Pork en Croute with Apple and Onion Stuffing

My sister and I do a "stocking" exchange every year, trading a medium-sized bag of gifts with each other. It is great fun. We have a price limit, which I can't remember, but may have gone over. And we just fill it with little things. She is good about remembering things all year that I talked about and wanted. I am not as good as she is =o( But anyway when I went to Portland to see Barenaked Ladies with her (a band of middle-aged men, by the way), we had some time to window shop in the Old Port before the concert, and we into Stonewall Kitchen. They had these silicone Hot Cooking Bands (http://www.architecproducts.com/) that made me laugh because one time when I had to tie chicken legs together with string, I had none, and used an elastic pony tail holder. I told her about it, and how these would be useful. They are even reusable. However, they come with a warning, "This product NOT intended for consumption." No worries there. They come in red, yellow, white, blue, and green, so not the color of your food at all, so it would be hard to eat them. So I found them in my gift bag, yay. I certainly didn't think I would be using them this soon, less than a week after getting them, but it just so happens I used them today. In my total Julie/Julia moment (have you seen that movie?), I made this recipe, which came from a cookbook Becky gave me for my birthday (see previous post for how I got them). It is from the same book as the previous post, The New Family Cookbook. No picture with this recipe. Maybe they don't want you to be discouraged and therefore not try it. This recipe has a LOT of steps, and took almost all afternoon to prepare, but wasn't technically difficult. And sometimes stuff like this can be fun, if you have the time.

Pork en Croute with Apple and Onion Stuffing

2 1 lb pork tenderloins

16 oz puff pastry

1 egg, beaten

Stuffing:

1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped (I didn't do this like Julia did on the movie, although that would have been awesome)

2 medium eating apples, peeled and finely chopped

1 thick slice of bread

pinch dried sage

salt and pepper

Garnish:

watercress sprigs (huh? I left these out...I think the pastry covering the meat should be garnish enough, but you might feel differently)

To prepare the stuffing: Cook the onion in a little water for about 10 minutes. Add the apple and simmer for another 5 minutes. Remove the crusts from the bread and coarsley grate into crumbs (you could just use prepared bread crumbs, too...about 1/4 cup plain bread crumbs). Mix the crumbs into the apple and onion mixture, add the sage, salt and pepper, and stir.

To stuff the pork: Slice the tenderloins halfway through lengthwise, open the meat out and flatten it. Arrange the stuffing along one tenderloin and cover with the other. Tie up the stuffed tenderloin with string (or awesome Hot Cooking Bands) into a good shape (a swan??? ha ha) and lay on a baking tray. Roast for 40 minutes in @ 400, then allow the meat to cool (I let mine cool for about 30 minutes, it cooled off way faster than I expected it to).

Meanwhile, roll out the pastry to a rectangle sufficient to wrap the meat (here's where it gets fun)(about 12x10 inches). Lay the cooled meat, with string (bands) removed on the pastry and paint the edges with the beaten egg. Fold the pastry over and seal the edges. Trim surplus pastry from edges and reserve for making pastry leaves (hmm...). Dampen each end of the parcel (ha ha sounds like you are going to mail it) and seal firmly. Roll out the reserved trimmings and cut into leaf shapes (or whatever shape you want). Paint one side of the leaves with egg and use to decorate the top of the parcel in a herringbone pattern (like this /\/\/\/\). Paint the whole surface of the pastry with egg and pierce 2 or 3 times with a knife.

Bake at 425 for 25 minutes until the pastry is a delicious golden brown (mine only took 17 minutes until it was so brown I didn't dare leave it longer). Turn off the oven and allow another 10-15 minutes cooking time. Serve garnished with watercress sprigs (or don't).

These crazy cookbook people estimate this at prep time 30 minutes and cooking time 1 hour. Maybe they can't add? 40 minutes for the pork, then 25 once it's wrapped up like a UPS package, is 1 hour and 5 minutes, then 10-15 more is at least 1 hour and 15 minutes. Also, how in the world would you only take 30 minutes total doing all these steps? Crazy. I started making the stuffing part at 1:00 pm and took the finished roll out of the oven at 4:50. There was some down time in there, of course, when the meat was in the oven both times and when it was cooling, but still way longer than their estimate. Also I couldn't make leaf shapes or any other shapes with the trimmings; they just wouldn't roll out. So we had an undecorated loaf. I hope Julia Child wouldn't be disappointed with me, ha ha.

