boy, what a difference it made. They tasted so fancy. My son has become a little egg coniseur telling me the last time I made them, "they were good but, there was just a little too much basil!" For heavens sakes, everyone's a critic. This french toast is really good with thick yummy texas toast or french bread too, cooking time will just be longer. I made up the whole bag, and saved leftovers in the fridge and toasted them up in the toaster oven for the kids the next day, and they were as good as new plus, the house smelled so good, like I was making them fresh from the griddle. I have pictured some coconut syrup that was brought back to us from Hawaii from a friend, sooo yummy. I'm working on my own version, because I know this bottle won't last here too much longer!
The Recipe

French Toast with Herbed Scrambled Eggs & Buttermilk Syrup

1 Loaf Favorite Bread ( I used grandma sycomores white)

6 eggs beaten

2 Tbs. Vanilla

1 c. heavy cream

1/4 c. orange juice

1/4 tsp. salt

2 Tbs. cinnamon and sugar mixture

Mix all ingrediants. Heat griddle to 350 cook until browned.

Herbed Eggs

6 eggs beatened

2 Tbs. milk

1/4 tsp. basil

1/4 tsp. thyme

1/4 tsp. rosemary

1/4 tsp. salt

Beat all together (for fluffier eggs, which I didn't do in pic, beat with electic beater until frothy.) Cook on med-low heat. The slower the better.

Buttermilk Syrup

1 cube Butter

1 c. sugar

1/2 c. buttermilk

2 tbs. karo syrup

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. Almond or vanilla extract ( I prefer Almond!)

Mix first 5 ingrediants in sauce pan. Cook 5 mins, remove from heat add extract. Enjoy!

Gooey Caramel Corn

Oh, ooey gooey caramel corn, how we love you!! This is one of my favorite desserts. But it has to be gooey, not crunchy, this is very impotant!!! And the great thing about this recipe, it tastes great even after it's been sitting out all night! A few things though, don't mistake evaporated milk for sweetened condensed milk!! Sometimes this is a common mistake, you want the gooey milk. Also, get buttery microwave popcorn, the butterier (is that a word?) the better in my opinion. And make sure most importantly, don't let in kernals sneak into the batch!! There is nothing worse then biting into caramel corn laden with kernals, it's annoying and you might break a tooth, if this happens, I do know a good dentist... I want to give credit where credit is due, I got this amazing recipe out of our UOP cookbook when we were in dental school. The wives put this together and I love it, I hope you do too!
The Recipe

Gooey Caramel Corn

Mix In pan over low heat:

1 lbs. brown sugar

1 c. light karo syrup

Add 1 cube butter and 1 can sweetened condensed milk, and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and slowly bring mixture to a softball stage with your candy thermometer. Pour over about 3 bags of microwave popcorn( or 2-3 gallons of popcorn) Stir and mix as you pour over corn. I do this one bag at a time, so my bowl doesn't overflow. If you must have a crunchy caramel corn you can add 1/2 bag of mini marshmallows to ingrediants.

More to come....

This week I have some great recipes for you.....
A request for gooey caramel corn...
Easy healthy Salmon dinner...
Yummy french toast with buttermilk syrup and herbed scrambled eggs
Fall off the bone BBQ pork spare ribs...

Keep you posted!!!

Summertime Pasta Salad with a kick!

For memorial Day, we had another family come over for a little BBQ. I had made this the week before without the corn and artichokes, that is what is pictured here. But when I made it for the second time, I was lacking some ingrediants so I threw in artichokes,corn and I think black beans too. It was really good both ways! Make sure you try the dressing before putting it on, to check for spiciness, I like mine more spicy so I added crushed red pepper to it! Be creative it's a pasta salad anything goes! Make sure you taste it then salt it before serving.
Spicy Southwestern Pasta Salad

The Recipe

1 lbs. Pasta cooked in salted water drained and cooled do not rinse

1 cup chopped broccoli

1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes drained

1 handful mushrooms quartered

1 pkt. ranch dressing mixed according to directions chilled in fridge

1 avacado diced

2 tbs. bacon crumbles

1 can artichoke hearts drained and chopped

1/2 c. frozen sweet corn

1 can black beans drained (optional)

salt/pepper

crushed red pepper

1 sm can green chili verde sauce

1 bunch fresh cilantro chopped

Combine ranch dressing with green chili verde sauce. Combine rest of ingrediants together except for avocado and bacon. Toss thoroughly, add dressing to your liking. Mix. Top with Avocado, and bacon crumbles.

