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.

Apple and Rosemary Stuffed Pork Chops

I was walking through Costco yesterday trying to decide what I wanted to make for our Sunday dinner this week when I came across these beautiful pork chops. We haven't had pork chops in a long time and I'm not usually a big fan because all I can typically find are the thin little pork chops in the grocery store. These ones were about two inches thick and even though they were boneless, which is usually another strike, they looked perfect.

Pork Loin Braised in Milk

I honestly feel like it's been so long since I've made something worth blogging about. I'm still cooking but just haven't had the time to think of anything very creative and then the week just flies by.

I was in Wyoming last week for my Grandpa's funeral. It was one of those times where it's a horrible reason to be together but it's also a great thing to have almost everyone together in one place. I brought our youngest with me since she still flies for free and then we got to spend some time at our cabin in Star Valley with cousins and my brothers. Of course we also had to make some donuts for everyone so I did even get some cooking in out there.

Smoked Pulled Pork

Did you miss me? Did you even notice I was gone? I just spent the last week up in the boundary waters of Minnesota. It's a beautiful area and it was so nice to get away for awhile. I had no technology except for my little camera. It also meant I didn't do much cooking for the week, although we did eat pretty well for being in the wilderness with only the food that we could pack in.

Spicy Blackberry Glazed Ribs

Are you ready for grilling season? Technically, I could say it's always grilling season as I've been known to even clear a path in the snow to get to my grill but now that the weather is warming up, our grill is being used 2-3 times a week. To be honest, a lot of the time it's just grilling some hot dogs for the kids but I still try and grill some fun stuff more and more during the summer.

Maple-Brined Pork Roast with Roasted Pear Chutney

The nights are cool and the days are warming. Maple trees start to drip their liquid gold into buckets from Maple farms across the NorthEast. Did you know that it can take up to 40 gallons of the sap to produce just one gallon of syrup? If you haven't ever been able to visit a maple farm, I highly recommend it. It's an amazing process and I've never heard of a maple farmer that wasn't happy to have a few extra hands around to help. You better hurry though, the season often only lasts 4-6 weeks before the trees bud and the sap stops running.

Prosciutto-Wrapped Pork Loin with Roasted Apples

Imagine taking ground pork, wrapping a pork loin around it and then wrapping more pork around that.  If you've seen the October cover of Bon Appetit, you've already seen this trifecta of pork and if you're willing to put in a few hours of work, you can experience the amazing dinner that we just finished up for yourself.

Emeril's One-Pot Blogger Party: Pulled Pork Sandwich and Vinegar Coleslaw

I'm a sucker for good pig. Ever since I had some amazing pork a few weeks ago at a Food Blogger event, I have been wanting to make some more for myself. Then I saw some pork shoulder on sale and it was a go. We got two extremely large Pork Butt roasts so I've now made pulled pork twice in the last three weeks. Pulled Pork is a great way to make a ton of food for a lot of people for not a lot of money. It takes a fairly cheap cut of meat, slow roasts it and turns it into a juicy, succulent meat perfect for piling up on a bun, topping with coleslaw and enjoying with friends and family.

Emeril's One-Pot Blogger Party: Banh Xeo - Vietnamese Crepe

One of the things we picked up from our time living in New Orleans was a love for Thai and Vietnamese food. Never would have expected to find it there, but they've got quite a large community and it shows in the quality of food that you can get in the general area. Another place I wouldn't have expected to find a good Vietnamese recipe would be in a cookbook from Emeril Lagasse. But it was there, and it was a pretty big hit. Banh Xeo is a dish I've never tried in a restaurant so I can't vouch for its authenticity but it's certainly one I'll be making again and I would definitely order it off any menu.

Yale University Dining 2nd Annual Chili Throwdown

On Friday, November 5th 2010, Yale University Dining hosted it's second annual "Chili Throwdown." 22 different chili's were entered into the competition, one of which was a recipe created by my Dad, an Associate Chaplain at Yale. He came out in third place, beating out all of the Yale Chefs and other organizations except for the Chef of Berkeley college, who won first prize and the Chef for Saybrook and Branford colleges who took second.

Sweet and Sour Chicken or Pork

Whenever I eat at a Chinese restaurant I usually end up getting Sweet and Sour Chicken, at least at the buffet's or restaurants of questionable quality. It's usually safe (at least I think so) and most people can get it so it at least tastes pretty good. I've experimented with making sweet and sour chicken before and I've come up with some pretty good variations but never anything that was just amazing, especially with the sauce.

Pork Chops with Chiles Rellenos and Ancho Sauce

I was traveling earlier this week so I didn't get on as soon as I'd like to post this week's blog and it also took me some time to figure out what I wanted to make. I didn't really have any particular ingredient or style in mind so I just went site searching for something that looked good. My first stop is typically FoodNetwork.com followed closely by bonappetit.com. bonappetit won this time. This recipe just looked so good to start with and the ingredients looked intriguing. I hadn't ever cooked with cumin seeds before and poblano chiles are a recent favorite for me. I had an interesting learning experience as I shopped for the poblano's this time as well. The store I went to had some chile's that I thought looked like poblano's but they were labeled as pasilla's. I did some googling and found that this is apparently a mistake in many grocery stores. The pasilla is actually the dried version but the stores continue to call the poblano's by that name. Good to know for future purchases.