Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Tasty Tuesdays- Red edition
This is one of our favorites. It is SO good and I love it around Christmas time because of the awesome red color. Add a green vegetable and it's perfect!
Roast Pork with Raspberry Sauce
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. rubbed sage
1 t tsp. pepper
1 3 1/2 to 4 lb boneless pork loin roast
(I always use two 1.5ish lb tenderloins. I think they're a little more tender (hence the name) and cook faster. But they're also probably more expensive then a regular roast.
Sauce:
1 10oz pkg. frozen, sweetened raspberries, thawed
1 1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. white vinegar
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/4 c. cornstarch
1 T. butter
1 T. lemon juice
3-4 drops red food coloring (opt.) I never do this...it's already very red?
Combine the salt, sage and pepper: rub over entire roast. Place roast fat side up on a rack in a shallow, roasting pan. Bake uncovered at 350 for 70 to 80 min (much less if you do the tenderloins- around 45 min) or until meat thermometer reads 160 degrees. For the sauce: Drain raspberries, reserving liquid. Set berries aside. Add enough water or apple juice to juice to measure 3/4 cup. In a saucepan, combine the sugar, vinegar, spices and 1/2 c raspberry juice. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer, uncovered for 10 min. Combine cornstarch and remaining raspberry juice until smooth; stir into saucepan. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 min until thickened. Remove from heat. Stir in butter, lemon juice, food coloring and raspberries. Serve with roast.
Cranberry Chicken
This is one of those super easy college recipes but I think it's still my favorite chicken and rice dish. At one of the cooking classes I learned a more gourmet version of this but it just wasn't nearly as good.
It smells up the whole house amazingly and again, is red.
5-6 chicken breasts
1 can whole cranberry sauce
1 8oz bottle Catalina French dressing
1 envl. onion soup mix
4 c. cooked rice
Mix cranberries, dressing and soup in large bowl. Dip chicken pieces in sauce then put them in 9x13 dish. Cover chicken with sauce. Bake at 350 for 40 min or until done. Serve over rice.
Raspberry Cream Cheese Danish
This is one of my favorite holiday deserts that my mom has made over the years. I made these for our friends for Christmas this year and it seemed like people liked them too. Brady wolfs an entire one down in a day but then, he eats everything that way.
3 oz. package of cream cheese
4 Tblsp butter
2 c. Bisquick
1/3 c. milk
1/2 c. Raspberry jam
1 c. sifted powdered sugar
1-2 Tblsp milk
1/2 tsp. Vanilla
Cut cream cheese and butter into Bisquick with a pastry cutter. Blend in 1/3 c. milk and knead 8-10 times on lightly floured counter top. Roll into 12x8 rectangle. Turn onto a backing sheet that has been covered with aluminum foil. Spread jam onto the center of rectangle all the way down. Make cuts with butter knife along sides- 2 1/2 inch. Pull each side over, alternating which side goes first. Press edges of top and bottom to seal. Bake at 425 for 12-14 min. or until golden brown. Drizzle the glaze all over back and forth. Glaze is the powdered sugar mixed with milk and vanilla. Let set until glaze has hardened a little. Serve with milk.
**I always make two danishes with this amount of dough. And I don't stick to the "rectangle measurements". Then I just eyeball the jam. I still use the same glaze recipe for each one.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Spoke Too Soon
For anyone that doesn't already know, Brady's going to be medical red-shirting this year and will now be starting his senior year NEXT year. In about the first three minutes of the third game of the season Brady tore the main ligament in his foot. He's been in a boot since and using the most hilariously huge crutches you've ever seen.
It's a real bummer. But, we realized that it's not the end of the world and isn't going to ruin all of our life plans. We decided that grown up life goes on forever but college life and basketball don't, so we're actually excited to be around one more year.
Go AGGIES!
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Same song last verse
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Updates
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Not So Tasty Tuesday
So to give myself something to blog about I thought it would be a good idea to post new recipes I've learned every Tuesday. Well I'm not doing that today.
The last few months, my jeans have been getting tighter and tighter until I couldn't even fit into one of my favorite pairs. I was very bewildered by this as I have always seemed to think that I could eat all the yummy food I want and life would go on just the same. I've never heard of successful dieting and let’s face it, exercising is just hard -unless you're playing volleyball which is difficult to do once you've quite playing for an organized team and need to find 12 people that can/want to play. It would always break my heart-almost to the point of weeping- when my friends would decide to waste their life in the misery of eating not that great of food and/or laughably small portions. Even if I wanted to be like all these crazy people I wouldn’t even know where to start. When playing sports I just did what coaches told me to do and didn’t pay attention to the exercises. I guess I could just go outside and run but since I was finagled into running a Ragnar this summer I don’t ever have to run again in this life. And I honestly couldn’t tell you what a healthy calorie intake would be. It could be 200 or 2 million for all I know.
Well I don’t know what made me all of a sudden care enough to want to fit back into these pants since I’m sure I’ve always outgrown things and just blissfully went on to bigger sized clothing. It’s never affected me in the slightest when my BYU soccer sister scowls at my plate and smugly eats her tofu and jicima, and health lectures about our society today have always gone in one ear and out the other since they’re all meant for anyone else to hear I’m sure. Maybe it’s because my husband has the body of a Greek God carved from stone. Maybe it’s because my piano bench has been creaking rather loudly when I sit on it lately. Whatever the reason, my mom gave me a diet and I am determined to see if I can do it. Even if I don’t get an ounce smaller I want to see if I am capable of doing it. In fact, it might be better if it didn’t have any effect so that I can know for certain that my theories on the subject are correct and I can go back to being happy.
The diet is the 2-week Scarsdale Medical Diet that promises you a pound weight loss every day, or a 14 pound drop after the two weeks. My mom swears by this thing and says it’s always worked for her. I’m a skeptic but if I lose just half that I’d be happy and I just want to see if I’m capable of such a thing as a diet.
Today is my first day. I have never in my whole life had celery unless someone else brought it to a function in a bowl overflowing with ranch dressing. Now I know why. It’s disgusting.
Anyway, I’ll let you know how I do and if it works.