Pork Tenderloin with Apples

Pork Tenderloin with Apples
adapted from this recipe

1 Pork Tenderloin
3/4 - 1 cup Pure Maple Syrup
2 1/2 T Cornstarch
3 Sliced and Peeled apples
3 T Dark Brown Sugar
2 T Craisins
2 T Golden Raisins
1 1/2 t Cinnamon

1. Cut pork tenderloin into halves or fourths.  Marinate pork in syrup in a plastic bag in the fridge for at least 1 hour before cooking.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Place pork in roasting pan, pour remaining syrup over it.
4. Combine all other ingredients in a medium sized bowl.  Mix ingredients well.
5. Spoon the apple mixture over the pork.
6. Cook at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes with the lid on the roasting pan.
7. Remove lid of roasting pan, stir apple mixture, put back in the oven to cook for another 15-20 minutes.

Note: The smaller the sections of pork are cut, the less time that it will need to cook.  The key is to cook for half the time with the lid on, and half the time with the lid off, to lock in the moisture.

James' First Birthday Dinner Menu

I often have a hard time coming up with complete menu's.  So I thought I'd share our menu for James' birthday dinner.  We had around 20 family members and ended up with just enough food.  Next time I'll make more because I would much rather have too much than not enough!

James' First Birthday Dinner

Two recipes of Crock Pot Barbecue

(with buns -- both slider size and regular size)
(I accidentally got beef instead of pork but Jason claimed that it tasted fine.  I would make sure that you get close to 5 lb roasts if possible, because mine were closer to 4 and we didn't have quite enough.)

Large bowl of cut fruit

One recipe of Broccoli Salad

One recipe of Mrs. Kelly's Baked Beans

One recipe of Corn Casserole

(So, so, so good! Should have had at least two recipes of this!)

One recipe of Slim Potato Casserole

(this was a little bland but at the same time too peppery -- it could have used a lot more cheese!)

One recipe of Arkansas Green Beans

(Jason said that these were the best green beans that he's ever had.  I would have to agree.  They were out of this world!)

Strawberry Birthday Cake

Brown Sugar and Balsamic Pork

If you're looking for a good recipe for New Year's this one is a winner!  I cooked it for dinner one night for our family and it was a big hit!  Jason even suggested that I take a picture of Charlotte enjoying it so much...

I ended up doing the recipe with pork tenderloin's in the oven.  We just baked for 45 minutes to an hour on 350 and they were perfect.  I took them out and basted them for like the last half of the cooking time every 5-10 minutes or so.  Turned out wonderful and is very easy!  I also made this for Christmas with Jason's family and it was a big hit with them also.

The highlight of this recipe is the sauce.  You could put it over any kind of meat that you want and it would be fabulous.  For one pork tenderloin I made one recipe of sauce and had plenty left over for us to use during dinner and then some.  For Christmas I made a little over four pounds of tenderloin (four one pounders) and made two recipes of sauce.  I still had plenty to baste with, eat with dinner, and left over.  But the sauce is good so you don't want to have too little!

Brown Sugar and Balsamic Pork

Some kind of meat -- I used pork

Sage

Salt

Pepper

Glaze

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1 Tablespoon Cornstarch

1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar

1/2 cup Water

2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce

1. Combine glaze ingredients in a sauce pan.

2. Heat and stir until glaze thickens.

3. Cook meat according to directions -- in oven or slow cooker.  Brush meat with glaze 2 or 3 times during the last portion of cooking time.

4. Serve meat with remaining glaze.

From Let's Dish via Pinterest

Sweet and Sour Pork

I'm always on the look our for slow cooker recipes so when I see them in a magazine I tear them out.  Therefore, I currently have a drawer full of recipes and no time or energy to try them! But I've been trying to try more recipes out and came across this recipe for Sweet and Sour Pork so I gave it a try.  It is a pretty easy meal to throw together and came out really well.  Even Charlotte liked it!  When she tried some she looked at us surprised and said, "This is tasty!" Hope it's a hit at your house too!

Sweet and Sour Pork

Makes 6 servings

2 T vegetable oil

2 lbs pork shoulder for stew, cut into 2 x 1 inch pieces

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 large onion, peeled and sliced

1 large green pepper, cored and seeds removed, sliced

1 can (4 oz) mushroom pieces, drained

1 can (14.5 oz) tomato sauce

3 T packed brown sugar

2 T rice vinegar

2 T soy sauce

1/2 lb egg noodles, cooked

- Coat slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray.

- Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Season pork with salt and pepper and add to skillet.  Saute 3 minutes per side.

- Add pork to slow cooker and layer in onion, green pepper, and mushrooms.  In a small bowl, combine tomato sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, and soy sauce.  Pour over pork and vegetables.

- Cover and cook on High for 6 hours or Low for 8 hours.  Serve over cooked egg noodles.

