Pork Loin

I got a head start on tonight's meal by putting a pork loin in the crockpot. To ease my leg, which still hurts if I stand for too long, I chopped veggies while sitting at the breakfast counter with the girls. Here's hoping this turns out well!

1 3 lb. pork loin
1 green bell pepper, cut into strips
1/2 yellow bell pepper, cut into strips
1/2 white onion, cut into thin strips
9 oz. apricot jam
1 package onion soup mix
1/4 cup red wine
1/4 water
2 Tbsp honey

Place peppers and onions in the bottom of the crock pot.
Put pork loin on top of veggies.
Mix jam, soup mix, wine, water and honey together.
Pour over meat and veggies.
Cook in crockpot on low for 8-10 hours.

Depending on how I'm feeling this afternoon, we'll have this with roasted green beans and brown rice - or just the green beans...



As the above photo indicates, I felt well enough to pull together an entire meal. I was very thankful... one meal down, thousands to go.

Old Style Comfort Food

On Day 2 of this fall menu experiment, we had a meal that was almost something my mother would have made.

Coke & Red Wine Pork Chops
1+ lbs. boneless pork loin chops
1/4 cup coca cola
1/2 cup red wine (leave this out next time!)
salt & pepper

Marinate chops in coke and red wine. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes and broil on each side for 2 minutes at the end.

I wish I hadn't added the red wine and had just used the coke. The red wine is good with pork, but I think it tastes better with a fruity complement like a jam of some type mix in with it. I thought the wine overpowered the coke in a way I hadn't intended. This is what I get for not wanting to waste a drop of anything. I could have just poured the wine out...

Baked Apples
5 gala apples, washed & cored
In each apple:
1 pat of butter (about 1/2 Tbsp)
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Bake at 350 for an hour or more. (They can't really cook too long.)

The baked apples were an addition to the fall menu per the request of A, so she was excited to have these last night. I think apples and pork complement each other well, so we'll probably have a similar combo sometime in the near future.

We had the above dishes with English peas and mashed potatoes. (My mother liked to serve pork chops with sweet potatoes, which I would have done, if I hadn't used my two remaining sweet potatoes for yesterday's soup!)

Breakfast (Casserole) for Dinner

My mother hates to cook. She fed us only because we would die without food while growing up. But one of her staple meals was breakfast for supper (as we called it in Southern Alabama). My mom's usually consisted of fried eggs and cheese toast. My own variation of it for tonight was a tad more complicated, but not much:

Breakfast Casserole
1/2 lb. Conecuh (or other) sausage
1/2 yellow bell pepper, diced
1/2 onion, diced
1 zucchini, cut into small pieces
4 hot dog buns, torn into small squares (buns are left-over from Labor Day gathering)
8 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup plain yogurt
1 slice provolone cheese
1 slice American cheese
1/3 cup spinach, shredded

Spray 9 x 13 pan with non-stick spray.

Place torn bread in pan.

Brown sausage, adding bell pepper, onion and zucchini and sauteing until soft.

Pour sausage and veggie mixture over bread.

Scramble eggs, milk and plain yogurt. Pour over other ingredients.

Tear cheese slices into squares and place over casserole. Top with shredded spinach.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour.

Jason's Birthday Dinner

For the birthday boy this evening, we had pork loin, roasted green beans, marinated veggies and fruit salad. I have to say this was a wonderful meal. Had it not been a birthday dinner with dessert following, we all would have had seconds. As it was, A & B had seconds AFTER their cupcakes. Speaks pretty highly of it, wouldn't you say?

Unfortunately, with all of the birthday and pre-school busy-ness, I did not have time for pictures. So you'll just have to trust me that it was yummy!

Pork Loin

1 2-3 lb. pork loin
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup lingonberry jam
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp Old Bay seasoning

Mix wine, jam, water and seasonings and marinate pork overnight.
Bake at 350 for approximately two hours or until tests done with meat thermometer.

Roasted Green Beans

2-3 cups green beans
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup almonds, broken
Salt & pepper

Mix all ingredients together.
Bake at 350 for thirty minutes

Marinated Veggies

2 cucumbers, peeled and sliced
4 cherry tomatoes, quartered
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt & pepper

Mix all together and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Fruit Salad

Peaches
Honeydew melon
Apples
Grapes

Dessert was lemon bars for the adults and cupcakes for the kids, all from Sweet 16th.

Barbecue Pork Sandwiches

Left-over spiced pork roast
1/4 cup grape jelly
1/4 cup barbecue sauce
Hoagie rolls
Shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Heat left-over pork, jelly and sauce in a saucepan on the stove top.

When warmed through, spread onto hoagie rolls and top with cheese.

Bake at 350 for 5-10 minutes.

My family loved these and the jelly/barbecue sauce muted the spiciness.

Crock-Pot Spiced Pork Roast

Boston Butt pork was on sale yesterday, so I thought I'd try modifying the cinnamon maple pork chops that we had a while back to a different cut of meat. Here's what I did:

4 lbs. Boston butt pork
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 1/4 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp ground black pepper
1 Tbsp paprika
1/2 cup white wine (from freezer)
1/2 cup water

Mix spices together.

Roll pork in spices.

Cook in crock pot on low for 8-24 hours. I cycled it from low to warm and back several times, as I thought of it. If you've got enough water in the crockpot, it's difficult to overcook a Boston butt.

I poured this glaze over the roast:
1 tsp. butter
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1/4 cup maple syrup

We had this with instant mashed potatoes (yes, I am a true Philistine) and English peas.

There was plenty of pork left-over, which I'll freeze for us to have again in a few weeks when I'm in need of an easy meal.

J found the spices a bit too much, so I'll probably make this again, but I'll cut back on the amounts of the spices. I'll also pour the glaze directly over the pieces as I serve them, which will mute the spices more effectively.

Cinnamon Maple Pork Chops

I found a recipe for this in the back of a magazine and thought it sounded good. It was!

1 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika
3/4 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp pepper
4 boneless pork chops
2 Tbsp maple syrup
3 tsp butter, melted
3 tsp dijon mustard

Mix spices together and rub on pork chops.
Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.
Mix maple syrup, butter and mustard and pour over pork chops.
Bake additional 5 minutes or until done.

I'll definitely use this spice rub and glaze combo again. I'd like to try it with a pork roast in the crock pot because it would have a similar principle as pulled barbecue pork, but with a sweet twist.

We had our pork chops with sweet potato casserole, a mixture of kidney beans, white beans and black eyed peas and fruit salad. Fruit salad is a regular fixture in our home. Tonight, the contents were:

1 cantaloupe, scooped out with melon baller
1 red delicious apple, diced
1 mango, peeled and diced
1 orange, sectioned and cut up
1 cluster of grapes, halved
1 pear, diced

A came downstairs, smelled the sweet potato casserole and exclaimed, "I smell cobbler." While she was disappointed to find sweet potato casserole instead, she did have three helpings of fruit salad, so I think that made up for it a little.