Honey Pork Tenderloin Kabobs

This is one of the reason's I started this blog. I made these kabobs a month or two ago and they were really good! But then I totally forgot about them until today. I was struggling to come up with a dinner idea, so I started flipping through old copies of Everyday Food magazine and found this one. I'm hoping that in the future it will be easier to just look through my blog archives instead of searching through cookbooks, magazines, and online searching for something to make!


Last time I made these we did not have a BBQ so I grilled them on a panini press instead. It actually worked great and was really quick and easy. Tonight we decided to use our new BBQ for the first time. It did add a nice flavor to the meal, but it took forever! I might go back to my panini press next time. :)

Honey Pork Tenderloin Kabobs

Ingredients
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup mustard
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
3-4 sweet potatoes cut into 24 one-inch cubes
1-1/2 pounds pork tenderloin, cut into 24 one-inch cubes
4 medium ripe unpeeled peaches, pitted and quartered
4 green peppers, each cut into 8 two-inch pieces
8 yellow onion, each cut into 4 two-inch pieces
Olive oil for grilling

Directions
Mix first four ingredients in a bowl; stir well and set glaze aside. Steam or boil sweet potatoes until crisp-tender. Thread 3 sweet potato cubes, 3 pork cubes, 2 peach quarters, 4 green pepper pieces and 4 onion pieces alternately onto each of eight 10-inch skewers. Brush kabobs with honey glaze mixture. Lightly oil grill. Grill over medium-hot coals 5 minutes on each side, basting occasionally with glaze.


I love the grilled peaches on these kabobs. The glaze adds a nice flavor to the meal, but all of the fresh vegetables would probably be just as good even without it. I think this qualifies as being a pretty healthy meal. The recipe makes a ton though! I used less of everything but still ended up with 8 kabobs (I think I had at least 14 last time with the full recipe), which will be plenty for two full meals. Guess what we are having tomorrow night?

Fruit

No recipe here, I just wanted to post a picture of my fruit because it looks so pretty! I brought this to my Aunt Joann's house on Sunday for my Aunt Kathy's mission homecoming dinner.

Father's Day Dinner

On the menu for Father's Day dinner: chicken fried chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli salad, and buttermilk biscuits. Charlie likes to cook, so he offered to make half the meal and I was more than happy to have the help!



Charlie made the chicken & the mashed potatoes. I don't think he really used a recipe, he just knows how to cook! I, on the other hand, am always much more comfortable with a written list of ingredients and instructions. I believe he used Paula Deen's house seasoning and some buffalo sauce to flavor the chicken, plus a mix of flour & panko for the breading.

The broccoli salad was another recipe Charlie pulled from Paula Deen's cookbook. Who know's if it was right or not! We both liked it but thought it either needed more brocolli or less cheese. The ratio was not quite right for us. I will probably make this again but change it a little bit.


Broccoli Salad

Ingredients:
1 head broccoli
6-8 slices cooked bacon, crumbled
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
8 ounce sharp Cheddar cheese, cut into very small chunks
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoon white vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup halved cherry tomatoes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
Trim off large leaves of broccoli. Remove tough stalks at end and wash broccoli thoroughly. Cut flowerets and stems into bite-size pieces. Place in a large bowl. Add crumbled bacon, onion, raisins, and cheese. In a small bowl, combine remaining ingredients, stirring well. Add to broccoli mixture and toss gently

I also attempted buttermilk biscuits from scratch. I found a recipe on foodgawker that claimed to be the best biscuits ever! I figured they were worth a shot. The recipe called for lard, which was a new ingredient for me. I still have 15/16 of a lb of it sitting in my refridgerator and I'm not sure what I'll ever do with it.

Em’s Favorite Buttermilk Biscuits

Ingredients
2 cups + 1/4 cup King Arthur All-Purpose Flour - divided use
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
½ teaspoon Baking Soda
1 Tablespoon Granulated Sugar
1 teaspoon Kosher Salt (I do not use iodized salt)
2 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter (chilled and cubed)
2 Tablespoons Lard or Bacon Fat (chilled and cubed)
1 cup Buttermilk (chilled)
Directions