Oven Fried Pork chops

This weekend we had some pork chops and were looking for a new way to cook them so I put Jason in charge. He stepped in and found an oven fried recipe that sounded good, was easy, and that we could make all from ingredients that we had in our pantry -- the perfect trifecta! The pork chops were pretty good although ours were thick so took about twice as long to cook as the recipe said. But we will definitely be making these again!
Oven Fried Pork Chops

* 4 pork chops, trimmed
* 2 tablespoons butter, melted
* 1 egg, beaten
* 2 tablespoons milk
* 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
* (We added 1/4 teaspoon of salt)
* 1 cup herb-seasoned dry bread stuffing mix (we used half panko bread crumbs (plain) and half italian seasoned bread crumbs)
Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Pour butter into a 9x13 inch baking pan.
2. Stir together egg, milk and pepper. Dip pork chops in egg mixture, coat with stuffing mix and place in pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Turn chops and bake for another 10 minutes, or until no pink remains in the meat and juices run clear.

Pork with Veggies

Since we started participating with Grow Alabama in January we have been eating a lot more vegetables because we are getting them weekly. The past two weeks we have gotten squash and root vegetables and so I decided to come up with a recipe to use them. This recipe is my creation....it was very good and very, very simple. The beautiful thing is that if you don't like the seasonings that I used you can vary them to suit your tastes. This would also be a great recipe with chicken instead of pork or if you wanted to eliminate the meat and just cook this as a side it would be wonderful. I will list the recipe as I made it but feel free to substitute out veggies for ones that you like. Although, I will say, turnips are the forgotten vegetable! They taste very similar to potatoes and are very good!
Pork with Veggies
One container thin sliced pork chops (mine had 5 small chops in it)
5-6 Small to medium sized Squash
2 large Turnips
6-8 medium sized carrots
Olive Oil
One small box of chicken broth
Onion Seasoning Packet
Salt
Pepper
Italian Seasoning
Garlic Powder
1. Trim fat from pork and lay on the bottom of the slow cooker. Season meat with salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder (lightly coat tops of meat).
2. Cut vegetables into bite sized pieces (peel turnips and carrots first if fresh). Throw veggies in plastic bag as you are cutting them.
3. Mix 1/2 cup olive oil with packet of onion seasoning.
4. Pour onion mix over vegetables and move around in plastic bag to coat all of them evenly.
5. Pour veggies over meat in slow cooker.
6. Add chicken broth until meat and veggies are covered.
7. Cook on high for 3 hours (or low for approximately 6 hours).

Pizza Spaghetti Casserole

This is another Southern Living recipe that I made last week. It was very good!


Pizza Spaghetti Casserole
Makes 1 9x13 casserole

12 ounces uncooked spaghetti
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 1-lb package mild ground pork sausage
2 ounces turkey pepperoni slices (about 30), cut in half
1 26 ounce jard tomato-and-basil pasta sauce
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 8 ounce package shredded Italian three-cheese blend

1. Cook spaghetti according to package directions in water with salt. Drain well and placed in a lightly greased 9x13 baking dish.
2. Brown sausage in a large skillet over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes or until meat crumbles and is no longer pink. Drain and set aside. Wipe skillet clean. Add pepperoni, and cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, 4 minutes or until slightly crisp.
3. Top spaghetti in baking dish with sausage; pour pasta sauce over sausage. Arrange half of pepperoni slices evenly over pasta sauce. Sprinkle evenly with cheeses. Arrange remaining half of pepperoni slices evenly over cheese. Cover with nonstick or lightly greased aluminum foil.
4. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes; remove foil, and bake 10 more minutes or until cheese is melted and just begins to brown.

Slow Cooker Barbecue

With fall and cooler weather upon us I'm searching for any and every warm, slow cooker meal that I can find. And what defines fall more than barbecue!?!? Nothing! To me that just screams football season! I found a really great slow cooker barbecue recipe in our local hospital foundation's cookbook. I was a little unsure because I've never cooked that much pork before but it turned out so tender and really good!

Slow Cooker Barbecue
2 to 3 pounds boneless pork
1/3 cup Ketchup
1/3 cup Vinegar
1/3 cup Pineapple Juice
1/2 cup Packed Brown Sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons pepper sauce
2 (4 ounce) jars baby food peaches

Trim excess fat from pork. Pack tightly into slow cooker. Combine ketchup, vinegar, pineapple juice, brown sugar, pepper sauce, and peaches in blender container. Process until smooth. Pour sauce over pork. Chill, covered, overnight. Cook on High for 8 to 10 hours or until pork is cooked through.

*Note: I cooked this on high in my slow cooker for 8 hours and it was perfect!

Burgundy Pork Tenderloin

This is another guest post by my friend Brittanie! She sends me the yummiest recipes! Enjoy!

