Tag: friday

“If I had to narrow my choice of meats down to one for the rest of my life, I am quite certain that meat would be pork.” ― James Beard

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TGIF!!!!

Anyone else as ready for it to be Friday as I am??? Goodness, what a long week. At least it’s been a productive one. One of the most productive things I did was re-signup at the gym. I’ve made a pact with myself.  I MUST go at least twice a week! 3 days would be preferable but I will not beat up on myself if its just 2.

Wish me luck.

I have to admit – I’ve never been one to cook many pork tenderloins. Mainly because they always seem dry.

But alas! I have found one that is not!!!

I made it this past weekend and even though my “pan sauce” separated and didn’t’ thicken as it should – it was still yummo!!

The tenderloin went great with mashed potatoes and roasted brussel sprouts!

The marinade is just awesome.  I think I might try it with chicken.

Recipe adapted from Chef Mommy.

Marinade  (I need a good name for this)

  • ½ cup olive oil
  • 1/3 cup soy sauce
  • ¼ cup red wine vinegar
  • Juice from 1 lemon
  • 2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 Tbsp fresh parsely (I used dried because it was all I had)
  • 2 tsp dry mustard
  • Fresh cracked pepper, to taste
  • 4 cloves garlic, crushed

Mix all ingredients together. Reserve 2-3 Tablespoons. Marinate 1 lb pork tenderloin in ziploc bag for at least 3 hours.

(Mine marinated all day)

I think the longer the better.

Take the pork from marinade and sear all sides for 2-3 minutes in hot skillet over medium-high heat.

Place in baking dish with several tablespoons of the marinade (from the bag – not the reserved marinade) and bake at 350° for 30-40 minutes.

To make the pan sauce (or try in my case)

Take the skillet you seared your pork in and deglaze with ½ cup chicken broth.  Add the reserved marinade and let boil down for 2-3 minutes. Add 1-2 teaspoons of butter (oops! I think thats where I messed up – I did tablespoons). Stir until melted. Pour over sliced pork.

Do you see all the extra butter floating around??? How could you not?!

A little extra butter never hurt anyone……..

As for the brussel sprouts. Just half or quarter them according to size.

Toss with extra virgin olive oil, garlic salt and fresh ground pepper. Place on a foil lined baking dish.

Roast for 20 minutes at 415°.

Turn them 1-2 times during that time.

I like mine a little black and crispy.

Right now would be a great time to sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese!

Even with the ugly looking pan sauce this meal was a winner!

Will definitely make again!

On another note – it’s always great to have these nice meals with all the different ingredients, but I gotta tell you – that grilled cheese sandwich that I made tonight (with plain old white sandwich bread, a cheese slice and butter) was like a little slice of heaven after a long day.  I finished it up with Ben & Jerry’s New York Super Fudge Chunk straight from the carton, in my pajamas, watching the first college football game of the season. I am one happy, happy girl. 🙂

abp

“A human being isn’t an orchid, he must draw something from the soil he grows in.” – Sara Jeannette Duncan

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Today is a good, no great day!!! For two reasons – 1) It’s Friday!! 2) It’s the first day that I feel back to normal. Wednesday I was starting to wonder if that would ever be the case!

So after work, I headed to the store to get to the couple of items I needed to make Salted Nut Bars or as I have renamed them – Friday Paydays . And when I walked in, there were the most gorgeous orchids I had ever seen!! (at Winn Dixie – I know) Considering I am still in mourning because the orchid I had been nurturing for the past several months had faded away a few weeks ago – there was no question that one of those beauties were coming home with me!! Of course, the one I wanted was the one on the top and my short self looked like a spaz try to reach it with out knocking over all the others. Oh well, nothing new about that.

Here she is!!!!

Okie Doke – on to the Friday Paydays. I call them that because it’s Friday, many people get paid on Friday and they taste a whole lot like the Payday candy bar.

They are also addicting. I’m typing with sticky fingers because I can’t stop eating them long enough to finish this post!

These are quite simple to make. 5 ingredients and no baking!

(I found this recipe on the blog Bake or Break.)

  • 3 cups salted peanuts (no skins), divided
  • 2 & 1/2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 cups peanut butter chips
  • 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
  • 2 cups miniature marshmallows
  • kosher salt or sea salt, optional

Start by layering half the peanuts in the bottom of a 7″x11″ baking dish.

Over low heat, melt butter and peanut chips, stir til smooth.

Now, mix in the sweetened condensed milk.

Once this is combined – stir in marshmallows until melted and smooth.

Pour mixture over peanuts.

Sprinkle the remaining peanuts on top.

If you prefer more saltly with your sweet and salty snack – add a little sea salt or kosher salt.

Cover and refrigerate until chilled. Cut into bars.

Weeelllll, I did this and they taste absolutely fabulous but they didn’t set up perfectly.  You can cut them into bars and eat them but if you stored them cut they would kind of want to stick to each other because they are fairly soft/sticky.

This by no means is to deter you from making these, I just hate that I couldn’t really box them up pretty and give as a gift. Seems to be better served from the baking dish.

Regardless – they are yum yum good!!!

They finished off our dinner perfectly. BTW – we had spaghetti with this new pasta sauce I found at publix that had whole roasted garlic cloves in it – AWESOME! (I doctored it up a little of course ;))

Take a look.

Now off for a walk and then in the bed to watch the first of the three Bourne movies so I’m ready to go see the new Bourne Legacy movie at the theater this weekend!

’til later

abp