At Home with Kristi

Ingredients

• 1 pork tenderloin (about a pound)
• 1/4 cup Lysanders pork rub (or seasoning of your choice)
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 tsp flour
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 cup water or stock
• 1 ounce chopped prosciutto
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp thyme

Directions

1. Cut the pork tenderloin into 1/2 inch thick slices (its best to slice it when is very cold)

2. Coat the pork medallions with the seasoning mix (its easiest to put the seasoning or rub in a zip top back and shake it!)

3. Sear the pork medallions on both sides. Don’t be shy, get a GOOD sear on there!

4.  Next, move the pork medallions to a casserole dish (oh, and preheat the oven to 375)

5. In the still hot pan, place the vegetable oil

6. Add in the flour and stir it around to make a roux

7. Once you have the roux made, add the wine and water (or stock)

8. Add the prosciutto and mix in the herbs and spices and let simmer for about 5 minutes

9. Pour the sauce over the pork medallions in the casserole dish and bake at 375 for about 25 minutes.

10. Serve with rice

Here are two quick yet tasty, weeknight dinners, under 30 minutes each.

A co-worker and I had been talking about Swedish meatballs but I didn’t have all of the ingredients for that, so I made this instead.

Meatballs in Mushroom Gravy

Ingredients

1. 1lb ground beef (lean)
2. 1/2 medium onion chopped
3. 1/4 cup egg substitute
4. 1/4 cup bread crumbs
5. 1 tsp salt
6. 1/2 tsp black pepper
7. 1 tsp paprika
8. 1 tsp garlic powder
9. 1/2 tsp ground cumin
10. 1 can cream of mushroom soup
11. 1 cup chicken stock

Directions

Mix the first 9  ingredients together in a bowl

Tip: you can use whatever spices you want, I used what came handy that night.

Then either using a tablespoon or a small disher, make them into meatballs and put them in a pan sprayed with non-stick spray

Cook until they are browned all over (turning once or twice during the process to get a good crust all the way around), should take about 15 minutes.

Mix the mushroom soup and chicken broth together and pour over the meatballs

Simmer for about 10 minutes while you boil some egg noodles

Serve over egg noodles.

Pork Cube Steak

Ingredients

• 1/2 to 3/4 pound pork cube steak
• 2/3 cup milk or butter milk
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp paprika

Directions

Marinate the pork in the milk or buttermilk overnight (I am not counting this time in the 30 minutes obviously)

Mix the flour and seasonings together on a plate

Dredge the cube steaks in the flour mixture and put them in a HOT pan

Turn once at about 7 or 8 minutes

Serve with mashed potatoes and some canned low fat pork gravy (I like the Heinz brand)

First of all, no judgment on all of the pork in my blog, okay?  We like the pig!

I started making this dish a couple months ago and we both love it.

This stuff is your best friend, its delicious!  Lysanders pork rub.

Rub that generously all over your pork loin.

Then sear it on all 4 sides in a hot pan.

Then cut up some potatoes.  It dosen’t even matter if you have messed up and get some that are PURPLE inside!!!

Next, wrap some bacon around the seasoned pork loin thusly

Toss the potatoes with a dash of olive oil and some of the Lysanders and then throw them in the pan with the pork

Bake at around 375 for 35 minutes or so until the pork reaches between 145 and 170 degrees.

The last 10-15 minutes I like to take the potatoes out and crisp them up on a separate pan.

And its done!

So I came home from work today, got a pork roast out of the fridge, poured some barbecue sauce on it and put it in the oven. An hour later we’re ready to eat. Mmmm….bbq pork.

Except…..it tasted horrible.  We each took one bite and that’s as far as we could go, I even spit mine out.  Ugh.

So, back to the fridge….

Matthew had a leftover chicken sandwich and some olives.

I had some frozen chicken nuggets and bbq chips.  And yes, that is Chic-fil-a sauce on my plate, I bring it home, I have a weakness for Chic-fil-a.

So the moral of the story is, sometimes no matter how hard you try to make a good homemade dinner, you sometimes just had to punt.

(look at me, I made a sports reference!)

Our friends Jocelyn and Nancy came over tonight and all four of us made dinner together.  Pork Wellington, Crash Hot Potatoes and Chocolate Lava Cake.  I can’t take credit for any of the recipes, I borrowed all of them.

It was a lot of fun and all of the food was great.

For the Pork Wellington, you saute mushrooms and onions, stuff them inside a pork loin then roll that in prosciutto

.

Then that whole thing is wrapped in puff pastry dough.

Meanwhile, the potatoes are boiling and once those are done we SMASH them (sorry this was too intense for pictures)

Once we get the dinner items in the oven we start the batter for the chocolate lava cakes

You have to separate eggs

Melt chocolate into butter

Mix in some sugar and flour

Put it in the greased cups

Have a little pink wine out of a tumbler

Snack on some sausage and cheese

FINALLY the food is ready to come out of the oven. But the wellington has to rest for 10 minutes!

But finally, its dinner time

NOM! NOM! NOM!

Throw the lava cakes in the oven while eating.

If the lava cakes won’t come out of their ramekins intact, that’s okay, spoons work!

Matthew, do you like chocolate?

Play an enthusiastic game of Farkle to work off some calories

And round off the evening with a bit of snow

I will post the Pork Wellington recipe I used soon.