Preheat oven to 500° F and set oven rack to the center of the oven.
Prepare a baking sheet with silicon mat, parchment or non-stick spray.
Reserving 1/4cup of flour for later use, combine 2 cups of flour and the remaining dry ingredients in a food processor and pulse to blend. Add chilled butter and lard and pulse just until the the mixture looks pebbly - do not overmix.
Pour into a large bowl and using a fork gently stir in the Buttermilk just until incorporated. The dough will be very wet and sticky at this point. If the dough is too much like pancake batter, add the remaining 1/4 cup flour. You may not need to do this.
Turn onto a generously floured board and generously flour the top, and fold over. Flour again, pat out flat, fold again, flour again and keep repeating until the dough is workable but still a little tacky. This should take about 5-10 folds. Try not to add too much flour, as that will toughen the biscuits, and do not knead the dough, which also will toughen the biscuits. Simply fold and pat out flat. The final pat before cutting should leave your biscuit dough about 1/2″ thick.
Cut biscuits using a floured biscuit cutter or the floured rim of a drinking glass and place them on the baking sheet with the sides of the biscuits just kissing each other.
Put the baking sheet in the oven, close the oven door, and turn the temperature down to 450° F. Bake for 14-16 minutes, rotating the baking sheet half way thru the baking time. Remove from oven and serve immediately.

Unfortunately, my biscuits were not "the best" ever. I am going to blame that on me rather than on the recipe, as this girl really sounds like she knows what she is talking about on her blog. Also, her biscuits look much better than mine did. They were kind of a lot of work, so I don't know if I'll bother with them again. If I do, here is what I want to remember. 1) Don't run out of flour! I'm not sure how I let that happen. I ended up using cake flour for part of though folding and patting process. I'm sure this changed the outcome of my biscuits. 2) Don't leave the dough too sticky. I think I was a little nervous about overhandeling the dough or getting too much flour and instead the opposite happened. They didn't have the layers & fluff that I was looking for. I think it was because I didn't get quite enough flour worked in there.

Red Velvet Cake

Charlie's favorite kind of cake is Red Velvet, so that is what he requested for Father's Day. He had been looking through Paula Dean's cookbook and found her recipe, so that's the one I used.

I am posting a picture, but I am a little embarassed. This was definitely not my best cake! I don't know if I did something wrong with the frosting or if it is just supposed to be runny, but it never really set up. I ended up just pouring it over each layer and over the top of the cake and letting it run down the sides. It was more of an icing than a frosting. Also, I should have leveled off the cake layers and I didn't.

The cake was good, but I think a little too sweet (especially the frosting) for either of our tastes. We liked it but didn't love it. By the end of the week we still had over half a cake left and ended up having to throw it out. Sad!

Grandmother Paul's Red Velvet Cake

Ingredients:
2 eggs
2 cup sugar
2 tablespoon cocoa
2 ounce red food coloring
1/2 lb (2 sticks) butter
2 1/2 cup cake flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon vinegar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat eggs; add sugar. Mix cocoa and food coloring. Add butter and egg mixture; mix well. Sift together flour and salt. Add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Blend in vanilla. In a small bowl, combine soda and vinegar and add to mixture. Pour into three 8-inch round greased and floured pans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until tests done.
Icing: 1 16-ounce box of confectioner's sugar 1 stick butter, softened 1 cup melted marshmallows 1 cup shredded coconut 1 cup chopped pecans 1 8-ounce package of cream cheese
Blend cream cheese and butter. Add marshmallows and sugar and blend. Fold in coconut and nuts. Spread between layers and on top and sides of cooled cake.

Ah ha! I know what went wrong! I just looked up this recipe online so I wouldn't have to type it all from the cookbook. Well the online version includes 8 oz of cream cheese in the frosting. That is NOT in the book. (I've noticed the book in general is not written that well. A lot of the instructions are unclear and the formatting is odd. And apparently some ingredients have been left out too!) Well maybe I will have to try this cake again with the correct frosting recipe. Looking back, I remember thinking it was odd that a red velvet cake would not have cream cheese frosting. I should have trusted my instinct!

Overnight Blueberry French Toast

A few weeks ago I was in charge of breakfast for the parent discussion group for Isaac's class. I was up till nearly midnight the night before getting everything ready to go. I am NOT a morning person and would always rather stay up late than get up early! Even with all of my preparation the night before, I was still in a rush the next day and forgot to take any pictures of the food I brought. It was a big hit though. I had several requests for recipes! On the menu: Apple Cinnamon muffins, fresh fruit with strawberry dip, and Overnight Blueberry French Toast.

The muffins were pretty average. I used a recipe from allrecipes.com and it was one of those where everyone gives 4-5 stars but in their review they list all of the changes they made to the recipe. I say if the recipe is not good as it is written, it doesn't deserve 4+ stars! I probably will not make those again. The Betty Crocker box mix is better than these!

