I need two ovens.

That statement went from a "want" to a "need" during the holidays. The in-laws came in the weekend before Christmas so that we could celebrate with them. And me, being the obsessive "I can do it all" kind of person I am decided that I'd be able to fix this elaborate meal without my MIL bringing anything. Usually I take up her offer on adding in a side and a few desserts, but this time...nope, I can do it all! Yeah, right. When they left I told Jason that next time I'm going to Sam's and buying a freaking box of paper plates and cups. Mostly, it was my dumb fault for thinking that everything needed to be served on my fancy Christmas dishes. The fancy dishes that cannot go in the dishwasher. Idiot.

So, I sat down to create this fantastic meal. The kind that did not include turkey and dressing. I nixed the Roasted Red Pepper soup that I wanted, mostly because Jason correctly stated that I would probably not like it. I ended up with rolls & butter, Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing, Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Carolina Apple Compote, Potatoes Au Gratin, Green Beans Amandine and the Peppermint Cheesecake from a few posts back. Everything would have worked out great...if I had factored cooking time and temps into this menu. See, three of the above items needed to bake in the oven. For about an our each. All at different temperatures. Nice. And since I waited until the last minute to buy Jason's Christmas gifts, I used most of my cooking time Saturday shopping. Even better.

In the end, I compromised by giving Jason the pork to cook on the grille and moving dinner time back by an hour. Not so bad, considering I was aiming for 6:30.

Pork Loin Roast with Carolina Apple Compote from Southern Living

• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 (3-lb.) boneless pork loin roast
• Kitchen string
• 2 teaspoons canola oil
• 2 pounds Gala apples, unpeeled (I couldn't find these at my store so I bought some other red apples)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 cup apple cider
• 5 tablespoons sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons orange zest
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Pinch of ground cloves
• 1 tablespoon butter

The first 4 ingredients are for the pork tenderloin - since I turned that over to Jason I have no idea what he did instead. The recipe calls for the seasoning to be rubbed on all sides of the pork and tied with kitchen string at 1" intervals. Chill the pork for 2 hours. Brown it on the stove top and transfer to a 375 oven for about 1 hour. Instead, we threw this on the grill. The key to keeping things moist and tender is to let them rest when you take them off of the heat. It's taken me a while to get that through to Jason. He wants to take the food off the grill and cut it up right away. Huge difference when you take the extra 15 minutes!

For the sauce, cut apples into bite-size pieces and sprinkle with lemon juice. Add cider and next 4 ingredients to skillet. Cook, over medium heat, stirring occasionally, 10 minutes or until slightly thickened. Add apples, and cook, stirring occasionally, 20 minutes or just until apples are tender and liquid is absorbed. Stir in butter until melted, and remove skillet from heat. Stir any accumulated pan juices from roast into compote. Serve compote immediately with pork.

Green Beans Amandine from Southern Living

• 1/2 cup sliced almonds
• 2 lbs fresh green beans
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 T lemon juice
• salt & pepper

Bake almonds at 350 for about 5-10 minutes, set aside. Split the beans lengthwise, cook in boiling water for about 4 minutes, or until tender. Drain. Melt butter and add remaining ingredients. Toss to coat.

Herb Potatoes au Gratin from Aaron McCargo, Jr. - Food Network

• 1 stick butter
• 1/2 cup flour
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup grated Mild Cheddar
• 1/4 cup grated American cheese
• 1/4 cup grated white cheddar (I used Monterrey Jack instead)
• 1 t chicken bullion powder (I didn't have any, so I left this out)
• 2 t ground nutmeg
• 1 t pepper
• 3 lbs russet potatoes, peeled and sliced thin




• 1 stick butter, melted
• 2 cups Panko breadcrumbs
• 2 t smoked paprika

Preheat oven to 350. In a large sauce pot over medium-high heat, melt butter. Stir in the flour until pasty. Add milk and stir to remove lumps. Let it cook for about 6 minutes, or until thick. Lower the heat and add the cheese, bouillon, nutmeg and black pepper. Whisk until well combined and sauce thickens, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat. In a bowl, combine butter, Panko and smoky paprika. Stir well. Place potatoes into a 9*13 casserole dish. Pour cheese over potatoes and sprinkle au gratin on top. Wrap with foil and bake in oven for 35 to 45 minutes. Remove foil and cook for 10 minutes uncovered. Allow to sit for 10 minutes.

Carbs, carbs, carbs!

Like I need those, right? I've been eating the Penne a la Vodka from last week for days now. We managed to get 6 meals out of it, which is good, but still...I'm a little done with pasta. And it does not help that my monthly Aggie Women's Networking luncheon is held at Maggiano's.

