Pork Medallions with Port Wine & Mustard Sauce

I don't recall if I've ever mentioned my most favorite restaurant in alla world? It was a small place that looked like any other small restaurant/bar - I don't really recall anything that special about the atmosphere. But the food? Oh dear sweet Jebus. It was fantastic. Unfortunately, the owner couldn't keep the place open - which shocked the hell outta me as it was ALWAYS packed. Rumors were the owners of the building upped his rent and he couldn't afford it.. other rumors were he got into a lil tax/money trouble.. whatever - the bottom line was I didn't have my favorite place to eat anymore and I was more than a lil sad. =( Their signature dish was pork tenderloin medallions in a port wine & mustard sauce. not only did they give you TWO pork tenderloins (I ate for days!) but this sauce that was poured over them was amazing. So amazing that in all the years we went there - I never had anything but the pork medallions. I just couldn't imagine anything else being as good. Wayne, my Mom and some friends always ordered different items and never was there a complaint, but for me.. it was that damn sauce. It's been a good 4 years or so since the restaurant closed. I've tried to recreate this sauce twice now. The first time was kind of close - but it called for pears. There were no pears in the original, but I thought what the hell and tried it. It was good.. very good. And then I lost the recipe. Mmm hmm.. so I tried again just this week. Not even close, quite frankly. I decided to just dump and pour and hope for the best. Well I didn't get the sauce I was hoping for, but I did get quite a fantastic sweet & tangy sauce that really went well with the pork. The first thing you'll notice when you taste is it's sweetness, but then you'll taste the mustard's tang and the port wine is very nice in the background. I think the only thing I'll change the next time I make this is to cut down on the brown sugar a bit. Hubbs didn't work that day so he wanted to contribute to the meal. I asked him to find a good side dish, preferably potatoes. He decided on an Onion and Potato Casserole that was quite nice, although probably not the best accompaniment for the medallions. Next time something lighter to offset the richness of the sauce might be better. But I'm including this recipe as it was very tasty and would be a fantastic side dish for just about any meat prepared a different way. Port Wine & Mustard Sauce 1 c. Port wine 1/4 c. dijon mustard 3/4 - 1 c. beef stock 1/4 c. brown sugar 1 TBS. butter Pan drippings After you've roasted your pork (I roasted mine in the same skillet I used to sear it in and then carefully made the sauce in the same skillet - keeping a thick kitchen towel over the handle at all times to remind my dork arse that it was searing hot) remove it to a dish and cover with foil to keep warm. In the skillet add the 1 c. of port wine sauce, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula to lift off the lil brown bits of goodness. Simmer the wine until it reduces by half. Add the mustard and about 1/2 c. of beef broth and continue to simmer until this has reduced by 1/2. Finally add the brown sugar and more broth depending on how thick you want the sauce to be. I don't think I added much more the second time - maybe a 1/4 cup or so? Anyhoo, simmer this slowly until you've reached the consistency you'd like then add the butter and stir until your sauce becomes silky. Drizzle over medallions and serve. Onion and Potato Casserole 3 c. sliced onions (2 large onions) 2 TBS butter 1 (10.5 oz.) can condensed cream of celery soup 1/2 c. water salt and pepper to taste 1/4 tsp. dried thyme 6 med. potatoes, sliced thin and parboiled 1 c. shredded cheddar cheese Preheat oven to 350º F. In a skillet, cook onions in butter until lightly browned. Add soup and water, season with salt and pepper and thyme. Arrange potatoes and 1/2 c. of the cheese in a buttered 2 quart casserole. Pour onion mixture over potatoes & cheese and top with remaining cheese. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until heated through and lightly browned. Serves 4 My Note: The only thing thing he did differently was cut the recipe in half.