Who Needs A Panini Press?

Father's day came and went by so fast! I didn't get a chance to make breakfast in bed for Bart so we made him lunch in bed! When I was at Walmart the day before I picked up some "Sundried Tomato dipping oil, with balsamic vinegar" I thought this would give my mayo a nice touch so I mied a bit in to give it a little zest, much better then plain ol' mayo! I don't have a panini press, and I don't plan on getting one. My cast iron grill pan works great! Just add some weight of another pan on top and voila! Panini press! We served his linch with some of his favorites too, Doritos, Coke Zero, and a tea cup of milk for dipping his Oreo's!Homemade panini press!
So yummy, my kids wanted one too!
The recipe

Turkey Panini with Sun dried tomato mayo!

1 crusty french roll cut lenghtwise

2-3 Tbs. Mayo

1 Tbs. Sundried tomato oil

sliced Sharp cheddar cheese

3 -4 thin slices sundried tomato turkey

2 tsp. honey mustard

3 slices dried salami

banana peppers

1 tsp. bacon crumbles

sliced avocado

sliced tomato

Heat cast iron grill pan to med heat. Assemble sandwich to your liking. Spray heated grill with Pam. Place on heated grill and place a heavy pan on top of sandwich. Squish down. Cook for a min. or two then carefully turn over with tongs. Cook 2 mins. Or use a panini press if you have one!

Fudgie Wudgie Brownies!!

So I was checking out my girlfriends blog, and she had eaten at this place called "The Farm of Beverly Hills" and apparently they had they best brownies ever! Well I guess enough people agreed with thie statement and requested the recipe from "Epicurious" and lo and behold they posted the recipe. So I thought I'd give it a try beings that the only recipes for brownies i've ever liked are the boxed ones, because they were never cakey. I hate dry cake-like brownies. If I wanted cake, I would make one!! So I gave them a whirl and holy fudgey-ness!!! Forget the frosting, you seriously don't need any, these hold their own, you may however, want to invest in a large glass of ice cold milk to wash it down!!What I loved the most besides their obvious fudge -like qualities, was the hint of saltiness in them.I didn't have to add any extra! I usually change one or two things in recipes that I try, but I can't think of anything I would do differently, except...and some of you may cringe, I would like to try it with some nuts..I'm a very nutty kind of gal, some toasted almonds or pecans would do the trick, or maybe coconut? The possibilities are endless!!! So many choices, I can hardly handle the turmoil going on inside, I may just have to make these again soon. SO Thank you Coleen for the recipe link....I knew your love for sweets could benefit me. A little blurry, but I was in a hurry to eat it!!
Check out the gooey-ness....

The Recipe

Chocolate Fudge Brownies

Makes 20 brownies

3 sticks of unsalted butter cut into pieces

12 oz. fine quality bittersweet chocolate-not unsweetened, chopped I used Bakers Semi-sweet

6 large eggs

1 1/4 c. cake flour- not self rising

1 c. plus 2 Tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process) I used Hersheys

3 c. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 13x9x2 inch metal baking pan, knock out excess flour. Melt butter with chocolate in a large metal bowl over a double broiler (or a pan of barely simmering water) stirring until smooth. Remove bowl from heat and whisk in eggs 1 at a time. Sift together flour and Cocoa powder in a separate bowl. Add salt and sugar. Stir in chocolate mixture, mix well. Pour batter into pan and bake in middle of oven until top is firm and a tester inserted into center comes out with crumbs adhering (40-45 mins) Cool completely in pan on a rack anout 2 hrs, before cutting into 20 squares....if you can wait that long.

Brownies keep layered between wax paper in air tight container, 5 days.

Chow Down, Potato and Corn Chowder with Basil

I Love soup!! Even when it's 90 degrees outside!! This soup was really easy. I was looking in my fridge for dinner ideas and I saw a container full of corn, that I had made the night before and forgot to serve...yes I do that alot. Then I saw some red potatoes and onion and a ton of different breads that we had used 2 nights before when we had a fondue night. So I decided to make some kind of chowder, and the cooking began. About 45 mins later dinner was ready to serve! Annie loved it she ate 2 bowls, the crutons were the best part, no wait the soup, no.. the avocado? Ok, you can decide. It was super easy, and if you follow the cooking process, you don't have to use corn and potatoes, use broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, whatever! Be creative and have fun! Yummy ripe avocados!! Mmmmm so good!
Look at those honking crutons!!! So good when they soaked up the soup!


