You’ll have to take my word on it–best pork tenderloin ever.

And I mean it, too, even if there is no accompanying photo. Sometimes I am a lazy photographer.

We had this last night as part of the comfort food series I’ve introduced (ok, that I’ve accidentally put together). I’ve made a few pork tenderloins over the years, and this one is easily the best and well-suited for the cooler weather that’s on its way. Evidently it is from a backissue of Cooking Light, though I found it on their forums by doing a google search. It’s called Spicy Pork Tenderloin with Ginger-Maple Sauce. We cut a few corners–we didn’t have any fresh ginger and so tossed in some dried, which certainly cut down on the spiciness but gave it a warm, mellow taste; we also didn’t have any real maple syrup, a proper travesty, but I’ve been too lazy/cheap to buy a new bottle of the stuff. So we used fake syrup, and while this was still very tasty, I bet it’d only be better with the real deal. We also used mostly olive oil instead of butter, as I needed the precious 2 T of butter left for mashed potatoes to go along with the pork; and we also used the skillet we browned the pork in to make the sauce, scraping up the spicy bits. I wouldn’t do this if they were over-browned, though, as that could be a little nasty. At any rate, this is a warm, extraordinarily tender recipe that isn’t unhealthy for you at all but feels like it should be!

Here’s the recipe, cut and pasted.

2 teaspoons chili powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 pounds pork tenderloin, trimmed
Cooking spray
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons bottled ground fresh ginger
1 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup maple syrup

Preheat oven to 375°.

Combine first 4 ingredients in a small bowl; rub pork with spice mixture. Refrigerate 30 minutes.

Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat; add pork. Cook 6 minutes; brown on all sides. Place on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 375° for 30 minutes or until thermometer registers 155°. Let stand 10 minutes before slicing.

While pork bakes, melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion, and cook 10 minutes or until golden brown, stirring frequently. Add ginger, and cook 4 minutes. Stir in broth and syrup, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Bring broth mixture to a boil; cook until reduced to 3/4 cup (about 10 minutes). Cut pork into 1/4-inch-thick slices; serve with sauce.

Holy creamy deliciousness

After you finish reading this recipe, I fully expect you to hop in your car/on your bike/into your sneakers, and run to the store for the stuff to make it. It is hands-down one of the fastest, easiest, and most delicious pasta recipes I have ever made. And as you may have noticed, I make a lot of pasta. This is a gorgonzola cream pasta that came from the pages of Cooking Light. While the two things (‘gorgonzola cream sauce’ and ‘light’) don’t seem as though they’d go together, evidently they do. This sauce tastes heavenly and decadent, but isn’t nearly as heavy as an alfredo sauce or even a mac and cheese sauce. It is incredible. The recipe was for 2 servings, but I doubled it so we could have leftovers for lunch today. It took great effort not to scarf it all down last night, though, I have to tell you.

So you’ll need (for 4 servings):
8 oz of penne/ziti/some other ridged, tubular pasta (this kind of shape catches and holds the sauce)
2 c cherry tomatoes, halved (we had some tiny plum tomatoes from Mr. Pea’s aunt’s garden. She has kept us in veg for the last month, which is fantastic)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp olive oil
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
6 T gorgonzola cheese
3/4 c half-and-half
2+ cups of spinach, roughly torn

First get your pasta going. The sauce comes together very quickly, so you want your pasta briskly boiling away before you start the cheesy goodness.

In a wide skillet, heat 1 tsp olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic, tomatoes, and red pepper flakes and cook a minute or two, stirring occasionally. Add cheese and half-and-half, and cook 2-3 minutes until it’s bubbling, the cheese has melted, and it’s a little thickened. Add spinach. I’d add probably 4 c of spinach next time–I have a whole sack of the stuff, and 2c really didn’t seem like enough. Make sure you’ve washed it and shaken off some of the excess water. Cook until the spinach is wilted, and add pasta, tossing to coat. And that’s it. The ratio of tastiness to effort put in is really off, as this is far more delicious than five minutes of work would suggest. Hurry and make it before all the summer tomatoes are gone!

I was going to show you a quilt and a loaf of bread, but…

they can wait. Instead, here’s Christopher Walken teaching you how to make chicken and pears.  He has less counter space than we do. And there’s an inexplicable cat at the end. Evidently the Continental has other hobbies.

Black Bean Quesadillas

We had these quesadillas for lunch today. They’re pretty easy to make, and we had all the ingredients just kicking around the house, so it was a fairly simple operation. First I made the pico de gallo–this is a delicious fresh salsa. Chop a tomato, half an onion, a handful of cilantro and toss together with half a lime, squeezed, and a little salt. Let sit to meld.

To make the quesadillas, we opened and drained a can of black beans. We put them in a small saucepan over medium heat with half a small onion, maybe less, chopped, and half a teaspoon of cumin. They cooked for five or so minutes, heating through and softening up.

Put a tablespoon of oil in a large skillet. Heat over medium-high. Carefully drape half a flour tortilla (8″ burrito size in this case) in the skillet. Add a couple of tablespoons (or 3 or 4) of grated cheddar, and some of the beans. Fold and allow to sizzle away until toasty. Then flip.

That’s all there is to it, and the results are just delicious.

Fresh Corn Fritters

On Thursdays I teach in the morning and early afternoon, and then have a long 3 hour break until I teach again in the evening. The perk of that is that I live close enough to work to come home during that break and have dinner with Mr. Pea. And Mr. Pea is on top of his game, my friends. Tonight he suggested our main dish involve corn. I looked at him like he was crazy, but he convinced me when he proposed corn fritters.

We’ve made fritters before but usually they’re little hockey-puck shaped affairs that are made with frozen corn. Tonight, however, was a different story. These were beautiful, puffy fritters, made with fresh corn from his aunt’s garden and served with a sliced tomato and cucumber from the same place. Our house may smell like a diner now, but it was totally worth it.

To make fritters, you’ll need:
2 ears of corn, kernels removed
1 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1-2 T sugar
1/2 t salt
1 egg
1/2 c milk
1 T veg oil

Mix dry. Mix wet. Add wet to dry, and fold in corn.

Heat 1 1/2-3 c of oil over medium-high heat in a mid-sized saucepan. The recipe called for 375 degree oil, but this caused some fritters to cook too fast on the outside and stay raw in the middle, so you might want to keep it lower. Add fritters–we did two at a time–and quickly turn when they start to brown. They each take all of 30-45 seconds to cook. Be careful. Wear an apron. Sprinkle with a little salt when hot and enjoy.