Peppercorn encrusted Pork Tenderloin with Orange & Thyme Carrots and Asparagus

I have never cooked a full pork tenderloin before but I have always wanted to try. When it was on sale last week I bought one and then had nothing to do with it. So I whipped up something in my brain and here is what I got.

What you will need:
Pork Tenderloin
2 Tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
1 Tablespoon salt
1 Tablespoon garlic powder
2 sprigs of Thyme
1 TSP olive oil
1 Cup chicken or beef broth

Mix Pepper, salt and garlic powder and thyme in a bowl. Coat tenderloin with mixture. In a medium saute pan, heat olive oil over medium high heat and seer the tenderloin on all sides. About 3 minutes each side. Lower the heat and add 1 cup of broth. Place lid overtop of the pan and let simmer for about 20 minutes or until center temperature is 165.


Let tenderloin rest for about 10 minutes before slicing.

Orange Honey Carrots
You will need:
3 large carrots, sliced
1/2 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 sprig of Thyme

In small sauce pot, add carrots, orange juice, honey, brownsugar and thyme. Bring to a boil then lower the heat to simmer for about 10 minutes or until carrots are tender.
Salt and pepper to taste

I blanced the asparagus in some chicken stock dilouted with water for about 10 min, until the asparagus were bright and tender. Drain water and serve.

Chicken Soup with Dumplings

So I have been feeling sick the last few days, no better time than now to make my Chicken soup. I added dumplings to change things up a bit, and was very happy with my old time favorite. Feel free to add whatever leftover veggies floating in your fridge.


What you will need:
2 tbs olive oil
1 cup sliced Carrots
1 cup diced celery
1 cup diced onion
1 cup diced potatoes
1 cup green beans
1 cup cooked diced chicken
1 garlic clove- finely chopped
2 sprigs of Tyme
1 bay leaf
Salt & pepper
2 quarts chicken stock ( I like to make mine homemade but canned is fine)
1 cup plum tomatoes (optional)


In large stock pot, heat olive oil and add veggies to sautee until tender. Approx 5 minutes on medium heat. Add seasonings, salt, pepper, tyme, and bay leaf.
Add chicken stock ,chicken cubes and tomatoes and bring to a boil. Let simmer for about 30 minutes or until veggies are soft.
Reduce heat


Prepare dumplings in seperate bowl. ( I use bisquick mix following the recepie on the side of the box and add salt, pepper,and parsley to the mixture)



Using 2 spoons, form small balls (no bigger than a large gumball, they get BIG in the soup) of dumpling batter and drop them into the soup, they will rise to the top and cook with the steam of the soup. This process takes approximatly 5 to 10 minutes. Make extra dumplings, beleive me they will go. The best way to make more dumplings is to scoup out the dumplings as they cook, and add more, then at the end add all the dumplings to the pot! Be careful, they are delicate.

Butternut Squash Stuffed Shells with Sage Bechamel

This is one of my brainstorm ideas. It defiantly needs some tweaking so maybe one of you can play around with it and find some solutions, but I think it has potential.

I attended a wedding last weekend that had these amazing butternut squash ravioli's and I tried to pick apart the filling to find the ingredients but I wasn't too far off.

You will need:
1/2 lb of Shells - approximately 20-15 shells.
Butternut Squash
Butter
Sage
Cinnamon
Brown Sugar
Flour
Milk or Heavy Cream
Nutmeg


Prepare Shells as indicated on the box

For the Filling you will need:
1 cup butternut squash- cubed
2 TBS butter
1 TSP sage
1 TSP cinnamon
1 TSP brown sugar
Salt & Pepper

Boil water and add squash. Boil for approximately 10-15 minutes until the squash is soft enough to mash. (note: its better to over boil these then under boil. my mixture came out a little grainy when mashing, i should have cooked them a little longer for a creamier texture)

Once they are tender, mash or process in food processor to blend smooth.
Should be the consistency of mashed potatoes.
Add butter, sage, cinnamon, brown sugar and salt and pepper to taste. Adjust any seasoning to your liking, i preferred a sweeter filling, others may like savory.

Fill the shells with approximately 1 tablespoon of filling. Line shells in a baking dish sprayed with non-stick spray.

For Bechamel Sauce:

In medium sauce pan heat 2 tablespoons of butter until melted. Add 2 tablespoons of flour to make a roue. Let the mixture cook while whisking it for about 5 minutes. Add 1 cup of warmed milk and whisk on low heat until the mixture becomes thick.
Add a pinch of nutmeg and 1 teaspoon of dried or chopped sage.
Continue to cook on low heat until the sauce is thick.
Top over stuffed shells and bake in the oven on 350 for 10 minutes.
Enjoy!

The BEST French Onion Soup

This is seriously the BEST French Onion Soup recipie I have found. Its amazingly flavorful in all the right ways. Classic use of red wine as opposed to brandy, and the sweet flavors of vidalia onions pair perfectly with the cheese.
Take the time to find Grueyer cheese, Its expensive at most food markets, but I found mine at a local Fruit market for 1/2 the price. Its just not the same without it.

Taken from Food Network.com Tyler Florence




Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter
4 onions, sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 bay leaves
2 fresh thyme sprigs
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup red wine, about 1/2 bottle
3 heaping tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 quarts beef broth
1 baguette, sliced
1/2 pound grated Gruyere
Directions
Melt the stick of butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, and salt and pepper and cook until the onions are very soft and caramelized, about 25 minutes.