Pan Pierogi

If you are a lover of Pierogi then this dish is for you. The recipe can be easily double or tripled for a great potluck contribution. This potato dish can be made as a side dish or with the addition of meat, a main dish that'll knock your pierogi loving socks off. Easy to put together and made with ingredients that most have on hand, it's a quick dinner for those nights when time seems to slip away. Filling and tasty, it's one of our favorites. You can switch up the cheeses, meats, or even add flavorings to the potatoes and create your own version. The inside is creamy and the lasagna noodles get a little crunchy on the edges (the part I like the most!). This is a perfect Autumn/Winter dish.. try it! :D Pan Pierogi 1 large vidalia onion, either sliced thinly or diced medium 2 TBS. butter 9 lasagna noodles, cooked al dente 3 c. smashed potatoes (I cheat and use a bag of pre-smashed potatoes - Yoder's brand) handful of fresh, snipped chives* 1 c. sour cream* 2 c. shredded cheese (I'll usually use 1 c. swiss and 1 c. sharp cheddar) 1 package of Keilbasa sausage, sliced on the diagonal* (I use Hilshire Farms) 1 TBS. butter Preheat oven to 375º F. Butter a 8" x 8" baking dish - I usually use a glass Pyrex. Saute the onions in 2 TBS. of butter until lightly browned and carmelized. I like to buy the regular smashed potatoes and then in a med. saucepan I heat them and add the sour cream and chives. This is optional. You could add the potatoes cold or buy the flavored kind or smash your own - do whatever you feel is best. Place 3 lasagna noodles in the bottom of your baking dish and then spread about 1 c. of the smashed potatoes on top. Sprinkle potatoes with 1/2 the onions. Next layer is the cheese, I usually do a small handful of each flavor (making sure to reserve some for the top). Top with the sliced keilbasa, if you are using. Then start your layers again; noodles, potatoes, onions, cheese, sausage. Top with last 3 lasagna noodles and the remaining cheeses. Slice off excess lasagna noodle so that it's flush with the top of the dish. If you don't, the excess noodles will burn. Dot the top with 1 TBS. butter and bake, uncovered for 45-60 minutes, or until golden and bubbly. Let sit for about 5-10 minutes so it will set up and make for easier cutting. *Note:The chives, sour cream and Keilbasa are optional - use whatever you want or leave plain. Also, if I have it on hand, I sometimes like to add about a 1/2 c. of sauerkraut to the onions when sauteing. Adds a nice lil zing! :D

A New Cookbook

A few weeks ago, Cooking Light magazine sent me an offer for their "Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2006" cookbook. Their promotion for the book was quite enticing, with lots of gorgeous pictures and some really yummy sample recipes.. so enticing, that I sent the little postage-paid card back the same day requesting the book. I received it this past Friday and couldn't wait to sit down and go through it. Much to my chagrin their finished product wasn't anything like the promotion. There are tons of recipes, yes.. but they are all presented in a mish-mash way on the pages, with "clumps" of picture pages throughout the book. The recipes are organized by monthly issue instead of the normal categories you'd find in just about any cookbook published.. EVER. So to find a recipe, say, something in the appetizer or side dish category, I have to go to the back of the book and look in the index that's listed by INGREDIENT. In other words, unless I know exactly what main ingredient I want to use for a certain appetizer or side dish, I have to peruse the whole freakin index to find something that fits the bill. Gah. Okay, so I've found a couple recipes that look good - and am hoping they are appetizers and/or side dishes - I go to their corresponding pages to find that I then have to search the page to find the recipe, because they've slammed about 5 recipes on each page. If I want to see what the finished recipe looks like? Yeah good luck.. I can go through the several clumps of picture pages and MAYBE get lucky if they've taken a picture of the recipe I've chosen, but I found I didn't luck out very often. This isn't my first cookbook made up of a magazine's year's worth of recipes. I have several of "Home Cooking"'s annual collection of recipes and those books are categorized by appetizer, main dish, side dish, desert etc.. with pictures on every single page that actually correspond with the recipes. So shame on Cooking Light - it looks as if they had 2 people in charge of creating this book and those 2 people waited until the last minute - so they just slapped typed recipes all over the place and as an afterthought, threw in those picture page clumps. No organization whatsoever. Okay, I lied.. organized by monthly issue. I don't receive the magazine, so I don't know what was published each month. Had I received the magazine, I can GUARANTEE that I would not remember what was published each month anyway! Sheesh. Okay before sending this book back, I've decided to try a few recipes to see if they are worth keeping the book, regardless of the ass-pain it would be to search for a recipe when I wanted one. The first one I chose was a type of potato salad that was mayo-less and used roasted potatoes. I served this potato salad with my London Broil, some steamed asparagus and a salad that my girlfriend, Mindy, and her family brought yesterday for our lil 4th of July get together. The salad was decent, very different from any potato salad we've ever had. The roasting of the potatoes was fabulous and I'd really like to try the other potato salads I've made in the past with roasted potatoes to see if they'd work. The vinaigrette was a bit vinegar-y for my taste, but also quite delicious.. in other words, I'd make it again but cut the vinegar back quite a bit. So with that, and the opinions of my guests... this recipe is a keeper but with a little tweaking needed. I have hope for the book.. this recipe isn't the deal breaker, but it does make me want to try others. Roasted Potato Salad Courtesy of Cooking Light's Annual Recipes 2006 Potatoes: 2 tsp. olive oil 1/4 tsp. kosher salt 4 lbs. small red potatoes, quartered (I did a large dice) Cooking spray 1/2 c. chopped green onions 1/4 c. chopped fresh parsley 4 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled Vinaigrette 2 1/2 TBS. balsamic vinegar (I will cut this down to 1 TBS. next time) 1 TBS. Dijon mustard 2 tsp. olive oil 1/2 tsp. black pepper 1/4 tsp. kosher salt Preheat oven to 450º F. To prepare potatoes, toss potatoes with 2 tsp. olive oil and 1/4 tsp. kosher salt. Arrange in a single layer on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Bake for 30 minutes or until tender. (I found that even diced, the potatoes weren't exactly fork tender after 30 minutes, so I flipped them around and continued roasting for another 20 minutes, which made them nice and tender and also a tad bit crispy around the edges - which was perfect). Cool potatoes. Combine potatoes, onions and bacon. To prepare the viniagrette, whisk together vinegar, mustard, salt & pepper while drizzling the olive oil in until you've created a thick emulsion. Pour viniagrette over potato mixture and coat well. Serve immediately. This recipe serves 8 with 1 c. servings.

