Chili and Maple Glazed Pork Tenderloin

We had this for dinner last night. It was really moist and yummy. It had a little bit of heat to it. For those families with young children, you might want to half the sambal oelek. The flavor was really good, and we all really liked it.

Chili and Maple Glazed Pork Tenderloin

Http://crockpot365.blogspot.com

The Ingredients

serves 4 (can easily be doubled or tripled!)

 

2 pounds pork tenderloin, quartered

2 tablespoons all-natural maple syrup

1 tablespoon prepared chili pepper sauce (sambal oelek)

1 teaspoon five-spice powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 green onions, thinly sliced

 

Homemade "cheater" sambal oelek:

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon chopped garlic cloves (approximately 2 cloves)

1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar

1/2 teaspoon brown sugar

 

Use a 4-quart slow cooker. Put the pork into the insert, and add the maple syrup, chili sauce, five-spice powder, salt, and pepper. Stir well to disperse the spices. Toss in the green onions. Cover, and cook on low for 7 to 8 hours, or until the pork has reached desired tenderness.

 

The Verdict

 

This moist, sweet pork has a tiny bit of lingering heat from the chili pepper sauce. Pork tenderloin has a tendency to dry out, but cooking in the slow cooker really traps in valuable steam. If you find that your cooker releases a lot of steam while cooking, you can wrap the pork in a piece of aluminum foil to keep it nice and juicy.

A Spicing We Go

Thursday night as we were finishing dinner our friend Bill came to cut my counter for me. It only took about 10 minutes and it was done.

 

After dinner I ran to Lowes and picked up a quart of white semi gloss to use. I put on the first coat. It dried pretty quickly, but I was ready for bed when I was done.

 

I have had a lot of my friends ask me if I had enough spices to fill it. I just laughed. I took a picture of my current spice cupboard. Just a little full.

 

I put the second coat of paint on before I left foe work tonight. Came home and was so excited to load it. I got all of the bottom shelf and some from the middle. I really thought this would hold more than it does. It still workes! These are the ones that I use most ofte

 

Raspberry Chipotle Chicken

We had this for dinner tonight. We really liked it. My husband thought it was a bit on the sweet side, but the rest of us were fine. The chipotle pepper and adobo gave it a wonderful smoky flavor without adding a lot of heat. My mouth had a nice warmth, but was by no means hot. If you are a little wary, use half a chili to try it out.

Raspberry Chipotle BBQ Chicken

Http://wwww.budget bytes.com

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

1 hour 30 mins

Total time

1 hour 45 mins

Total Cost: $9.95

Cost Per Serving: $1.24

Serves: 4-8

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
• ½ med yellow onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 8 oz. tomato sauce
• 1 cup raspberry jam
• ¼ cup cider vinegar
• 1 pepper + sauce chipotle peppers in adobo
• 4 lbs (8 pcs) chicken thighs

Instructions

1. Finely dice the onion and garlic. Cook both in a sauce pan with vegetable oil over medium heat until softened (3-5 minutes). Meanwhile, roughly chop one chipotle pepper and reserve 1 Tbsp of adobo sauce from the can.
2. Add the tomato sauce, raspberry jam, cider vinegar, chopped chipotle pepper and adobo sauce to the cooked onions and garlic. Stir everything well and bring up to a simmer. Continue to simmer for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Allow the sauce to cool after simmering (it will thicken upon cooling).
3. Remove the skin from the chicken and trim any excess fat. The skin should pull away from the meat easily although you may need a small sharp knife to separate it in some places. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
4. Prepare a baking sheet with aluminum foil and non-stick spray. Place the chicken thighs on the tray and slather with BBQ sauce (pour a small amount of sauce into a bowl before brushing onto chicken so that the whole batch will not get contaminated with raw chicken).
5. Place the BBQ chicken in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. Fifteen and thirty minutes into the cooking time, take the chicken out and slather with more sauce.

Note: Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce can be found in with the Mexican food in your grocery store. Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce usually come in super small cans (4-5 oz) but even still, I usually only use one pepper at a time and have almost a whole can left over. I *always* freeze the rest. Divide the peppers and adobe sauce up into small portions and pop them in the freezer.

Irish Skillet Dinner

Had this for dinner last night. My husband didn’t like it, even though he ate it. The boys, the girlfriend and I really liked it. It had great flavor. My husband and I both have Irish on our lines. Little bit of homage to it.

Irish Skillet Dinner

By Taracooks

Description: Beef and bacon meet potatoesand cabbage in an Irish Skillet Dinner for St. Patrick’s Day

Prep: 15 min

Cook: 20 min

Serves: 4

Ingredients

· 1 cup Beef Broth

· ¼ cups Apple Juice

· 2 Tablespoons White Vinegar

· 2 Tablespoons Yellow Mustard

· 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce

· 1 teaspoon Salt

· 1 teaspoon Coarse Ground Black Pepper

· 1 pound Lean Ground Beef

· ½ cups Fresh Diced Onion

· 2 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil

· 1 pound Ore Ida Hash Brown Potatoes O'Brian

· 4 cups Shredded Green Cabbage

· 4 slices Cooked, Crumbled Bacon

Preparation

In a small mixing bowl, combine the beef broth, apple juice, white vinegar, yellow mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. Whisk to blend and set aside.