This looked fabulous. Smelled good too. I felt very proud of myself, but not in that bad way. This is definitely not the kind of thing you could make very often, but once in a while stuff like this can be so fun. I wasn't sure what the kids would think of it. Steve is hilarious. He told the kids it was like chicken wrapped in a donut. HA! I thought it was more like a fancy pot pie. I have included some pictures so you guys can see how cool I am. Hahaha just kidding. But I did want to show you.

Chicken Corn Soup

My dear friend Becky Hinchliffe gave me 2 cookbooks for my birthday. She knows that I love them. She is very sneaky, i.e. she asked me at home fellowship if I liked so-called "used" cookbooks, such as ones from yard sales. I told her that I did, but that I didn't very often see cookbooks at yard sales (because I really don't, unless it's 101 Ways to use Mayonaisse and such like, and who would want that? That's why it's in a yard sale). At this point she had already gotten me these two cookbooks at a yard sale, with the intent of giving them to me for my birthday. She is a sneaky frugal planner like that. After she had given them to me, I asked her if she already had them when she asked me that question, and she said yes. I asked her what she would have done if I said I didn't like used cookbooks. She said she would have torn out the pages and wall-papered my van with them. So she is a sneaky, somewhat vengeful planner. Haha just kidding she's not vengeful, just funny. So these 2 cookbooks were both published in the early 80s, when I was like 3 to 5 years old. They have a picture for almost every recipe, which Becky says made her like them. You wouldn't think that American cooking has changed much in 20+ years, but it really has. That is one thing I like about cookbooks, is that even if you aren't going to make many recipes in them, they are so fun to read. Sometimes you read a recipe and just say "I about imagine" and things like that. Some things are timeless. I did find a few recipes to try out of these cookbooks (including a very "Julie/Julia" one--stay tuned). But also there were SO many that I was like WHAT??? There is a whole chapter on game--rabbits, pheasants, etc. How long you should hang the meat upside-down in a tree to let it rest before you butcher it, etc. So glad for pictures of dead animals in there too. Especially some of the seafood. Blech. It does remind me how far removed we are from our own food prep in America, but that's a whole different topic for another day. So anyway this is what I made today, for tonight's supper. We had this with homemade bread. It's from The New Family Cookbook, by Carole Edwards, copyright 1985. Not so new now, though. I had this recipe marked, and conveniently, have heavy cream left over from last week's Penne Gorgonzola Chicken, so the timing was perfect. I didn't have to buy anything to make this one, which I like very much. Also this recipe is right next to one for Oxtail Soup, and they are not kidding. They really mean the tails of oxes. It calls for "one whole oxtail (about 1 1/2 lbs)" and you are supposed to "trim as much fat as possible from the oxtail and brown it in 1 spoon of oil." Oh my. I won't tell you the rest. Strangely, no picture of that one. Anyway back to the matter at hand...

Chicken Corn Soup
1/4 cup butter
1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
1/3 cup flour
2 1/2 cups well-flavored chicken stock (since I make my own, I don't know how "well-flavored" a professional would call it, but we like it...)
1 1/4 pints milk (how much is that in today's language? I had to look it up...2 1/2 cups...)
1 1/4 cups cooked chicken, chopped
3/4 cup frozen corn
salt and pepper
1 tbsp chopped parsley
3 tbsp heavy cream

Melt the butter in large pan and saute the onion until it is soft but not brown. Stir in the flour and cook for 1-2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the stock and milk. Add the chicken and corn, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 25-30 minutes. Just before serving, season to taste with salt and pepper and stir in the parsley and cream.

So obviously with the milk and cream, this was more like a chowder than a soup. It was good, everybody ate it without duress, which is always a plus. It seemed weird that it didn't have any other spices in it, just the onion and parsley for flavoring. But it was still good.

Penne Gorgonzola with Chicken

The main problem with this recipe is that I couldn't find any gorgonzola cheese, either at Walmart or Hannaford. It may be that I was looking in the wrong place. I was looking in the cheese section, but not in the deli section. So maybe they have it, for a lot of money, at the deli. I don't know. I ended up replacing the gorgonzola with shredded Italian cheese (a delightful 5-cheese blend, according to the Kraft people). Also, this recipe uses penne pasta, which most of you probably know is pronounced PEN-NAY. The heading of this recipe, which was a contest winner, is "Worth Every Penne." Every time I think of it I laugh. I love puns and stuff. So this is from the Oct/Nov 2010 Taste of Home.

