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Pork Tenderloin Marsala
This is one of my most requested meals – and probably my personal favorite. It is savory and rich and full of flavor. Pretty simple too – not a lot of ingredients, and can be prepared start to finish in just about an hour. Not typically one of my weeknight meals, but a weekend go-to for sure! The pork cooks to a perfect medium and is so juicy and tender. Pork Tenderloin Marsala 2 pork tenderloins 4 – 5 tbsp Dijon mustard (Grey Poupon Country Dijon is best) 2 tbsp olive oil 4 tbsp butter 4 shallots, minced 2 cups marsala wine (not cooking wine, real wine) 2 tbsp Dijon…
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The Taco Night Superstar: Spanish Rice
I’m a sides kinda girl – sure the main course can be great, but I love a good side dish! (Just wait until Thanksgiving!!) So tonight I planned to make tacos and I thought all day about what else I could make to go with it. I decided I’d try to make Spanish rice (an old time favorite of mine). Although I had never made this from scratch before, I am pleased to say that my experiment turned out delicious! This is a really simple recipe and cooked while I was making the taco meat, so it definitely qualifies as weeknight-worthy. If I had planned ahead, I would have added…
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Lasagna with Goat Cheese and Sausage
Lasagna is such a comfort food! Whether it’s a tried and true recipe or something outside the box, lasagna rarely disappoints. So I decided to try a new twist on an old classic and add goat cheese to my lasagna. One of my co-workers does this and her lasagna is always great, but this was a first for me. I also opted for chicken sausage versus ground beef, for no reason other than wanting a different taste than my traditional. I made the sauce from scratch, which I’ve been doing a lot lately (finally weening myself from Prego!), and having the tomato pieces in there was really good. I was a…
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Shrimp and Grits
I’m going to throw a warning out on this one – unless you don’t have kids or you have a babysitter, this is not a good weeknight meal. I regretted making this on a Tuesday immediately after I started – it’s a lot of chopping and shredding and a lot of moving parts all cooking at the same time. The kids destroyed the kitchen while I was making this one – they had snacks pulled out, Play-doh, pots and pans, tupperware, towels all over the place. It was a freaking wreck! And then I was so busy just trying to prepare the food (and fast to prevent any further destruction…
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(Almost) Cube Steak with Gravy
So I’ve actually never made cube steak… or if I have, it was so unmemorable that I have forgotten. But it’s one of those things that I have aspired to make well. So tonight I decided to give it a try. Only problem, I didn’t actually have “cubed steak” – but I did have ground beef; really, really awesome organic ground beef from Costco that is the best tasting ground beef I have ever, ever had, hands down. So I decided to improvise. I figured that if I made my ground beef into thin enough patties, and then treated it just like cube steak, it would work. Well, it did…
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Sausage and Peppers Spaghetti
This is one of my favorite pasta dishes! It’s not your typical spaghetti – it’s full of fresh veggies, made with sausage and I like mine with angel hair. This recipe makes a pretty large pot; plenty to feed a family and have leftovers too (I love leftovers!). It’s pretty easy to make and can be done in around 30 to 40 minutes. Me and the boys had this for dinner tonight, and after Brogan was done, he asked, “Can we have this again tomorrow?” Dinner win! Sausage and Peppers Spaghetti 1 lb angel hair pasta 1 lb Italian sausage (I use Publix Greenwise Sun-dried Tomato Chicken Sausage) 1 tbsp…
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Biscuits and Gravy
It probably comes as no surprise that I like biscuits and gravy. I really like it. My mom made it for me growing up, and I still make it the same way she did. This Southern masterpiece is the ultimate comfort food and can be enjoyed any time of day – we actually had it for dinner tonight (mostly because when I told Blake I planned to make it for breakfast tomorrow, he made an audible awe sound because he will be at work then). And so as some of you may know, my husband has a hard time telling me what he wants for dinner, so when I heard this, I…
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The Best Pancakes Ever!
We like pancakes around my house. They have always been one of Brogan’s favorites, and even my husband, who typically does not like sweets, loves these things! The pancake craze began shortly after I stumbled across this Martha Stewart recipe. The first thing that caught my eye was the buttermilk to flour ratio – 3:2. Most recipes I had tried before were equal parts milk to flour. Since what I love most about pancakes is the salty/sour flavor that comes from the buttermilk, these seemed like a winner to me. Martha Stewart’s Best Buttermilk Pancakes 2 cups all-purpose flour 2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt…
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My Philosophy on Food
Over the past five years, I have turned into what some may call a food snob – I call it food enlightened. I’ve become hyper-aware of those dirty little secrets in our food supply: MSG, trans fat and hydrogenated oils, food coloring, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, BHT and other preservatives. With each discovery of something else that is chemically derived and hiding in my favorite foods, I purge my pantry. Is it too much to ask that my food not be laced with chemicals?? Making this change is hard. Some of the most common offenders are things I grew up enjoying – condensed soups, ranch mix, onion soup…
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Food on the Fourth of July
My husband’s birthday is July 4th, and every year his mom and stepdad throw a big party for him and his twin brother. I helped to make a couple of dishes – a 7 layer Mexican dip and what started out as a Blueberry Angel Food Delight (and ended up much closer to a blueberry and strawberry cheesecake). Of all the parties I’ve had and of all the appetizers I’ve made, I have never made a cold 7 layer Mexican dip! For whatever reason I was craving the fresh lettuce and tomato on top, and so I did a quick Pinterest search and took some ideas from a couple of…