For the fruit I cut up fresh pineapple, strawberries, and green grapes. The dip was super simple and super yummy (not necessarily super healthy): one 8 oz package of strawberry flavored cream cheese & one 7 oz jar of marshmallow creme. Whip them together in the blender and there you have it! At first I was planning to half the recipe, but once it started blending together it seemed to really shrink up. I think the marshmallow just gets swallowed up in the cream cheese or something.

The star of the show was definitely the french toast! I had something similar at a baby shower a few weeks ago and loved it. I had never had anything quite like it before. Of course there is the bread base, but there is also a nice texture that comes from cream cheese, plus a tart/sweet burst of flavor from the blueberries. So I did an ingredient search on allrecipes and found just what I was looking for. I halved this recipe and made it again for Father's Day breakfast a few days later. This time I got some pictures!

I read a lot of the reviews from the website and made some changes to the original recipe. Here is the adapted version that I used:

Overnight Blueberry French Toast

Ingredients
1 lb Italian bread, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 8 oz package cream cheese
1-2 cups fresh blueberries
9 eggs, beaten
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup maple syrup

1 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 cup water
1 cup fresh blueberries

Directions
Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish. Spread cream cheese on sliced pieces of bread & then cut into cubes. Arrange half the bread cubes in the dish, and sprinkle with 1 tsp of cinnamon & half the blueberries. Then create a second layer of bread cubes, cinnamon & blueberries.
In a large bowl, mix the eggs, milk, vanilla extract, and syrup. Pour over the bread cubes. Cover, and refrigerate overnight.
Remove the bread cube mixture from the refrigerator about 30 minutes before baking. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Cover, and bake 30 minutes. Uncover, and continue baking 25 to 30 minutes, until center is firm and surface is lightly browned.
In a medium saucepan, mix the sugar, cornstarch, and water. Bring to a boil. Stirring constantly, cook 3 to 4 minutes. Mix in the remaining 1 cup blueberries. Reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes, until the blueberries burst. Pour over the baked French toast.

Summer Spinach Salad & Toasted Chicken Sandwich

Let me tell you what I ate for dinner tonight, and you can just try not to be jealous! I first made this salad a few months ago after finding it as a featured recipe on my allrecipes.com iPhone app. My version is actually just a spin-off of the original, and I use a bottled poppy seed dressing from Trader Joes instead of making the dressing the recipe calls for.




Summer Spinach Salad

1 bag or 1-2 bunches of baby spinach
12 oz fresh strawberries, sliced
6 oz can of mandarin oranges
1/2 cup of toasted sliced almonds
Poppy seed dressing


This salad should be assembled in layers because if you try to mix everything into the spinach, it will all just sink to the bottom. I start with a little pile of spinach leaves, sprinkle with strawberries & oranges, and repeat. I add all of the almonds on the top and they kind of sift down through the salad on their own.

I found this sandwich on Real Mom Kitchen after linking to another of her recipes from foodgawker. It required a special trip to the store today to get a fresh loaf of french bread, but it was worth it. I snuck a little taste of the chicken mixture before sticking it all in the oven and I could already tell it was going to be good. We all loved it! Isaac had already eaten dinner but he ended up eating dinner #2 once he had a taste of this sandwich. I will definitely make this one again!


Toasted Chicken & Cheese Sandwich

1 loaf french bread, cut lengthwise
2 cups cooked, shredded chicken
1/2 cup light mayo
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream
2 green onions, thinly sliced (white and green parts)
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped (or 2 tablespoons dried)
2 cups shredded cheese (I used a jack & cheddar blend)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place french bread on large baking sheet. Mix all topping ingredients together in a bowl. Spread topping evenly on top of both lengths of french bread. Bake for 15-20 minutes until bubbly and edges are lightly browned. Slice into pieces and serve immediately.

I only used half the loaf of bread because I'm saving the other half to make some garlic bread for tomorrow night's dinner. I think if you needed to stretch this to feed more people, a whole loaf would work, but for a small family the half loaf was fine. The topping was a little heavy, but not enough to overwhelm the bread. Oh, and I left out the parsley too because I didn't have any on hand. I didn't miss it. The garlic salt & green onions add plenty of flavor.

And as if dinner wasn't enough of a treat, I pulled out this little surprise that I picked up while getting my bread today.