Add the wine, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the wine has evaporated and the onions are dry, about 5 minutes. Discard the bay leaves and thyme sprigs. Dust the onions with the flour and give them a stir. Turn the heat down to medium low so the flour doesn't burn, and cook for 10 minutes to cook out the raw flour taste. Now add the beef broth, bring the soup back to a simmer, and cook for 10 minutes. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.



When you're ready to eat, preheat the broiler. Arrange the baguette slices on a baking sheet in a single layer. Sprinkle the slices with the Gruyere and broil until bubbly and golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes.

Ladle the soup in bowls and float several of the Gruyere croutons on top.

Alternative method: Ladle the soup into bowls, top each with 2 slices of bread and top with cheese. Put the bowls into the oven to toast the bread and melt the cheese.

Garden Pasta

So I came home one night with nothing in the fridge, so I came up with this recipie using mostly things grown in my backyard or in the fridge. Enjoy!


What you will need:


1 cup diced Zucchini
1 Roasted Red Pepper diced
2 cloves of garlic- minced
1 small diced onion
3 medium tomatoes diced
1/2 lb of whole wheat pasta
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 tbs olive oil
10 fresh basil leaves chopped
Parmesean cheese

Prepare pasta as indicated on the box.

In Medium sauce pan sautee Zucchini, onions & garlic in olive oil until vegetables are soft.

Approximatly 5 minutes. Add the diced tomatoes, roasted red peppers and season to taste.

Let simmer until the tomatoes break down and become a thick sauce.
Turn the heat off and add the basil leaves to wilt in the sauce.


Pour over pasta and sprinkle with parmesean cheese.



Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Filled Brownies

I came across this dessert at a family function. My husband's cousin had made these brownies that had a cream cheese filling that were amazing. I decided to tweak them and here's what you get!

You will need :

1 box of brownie mix-
any ingredient called for on the box, usually vegetable oil, water and eggs. See package for details.

For Filling :
1 8oz package of Cream Cheese softened
1/3 cup Peanut Butter
1/3 cup powedered sugar

For Frosting :
1 container of cream cheese frosting.
1/4 cup Peanut Butter


Prepare Brownie mix as box suggests.

Prepare Filling :
Combine Cream cheese, peanut butter and powdered sugar with hand mixer until smooth.

Prepare Frosting :
Combine cream cheese frosting and 1/4 peanut Butter until smooth.

Spray or line a muffin pan. ( I prefer to use the new silacone muffin trays )

Pour the brownie batter approximatly 1/3rd of the way full for each muffin.
Add 1 teaspoon of filling mixture to the center of each muffin.
Pour remaining batter into muffin pan, filling only 3/4th of the way full for each muffin.

Follow box instructions for baking time. In my experiences I have had the same baking time for any brand of brownies I have used. Approximatly 25 minutes at 350.

Let muffins cool on a clean towel. Its much easier to flip your muffin pan onto a clean towel to let them cool. It prevents sticking and avoids ridges in the muffin tops from a cooling rack.

One the muffins are cool you can frost them.

Heres a great frosting tip to save time and mess.
What you will need is

1- 1 gallon sized Zip Lock bag.
1- Pastry tip- any kind will do but the ones with the larger openings are suggested.
Cut the corner of the zip lock bag and insert pastry tip for an instant pastry bag.
Fill the bag and presto! Instant pastry bag. You dont have to use a pastry tip, I like it for consistancy and to prevent the bag from ripping while piping.

First Blogger!

Hello All,

I have always wanted to share my idea's and recipes with other folks and never found a way to do it, until now. A friend of mine , Kira! has been posting her ideas and thoughts on cooking and I hope to find some great new ideas and hopefully some of you will like mine.

I have always had a great fascination with food. From a young age of 5 I began spending quality time in the kitchen with my grandparents. They are both amazing cooks and taught me everything I knew up until High school. My grandparents are of Italian decent and began their family in Brooklyn NY, where the food is something of great pride. I spent a ton of time with my grandfather in his kitchen learning his secrets to many of my childhood favorites. Watching him make Potato Croquettes and Rice balls was like an art. Every Sunday we would gather as a family and sit down to what others would consider a feast of food. Meatballs, Eggplant Rollantini, Lasagna, Ham, Sausage and the best Italian bread from Brooklyn were our basic meals on Sundays. With all my cousins gathered around the table and my aunts and uncles at the "big" table we shared so many amazing memories around that food. Deserts were a whole other beast in itself, homemade cream puffs, Struffoli's, and my grandmothers cookies were just the beginning.

My love for cooking grew stronger and stronger the older I got. I enrolled myself in Voc Tech culinary school and had the most amazing time learning with some great chef's. I learned to channel into my pallet and really taste food with my senses, not just my mouth.
During high school I was accepted to Johnson & Whales university. A dream school for me. Unfortunately some financial change in my life situations prevented me from going further with my dreams. I gain just as much happiness from putting a meal together for my family and friends to enjoy as I would being a full time chef.

You will find some of my recipes are passed down from my family so they may look different than traditional text book recipes. I also will be posting my brainstorming recipes. I enjoy taking something and tweaking to to be my own, so feel free to comment and or change mine too. I'm always looking for new ways to experiment with flavors.

Anyways, Bon' Appetite!