Hi

Hi!

It's been a while...a week since I have bloggged...I've been busy but mostly I'm not wanting to wear out my welcome with you all...

I'm writing this as my dinner cooks in the oven...I haven't been cooking much this summer but now that TCBITW (The Cutest Boy in the World) is home from camp I have been making an effort.

In the oven: Orange-flavored Pork Tenderloins

I will use them for tacos tonight...but they could be served as is. The recipe will be at the bottom of this blog. I thought I might share a few recipes once in a while as a way to spur me on to cook more and to give you people something good to eat.

You see, I am a good cook...a very good cook. I didn't get this fat eating out and eating a lot of junk food. I cooked myself to this weight...with pan-fried Milenesa, lasagna, ribeye steaks, scalloped potatoes, fettucine alfredo, pasta carbonara, Coca-Cola cake, Tres leches cake, baby-back ribs, short ribs, chicken-fried steak with gravy, and all kinds of other fattening goodies...

But I can also cook healthy. And this is one of those healthy recipes that is good enough to serve to company and easy enough for the laziest of cooks to do. So the recipe will be at the bottom...enjoy!

I haven't done much this week but work on the school scrapbook and go to the gym and lay out by the pool. Not much progress on the scrapbook but it is at least started. I've lost a couple of pounds...my tan looks good...

We saw "Inception"...one wild ride of a movie. Very good flick. I really enjoyed it and I recommend seeing it at the theater instead of waiting for it to come on HBO or video because the visuals are stunning. We avoided watching it in IMAX because those kinds of movies don't sit well with me and TCBITW when we watch them on the IMAX screen---Transformers was a disaster---so we saw it on the regular screen. It was a very entertaining couple of hours. Tres loved it, Hubby loved it, I loved it...

I managed to get through a full hour of spin class yesterday...a different Spinderella was in control but she was awesome and I will go back to her class again. I finally made it to Fitness Goddess' spin and weights class and loved it to where I now will make it priority. I am once again becoming addicted to spinning...which is way better than my cupcake addiction...

My husband got an iPhone. He is not cool enough for an iPhone...he has always been a blackberry man and I loved my iPhone...but now he has one and he decided to invade my music library with his music.

Do any of you know how to seperate music libraries?

Our marriage will not survivie this...

I cannot have him synching his phone to the same library I am using...because he has decided to add some of "his" music and I just cannot go there.

Herb Albert and the Tiajuana Brass

Do I really NEED to say more? Really? At this point as you are reading this you should all be saying "oh, goodness...poor Anice! THAT is not music anyone should want to hear".

I told him he is officially an old man now.

He added 5 (FIVE) albums of Herb Albert. He spent almost $60 on Herb Albert.

NO ONE needs that much Herb Albert.

My father used to have "Whipped Cream and Other Delights" on an 8-track that he played on our 8-track carousel...it alternated with the much-hated (and previously mentioned in a blog)music of Julio Iglesias (my step-monster's favorite) and some very bad Ray Price stuff. I could ALMOST handle the Charlie Pride stuff. And then there was the Barbra Streisand Christmas Album (I loved removing it from the carousel on January 2).

But the Herb Albert "Whipped Cream and Other Delights" stayed in...

Once I stuck in my AC/DC "Back in Black" cassette into the carousel and waited for it to come over the sound system (all the speakers in the house were hooked up to the carousel---quite novel for the late 70's)...that was fun...Daddy didn't like it...He didn't like "Hell's Bells" at all...but we needed to hear "A Taste of Honey" for the 43,967th time..."You Shook me All Night Long" beats "Lollipops and Roses" any day in my book but not Daddy's...

"You Shook me All Night Long"...one of the greatest rock-n-roll songs. EVER. EVER!!!!

So now my library is gunked up with the Herb Albert crap the same way I was forced to listen to it back in my high school years (and it was OLD then!).

So please, if you know how to make 2 seperate libraries on one computer, tell me how!

I don't want to have to comb through each time and uncheck whatever horrible music he has purchased.

TCBITW is totally cringing now because he will now be forced to listen to the Herb Albert junk along with the music from westerns (like "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" that my husband's "boyfriend" (that would be his best friend...but since they are nicer to each other than they are to their own wives, the other guy's wife and I refer to them as each other's boyfriend...) favors...my son likes bands like The White Stripes and Cage the Elephant...mutiny may happen...thank goodness my son knows how to drive the boat...

OK, I promised you a recipe so here it is. It will LOOK complicated but it is not. I'm giving you a lot of description so you can do it right but there is no measuring involved.

This is EASY!

Orange-Flavored Pork Tenderloin with Orange Onions

Buy the unmarinated pork tenders. You can also do this with pork loin.

Take them out of the package and marinate in orange juice (good stuff...like Nature's Own...not from concentrate stuff) for about an hour or two. No longer or the citrus will start to cook the pork.

Heat up a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a dutch oven (I use my Le Crueset french oven). If you don't have a dutch oven, use a skillet.

Remove each tender from the juice and give it a liberal schmear (I love that word...schmear) of garlic paste (I get the kind that comes in a tube like toothpaste found in the produce section). So schmear the garlic paste all over and then sprinkle it with salt and pepper (I like garlic salt and lemon pepper).

Brown the tenders on each side. I always make 4 tenders so I have leftovers. Get them good and brown.

Now here is where you can make or break this dish so do what I say...once the tenders are browned, remove them from the pan and deglaze the pan with 2-3 cups of chicken stock. Scrape up all the nasty bits on the bottom...that will make it really good. Add in the orange juice you marinated the pork in...you want 2 cups at least. If you are afraid of the marinade juice, use some of your good stuff, just be sure you have at least 2 cups left for the onions.

Bring the stock and juice to a boil. Add the tenders back in.

Put the dutch oven into a 350 degree oven (covered). If you don't have a dutch oven, pour the juice and tenders into a pan and cover.

Cook until pork registers "done" on a meat thermometer...I can't give you a time because I don't know how thick your tenders are or if you are using loin. Use a thermometer...be safe...

When done, remove from oven and let rest.

To make the orange onions, slice up some sweet onion and saute it in a tablespoon of olive oil until soft and starting to turn brown. When they are lightly browned, add in a cup or two of orange juice and let it carmelize. They are delicious. Make a lot...I mean like 3-4 onions at least...

To serve you can slice the pork and top with onions and serve pan juice (I tend to take it and reduce it so it is thicker and more of a glaze---do this while doing onions and let the pork rest covered on a plate).

Or you can make tacos...corn tortillas are best.

Green tomatillo sauce as a condiment. We also like salsa mixed with sour cream.

Avocado is nice.

Take your tortilla, add some onions, add some pork, a good drizzle of tomatillo and the sour cream/salsa if you like.

Leftovers are wonderful...and sometimes I make chili from the leftovers with the red chili sauce HEB sells---it comes in a jar like Ragu...really good...

There you go...something good for you....

Inspiration music: "Hi" by PSAPP...very fun, trippy little song...Wade Robison did an amazing dance to it on "Dancing with the Stars" a few years ago...

bye darlings...