Herb-rubbed Pork Tenderloin w Dijon-Apricot Mop Sauce

Pork tenderloin is a quick-cooking cut of meat that has less fat than beef and more protein than chicken breasts.  I’m always on the look-out for pork tenderloin recipes and this is a really good one from the New American Heart Association Cookbook. 

As stated in the cookbook, “A dry herb rub flavors the pork and makes a nice crust.  You may want to stop right there, or you can go one step further and add the tangy mop.”  I’m telling you; do not stop at the rub!  It is a great blend of herbs and does make the tenderloin crusty but, the apricot and mustard duo in the mop is magnificent.  And, adding the vinegar, honey and remaining ingredients makes it only better.

The cookbook proclaims that chicken and beef roasts are delicious with both the rub and the mop sauce. Try the mop sauce alone on its own over vegetable kebobs, beef, poultry, firm fish fillets or shrimp.  I second that with the mop sauce ~ it’s great on chicken and vegetables also, and I will be trying it on seafood soon!

Here’s the good recipe:

Herb-rubbed Pork Tenderloin w Dijon-Apricot Mop Sauce

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon dried rosemary, crushed

1 tablespoon dried thyme, crumbled

2 teaspoons coarsely ground pepper

2 teaspoons paprika

2 teaspoons celery seeds

2 (1-pound) pork tenderloins, all visible fat removed

Vegetable oil spray

Dijon-Apricot Mop Sauce

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon canola oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

½ cup cider vinegar

¼ cup honey

¼ cup apricot preserves

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Method:

In a small bowl, stir together the rub ingredients.

Using your hands or a spoon, rub the mixture evenly over the pork and set aside.

For the mop sauce, heat a small pan over medium-high heat.

Pour oil into the pan and swirl to coat the bottom.

Cook onion for 2-3 minutes, or until soft, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the remaining sauce ingredients and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

(You may wish to reserve ½ cup of the sauce to use as a dipping sauce for the pork.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Lightly coat a baking sheet with vegetable oil spray.

Place tenderloins on the pan and into hot oven.

Using a brush, baste pork several times during baking time with the sauce.

Bake until 150 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, or to your liking.

Serves 6-8

ENJOY!

Slow-Cooker Bacon Jam

Dear bacon jam ~ I knew I loved you before I even made you! 

It’s sticky, porky, sweet, garlicky, savory and spicy.  Frying the bacon till crisp, and combining with onions, garlic and other ingredients, cooking long and slow for the onions to caramelize, allowing it to turn into a thick syrup; and finally, pulverizing it all in a food processor for one of the best chunky gustatory sensations you can imagine.

This recipe, from Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food magazine, has been floating around for at least a year, and I can’t imagine why it took me so long to finally make it.  The only change I will be making the next time is to double the recipe so as to share.  It is equally delicious served cold, room temperature, or warmed.  And it keeps well refrigerated for a month, if it lasts that long.

This is definitely one of the best things I have done with bacon.  I slathered this ‘jam’ on my toast this morning, but there are so many ways to enjoy it:  On a slice of tomato, on a burger, or a warm biscuit, grilled cheese, bagel chips, fried eggs, flambéed cheese, shrimp, scallops, whitefish, pork tenderloin, chicken, on crostini.  In quesadillas, on peanut butter or fried egg sandwiches, pancakes, waffles, burritos, pigs in a blanket, pizza, deviled eggs or potato salad.  Spread the bacon jam on a crescent roll before rolling and baking and serve either warm or room temperature.  Or just “straight-up,” right out of the jar!

Before

After 3.5 hours slow cooking

Slow-Cooker Bacon Jam

Ingredients:

1-1/2 pounds sliced bacon, cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces
2 medium yellow onions, diced small
3 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3/4 cup brewed strong coffee

Method:

Line a platter with paper towels, and set aside.

In a large skillet, cook the bacon over medium high heat, stirring occasionally, until the fat is rendered and the bacon is lightly browned, approximately 20 minutes.

With a slotted spoon, remove the bacon to the platter to drain.

Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat (discard or reserve for another use).

Add the onions and garlic, and cook until the onions are translucent, 5-6 minutes.

Add vinegar, brown sugar, maple syrup and coffee, and bring to a boil, stirring and scraping up browned bits from skillet with a wooden spoon, about 2 minutes. 

