Bacon-Wrapped Maple Pork Loin

Posted on April 3, 2013 by jenny

I tore out this recipe from a Gourmet magazine my friend Sandy gave me when she was moving and needed to get rid of some stuff a couple of years ago.  Somehow I held onto it and kept it through a move and decided that I needed to make this soon, or throw out the recipe.  We tried it tonight and liked it!  Worth the effort!

Bacon-Wrapped Maple Pork Loin

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour, 25 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 55 minutes

Yield: Serves 6-8

Ingredients

  • For Brining Pork
  • 8 cups Water (I needed a bit more to cover the pork)
  • 1/3 cup Kosher salt
  • 2 Tbsp. Crushed black peppercorns
  • 2 sprigs Fresh sage (I used dried)
  • 1 large Garlic clove
  • 1 Bay leaf
  • 1 (4-4.5 lb.) Boneless pork loin roast, trimmed
  • For Roasting Pork
  • 3 Garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 2 Tbsp. Finely chopped fresh sage (I used dried)
  • 3 Tbsp. Maple syrup (Grade B or amber, I used Grade A)
  • 16 Bacon slices
  • 1 Tbsp. Cider vinegar

Preparation

  1. BRINE PORK
  2. Combine all brining ingredients EXCEPT pork loin in a 3- to 4-quart saucepan and heat over high heat, stirring, until salt is dissolved. Cool to room temperature, uncovered, about 2 hours.
  3. Add pork to brine, making sure it is completely covered by brine (this is where I added just plain water to the brine to make sure the pork was covered), and marinate, covered and chilled, 8 to 24 hours.
  4. ROAST PORK
  5. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350F.
  6. Pat pork dry (discard brine, remove any strings from pork) and transfer to a roasting pan. Stir together garlic, sage, and 1 Tbsp. syrup in a small bowl and rub all over pork.
  7. Lay bacon slices crosswise over loin, overlapping slightly, and tuck ends of bacon underneath loin.
  8. Roast pork until thermometer registers 140F, about 1-1/4 hours. Stir together 1 Tbsp. syrup and vinegar until combined. Brush vinegar mixture over bacon slices and continue to roast pork until thermometer registers 150F, about 10 minutes more.
  9. Remove from oven and let stand in pan 15 minutes.

Posted in bacon, garlic, maple syrup, pepper, pork, sage, salt, vinegar | 2 Comments

Broccoli, Cheese & Potato Soup

Posted on March 17, 2013 by jenny

I made this recipe a couple of months ago, having gotten it from the newsletter for my CSA, Abundant Harvest Organics. We thought it was a great recipe and I am putting it on my blog to keep it bookmarked for future eating (and so I can now throw away the recipe card)!

Broccoli, Cheese & Potato Soup

Ingredients

  • 2-1/2 cups Broccoli, chopped & steamed until crisp tender
  • 1/3 cup Onion, chopped
  • 1/4 cup Flour
  • 4 cups Potatoes, diced & peeled
  • 3 cups Chicken Broth
  • 2 cups Cheddar Cheese, shredded
  • 2 cups Milk
  • 1/4 tsp. Pepper
  • 1/2 tsp. Salt (or to taste)
  • Dash Paprika (or to taste)

Preparation

  1. In large saucepan, saute onion in butter until tender.
  2. Add flour, pepper, salt, and paprika and stir until smooth.
  3. Add broth, milk, and potatoes, stirring constantly until it boils and thickens.
  4. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
  5. Stir in cheese and cooked broccoli and cook over low until cheese is melted and soup heated through.
  6. Some crispy croutons may be added as a garnish as well as some chopped parsley or cilantro for a kick.

Posted in broccoli, cheese, potatoes, soup | Leave a comment

Roasted Peach and Plum Frozen Yogurt

Posted on July 19, 2012 by jenny

Now, the last thing you probably want to do with your delicious summer stone fruit like peaches and plums is roast them.  But trust me — this recipe is SO good, and roasting the fruit really brings out the flavor of the fruit.  It takes a day or two to make frozen yogurt (because you have to drain the yogurt), but it’s worth the wait.

