Pork Tenderloin and Mushroom Marsala

We've had a pork tenderloin the freezer for awhile. I really needed to make something with it.

I didn't feel like making the pork with tabasco onions recipe. Although it is a good dish, it has never lived up to the incredibly awesome meal that it was the very first time I made it. That night I actually packed up leftovers and drove to Sister #2's house immediately after dinner to make her try it. It was that good. I've made it 3 times since and it's been fine, just not the superb, outstanding, make-me-like-pork recipe it was the first time.

There was a recipe in the newspaper the other day that intrigued me. It was pork tenderloin and mushrooms. DH loves mushrooms. I decided to try it this afternoon.



Roasted Pork Tenderloin and Mushroom Marsala
adapted from the Dallas Morning News via the Washington Post

• 1 T olive oil
• 2 T butter (divided use)
• salt & pepper
• 1 1/2 - 2 lbs pork tenderloins
• 1 lb assorted mushrooms
• 1 med onion, cut into 3/4 inch chunks
• 1/2 c dry Marsala wine
• 1/2 c chicken broth
• 2 T parsley leaves

Preheat oven to 375.

Heat oil & 1 T butter over medium heat in large braiser. Season tenderloins with salt & pepper and add to pan. Cook for 6-7 minutes turning halfway through until they are browned. They will not be cooked through. Transfer them to a plate.

Increase heat to med-high. Add mushrooms to pan and cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes. Add onion, cook 2-3 minutes longer, until onions start to soften. Season with salt & pepper. Return tenderloins to the pan. Place pan in oven and roast for 20 minutes (until internal temp of meat is 160.)

Remove pan from oven and place tenderloins on a plate. Cover loosely to keep warm.

Place pan on stove over med-high heat. Cook 3-4 minutes until pan juices have almost evaporated. Add the wine and chicken broth, cook 3-4 minutes until reduced by half.

Add remaining butter in small pieces, stirring as butter melts. Taste and season as needed. Cut tenderloins crosswise into thin slices, top with mushroom sauce & sprinkling of parsley.

It turned out to be very good. It was even good enough to make for snobby food type friends. It actually might be impressive. Of course, I need to make it another time or two so I can make sure it stays that way.

Pantry soup

This is a boring post. There are no pictures and this isn't a true recipe.

My daughter said she wanted soup something for dinner tonight and then off she went to soccer practice. I had 60 minute to figure out what soup something meant for dinner. I scrounged the fridge and the pantry and came up with this.

1 package of beef sausage, sliced and sauteed
1 can progresso lentil soup
1 can progresso southwest vegetable soup
1 cup rice cooked in chicken broth (2 cups after cooking)

Mix together and simmer.

It was tasty. A looked at it and grossed out for a second, fussing because she wanted her rice plain, not mixed in. I told her I thought it would taste okay and to give it a try. She did and loved it.

Sister#1 makes another dish with the progresso lentil soup so I keep it on hand. The southwest vegetable added a nice, light mexican flavor but wasn't too spicy for the kids. This is a good meal that will do next time I'm in a pinch for dinner.

Mom's homemade pizza

Growing up my mom always made homemade pizza. It was actually a dinner roll recipe from a paperback cookbook on breads, maybe by Sunshine, I'm not sure. We made trefoil rolls (or 3 ball dough rolls as I always called them) from the same recipe every holiday.

When one of my nieces had to make a family cookbook, a couple of sisters and I were talking about family recipes that should be included. I immediately said pizza dough. To my amazement, Sister#2 and Sister#5 have NEVER made pizza dough. Someone else always made it so they never had to. Now they just wait for one of us to make it and invite them over.

Last night I made homemade pizza. The dough was beautiful and rose so nicely. The crust was light and chewy and perfect.


Dough


Risen Dough




Pizza Dough
from Mom's cookbook

• 6 cups flour
  
• 1/2 cup sugar
  
• 1/2 cup melted butter or vegetable oil
  
• 1 package yeast
  
• 1/4 c warm water
  
• salt
• 2 eggs plus enough scalded & cooled milk to make 2 cups
  

Proof yeast in warm water with pinch of sugar. Put three cups of flour in the kitchen aid. Add sugar and salt. Turn on mixer to make small bowl. Add butter/oil, proofed yeast and egg/milk mixture. Mix until combined. Add another 2 cups of flour, mix until combined between each cup. Switch from paddle to dough hook. Add last cup of flour and knead until dough forms. You made need add a little extra flour. Pull dough off hook and knead by hand in a little flour if necessary. Put dough in greased bowl and let rise for a couple of hours.

Once the dough has risen, you can put it in cookie sheets and top with favorite toppings. Cook at 375-400 for 15-20 minutes. It all depends on your oven and how thick your pizza is.


There are still some leftovers in the fridge in case anyone want to stop by for a piece. But come early, they won't last long.

Homemade Pesto

I planted a basil plant about a month ago. It wasn't doing so great until we went on vacation. I had my husband put the sprinklers on to water that bed every night. When we came home, I found out that I hadn't been watering enough. The basil plant had doubled in size in about a week.

Since it is so big, I decided tonight that I needed to actually cook with it.

I sent the kids out to gather the basil. They got quite a bit. I hope there is some left on the plant.








Pesto
adapted from Simply Recipes blog

• 2 cups basil, packed
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup walnuts (or pine nuts, but I was out)
• 3 cloves garlic
  
• salt

Add walnuts to food processor and pulse a few times. Add basil and process. Add garlic and process. Add cheese and process. Add salt and process.


