Pork Tenderloin

I have a tendency to get complacent in my cooking and revert to tried-and-true originals, and while there's nothing wrong with tried-and-true recipes, sometimes we just have to shake things up. So, when I saw this recipe for a Pork Tenderloin with Pan Sauce on Pinterest, I pinneded it for someday. Someday finally came and it was so good, I decided to make it again so that I could blog it. There are so many flavors blended in this pork. It's so tender and juicy and just plain delicious.

1/2 cups olive oil
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
Juice of 1 lemon
1-2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Few drops of liquid smoke
1-2 Tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
2 tsp dry mustard
Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 1-lb. pork tenderloin with skin removed

Combine all marinade ingredients and reserve 2-3 Tbsp. I put mine in a sturdy plastic bag. Allow to marinate for 3-4 hours.

   

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a hot skillet over medium-high heat, sear each side of tenderloin for 2-3 minutes. Keep skillet as is; you will use this for the sauce.

Place in the oven and cook for 30-40 minutes or until the meat has reached 160 degrees. Let rest for at least 5 minutes before slicing. 

Pan Sauce:
Pan scrapings from pork tenderloin
1/2 cup of chicken broth
2-3 tbsp of pork marinade (thoroughly mixed)
1-2 tsp butter

Meanwhile, place the skillet back on the stove over medium heat. Add the chicken broth and scrape up all the browned pieces from the bottom of the pan.

Add the marinade and let it boil down for 2-3 minutes. Add the butter and remove from heat stirring until butter has melted. Pour over the pork tenderloin.

Cherry Pie

You're just not going to find too many recipes like this on my blog. What kind you wonder? Ones with cooked fruit. I just don't like cooked fruit. However, I had bought a bunch of cherries for my daughter and searched Pinterest for some recipe possibilities to make these for her. Cherry pie was one of the winners, and apparently it was pretty darn good, at least according to my mom and daughter! I found a number of pie filling recipes: Homemade Cherry Pie Filling, Super Simple Cherry Pie Filling, Homemade Cherry Pie Filling, Homemade Cherry Pie Filling, and Fresh Cherry Pie Recipe, and the following is what I ended up with.

4 cups cherries (pitted and rinsed)

1/3 cup water

1 1/3 Tbsp lemon juice

1/2 cup sugar

2 2/3 tsp cornstarch

1/4 tsp almond extract

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 unbaked Pie Crusts

First thing you must do is remove the pits from the cherries. My daughter took on this task while I worked on some other recipes. Found a tip at one website about using a decorator tip to push the pits out. It worked pretty good for us. No matter how you do it though, it's going to be messy. If you intend to cook with fresh cherries a lot, there are pit removers that you can purchase.

In a saucepan combine cherries, water, sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and lemon juice. 

Heat over medium heat until boiling. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.  Stir in almond extract. Pour into pie crust.

Top pie with second crust however you wish. I went with the basket weave for this one.

Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 degree and bake for 45-50 minutes more until crust is golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

Lemon Pound Cake

I have fallen in love with lemon this year. I keep several lemons in my refrigerator at all times now. The smell of fresh lemon zest ranks among one of the best in the world to me. So when I saw this recipe for Lemon Pound Cake on Pinterest, I had to give it a try. I upped the ante on the recipe though by adding a sweet lemony glaze to the pound cake. It. is. so. good. I received so many compliments on this one at work (I took it in for one of my "Monday treats." My mom asked for one to take to a party and liked it so much that she has already asked me to make three for her for an event next month! The fresh lemon juice and the zest just add such a fresh citrus spark to this cake. You really should give it a try!

3 cups all purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3 cups sugar
1.5 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
5 large eggs
1/2 cup whole milk
6 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp lemon zest

Glaze

1-2 cups powdered sugar

1-3 Tbsps lemon juice

1/2 tsp almond extract

1-2 tsp lemon zest

Frosting

1.5 cups unsalted butter

1.5 lbs powdered sugar

1-2 Tbsp of lemon zest

3-6 Tbsp of lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray or butter and flour two loaf pans or one large Bundt pan. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into medium bowl. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer, cream butter, shortening and sugar.

Add eggs one at a time, beating until well blended after each one.

Add dry ingredients in three additions to butter mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition.

Mix in lemon juice and zest.

Pour batter into prepared pans.

 

Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool cakes in pans for 15 minutes. Turn cakes out onto racks and cool completely. Note, I've made this pound cake twice now, and both times, I've lost large chunks of my cake when I turned it out of the pan. Still working on that... BUT, add the glaze and you will not care!

To make the glaze, add the almond extract and enough lemon juice to your powdered sugar so that it is thick enough to drizzle, but not too runny. Add in lemon zest. Drizzle onto completely cooled cake.