Roasted Peach and Plum Frozen Yogurt

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 day, 40 minutes

Yield: 2 quarts -ish

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs Peaches, pitted & roughly sliced
  • 1 lb Plums, pitted & roughly sliced
  • 1/2 cup Brown sugar
  • 1 cup Water
  • 1 cup Sugar (increase or decrease according to the tartness of the fruit)
  • Juice of 2 small limes
  • 1 TBSP Vodka (optional, helps keep the frozen yogurt soft)
  • 1 cup Plain yogurt

Preparation

  1. Place yogurt in a fine mesh colander/cheesecloth over a bowl. Place in the refrigerator and let drain overnight. Discard liquidy whey (or use whey in place of buttermilk in recipes). Set yogurt aside.
  2. Sprinkle fruit with brown sugar and roast on a rimmed cookie sheet at 180 degree oven for 30 minutes, or until the fruit are soft and releasing their juices.
  3. Cool fruit, then puree in the blender. The recipe says you should get approximately 3 cups of puree. I believe I had more -- I just used 3 cups and kept the rest in the fridge for a second batch.
  4. Make a simple syrup of the water and sugar by placing in a saucepan and heating until sugar is dissolved in the water.
  5. In a bowl, combine yogurt, simple syrup, fruit puree, lime juice and vodka, whisking until well blended.
  6. Freeze as per the instructions on your ice cream maker. WARNING: You may have more frozen yogurt base than your maker can handle -- just refrigerate and save as another batch.

 

Posted in brown sugar, dessert, frozen yogurt, nectarines, peaches, plum, recipe, sugar, vodka, yogurt | Leave a comment

Roast Pork Tenderloin with Plum Barbecue Sauce

Posted on July 10, 2012 by jenny

Last year my CSA box was brimming with plums, more than Gavin and I could eat in a given week.  When I came across this Cooking Light recipe in the magazine, I knew I had to try it.  We loved it!  I look forward to making it again this summer!

Roast Pork Tenderloin with Plum Barbecue Sauce

Total Time: 1 hour, 5 minutes

Yield: Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 1 TBSP Canola oil
  • 1/2 cup Chopped onion
  • 1 Garlic clove, finely chopped
  • 1/8 cup Packed brown sugar
  • 1/8 cup Rice wine vinegar
  • 1/8 cup Ketchup
  • 1 TBSP Soy sauce
  • 1 tsp Dry mustard
  • 1/2 tsp Ground ginger
  • 1/4 tsp Black pepper
  • 1/8 tsp Crushed red pepper
  • 1 whole Cloves
  • 3/4 lb. Black plums, quartered & pitted
  • 1 Star anise
  • 1 TBSP Canola Oil
  • 1 Pork tenderloin (1 lb.)
  • 1/4 tsp Salt
  • 1/4 tsp Black pepper

Preparation

  1. Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon canola oil to pan and swirl to coat. Add onion and garlic, saute 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add sugar and the next 10 ingredients (through star anise); bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, partially covered, for 30 minutes or until plums break down and sauce thickens, stirring occasionally. Discard cloves and anise.
  2. Preheat oven to 450.
  3. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon oil to pan; swirl to coat. Sprinkle pork evenly with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Add pork to pan; saute 7 minutes, turning to brown on all sides.
  4. Transfer pork to a cookie sheet; coat with 1/4 cup plum sauce. Roast pork at 450 for 15 minutes. Remove pork from oven. Turn pork over; coat with an additional 1/4 cup plum sauce. Roast 10 minutes or until a thermometer inserted into a thickest portion of pork registers 155. Remove from pan; let stand 10 minutes. Slice crosswise. Serve with remaining plum sauce.

Posted in bbq sauce, brown sugar, cooking light, dinner, dry mustard, ketchup, oil, onion, pepper, plum, pork, recipe, red pepper flakes, soy sauce, vinegar | Leave a comment

Griffith Observatory Watercolor Painting

Posted on May 3, 2012 by jenny

Of all of my plein air paintings with my Saturday morning group, I am most proud of this one.  We set out to go to the Griffith Observatory one beautiful January morning and I chose this spot for all of us.  We sat down, started drawing, and then a half hour in I exclaimed, “Why didn’t anyone warn me how difficult this angle would be?!”  I initially started out in pen and ink and then abandoned ship…it just wasn’t coming out.

Thankfully, I had a pencil and eraser on hand, so I gave it another shot and a drawing eventually came together.  Getting through the drawing is difficult for me — I would much rather be putting paint on the paper.  So, I was excited to move on to the paint stage and am SO pleased with how this came together.  I especially love the patina on the dome!

Posted in art, beautiful, blue, colorful, en plein air, griffith observatory, painting, saturday morning painting group, travel watercolor kit, watercolor, yellow | 1 Comment

Descanso Gardens Japanese Tea House Watercolor Painting

Posted on April 12, 2012 by jenny

This painting came about, again, from my Saturday Morning Painting Group.  Last December we went to Descanso Gardens to paint together, thinking perhaps we would paint the Christmas decor that they tend to put up around the gardens at that time of year.  We didn’t realize that a week or two before the great windstorm had happened and Descanso had been closed because there was so much damage.

