Pork Loin w/ Caramelized Apples & Onions

It may sound like a weird combination to some of you- pork and apples, but to me it goes together like peanut butter and jelly (I actually like cream cheese and jelly better, but I digress).  When I was younger I used to eat pork with applesauce.  This recipe is kind of a grown up, slightly more sophisticated version of that.  The best part was (besides how yummy it was) I cooked it way before eating, and just left it on low on the stove top, and it didn't get dried out at all.  

Pork loin, after browning on first side

Finished dish, served with steamed greens beans with olive oil and grey salt

Ingredients:

1 pound boneless pork loin
1 medium yellow onion sliced thinly
1 medium apple (I used honeycrisp) peeled and sliced thinly (ideally you want the onion and the apple to be about the same size)
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup apple juice or apple cider
1 teaspoon dried thyme
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

In a large frying pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Meanwhile season the pork with salt, pepper, and the thyme.  When oil is ready, add the pork to the pan, and cook on first side for 7-8 minutes (or until browned) and then flip for 2 minutes.  Remove the pork and set aside (it might not be cooked all the way through, but that's ok).  Add the onions to the same pan and season with salt and pepper.  When onions start to brown, turn heat to medium-low and continue to cook until caramelized.  Add the apples and cook for another 15 minutes or until apples are softened.  Turn heat up to medium.  Add the cider vinegar and cook while stirring until it's reduced. Add the apple juice and stir until mixture comes to a bubble.  Turn heat to lowest setting, add the pork back in, and put a lid on.  Continue to simmer until ready to serve (at least another 15 minutes to allow the pork to cook all the way through).  Serve pork with onions and apples as a sauce and a side of your favorite veggie (green beans are super on sale right now at Publix). 

Butternut Squash Bisque

This soup is so delicious and comforting and perfect for a chilly night.  It takes a little while to caramelize the onions and roast the squash, but other than that, it's really simple.  It stores well and is a great thing to make over the weekend and store for a quick and easy weeknight meal. 

Ingredients:

1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into cubes
4 medium yellow onions sliced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage (plus more for garnish)
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 links of chicken sausage (I used maple, apple flavor) sliced
2 tablespoons real maple syrup
5 cups chicken stock
Lots of fresh cracked pepper
Goat cheese
Salt to taste

Pre-heat an oven to 400 degrees.  In a large pot (preferably a dutch oven), heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.  When oil is ready, add the sliced chicken sausage (the kind I used was pre-cooked so it was just a matter of browning it and reheating it) and saute for 10 minutes. Remove sausage with a slotted spoon leaving behind any grease.  Add the onions and butter and sage and stir to combine, scraping up any bits from the pot.  Turn heat down to medium low and let caramelize for at least 45 minutes.  When onions are caramelized, add the maple syrup.  Meanwhile, add the peeled and cubed (be sure to remove seeds too) butternut squash to a baking dish and drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Roast for at least 30 minutes, or until completely cooked and light brown.  Add the squash to the pot with the caramelized onions along with 1 cup of the stock.  Using an immersion blender (or a regular blender) puree until mixture is smooth.  Add the remainder of the stock and check if it needs more salt (depends how salty your stock is) and lots of pepper to counter the sweetness of the dish (you could use a dash of cayenne if you prefer too).  When ready to serve, add soup to a bowl and garnish with a few slices of the chicken sausage, goat cheese crumbles, and sage.  

Caramelized Apple French Toast

One last over-the-top meal before pre-Christmas vacation diet begins.  This breakfast was absolutely delicious and checked all the boxes of the foods I plan on avoiding the next few weeks (sugar, butter, carbs, etc.).  

Ingredients for apples:

2 large granny smith apples, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter

Over medium heat, add all the ingredients to a small saute pan.  Cook until apples are fork tender (about 20 minutes).  

Ingredients for french toast:

Slices of white bread
2 large eggs
1/4 cup half-n-half
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Butter for frying

Mix everything, except the bread, in a shallow bowl with a fork until eggs are beaten.  Heat a large frying pan, or flat top skillet, to medium heat and add a few tablespoons of butter (enough to coat the bottom of the pan).  Soak the bread slices in the egg mixture and then add to the buttered pan.  Cook on first side for about 5 minutes, or until starting to get golden brown, and for another 2 minutes or so on the other side.  Continue until you've cooked enough bread slices that you want (this amount of egg mixture made enough for 6 slices of bread).  

Apple caramelizing

French toast, yum!

Serve french toast with apples and maple syrup. 

Happy Thanksgiving

Our dinner table

Lemon, thyme, & garlic roasted turkey

My Thanksgiving boys!

As of 9:30 this morning, the turkey has been prepped, the aromatics are ready to go, the apple crumb pie is baked and cooling, the house is cleaned, and the baby is napping.  Carter waking us up at 6 am might not have been such a bad thing after all! I'm not going to blog all the recipes today, but I will later.  I'm just going to post a few pictures and then enjoy the day with my family.

On a cheesy note, I have so much to be thankful for this year.  I have an amazing husband, a darling son, loving and supportive parents, great friends, a wonderful dog, and much more.  The thing I am most thankful for this year is time.  I've been given the best gift of all, I get to stay home with my baby boy this year.  I never thought I'd be (or even want to be) a stay at home mom, but it is has been the most wonderful and rewarding experience in my life!

My little turkey helping me in the kitchen

Apple crisp pie

Turkey with thyme, lemon butter rub

Making the rub for the turkey: 1 stick of softened butter, zest of 1 lemon, 2 tablespoons fresh thyme, 1 tablespoon olive oil, and salt and pepper.