Burgundy Pork Tenderloin

2 lbs Pork Tenderloin (a pkg usually comes with two 1 lb tenderloins)
1/2 t Salt
1/2 t Ground Black Pepper
1/2 t Garlic Powder
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
Mushrooms, whatever kind you like, cut up how ever you like
2 cups Red Wine
1 (maybe 2 depending on if it thickens or not) packets dry Brown Gravy Mix

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Place pork in a 9x13 inch baking dish, and sprinkle meat with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Top with onion and mushroom, and pour wine over all.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes.
4. When done baking, remove meat from baking dish and place on a serving platter. Pour gravy mix into baking dish with wine and cooking juices, and stir until thickened. Slice meat. And cover with gravy.

** Notes: When the meat was done I took it out of the baking dish and put it in some aluminum foil while I mixed the gravy. Then I cut up the meat and put it back in the baking dish. Also, I used two packets of gravy mix and it never thickened, I might not have done it right, but it was still really good!

Sweet and Sour Pork Chops

This is another recipe from Cotton Country. It was SO EASY to make and it was SO GOOD!

Sweet and Sour Pork Chops

6 Pork Chops
Salt and Pepper to taste
6 slices Lemon
6 teaspoons Brown Sugar
1 cup Ketchup
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup Brown Sugar

1. Place pork chops in deep baking pan; sprinkle with salt and pepper.
2. On each pork chop place a slice of lemon and a teaspoon of brown sugar.
3. Mix remaining ingredients and pour over pork chops.
4. Cover baking pan with foil. Seal to make airtight.
5. Bake in 350 degree oven for one hour.

Pork Marinade

This is a super easy and great marinade for pork.  My aunt Carrie passed this along when I got married as a Pork Tenderloin marinade but I used it for Pork Chops recently and they turned out splendidly!

Pork Marinade

1/2 c Oil

3/4 c Soy Sauce

1/2 c Worcestershire

2 T Mustard

3 t Salt

1 T Pepper

1 1/2 T Dry Parsley

2 Garlic Cloves, minced

1/2 c Lemon Juice

This makes a lot of marinade so, per Carrie's intsructions, I halved the recipe and it made plenty to marinate the pork chops in.

Enjoy!

Pork Fried Rice

I have been inspired by the Pioneer Woman's recipes to make mine more user friendly. So, starting this week, I'm going to try and include more picture with steps!  We'll see how often I have time to do this.  :)

This weeks recipe is really easy and was so good! I have been craving anything Thai, Chinese, Japanese, etc during my pregnancy so I'm excited to have found something that I can cook at home.  If you enjoy any of the kinds of food listed above you'll love this.  And I'm betting that it would be just as good with chicken or shrimp too which makes it very versatile!

Pork Fried Rice

Ingredients:

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 pound boneless pork chops, cut into 1/4" strips

2 scallions, trimmed and sliced (I omitted these)

2 packages (8.8 oz) fully cooked brown rice

1 c Frozen Peas, thawed

1/4 c Soy Sauce

2 t Sesame Oil

Here are the ingredients measured and cut up.

Heat the skillet to medium and fry egg.  You should just leave it until it's together enough to be flipped and then cook through until it's one large piece of egg.  Remove and put on a cutting board.

Replace the egg with the pork chops and turn the heat up to medium/high.  Cook the pork strips until there is no pink remaining.

Once the meat is cooked through add scallions (if you're using them), brown rice and peas.  Cover and cook for an additional two minutes.

Cut up the egg into small pieces.

Stir in egg, soy sauce, and sesame oil and heat through.

Serve warm!

Beef Tenderloin with Henry Bain Sauce

In case you need a good New Year's recipe to feed a crowd this recipe is a definite. You can also make it with pork tenderloin which is just as good as the beef. The sauce in this recipe is the best part! Mom found this recipe and used it for Thanksgiving and I'm so glad that she's passed it along!

Beef Tenderloin with Henry Bain Sauce

1/4 c Butter, softened

2 t Salt

1 t Freshly ground pepper

1 4 1/2 - 5 lb Beef Tenderloin, trimmed

Henry Bain Sauce

1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Stir together butter, salt, and pepper; rub over tenderloin. Place tenderloin on a lightly greased wire rack in a 15x10 inch jelly-roll pan.

2. Bake at 500 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes or until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest portion register 145 degrees (medium-rare). Cover tenderloin loosely with aluminum foil, and let stand 15 minutes before serving.

Henry Bain Sauce

1 9 oz bottle Chutney (Major Grey's)

1 14 oz bottle Ketchup

1 12 oz bottle Chili Sauce

1 10 oz bottle Steak Sauce (A1)

1 10 oz bottle Worcestershire Sauce

1 t Hot Sauce

1. Process chutney in a food processor (or blender) until smooth. Add all remaining ingredients and process until blended. Cover and chill 2 hours or up to 1 week.