In a large iron skillet, brown the ground beef with the fresh diced onion. Drain any excess grease. Add the vegetable oil and hash browns to the beef and onions. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes or until hash browns are lightly browned, stirring frequently to prevent sticking. Add the liquid mixture and the shredded cabbage and bacon and cook another 5–10 minutes over medium heat until most of the liquid is absorbed. Serve immediately while hot with some Irish soda bread.

 

Wedding Gift

I have a wedding one the 27th of this month. It is for two friends at work that are getting married. They both have had establised households. The don't need the typical newlywed stuff.

As I set pondering what to get them yesterday I thought about something to put on their wall. I thought I might do their last name in filet crochet. I think they would both really like it. Not only that, but I have the supplies.

I want to look online and see if I can find an alphabet to plot out for the pattern. I haven't done filet since before my kids were done.

Cream Cheese Chicken Taqitos

Had these for dinner last night. They were sooo good. I didn’t even dip them in anything. That says a lot. The recipe says that it makes 12, but I got 20. I might not have been quite so generous on the filling, but I wanted to be able to roll them. I thought they had plenty of filling. I used a generous, but not heaping serving size tablespoon. Next time I think I will double this so that I can put some of them in the freezer.

Cream Cheese Chicken Taquitos

Ingredients

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• salt + pepper
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• ⅓ cup water
• ½ cup shredded colby or Mexican blend cheese
• 12 6 inch corn or flour tortillas
• optional: cilantro, salsa, sour cream, or other toppings as desired

Instructions

1. Mix chili powder, garlic powder, cumin, salt and pepper to taste, cream cheese, and water in a medium mixing bowl. (I put this in the microwave for 1 minute to make it easier to mix) Pour half of the mixture into your crockpot, place chicken in crockpot and pour remaining mixture over the chicken.
2. Cover and cook on low 8 hours or high for 4 hours.
3. Minutes before serving, remove chicken from crock pot, shred with two forks, and return to slow cooker. Give it a stir. Cook about 15 minutes longer.
4. Preheat oven to 400. Here is a great trick to keep your corn tortilla from falling apart. Place 1 corn tortilla on a skillet, put about ⅛ cup cheese on the corn tortilla. Warm the tortilla until the cheese melts, remove tortilla from pan. Melting the cheese on the corn tortilla will keep it from falling apart in the next step.
5. Place about ¼ cup of the chicken mixture onto the middle of each corn tortilla that has the melted cheese on it or a flour tortilla.
6. Top with 1-2 tablespoons shredded cheese. Roll tightly and place in a single layer on a greased baking sheet. If using corn tortilla brushing some olive oil over them will help with browning and crisping.
7. Bake 10 minutes, until tortillas are slightly browned and shredded cheese is melted. Serve with desired toppings and sauces.

Recipe from http://lecremedelacrumb.com

Knitting Needle Organizer

Today, although Valentines, is my normal shopping day. Told DH there was no way I was going to the grocery store. It is also Presidents Day Weekend and the beginning of Parade of homes. We did do a few small errands together and then he left me to my own devices.
Mentioned to D H that I couldn't find my table top and asked him if he had any idea what happened to it. He said no, and a light bulb went off. I know at one time he put a board under the mattress for his back. I mentioned that and he agreed that might be what happened to it. Sure enough when we got home there it was. It was even painted like I remembered. I am very happy that I don't have to buy a new one.
Went back to Lowes to get the hardware for my desk. I haven't been able to find what I bought yet. A really nice young man helped me find the right size hinge for the table legs so the will collapse. He asked me if I had any braces to keep them up when I had the table set up. Hadn't even thought if it. He found some collapsible braces for me. Even though I had to buy another package of hinges, it was worth it for that hint.
I took the paint samples from the craft room to JoAnn's Fabric. I wanted to be able to match the colors for my knitting needle organizer. That is the other thing that isn't working. I have at least 2 sets of most of the knitting needle sizes. I usually have 3-5 projects going at the same time. I made a roll up organizer for them about 10 years ago, but I have outgrown it. I hate having to paw through them to find what I want.
I saw a cool idea from Etsy, but the owner was sold out. It was very similar to what I had already done, but on a larger scale for over the door. This one has a top row for crochet hooks. I probably won't put that one in. I don't crochet much anymore. I will do one for double points, cables, short and long needles.

I'm making the back of it yellow and the pockets will be two different patterns of orange. I decided to bring in a third color after all
I also went to Michael's and picked up the second thread rack.