Consequently, there was not much in the way of Christmas decor to paint, but we did all settle in to paint the Japanese Tea House in their small Japanese garden.  I found this scene to be challenging because of the multiple colors of green, to represent all of the different trees, bamboo, etc. that surrounds the teahouse.  In my opinion, realistic greens are the hardest to capture in watercolor painting.  Much more so when you are using a rinky dinky travel watercolor kit with very limited color options.  But — on the whole — not too bad.  This en plein air painting is tough, but I think that I get a little bit better every time I do it.

Posted in art, colorful, descanso gardens, drawing, en plein air, green, japanese, painting, pen and ink, saturday morning painting group, teahouse, travel watercolor kit, tree, watercolor | Leave a comment

Mary Magdalene at the Tomb

Posted on April 5, 2012 by jenny

This year’s Glenmary Easter appeal was very difficult.  When they called to commission me for the painting, they said they were thinking of an image of the risen Jesus and Mary Magdalene at the tomb.  I responded with, “Um, you do know that I don’t do people well.”  Not only was I anxious about doing people, I was also anxious about painting Jesus because everyone has their own conception of what he looked like.  Glenmary (very kindly) replied that they had liked the people I had painted for them in paintings past, and wanted me to give it a shot…oh, and also include an olive tree and other foliage with the tomb.

Amazingly enough, they were really happy with the first draft I sent them and only had a few refinements.  This painting, what I feel is the most complicated piece I’ve done for them, had fewer revisions than any other painting that I had done.  The Wisemen painting alone went through something like six revisions!

Happy Easter!

Posted in art, beautiful, colorful, easter, glenmary, painting, religious, watercolor | 3 Comments

iPad App

Posted on April 3, 2012 by jenny

Last summer my friend Alla gave me the great opportunity to work with her on creating a  visual design for a Chicago HVAC company that wanted to make their own iPad App for their servicemen to do scheduling and create invoices.  It was a very cool project, and a new avenue for design for me, so it was really neat to be included.

I believe the app is still in development, but here are a few screenshots of the many screens that I did!

Posted in client, design, ipad app, screenshots | Leave a comment

Apricots in a Blue Bowl Watercolor Painting

Posted on March 29, 2012 by jenny

December was a bit of a slow month for me, so I was able to be fairly prolific when it came to painting.  Because I don’t have a dedicated space and have to lug everything out, the setting up process of painting often prevents me from putting paint to paper.  So, as long as I was painting the Easter scene for the Glenmary Easter Appeal, I had time to do other paintings as well!

Again, I painted these apricots based on a photo I found on Flickr.  I am drawn to painting fruit, and I liked the composition and the reflectiveness of the bowl.  In the painting, I really like my thumbnail sketch that I did to determine the values of the painting.

Posted in apricots, art, blue, bowls, flickr, glenmary, painting, thumbnail sketch, watercolor, workspace | 2 Comments

Soft pretzels

Posted on March 27, 2012 by jenny

The other day Gavin requested that I make soft pretzels.  I was a little nervous about this because I’m not great with dough (and it’s such a commitment to make bread/dough, especially if it doesn’t turn out…what a disappointment), but I stepped up to the challenge.  The result was that Alton Brown’s recipe is pretty easy and doesn’t take forever to do!  Gavin ate these so quickly, that I had to make the recipe again later on that week.

Soft Pretzels

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 55 minutes

Yield: 8 pretzels

Ingredients

  • 1-1/2 cups Warm water (between 100-110 F)
  • 1 TBSP Sugar
  • 2 tsp Kosher Salt
  • 1 package Active Dry Yeast
  • 4-1/2 cups Flour
  • 2 oz Butter, melted
  • Vegetable Oil
  • 10 cups Water
  • 2/3 cup Baking Soda
  • 1 Egg Yolk
  • Salt

Preparation

  1. Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam.
  2. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4-5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50-55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.
  3. Preheat the oven to 450 F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.
  4. Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan.
  5. In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope. Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment-lined half sheet pan.
  6. Place the pretzels into the boiling water, one at a time, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula. Return to the half sheet pan.
  7. Beat egg yolk with 1 TBSP water in a small bowl. Brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with salt.
  8. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Posted in alton brown, butter, egg, flour, oil, recipe, salt, soft pretzels, yeast | 4 Comments