Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin with Apple and Sausage Filling



 

How quickly the time goes. I feel like we were just enjoying the last days of Summer and now here we are prepping for another Thanksgiving. We haven't had snow here yet so at least I can be Thankful for that. And good food. I've been surrounded by some amazing food the last week or so, from restaurants and friends to trying some new recipes in my own kitchen. It's so amazing to see what people with so much more talent than I have can do with some simple ingredients.

Lemon Twist Hummus and Zucchini Bread

The kids are back in school, after school sports are in full swing and we seem busier than ever. We're still trying to enjoy every second of the summer weather though and our garden is finishing up from a great harvest. We're typically not as good about preserving things from the garden, but this year we tried to stay on top of it and we've got rows and rows of freshly canned tomato soup, pickles, jalapenos, carrots, onion and zucchini in our food storage. The zucchini is still growing and we shred and freeze as much as we can.

Idaho® Potato Pierogi with Bacon and Cheese

When I lived in Montreal, one of my favorite meals that people often made for us were Pierogi. I'm not sure why they were so popular there but I fell in love. I even found a really good frozen brand that were easy to fry up on my own for a quick meal.

Meat Loaf

In terms of comfort food, meat loaf is a strong contender for first place. It's essentially a huge, juicy hamburger that you've decided to not even waste time on a bun with. It's got so much flavor packed into it that you just squirt some more ketchup on top and dig in. And I'm sorry, but if you don't put ketchup on meat loaf, you're not doing it right.

Homemade Idaho® Potato Cheesy Tater Tots

I started to make a list of everything that you can user tater tots for and I stopped writing after about 20 ideas. Tater tots are so amazing all on their own but they also make one of my favorite dishes in the world, Tater Tot Hotdish.

Then I realized that my kids really don't even eat them that often, if ever really! They take their own lunches to school and we really don't buy the frozen ones even though I love them. Whenever I crave them, I typically get them at work for lunch so we really don't have them at home very often.

Roasted Tomato Soup

It's a bit of an understatement to say that we have tomatoes. We've been picking cherry tomatoes for weeks now and I've already dried many pounds of those and now our regular ones are coming in. On Thursday Breanne picked almost 50 lbs and I knew it was time to figure out how we were going to preserve these guys.

Last year I made a tomato soup that the kids loved and lasted for a few months, so I thought that would be a good start. I wanted to be able to can it again, so that meant no butter or cream in the recipe. You can always add cream in later when you warm it up but I wanted something that would stand on it's own.

Jay Ducote and Food Network Star

One of my favorite food shows is definitely Food Networks "Food Network Star" and it's going to be even better this year knowing someone in the show!

Jay Ducote from our Virtual Potluck group is a finalist in the show and I can't wait for it to start this Sunday, June 7th 2015. Jay has a huge, fun personality and I wouldn't be surprised at all if he makes it all the way through. He's from Louisiana and creates some pretty amazing southern food that makes me miss the time that we lived there.

Eggplant Caponata

It's so hard to come back from vacation. I hereby propose that we work for 4 weeks every year and vacation the rest of it! Wouldn't that be nice? I am excited for this summer though. The sun is finally shining, the grass is green and our garden is coming up. The last two years, our summers have been full of renovations and other projects but this year I am doing nothing! I'll do the garden and keep the yard nice but I have sworn off any major projects. I'm just going to enjoy the weekends and the trips we're planning over the next few months.

Hummus and Greek Yogurt Lettuce Wraps

It's the time of year when a quick healthy dinner is a critical part of daily life. We have soccer games or practice every night among a variety of other activities. We tend to get in a rut and make the same stuff over and over and I like to try and find some fresh new things to throw in the rotation.

Panko Crusted Baked Mahi Mahi with Garlic Greens

The Virtual Potluck team is throwing another potluck this month in partnership with Cut 'N Clean Greens for Healthy Vision Month. We've got some great recipes using all kinds of greens and I have loved trying all of their great varieties over the past few weeks.

We used chopped rainbow chard on grilled flatbreads, we made an avocado and citrus salad with kale for Mothers Day and I've been using all of them in my smoothies in the morning too!

Gardening with OXO

This is my favorite time of year here in Minnesota. We can get outdoors again and that means it's time to plant our garden!

We worked on our backyard last year and built new garden boxes. We've had tons of questions about them so I wanted to share some more here. We're just getting started on our planting this year and can't wait to see everything start coming up!

Salsa, Beef and Cheese Chiles Rellenos

 

Happy Cinco de Mayo! When you hear of Sabra, most of you probably think of their amazing hummus, but did you know they also have an amazing assortment of salsas and dips? I absolutely love their salsa and I am always amazed at how fresh they taste. They have 8 varieties that are perfect for any party or event you have coming up and are always made with vine-ripened tomatoes and perfectly selected vegetables .

Pistachio French Macarons

There are some difficult foods that are not worth making and some that most certainly are. One that isn't, in my opinion; croissants. While I've made them a few times and am glad to know and understand how the process works, I can find pretty decent or even amazing croissants in pretty much any bakery for a decent price.