Penne Gorgonzola with Chicken
1 pkg (16 oz) penne pasta
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breats, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup white wine (I used chicken broth)
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 cups crumbled gorgonzola cheese
6-8 fresh sage leaves, thinly sliced (I just used 1 tsp dried sage)
Salt and pepper to taste
Grated parmesan cheese and minced fresh parsley

Cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium heat, brown chicken in oil on all sides. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer. Add wine, stirring to loosen browned bits from the pan. Add cream and broth; cook until sauce is slightly thickened and chicken is no longer pink. Stir in cheese, sage, salt, and pepper; cook just until cheese is melted.

Drain pasta; toss with sauce. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and parsley.

So this was pretty good. I told the kids it was like fancy macaroni and cheese. Unfortunately I didn't think very far ahead, and for lunch we had...macaroni and cheese. Oh well. This made a lot. We didn't even eat half of it. So there will be definitely enough for another meal, or it would be good for company with a salad or something. We had it with shredded carrots and dressing. So, pretty good meal overall.

Chocolate Toffee Delights

I made these for home fellowship a few nights ago. It's from the Taste of Home magazine issue I mentioned before, with the section that should be called something like Complicated Cookies. But, these are bars, and not that complicated. The person who submitted the recipe said they remind her of her favorite Girl Scout cookies. She means Samoas. These were pretty good, but no samoa.

Chocolate Toffee Delights
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar, divided
3/4 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp coconut extract
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted and cooled
1 jar (12 1/4 oz) caramel ice cream topping
3/4 cup chocolate chips

In a small bowl, cream butter and 1/2 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in extracts. Combine flour, salt, and baking powder; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.

Press into greased 13x9 baking pan. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Prick crust with fork; sprinkle with remaining sugar. Bake 15 minutes longer or until set.

Meanwhile, place coconut and almonds in a food processor (I used my Tupperware chopping thing); cover and process until finely chopped. Transfer to a small bowl; stir in caramel. Spread over crust. Bake for 5-10 minutes or until edges are bubbly. Cool on wire rack.

In microwave, melt chocolate chips; stir until smooth. Drizzle over caramel mixture. Let stand until chocolate is set. Cut into bars. Store in airtight container.

So. This was potluck (or, potprovidence, as Becky said ha ha) night at home fellowship. There were a lot of desserts. Barely any of these got eaten. So, I don't know if that's because people didn't like the looks of them, or if there was just so many things to eat. I know that my kids did not like them, because of the coconut. I thought they were pretty good. But now we are faced with finishing off all the rest of them...I guess not a keeper. There are other things that require less ingredients to buy and have more mass appeal. And I don't mean to my Catholic friends. Ha ha.

Orange-Cashew Chicken & Rice

This is what we had for dinner tonight. Again with a chicken and rice type thing. These just always look so good to me, and we need to get used to rice anyway...this is from Oct/Nov '09 Tase of Home. My sister gave it to me.

Orange-Cashew Chicken & Rice
1 cup instant brown rice
1 can (11 oz) mandarin oranges
1/4 cup chopped cashews (I couldn't find these already chopped; I had to buy them whole and chop them myself, with my new Tupperware Quick Chop thingy...I'm sure that's not the real name of it...)
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp teriyaki sauce
3/4 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (I doubled the amount of chicken so 5 people could eat this)
1 tbsp canola oil
1/2 cup chopped bok choy or celery (ummmm...I totally used celery...but bok choy is chinese cabbage, I think...try it if you want)
1/4 cup minced chives

Cook rice according to package directions. Meanwhile, drain the oranges, reserving 2 tbsp juice. In a small bowl, combine the cashews, broth, soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, and reserved juice; set aside.

In a large wok (again with the wok) or skillet, stir-fry chicken in oil until no longer pink. Add cashew mixture; cook 1 minute longer. Add the bok choy, chives and reserved oranges; cook and stir for 2 minutes.

Fluff rice with fork; serve with chicken mixture.

So I decided at the last minute to not force Nathan to eat this. I knew by looking at it that he wasn't going to like it. So he had dinosaur chicken nuggets. Everyone else had this. Steve and I thought it was very very good. It really was. Sam and Emma both ate it. So this is definitely a keeper. It tasted very Chinese-y, which is a plus or minus depending on what you feel about that type of food.