2 Things You've Been Told..

I'm sure it wasn't just my mother who said this, "If you eat that right now you'll spoil your dinner, put it back!" =) and I'm sure I'm not the only one who has seen the Lays potato chip commercials where they tell you that you can't just eat one Lays, eh? 'kay so I spoiled my dinner last night.. and Lays Schmays.. I made homemade potato chips around 4:30 yesterday.. and no, I could not stop after eating just one. I couldn't stop after eating just 25. And I'm pissed off to realize that a $3.00 bag of chips contains roughly 1.5 freakin' potatoes! I had 2 sweet potatoes in my fridge that were going to go bad ANY SECOND and I russet potato that I can not even remember buying, it's been so long.. so I decided that making my own chips would be a smashing idea. I got out my mandolin slicer, made quick work of 3 potatoes and fired up my deep fryer. About 30 minutes later I had the most exquisite potato chips I've ever had. Who knew making your own was so damn easy and so much cheaper than buying them?? I'm all for spending that extra cash if it will get me what I want quicker than having to make it myself if I'm a tired gal.. but holy crap.. there's nothing to making your own chips and they blow store bought chips outta the water! I guess the one and only drawback that I can see is that the chips that weren't fried until they were a darker goldeny brown and crispy are kinda soggy today.. but hell, what's a few soggy chips when you've got mountains of crispy, oh sooo good chips? I'd love to say that I'll never buy store bought chips again.. but I know that isn't true as hubbs will want some at like 10:15 at night and I won't have the energy to pour myself a glass of water let alone slice and fry potatoes for him.. but for weekend snacking and parties.. I'm making my own from now on baby! =) I'm a purist when it comes to my chips.. I only like salt, but I can totally see sprinkling these crispy yummies with grated parmesan or some dry herbs or spices or a lil onion and/or garlic powder or or cinnamon sugar for the sweet potato variety! Doesn't Orville Redenbacker have a cheddar cheese powder for sprinkling on his popcorn? That'd be killer as well. I guess the options are pretty much endless because if you sprinkle something on them as soon as they come outta the fryer, it'd stick.. I might even try fresh snipped chives the next time. :D Homemade Potato Chips 2 potatoes (I used Russet and Red Garnet Sweets) peanut oil - however much your fryer manufacturer suggests, or enough to equal about 1 inch in a frypan 1 tsp. salt or whatever you'd like to sprinkle on them Set your mandolin to very thin slices or slice very thinly with a good sharp knife - I left the skins on. Fry in small batches until chips turn a dark golden brown. Transfer them to a big plate or bowl that has been lined with a couple paper towels or brown paper bags. Sprinkle immediately with salt. Try to wait a few minutes before devouring them to avoid lip, tongue and roof of mouth burnage (not that I burned my lips, tongue and roof of my mouth after that first batch) Store any remaining chips in a airtight container. I used 3 large potatoes and they made the equivalent of about 2 bags of chips. Seriously.