Add the bacon, and stir to combine.

Transfer mixture to a 6-quart slow cooker and cook on high, uncovered, until liquid is syrupy, 3½ to 4 hours.

If it starts to dry out after 2 or 3 hours, add ¼ cup of water at a time and stir well.

Transfer to a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped.

Let cool, then refrigerate in airtight containers, up to 4 weeks.

Oh, my gosh, if you haven’t made bacon jam yet, you have to do it soon!  You might just love it and become addicted too!

Be sure to visit my friend, Linda’s blog @My Kind of Cooking for great tips and recipes.   She’s having an awesome giveaway now!

Garlic Dill Pickles

Grandma used to can and Mom did also, to a lesser degree ~ they were stocking their farm cellars for winter.  

Grandma’s cellar was filled with shelf after shelf of beautifully colored Mason jars filled with all sorts of fruits and veggies.  

Mom even canned beef from our own cattle after they were slaughtered, which to me was excellent; especially around Thanksgiving and Christmas when she made Mincemeat Pie. 

I just never got into canning and it’s still a mystery to me.  I always figured I would poison people if I tried it so I have no interest in canning anything.   

Then, when I came across recipes for pickles that require no canning, I knew they were meant for me.  There are countless recipes for refrigerator pickles with some heating the brine, some with more salt, more sugar, more garlic and more dill weed than this recipe contains.  So you can customize this recipe to your liking. 

These 2 jars won’t get us through the winter, but they’re perfect to enjoy right now.  They’re crisp and crunchy with just the right tang.  I cut the cucumbers, make the spicy brine to pour over them, refrigerate and wait.  They do get better; tangier as they age.  This is almost as easy as going to the grocery store and picking up a jar off the shelf!

Garlic Dill Pickles

Ingredients:

20 small pickling cucumbers

2 quarts cold water

½ cup cider vinegar

1 tablespoon pickling spices

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

1 teaspoon sugar

1/3 cup kosher salt (do not use iodized salt)

4 garlic cloves, divided and lightly smashed

2 sprigs fresh dill heads, divided

Method:

Wash 2 quart mason jars.

Wash cucumbers without scrubbing them.

Trim 1/8-inch from the blossom end of each cucumber and slice into halves or quarters, whatever size you want them to be.

In each quart jar, layer 1 dill sprig, 2 garlic cloves and half of the sliced cucumbers.

In a large bowl, stir together the remaining ingredients until the salt and sugar are dissolved.

Pour half the brine over the cucumbers in each quart jar, making sure the cucumbers are submerged.

Place the lid on the jars and screw on the rings until tight.

Place jars in the refrigerator and allow to set for 2 days before tasting.

Crunchy delicious!

Be sure to visit my friend, Linda’s blog @My Kind of Cooking for great tips and recipes. 

Kelly’s Calico Beans

I remember when she was born; it took a while to receive mail back then.  The letter announcing her arrival reached us a good week after the fact. 

She was born a month and 4 days after Bill and I married, while we were living in Oberheid, Germany when Bill was serving in the Army. 

She's Bill's niece, Kelly...
 

Kelly, almost 4

Calico beans is her specialty, this is her recipe. 

Baked beans are the best, especially in the summertime with meat from the grill.  This recipe calls for 4 types of beans:  1 can each of Great Northern, butter and kidney beans, plus 2 cans of pork ‘n beans. 

Use whatever beans you prefer.  I swapped Pinto beans and mayocoba beans for the butter beans and kidney beans. The ivory-yellow mayacoba beans are a meaty bean with a mild-flavored buttery taste.

Browned ground beef is added also, ending up with a delicious side dish for your family or a crowd.  They go quickly and that can be good but, bad too because they are just as delicious left-over! 

Calico Beans

Ingredients:

½-1 pound bacon

1 pound lean ground beef (90% lean)

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 cans (16 ounces) pork ‘n beans

1 can (16 ounces) pinto beans, rinsed and drained

1 can (16 ounces) mayocoba beans, rinsed and drained

1 can (16 ounces) Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained

½ to ¾ cup packed brown sugar

½ cup ketchup

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 tablespoon dry mustard

Method:

In a large skillet, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp. Drain well and crumble into large pieces.

In the same skillet, cook beef and onion over medium heat until the meat is no longer pink; drain.