Peanut Chicken Stir Fry

This is the last recipe I have marked to try from the October/November 2010 Simple & Delicious. There were a lot in this one to try. I think we've had something like this before, but I still wanted to try it because I think the other one you had to marinate for a while, so while "delicious," it wasn't exactly "simple." We'll see if I think this one is.

Peanut Chicken Stir Fry
8 oz uncooked thick rice noodles (I had every intention of using these, but they didn't have them at Walmart and I didn't make it over to the NLC to see if they had them there...so I used spaghetti, ha ha)
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup peanut butter
4 1/2 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2 inch strips
2 tbsp canola oil, divided
1 bunch broccoli, cut into florets (most of us don't like broccoli. If poor Steve wants it, he has to order it at a restaurant. I used sugar snap peas instead of the broccoli)
1/2 cup shredded carrot

Cook noodles according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the water, soy sauce, peanut butter, brown sugar, lemon juice, garlic, and pepper flakes; set aside.

In a large skillet or wok (like I have a wok), stir-fry chicken in 1 tbsp oil until no longer pink. Remove and keep warm. Stir fry broccoli and carrot in remaining oil for 4-6 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender. Stir sauce mixture; add sauce and chicken to the skillet. Drain noodles; toss with chicken mixture.

If you have a wok (please raise your hand if you have one; I bet not many do) this would be a good excuse to use it, because I bet you don't get many chances. Unless you use it ALL the time and knew you would and so that's why you got one. Anyway Steve and I really liked this. For the younger kids I just put everything separated out, and they ate it fine. For Sam I did it just like ours, just everything together. Sam said he didn't like the "consistency" of the sauce. He's turning into such a food critic, which is good. It always bugs me when a kid says "I don't like it" and then I say "what don't you like about it?" and they say "I don't know, I just don't." So if they have an actual reason it bugs me less. Especially Sam, who likes almost everything anyway. So I want to keep this recipe, because it was really good, but not sure how often I'll be making it, since only Steve and I really liked it...

Granola-To-Go Bars

I have been making my own granola bars for quite a while. Maybe a year. I got frustrated with buying them for a few different reasons. First, my kids loved them and went through them so fast, that a box that cost $2.50 would be gone in like 2 days. Also, we started trying to eliminate certain things from our family's diet, like artificial preservatives and high fructose corn syrup. Of course we are far from doing this perfectly, but are definitely making progress. I had a recipe for homemade granola bars that I've been using all along, using butter, peanut butter, brown sugar, and maple syrup, along with graham cracker crumbs. Well, one day (why this took me so long I don't know) I read the label of the graham cracker crumbs and saw that it has both of the things we are trying to avoid. I looked at the Natural Living Center for something akin to graham cracker crumbs, like organic ones or something, but didn't find anything. My sister-in-law did have success replacing the crumbs with dry baby cereal that she had leftover (she is very resourceful) but I don't want to start adding that to our grocery list. So in last month's Taste of Home that my sister gave me, they had this recipe for granola bars which have different ingredients (it's from a section they called Daybreak Delights, which has a few easy healthy breakfast recipes). At first I wasn't going to even try them, because you have to buy almonds and coconut, 2 things I definitely don't always have on hand. But there is a LOT of coconut in one of those bags, and so it could make several batches. The almonds, not so much. But I thought it was worth a try. And, for my other recipe I have to buy wheat germ and graham cracker crumbs, so it probably evens out.

Granola-To-Go Bars
3 1/2 cups quick oats
1 cup chopped almonds (I only could find sliced at Walmart but it worked fine)
1 egg, beaten
2/3 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sunflower kernels
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup chopped dried apples
1/2 cup dried cranberries (I subsituted both the apples and cranberries with 1 cup of raisins instead)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Combine oats and almonds in a 15x10x1 inch baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until toasted, stirring occasionally.

In a large bowl, combine the egg, butter, honey and vanilla. Stir in the sunflower kernels, coconut, apples, cranberries, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Stir in oat mixture.

Press into 15x10x1 inch baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 for 13-18 minutes or until set and edges are lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack. Cut into bars. Store in an airtight container.