If you haven't been to Maggiano's, please go. You are missing out. My cousin, Bear, thinks it's something close to God's greatest Italian. Probably because you can order family style and they keep bringing more and more food...and come on, his name is Bear. What do you expect? Jason worries that I won't ever want to go back to Maggiano's, but I can safely say that he is wrong! I mean, I do get to go once a month, but I don't get my favorite Chicken Parmesan. This month we started with the Maggiano's Salad and a Caesar Salad. For the entree, they served Meat Lasagna and Chicken & Spinach Manicotti. This was the first time we've had the Manicotti (I'm partial to the Rigatoni D) but it was fantastic! I'll be ordering that on my next dinner trip with Jason! Of course we get dessert...Cheesecake, with some of the best strawberries I've had this year, and Tiramisu. Who can beat that?

As if I had not consumed enough carbs this week, I decided to make french fries for dinner last night. Jason was in class, so I didn't want to cook much and I really needed to finish a bag of potatoes.

Garlic & Cumin Seasoned Fries with Chipotle Ketchup adapted from Cooking Light

• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 t sugar
• 1 t lemon juice (calls for lime)
• 1/4 t chili powder (calls for chipotle chili powder...I only had regular)
• 1/2 t ground cumin
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/4 t garlic powder
• 2 pound potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4" strips
• 1 T olive oil
• Tony Chachere's seasoning, to taste

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees, with your baking sheet in the oven. I used my Pampered Chef stone and this was perfect! Mix the first 4 ingredients and set aside. Toss the potatoes in the oil, cumin, salt and garlic powder. Spread them on the baking sheet in a single layer and bake for 10-15 minutes, toss and bake another 5-10 minutes. Serve with the ketchup.

And, as if we didn't have enough carbs I'm making Baked Ziti tonight. Though, this was a request. Jason is riding in the MS 150 this weekend (a bike ride from Houston to Austin, 150 miles) so he needs the carbs! I'll just have to eat more salad...

It slices, it dices...

Ok, well, almost. The in-laws were here this weekend and they seem to be fans of the gadgety as seen on TV stuff. Hey, if it works I'm all for it! So that meant that while shopping Saturday, my mother-in-law bought me the Vidalia Slice Wizard! I'm always a little skeptical of the "as seen on TV" stuff, but I will say that this sucker works! We intended to make garlic mashed potatoes last night for dinner, but Jason wanted to try out the new toy...and loved it. He also managed to slice about half of a clove of garlic as well, but I'd stick with something larger than garlic.

I also made Roasted Broccoli for the first time! I read about it in another What's Cooking nestie's blog (however, I can't remember whose it was!) and thought it would be good to try. We love broccoli and usually just steam it with a little Parmesan cheese on top, but I wanted to try something different. This was perfect.

We cooked our favorite Grilled Pork Tenderloin. I really don't have a recipe for this because Jason just wings it! However, it always turns out really good! The pork is seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder. He then mixes a sauce of bottled BBQ sauce, ketchup, salt, pepper, garlic, onion powder, worcestershire sauce and brown sugar. The pork is rubbed with the sauce before we throw it on the grill.

Rosemary Roasted New Potatoes

• 4-5 new potatoes
• 1 t salt
• 1-2 t black pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 t onion powder
• 1 T dried rosemary
• 2 t dried thyme
• 1/2 t ground oregano
• 2-3 T olive oil, to coat

Slice the potatoes (or dice them) and toss with the seasoning and olive oil. Spread a thin layer on a baking sheet and bake at 415 for 30-40 minutes, until tender.

Roasted Broccoli

• 3 bunches fresh broccoli
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2-3 T olive oil
• 1-2 T balsamic vinegar
• salt, ground black pepper and red pepper flakes to taste

Cut the broccoli so that you have the small florets only. Toss with the remaining ingredients, making sure to coat the vegetables. Spread on a baking sheet and roast in the oven at 415 for 20-30 minutes.

Cheeseburger in Paradise

I participated in my first cooking challenge this week! Elly, with Elly Says Opa (http://ellysaysopa.vox.com) created the Eat to the Beat challenge. And, as usual, I waited until the last minute.


The challenge was to cook something that represented a song. I didn't want to bake because I really don't need the added calories right now. So I took Jason's suggestion and we had Cheeseburgers for dinner last night, a la Jimmy Buffet.

Cheeseburger is paradise.

Heaven on earth with an onion slice.

Not too particular, not too precise.

I'm just a cheeseburger in paradise.

We typically cook turkey burgers, which I love, but last night Jason wanted beef. Good old red meat. Man, I forgot how good it was! Plus, I think this is the easiest thing to cook for dinner. No recipe to follow, just do what you want. I love it.

Cheeseburgers

Season 1 lb ground beef with whatever you like! We added salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder, some Season All, and a Mesquite BBQ rub. I also tossed in a little Reduced Fat Crumbled Feta Cheese. The burgers were thrown on a grille at Med-Low head and cooked about 3-4 min on each side. Right before they were done I added two slices of Kraft Fat Free Cheese Singles.

Spicy Sweet Potato Fries

Cut two large sweet potatoes to resemble fries. Toss with enough olive oil to coat, salt, pepper, and Tony Chachere's seasoning. Cook in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes, turn the broiler on at the end to help them crisp.