I sauteed some chicken strips and served them over pasta with pesto sauce. DH hasn't stopped telling me how terrific dinner was, so I guess it turned out okay.

Moroccan Spiced Chicken

I found this recipe on the Simply Recipes blog. DH loves cilantro so I thought it might be good to try. As I knew he would, he loved it!



Moroccan Spiced Chicken
from Simply Recipes blog

• plain yogurt
• fresh cilantro chopped
• olive oil
• garlic
• cumin
• paprika
• salt
• pepper
• chicken breasts
  

Mix the ingredient in a bowl. Add chicken and marinade for several hours.

The Simply Recipes blog has measurements. I just added stuff. It really was good and the children didn't complain about it being too spicy.

I also served rice and broccoli. I did nothing fancy except steam it on the stove for 8 minutes after it boils. I think it is the perfect texture. I can't bring myself to microwave it, too rubbery. I realized after I put on the broccoli and looked out the window at DH putting the chicken on the grill that I hadn't started the rice. I didn't have 20 minutes for rice.

I remembered reading about boiling rice. There was my chance to try it. I didn't read the directions thoroughly enough because it says to undercook the rice a little and then steam it to finish it off. The rice was a little gummysticky. The kids loved it. A said she could eat my sticky rice every meal for a year. That's high praise from my 8 year old.

Flank Steak

I've been lazy the past few months. I haven't been cooking much. Well, I've been cooking but nothing to blog about. I've been scrounging for food. My kids have been eating fish sticks, tater tots, tuna fish & scrambled eggs. Last Sunday we realized that we had pretty well cleaned out the pantry and we needed to buy more food. We ended up at Sam's Club because we needed more peanuts and we came out with a bunch of meat. I used half a huge thing of meat to make a triple batch of meatballs. We also bought some a couple of beef roast & pork tenderloins and some flank steak.

Flank steak is one of those meals I remember from growing up. Mom would score the meat and broil it in the oven. When we first go married DH & I took a trip to Denver. I bought the Colorado Cache cookbook as a souvenir. It was a cookbook I remember my mother having. I think I've only used one recipe from it since, the flank steak marinade. We hadn't had it in a long time and DH remembered it as soon as he saw the meat at Sam's.

Tuesday night DH headed out to grill and I went out to document it for this blog. He thinks I'm entirely silly for taking pictures of food, but when he offered to flip the steak to see if the picture was better from the other side, I snapped a shot. Of course he was right.



I served meat with mashed potatoes and green beans cooked with caramelized garlic. It was a yummy meal. Much better than fish sticks and tater tots.



Marinated Grilled Flank Steak
adapted from Colorado Cache Cookbook

• juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup or more dry red wine
• 3 Tbs vegetable oil
• 2 Tbs Worchestershire sauce
• 1 large clove garlic
• pepper
• chopped green onion

Mix ingredients. Put steak in ziploc bag and pour over. Marinate in refrigerator for several hours, turning occassionally.

Broil meat over hot coals for 5 minutes per side for rare.

I used less vegetable oil and soy sauce. I added more red wine. I threw in some parsley because I had some. DH loves it went I throw in some cilantro. It's a good marinade to play with.

Strawberry Coffee Cake

It has been months since I've posted here. This post is from Easter. Yes, Easter was in March and it is now almost May. It's been on my to-do list forever and I'm just now getting around to it.

I got this recipe from the Chronicle Books Coffeecake cookbook from my friend in Seattle. She sent it to me for my birthday because she has loved so many recipes from it. The first one she mentioned to me was the strawberry coffeecake. Now, I'm not a fan of fruit in general. I'll eat a nice tart granny smith, an occasional crisp sweet-tart grape, a clementine when in season. I've recently ventured in the the realm of fuji apples and enjoyed them. But I have a texture issue with most fruit and rarely eat them.

This recipe was well recommended so I decided to give it a try. I made it last September for a meeting of my women's group from church. I was entirely surprised to find that I really liked it. The cream cheese base was delicious and even the strawberry were good (chopped in small pieces.) When I ate it I thought of something different.

Black raspberry jelly. I never eat jelly (back to my issues with fruit) except for black raspberry jelly in a jelly pie. My grandmother used to take her leftover pie crust, slater it with black raspberry jelly, fold it in half and bake it. It was delicious.

I wanted to try the cake again but never really had a reason until Easter. We had brunch with the ILs and I finally had a chance to make this coffee cake again. I decided, in case my jelly idea was crazy, I would make two. One strawberry and one black raspberry. Luckily I was right. The jelly was terrific. Better than the strawberry, if you ask me and the rest of the family who gobbled it down.


Strawberry (or Black Raspberry) Coffeecake
adapted from Coffeecakes from Chronicle Press

• 8oz cream cheese at room temperature
• 9 Tbs unsalted butter at room temperature
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 cups fresh strawberries, sliced
• 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped almonds or walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9x13 baking pan

Combine cream cheese, butter and sugar and beat with until light and fluffy. Stir in milk, eggs and vanilla. Beat thoroughly. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to cheese mixture and beat until smooth. Spread half of batter in prepared pan. Scatter the berries evenly over the batter. Dot the remaining batter over the berries. Mix the brown sugar and nuts together and sprinkle over the batter

Bake for 40 minutes or until the cake is golden brown.

When I made the black raspberry version, I just put dollops of jelly over the base dough.