Happy Thanksgiving Eve

Today my goal is to get as much done as possible so tomorrow won't be (as) stressful and I can enjoy the day with my family.  Thanks to my helpful husband, we got a lot of cleaning done today despite taking care of a baby and get furniture delivered (nothing like getting a dining room table delivered the day before Thanksgiving).  Besides cleaning, we set the table and put out some of the Christmas decorations (this year, more than ever, we are so excited to get out our Christmas stuff and get in the spirit.  The two main cooking items today were the cranberry sauce and the stuffing (technically it's dressing, but I still call it stuffing).

Stuffing before being baked

Ingredients for Sausage, Sage, & Caramelized Onion Stuffing:

1 loaf of day-old French bread, diced into small cubes

1 package of sage sausage (the kind in the tube)

3 medium yellow onions, sliced

1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage

4 eggs

4 cups chicken broth (more or less depending on how dry your bread is)

1/2 stick of melted butter

Salt and Pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

Start by heating the oil in a medium frying pan over medium-high heat; add the sausage.  Cook for about 15 minutes, or until browned.  With a wooden spoon, break sausage up into small pieces.  With a slotted spoon, remove sausage, but leave grease behind.  Turn heat down to medium, and add the sliced onion.  Season with salt and pepper.  When onions start to change color, turn down to low.  Cook for about 45 minutes, or until completely caramelized.  Meanwhile, in a large bowl whisk together eggs, sage, stock, and salt and pepper (you might have to add in more stock if mixture is too dry).  Add in bread cubes and stir to combine that they are coated in egg mixture.  Add in melted butter and sausage and stir.  When the onions are caramelized, add those to the mixture too.  

Pre-heat an oven to 350 degrees.  Pour stuffing mixture into a greased 9x13 pan.  When oven is ready, put in stuffing for about 30 minutes, or until the bread on top starts to brown. You can eat the stuffing as is, but I let it cool, and then refrigerated it overnight.  About 30 minutes before serving, heat back up in an oven.  This stuffing is so delicious on it's own, but even better with gravy!

Ingredients for Cranberry Sauce:

2 bags whole cranberries

1/2 cup orange juice

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

1 cup sugar

Cranberries and lemon

Over medium heat, add all the ingredients to a pan.  When mixture starts to simmer, reduce to low.  Cook for up to an hour, or until  all the berries have popped open and it's thick (it will continue to thicken in the fridge).  Store in fridge and serve cold or room temperature.  Makes an awesome condiment to a sandwich or over angel food cake. 

Thanksgiving Prep, day 2

Today's mission was to go grocery shopping for all the rest of our Thanksgiving necessities.  Ryan, Carter, and I hit Publix as soon as Carter woke up, and it paid off, it was completely empty! Plus with all the coupons going on right now, we were able to save a ton of money.  I don't know if our fridge has ever been so full.  Besides shopping, our mission today (besides cleaning and taking the dog to the vet) was to make the ice cream base.  The longer it sits in the fridge getting cold, the better it will churn.  Since I'm making dutch apple pie, we went with a simple vanilla ice cream.

Ingredients for Vanilla Bean Ice Cream:

2 cups half-n-half
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean, split and seeded 

Ice Cream ready to be churned

Finished product

In a small sauce pan over low heat, add all the ingredients.  For the vanilla bean, scrap out the seeds with the back of a knife and put those along with the bean itself into the sauce pan (I know they're expensive, but you really can't replicate the flavor with just vanilla extract).  Whisk for a few minutes until the sugar has dissolved.  Pour mixture into a bowl and put it in the fridge for at least 2 hours (overnight is the best).  Once mixture is completely cooled, pour into ice cream machine (the one we have doesn't require ice or salt, but if your's does, then follow the instructions for that), and churn for 20 minutes.  You can serve as is for a softer ice cream, or you can freeze it for a few hours for a more traditional, harder consistency.  I've made the base today, and plan on churning it tomorrow, that way Thursday it will have hardened and be ready to go a la mode!  (I'll post pictures of the ice cream when it's being churned)

Healthy Dinner During a Week of Caloric Overload!

We've all heard it a million times, it is nearly impossible to diet and eat healthy in the upcoming weeks.  With cookie making (how can you not sample some of your own baking!?), turkey, stuffing, pies, candy, roasts, etc. there are diet killers everywhere.  While I'm definitely not going to be counting calories on Thanksgiving or Christmas, the days in between I'm trying to eat healthier to counter act some of it.  This salad is really delicious and quite filling for a salad.  Although the bacon probably isn't the healthiest thing, a little bit mixed in with fruits and veggies can't hurt too much, right?!

Fall salad

Ingredients for Fall Salad:

1 small butternut squash (or half of a large one), peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1 granny smith apple, thinly sliced
4 slices of bacon, chopped into lardons
1/4 cup of goat cheese
5 cups baby spinach leaves
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper

(Dressing is the leftovers from another salad I blogged about earlier in the week: http://andcartermakesthree.blogspot.com/2012/11/cape-cod-salad.html)

Pre-heat an oven to 400 degrees.  Spread cubed squash into a single layer on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Cook until slightly browned and fork-tender (about 20 minutes, the bigger the pieces, the more time).  Let cool in the fridge until serving.  Meanwhile, in a small frying pan on medium-low heat, add the bacon lardons.  Cook for about 20 minutes, or until crispy.  Drain onto a paper towel.  Let cool in the fridge along with the squash.  When ready to eat, add the squash and bacon to a large bowl along with the rest of the ingredients and add the dressing to taste.