The Recipes

Potato and Corn Chowder with Basil

1/2 med onion minced

1 clove garlic minced

2 Tbs. basil infused oil

32 oz. chicken stock

1/2 c. white wine-no sipping

1/8 c. flour

2 c. red skinned potatoes med dice w/skin on

1 bay leaf

1 lb. corn -fresh or frozen I mixed white and yellow for multi color purposes

1/4 c. fresh basil rough chopped or 2 tsp. dried basil - I didn't have any fresh so I used dried

1 c. milk warmed

1/2 c. heavy cream warmed- I just mixed it with the milk then heated it

1/2 avocado sliced-optional

2 Tbs. crumbled bacon

Heat oil in stock pot saute onion and garlic until soft but not browned. Add flour to make a roux cook slowly for about 4 mins do not brown. Add Stock, bring to a boil stir to make sure it is smooth. Add the wine-hiccup! Add potatoes and bay leaf, simmer until potatoes are tender. Add corn and basil return to a simmer. Stir in warmed milk and cream. Season with salt and pepper. Top with Avocado, bacon, and crutons. Eat.

Seasoned Crutons

Cube desired amount of bread. I used seasoned french breads and foccacia bread, and bread with cheddar cheese baked into it. Drizzle with basil oil or regular olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat frying pan and toss in bread and stir until golden. I'm sure you can bake/broil these in the oven too and they would turn out just fine.

My Girl friends

I have to say, growing up I wasn't blessed with an abundance of girlfriends. I had a best friend Sherece-Love ya, and many boy-friends. My best memories are with Sherece, I never laughed like I laughed with her. And we would laugh over the dumbest things, once I was driving and had, had enough of my icecream cone and went to toss it out the passenger window where she was sitting, and wouldn't you just know that the stupid window wasn't down like I thought? It seriously stuck there then slid down to the floor....It probably wasn't as funny as we made it out to be, but that was just us. I still giggle thinking about it...

As an adult, I am over whelmed with the amount of good girlfriends I have. Sherece lives a million miles away now- ok, not a million but Canada feels that far away. And I feel so blessed to have made so many friends since being married. It feels like the competitiveness of the teenager years have pretty much gone away, which has opened up many doors to great friendships. I have in no way replaced Sherece, I've just added a few more friends like her, which makes it easier to be so far from her. I just want to thank all my friends, neaar and far, for being my friend. I know I'm easy to like and everybody pretty much wants to be me....riiight. But seriously, I am grateful for you and your differences I love my life the people in it have made it so wonderful and fun. Thanks Girlfriends....

Husbands Favorite Icing...

German chocolate cake is my favorite. Over this past weekend our family had the flu bug. Upon being nursed back to health my husband had a request "can you please make me a cake?" Absolutely, was my reply I know he loves german chocolate too so that is what he got. Now, I totally cheated and used a box mix, I haven't found a homemade recipe that I absolutely love yet. But I did however make this yummy eat out of the gladware frosting. We've been eating it by the spoonfuls!! It's good on just about anything, even vanilla wafers!! The cake is long gone, I made a bundt cake and we just topped it with the frosting, I have leftovers so I'm thinking about german chocolate brownies later this week?
The Recipe

German Chocolate Frosting

3 egg yolks

1 c. sugar

1 c. evaporated milk

1 1/3 c. chopped nuts

1/2 c. butter

1 tsp. almond extract

2/3 c. sweetened shredded coconut

1/4 tsp. salt

Melt butter in sauce pan, add sugar, milk, and egg yolks. Stir until thickened. Add remaining ingrediants. Cool.

If you are not a big coconut fan, no big deal leave it out. And I actually ran out of pecans so I added sliced almonds and it worked just fine, I think it turned out prettier. Also, I love adding salt to my sweets, it takes it to a whole new level, so add the salt and taste, you may want to add more, this was a guesstimate, so start out with a little and then add as needed, I like the flavors to end with a taste of salt, not too much, but you do want to taste it.

Aye,Aye, Cap'n Crunch Chicken Tenders & Coconut Shrimp with Apricot dipping sauce

So I looove Cap'n Crunch Cereal, I will eat it any time, anywhere, And with most anything. In fact, the other day I got this great recipe from "picky palate" for "Girlscout thin mint cookie cheesecake bites" and boy were they good, but then I sarted thinking, "I bet this would taste great with Cap'n Crunch, and it did! By the way have you tried the cap'n crunch shake from Carl's Jr? ....mmmmm. Don't try to eat a whole one- holy full tummy!!! I didn't have to eat for 3 days!....But I did anyway. Back to the food, I made this the other night and my son said "this is the best dinner you've ever made!" Not so sure about that, clearly he's forgotten about my past culinary works of art! Just kidding , but it was pretty good. So, if you don't have cap'n crunch you can use Oh's cereal too, I had to use a little and it worked just fine. For the shrimp, I like the "Japanese Panko Bread crumbs" To me they taste better then regular bread crumbs, plus they are finer in texture. You can find them with the Asian food in the grocery store.