Combine the beef mixture, bacon, beans, brown sugar, ketchup, vinegar and mustard.

Spoon into a greased 2-qt. baking dish or slow cooker.

Bake, uncovered, at 325° for 45-60 minutes or until the beans are as thick as desired.

Or, cook for 4-5 hours on low in slow cooker.

About 12 servings

Enjoy!

Be sure to visit my friend, Linda’s blog @My Kind of Cooking for great tips, recipes.  She’s having a Double Giveaway now!

Honey Poppy Seed Pasta Salad/w Shrimp

Woo hoo!!!  The heat has arrived in Northern Illinois, bringing with it the craving for cold pasta salads!  

There’s nothing quite like a crisp cool salad to dig into at your backyard barbecue when the thermometer soars.  Pasta salads are not only quick and easy to make ~ they can be prepped in advance, allowing you more time to join the esprit de corps of your guests. 

Honey Poppy Seed Pasta Salad can be easily adapted to your taste with whatever flavors you favor.   Start with wagon wheel pasta and add colorful veggies of your liking, combining it all in a honey, poppy seed and Dijon mustard dressing for the finishing touch.

This versatile salad recipe was published in our local newspaper, The Northwest Herald, recently.  I made a vegetarian version of it using shrimp; however, it is really delicious using cut-up chicken, as in rotisserie chicken ~ or you could try it with ham.   The recipe also includes one diced apple and one cup grape halves and toasted slivered almonds which I omitted, catering to individual tastes. 

If you like colorful chilly pasta salads in the heat of summer, I guarantee you’ll be wild about this one!  It’s a perfect pasta salad for your guests to relish!

Honey Poppy Seed Pasta Salad w/Shrimp

Adapted

Ingredients:

1 pound wagon wheel pasta

1 pound medium shrimp, (30-30 per pound), peeled and deveined

1 yellow bell pepper, cored and diced

1 red yellow bell pepper, cored and diced

1 orange bell pepper, cored and diced

1 cup snow pea pods, sliced into thirds

4 scallions, thinly sliced

½ cup mayonnaise

¼ cup honey

3 tablespoons cider vinegar

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

Zest of ½ orange

1 tablespoon poppy seeds

 ½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

Method:

To a large pot of boiling salted water, add pasta and cook until al dente.

Rinse in cold water to stop the cooking, drain well and set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, combine the shrimp, bell peppers, snow peas and scallions.

In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, honey, vinegar, mustard, orange zest, poppy seeds and salt and pepper.

When the pasta has cooled, add it to the bowl with the veggies and shrimp, then toss to combine.

Add the dressing and stir to coat.

Chill for 1-2 hours and serve.

Makes 12 servings

ENJOY!!!  It’s delicious!!!

Be sure to visit my friend, Linda’s blog @My Kind of Cooking for great tips and recipes.  She’s having a Double Giveaway now!

Pepper Coleslaw

I love coleslaw and am always looking for different versions of it.

Coleslaw comes from the Dutch word “koolsla” with “kool” being cabbage and “sla” meaning salad.  The earliest settlers on our eastern shores were many people of Dutch heritage who brought cabbage seeds on their voyage and started growing cabbage patches throughout the area.  These settlers supposedly served cabbage in their “old-country” ways, mainly as shredded cabbage salad or “koolsla.” 

This recipe is from Southern Living magazine. There are so many variations of coleslaw and it is an absolute staple at barbecues and picnics.   I am a huge fan of freshly ground black pepper and that is why this recipe caught my eye!

What I also like about this recipe is that there is not a large amount of sugar such as most slaw recipes contain.  It has a great buttermilk based dressing with lemon juice, cider vinegar and olive oil.  It’s a delicious peppery coleslaw and one of our favorites!

Here’s the recipe:

Pepper Coleslaw

Ingredients:

For the slaw:

½ head green cabbage, cored and grated

1 large carrot, peeled and grated

½ cup onion, chopped fine

¼ cup parsley leaves, chopped

For the dressing:

½ cup buttermilk

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon celery seed

2 teaspoons sugar

Method:

Toss together slaw ingredients.

Whisk together the dressing ingredients.

Pour over vegetables.

Toss.

Serve

8 servings

What makes your coleslaw different ~ do you add a secret ingredient?