So these were a bit more effort to make than the other ones I was making, but I like that you don't have to store them in the fridge. Sam and I each had one of these for breakfast this morning, and they were quite good. More crunchy than the other ones, but kind of chewy too. So I will keep this recipe for a while. Probably I will make it again. Also I don't know where to categorize this one. I guess cookies. It's not really a dessert. Although it is meatless, ha ha.

Mini Cinnamon Roll Cookies

What these should have been called, or, at least, what should have been a byline or subtitle, is "or, Snickerdoodles that are 10 times harder to make." These are from a Taste of Home magazine my sister passed along to me, their October/November 2010 issue. They have a whole section in this issue that is called Cookie Jar Stars, but which should be called Complicated Cookies that Your Time Spent Making Would Be Better Used Elsewhere. Almost all of them in this section you have to roll out, and some of you may remember how I hate to roll dough. A few of them are drop cookies, which I prefer. This recipe fell somewhere in the middle.

Mini Cinnamon Roll Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
1 3/4 cup sugar, divided
3 egg yolks (first indication this would be time consuming--separating eggs...)
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp honey, divided
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
8 oz white baking choclate, chopped

In a large bowl, cream butter and 1 1/4 cups of sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks, 1 tbsp honey, and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and cream of tartar; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.

Shape a heaping tablespoonful of dough into a 6 inch log. In a shallow bowl, combine cinnamon and remaining sugar; roll log in cinnamon-sugar. Loosely coil log into a spiral shape; place on a greased baking sheet. Repeat, placing cookies 1 inch apart. Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon-sugar.

Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes or until set. Remove to wire racks to cool completely. In a small bowl, melt baking chocolate with remaining honey; stir until smooth. Drizzle over cookies. Let stand until set. Store in airtight container.

Okay. Many of you might be reading this, thinking "why on earth would she try that?" I don't really have a good answer. I guess the picture had me fooled, they looked so innocent and yummy. Rolling the logs was an ordeal because they didn't roll out evenly, of course. Parts of them would fall off, or it would break in the middle, etc. So, I got 24 cookies out of this. 13 I made in the spiral shapes, and the other 11 I plopped on the cookie sheet and squished them down to the same size and thickness. Once they were baked, one fell on the floor. I brushed it off and ate it (that's how I found out these were basically extremely time-consuming snicker doodles). So I brough 23 cookies to home fellowship. Also, when I tried to melt the white chocolate and the honey, the chocolate seized and would. not. melt. So frustrating. It started burning, even, and it was still in one big hunk at the bottom of the bowl. So, I ended up making a glaze with confectioners' sugar, milk, and the remaining honey. This was my smart sister's idea, with whom I was speaking on the phone at the same time that the white chocolate was seizing and I was lamenting that I would have to stop at Hannaford on the way to home fellowship. The cookies all got eaten, so that's a point in their favor. But I'm definitely not making these again...

Smothered Home-Style Chicken

This sounds good. This one had a picture with it that looked good too. Well, all the recipes in Simple & Delicious have pictures, but they do not always look good. This one is from the Oct/Nov 2010 issue. Sounded very yummy.

Smothered Home-Style Chicken
1/3 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp cajun seasoning
1 tsp pepper
5 boneless skinless chicken thighs (about 3 1/2 lbs)
3 tbsp olive oil, divided
2 medium carrots, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup white wine or chicken broth (guess which one?)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup chicken broth
Hot cooked rice

In a large ziploc bag, combine the flour, salt, garlic powder, cajun seasoning, and pepper. Add chicken thighs, one at a time, and shake to coat. In a large skillet, brown chicken in 2 tbsp oil in batches. Remove and keep warm. In the same skillet, saute the carrots, onion, and green pepper in remaining oil until tender. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer. Add wine or broth, stirring to loosen browned bits from pan. Stir in soup and broth. Return chicken to skillet. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until chicken juices run clear. Serve with rice.

Okay, so this was pretty good. Steve really liked it. For the younger kids, I didn't serve it over rice, or with any of the sauce. But for Sam and Steve and I, I did, and it was very good. Steve said he liked how the vegetables were in it. Sam even ate the peppers, which previously he has said he likes everything except broccoli and green peppers. So this is progress. Steve doesn't usually like chicken thighs, either, usually he only likes white meat, but he said it was good because they were boneless and he didn't have to take them apart to eat them, so it was good. Another keeper. I bet I have more chicken recipes in my keeper book than in any other category...but I'm not going to count them.