When was the last time you had these?! I hadn't had them in years. And I never even realized how much I missed them until now. I doubt this bag will last more than a few days. Good thing I've started running again!

1-Hour Dinner Rolls & Blue Cheese Waldorf Salad

I saw a picture of these yummy looking rolls on foodgawker, and when I read that they only took an hour to make I was sold! This is actually a Kitchenaid recipe and provided me with my very first opportunity to use the dough hook attachment that came with our mixer!



The rolls were fun and simple to make, and I will definitely try them again. The only change I would make is to reduce the cooking time. I was confused about the step in the instructions where you raise the oven heat after the rolls have been rising in there. I left them in while the oven heated up and maybe I shouldn't have. The were a little over done, resulty in a thicker and crispier crust than I would have liked, but still soft and fluffy inside.

Basic Dinner Rolls
Yield: 24 dinner rolls (I only made half the recipe)

Ingredients
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsps. salt
3 tbsps. butter
7 teaspoons of dry active yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water (105°F - 115°F)
5 - 6 cups all-purpose flour

In a small saucepan, stir milk, sugar, salt and butter together. Heat over low heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Cool until lukewarm.

Pour the warm water into the bowl of a stand mixer, add the yeast and a small pinch of sugar. Allow the yeast to dissolve for about 5 minutes at which point you should notice it has started to “bloom” (this is a good way to see if your yeast is alive before proceeding further and possibly wasting time or ingredients if it is not).

Add the lukewarm milk mixture and 4 1/2 cups of flour to the mixing bowl, and using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed for about 1 minute. With the mixer still going, add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, and mix about 1 1/2 minutes, or until dough starts to clean the sides of the bowl. Knead on low speed for about 2 more minutes, or utnil dough is smooth and elastic - the dough will still be slightly sticky to the touch.

Place dough in a greased bowl, turning the dough to grease the top. Cover the bowl with a clean, dry dish towel, and let it rise in a warm place, free from draft, for about 15 minutes.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, and divide dough into 24 equal pieces. Form each piece into a ball, and place in a greased muffin cup. Remove one piece from a muffin cup and using kitchen shears, pizza cutter or a knife cut in half, then in quarters, and return all four pieces to the muffin cup. Repeat this process with each of the remaining muffin cups so the result is 4 quartered pieces in each muffin cup.

Cover the muffin pan with the dish towel, and let the dough rise in a slightly warm oven (90°F) for about 15 minutes.

Increase oven temperature to 425°F. Once oven has reached the desired temperature bake for 12 minutes, or until rolls are golden brown.

If desired, brush tops with melted butter and return to oven for 1 minute. Remove rolls from pans immediately, and cool on wire racks.

As I was trying to think of what to make for dinner this week, Charlie suggested I make some nice salads. See, this is where my food blog will come in handy! I got on a salad kick about a month ago and made a couple different salads that were really yummy. Now I don't really remember what they were...

Anyway, I new I had some apples in the fridge I wanted to use up and also some crumbled blue cheese. I was thinking I'd stop by the store and pick up some spinach or something, but first I did an ingredient search on allrecipes for salads with blue cheese and apples. That's when I discovered a blue cheese waldorf salad. Brilliant! I didn't even need to go to the store because I had all the ingredients already at home.


For the dressing I skipped the grated onion and used a dash of onion powder instead. I also replaced the cayenne pepper with cinnamon and I made my own buttermilk with regular milk & lemon juice. I sprinkled the rest of the juice from the lemon over the apples to keep them from browning.

Charlie & I both liked it. My favorite part was the dressing. It had a nice tangy sweetness with lots of different flavors in there. Charlie suggested that I cut the apples smaller next time. I think so they get more dressing on them. The chunks were a little big in proportion to the other ingredients. He also said smaller celery pieces and bigger walnut pieces.

Blue Cheese Waldorf Salad

Ingredients
1/4 cup fat-free mayonnaise
1/4 cup 1% buttermilk
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
2 tablespoons grated onion
3 medium apples, chopped
3 celery ribs, chopped
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

In a small bowl, whisk the mayonnaise, buttermilk, sugar, vinegar, salt, cayenne and pepper. Stir in blue cheese and onion. In a large bowl, combine the apples, celery and raisins. Drizzle with dressing; toss to coat. Sprinkle with walnuts.

So tonight's recipes were both keepers. It was a light dinner. We also had some leftover watermelon that I cut up yesterday.

What should I make tomorrow?