The Recipes

Cap'n Crunch Chicken Tenders

8 thawed chicken tenders

2 cups capn' crunch

1/2 tsp. salt/pepper

1/2 tsp. onion powder

3 eggs beaten

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray baking sheet with pam. In a food processor pulse cereal until fine. Add seasonings, pulse to mix. Place in bag or shallow dish. Dip chicken in egg wash, then toss to coat in cereal place on baking sheet. Bake for 15 mins until cooked through.

Coconut shrimp

8 large shrimp peeled and deveined- I took the tails off

1/2 bag of panko bread crumbs

1 c. sweetened shredded coconut

salt/pepper

oil for frying

3 eggs beaten

Heat oil -about 1/2 inch or so, on med high heat in shallow frying pan. In food processor, combine bread crumbs and coconut, pulse to mix add seasonings, mix.Place in small bowl or bag. Dip shrimp in egg wash, then toss to coat in bread crumbs. Fry in pan until golden then turn and repeat on other side.

Apricot Dipping Sauce

2 Tbs. Water

1 Tbs. cornstarch

1/2 c. apricot preserves

1/2c. vinegar

1/3c. packed brown sugar

In a small bowl bowl whisk water and cornstarch until dissolved. In a sauce pan over med heat, combine jam, vinegar, and brown sugar. Bring to a boil. Add dissolved cornstarch; stir until thickened, adding more water until desired consistency. Remove from heat and let cool.

* This sauce is really tangy. I would suggest for a sweeter sauce, using orange marmalade and decreasing the vinegar to 1/4 c. and increasing the brown sugar to 1/2 c.

Tuned Up Tuna

Tired of same ol' tuna with mayo and salt and pepper? I took a recipe idea from "Everyday Italian" and modified it to my own liking. Instead of mayo I made a quick hummus. You can usually find hummus in most grocery stores if you are not up to making your own. The basil oil I bought at "Costco" it came in a 3 variety pack, garlic, basil and red pepper. I use these all the time! The tampenade, comes in many varieties, find a flavor you like and experiment, I found mine at "Trader Joes" I know "Super Target" also carries many varieties. Look in the deli section or try where the spaghetti sauces are in your local supermarket. My husband really liked this new take on tuna, it was pretty easy and you can add your own flare to it if you like.
The Recipe

2 cans chunk light tuna in water drained

1 handful black olives sliced

1 tbs. basil flavored olive oil

salt pepper to taste

1/2 can fire roasted tomatoes

1 handful fresh baby spinach

1 can chick peas (garbanzo beans) for hummus

1/4 c. red pepper and artichoke tampenade (basically a spread)

1/2 ripe avocado sliced

1 french roll

Drain tuna. Separate with fork. Add oil, oilves and tomatoes. Season, taste. Rinse spinach, pat dry. In food processor pulse chickpeas with tampenade until smooth, you can add a little oil if you want it a bit thinner. Taste, season if you want. Slice avocado. Toast french roll, spread hummus on both sides. Top with tuna, avocado, and spinach. Serve with extra hummus and pita chips.

Welcome!!

I'm so excited to finally start a blog that I can totally focus on food and fun girl talk! I love cooking and I love sharing stories of everyday life, it seems that I have more then my share of tales to tell.

On this new blog I will be sharing favorite recipes I've found, created and have had shared with me! And don't worry I'll give credit where credit is due. Like the Big Chef on Ratatouille, I believe "anyone can cook." I'll share cooking tips that have helped me and will be happy to answer any questions that you may have,to the best of my ability that is, just because I attended "Cooking School" does not mean that I know everything, and I am not afraid to admit it! But I will do my best!
I will also try to do my best providing photos of recipes. We have a really great camera that I can use, only problem is, my husband thinks it's really great too and uses it for work...I mean what's more important taking pictures of teeth or food? Where are his priorities?!! I tell ya'... oh well my little point and shoot will have to do! At least you'll get the general idea of how things look. I hope you all enjoy and visit often, I'll try to update as often as I cook!