Category: Food

Stuffed Pork Loin

CarrieLeave a comment

Here is a crowd pleaser for the holidays. I made it last night for my 2nd Annual Tree Trimming Party. It is deliciously tender and delightful for the tastebuds. The most difficult part of this recipe is butterflying the pork loin. Trust me, you can do it!

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Spinach and Mushroom Stuffed Pork Loin

Ingredients
olive oil
4 slices bacon
8 oz cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced (I used the smaller slicing blade on a food processor for this to make them really thin)
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp breadcrumbs
1/2 c. chopped parsley
pork loin (desired size depending upon the company you need to feed)
zest of one lemon
baby spinach

Directions
1. Heat two tbsp olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook until it is crispy. Add the mushrooms, salt, and pepper to taste. Cook until the mushrooms are soft and tender. Add the garlic and cook for one minute. Remove from heat and stir in the breads crumbs and parsley. I like to use panko breadcrumbs. Grate in the lemon zest.
2. Butterfly the pork. Make an incision on the top of the loin about one third to the left of the top of the pork. Cut to about one inch from the bottom. Take a look at the picture below.

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Then just cut from the incision across the bottom of the pork. Now you will have a flat piece of pork.
3. Season the pork with salt and pepper. Layer spinach down on the pork leaving about a one inch border on the two longer sides. Then place mushroom mixture in the center of the pork. Fold the pork over and season the top with salt and pepper. Use butcher string to secure the pork in place while roasting. You can find a tutorial here

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Season the top of the pork with salt and pepper. Move the pork to a baking dish. Place in the oven at 450 for twenty minutes. Then, baste the pork with 1/2 cup of wine. Reduce the heat to 350 until the pork reaches 140 to 160 degrees. Baste the pork with more wine every half hour. Pull out of the oven, cover with foil, and let it rest for twenty minutes. Then the pork is ready for carving. You can pour the pan drippings over the pork before serving. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

Sadie3 Comments

Surprise, surpise, December is going to be all about the cookies.  It’s cookie season people, and I take it very seriously.  I really enjoy mixing it up every year with a combination of traditional and family recipes, and then a few new options to broaded my horizons.  I love the holiday flavors: gingerbread, buttery pecans, chocolate and pepermint!

For this first cookie I’m a little stuck in November because I can’t get enough pumpkin!  I found this recipe through Pinterest I believe, and I must say, after making several pumpkin recipes this fall, this was a great one to end on.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

Yeilds about 40 depending on size, adapted from My Baking Addiction

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter; softened
  • 1 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 cup pure pumpkin puree
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup white chocolate chips
  • 1 cup dried cranberries, roughly chopped

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside: flour, spices, oats, salt, and baking soda.
  3. Cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Add pumpkin puree, egg, and vanilla.  Mix until well combined.
  4. Gradually encorporate dry mixture into wet being careful not to over mix.  Fold in chocolate chips and dried cranberries.
  5. Drop cookies onto parchment lined cookie sheet in generous teaspoon size. Bake 12-14 minutes.

Pumpkin Banana Muffins

Sadie1 Comment

Since it’s still November, I’m still allowed to make pumpkin things.  I recently had an early morning class field trip, so I decided that it would be nice to bring some muffins along.  I had a few very ripe bananas, so my initial plan was to find a good banana muffin recipe, but during my search I found something even better: a pumpkin banana muffin recipe.  To make the muffins a little more interesting I decided to add some chocolate chips and walnuts.  Basically whenever I can add nuts or chocolate, I will.

The muffins turned out fairly dense and quite moist which was great.  The original recipe called for whole wheat flour, or at least a combination of white and whole wheat.  I typically jump at the chance to use whole wheat flour, but in this instance I had just bought some white flour that I wanted to use up, so I used all white.  I love recipes that are adaptable to what you have on hand!

Pumpkin Banana Muffins

Yeilds 24 muffins, adapted from Alida’s Kitchen

Ingredients

  • 3 cups whole wheat pastry flour or all-purpose flour (or 1 cup all-purpose flour/1 cup whole wheat flour)
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 3 bananas, mashed
  • 1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
  • 1/3 cup canola oil
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts
  • 1-2 cups chocolate chips (depending on how chocolaty you want it)

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 and line the muffin tins with liners, or spray with non-stick spray.
  2. Combine dry ingredients: flour, sugar, spices, baking powder, and baking soda in a bowl and set aside.
  3. In a separate bowl mix together pumpkin puree, oil, and mashed bananas with an electric mixer.  Gradually add eggs and vanilla until mixture is well combined.
  4. Gradually fold in the dry ingredients to the wet, and finally add walnuts and chocolate chips.
  5. Bake 13-15 minutes for normal sized muffins (a little shorter if you make minis).