SLOW COOKER PORK TENDERLOIN

I had bought a twin-pack pork tenderloin when I thought I would actually be feeding Workers Jay and Justin as they worked on several projects they were doing for us on the house. My plans were to cook the tenderloin and "pull it" for sandwiches. As it turned out and they weren't serious about feeding them lunch as partial payment for the work completed, I still thought I would cook it and give them a treat. 

On the day I served it last week, Justin didn't make it to work because of possible food poisoning from the place they had eaten lunch the day before. That just meant we had more to enjoy for leftovers. 

Since the tenderloins took about 5 hours to cook in my slow cooker, Wayne and I enjoyed it that night for dinner and I heated it up to serve it to Jay and us the day. Because it was two tenderloins a little over a pound each, I "pulled" one (shredded it) and sliced the other one. It was easy to warm up the next day because I saved the "sauce" it cooked in when I stored the leftovers in the refrigerator. I poured out the sauce in a medium saucepan and placed the pulled portion in first and placed a few slices I cut on top and heated it up on top of the top (with the lid on the pot).

SLOW COOKER PORK TENDERLOIN

2     lbs pork tenderloin (I cooked two with a total weight of 2.4 lbs)

1/4    cup low sodium soy sauce

1       tablespoon yellow mustard

2-3    tablespoon pure maple syrup

2       tablespoons olive oil

2       tablespoons diced dried onion

1-1/2 teaspoons garlic salt or powder (I used garlic powder)

Combine the soy sauce, mustard, syrup, oil, onion, and garlic powder in a small mixing bowl til well blended. (I forgot to take a picture of the sauce.)

Place tenderloin(s) in sprayed slow cooker. Pour mixture over the tenderloin. The "sauce" won't cover the tenderloin, but make sure you pour the sauce over all of it.

Place lid on cooker and cook for about 5 hours on low til tender. Watch your time for different weight pork tenderloins. You don't want to overcook. Spoon sauce to coat cooked tenderloin. Can turn cooker to keep warm if not ready to serve.

To serve, you can shred the tenderloin for sandwiches. (Wayne and Jay added some BBQ sauce even though the tenderloin was quite flavored because of the soy sauce and other ingredients.)

One tenderloin shredded...

and the other one sliced.

 

ROASTED TOMATOES

 I gave up on a having a garden several years ago. We have just too many trees that prevents an adequate enough space with the amount of sunshine a garden needs and should have. The good news though is Son Patrick lives on two acres and has had a garden for several years now. This year is the first time we have gotten much from it.

They mainly grow tomatoes and peppers and some onions. He likes to make salsa. They didn't grow many cucumbers this year. One year he put up pickles from his cucumbers. With COVID-19 this year and the shortage of canning jars, he ran out of jars. Fortunately Lori's mother found a bunch and bought them for him. Usually I would be going to estate sales and could have bought him plenty. (I did go up in the attic and got down all my jars I wasn't using, but I brought them back home after I saw how many Carol had bought.)

This summer was the first time that we got a tomato or two whenever we would go up and see them. Finally a couple of weeks ago when we were up there, he said he was done with the tomatoes and I could have what I wanted. I took two plastic grocery bags home that day with ripe and still green ones. Then last week when we were there, I went to look at his garden and he said I could take all I wanted again. It was forecasted for a possible frost several days later. I basically gleaned the plants that time with more green tomatoes than ripe one.

Now I know you are wondering "what is that crazy woman going to do with so many tomatoes?" Well, that's what I am sharing with you today.

My friend Jean had shared a recipe a while back for roasting tomatoes to make soup, salsa, stewed tomatoes, marinara sauce, etc. She said she had tried it and it worked out pretty good. So far I have made and frozen 6 cups of pureed roasted tomatoes. Wayne likes to eat them roasted right from the oven.

ROASTED TOMATOES

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Set out a non-stick cookie sheet.

Wash and quarter ripe tomatoes. Place on cookie sheet.

Drizzle with olive oil and

season with salt and pepper.

Bake for 45 to 60 minutes.

Remove from pan and

place in a deep bowl if

you are going to puree with a hand-held immersion blender. You can also use your food processor.

Allow to cool and

then measure amounts (I measured 2 cups) into freezer bags. I reuse my freezer bags (this would not surprise my sons since they know I wash aluminum foil and reuse it.) so I use storage bags to put food in and then put them in gallon freezer bags.

Lay flat on plate or smaller cookie sheet and freeze.

Then fill a gallon bag with the smaller bags. (The top bag is missing the tomato quarters my husband enjoyed with dinner last night.)

I love to make homemade soup especially when temperatures drop and I can't wait to make some using my homemade tomato sauce.

 

BLUEBERRY BISCUITS

 Joyce Varney from Windham, ME calls these Blueberry Biscuits in Gooseberry Patch's Made from Scratch cookbook. I might consider calling them Blueberry Muscuits as they taste more like muffins than biscuits. I made them two ways - in a muffin tin and then just dropped them on a cookie sheet. 

I was actually attracted to the recipe because she noted at the top of the recipe, "If you can get them, wild blueberries taste great in this recipe." We buy the frozen (no sugar added) wild blueberries at Costco so I had wild blueberries. They are smaller than regular blueberries. I gave some to Jay and Justin, our construction guys who are doing several projects for us around the house. (See pictures below) I also sent some with Wayne for his golfing buddies as he went to play a round of golf.

The recipe made almost two and a half dozen. I used a smaller ice cream scoop to make them instead of a spoon. It was just the right amount.

BLUEBERRY BISCUITS

4     cups flour

1     teaspoon baking soda

2     teaspoons cream of tartar

1     teaspoon salt

4     tablespoons shortening

1     cup molasses

2     cups blueberries (I used frozen wild blueberries)

1     cup milk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Spray lightly a regular sized muffin pan or baking sheet.

Combine flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt with a whisk in a large bowl.

Cut in shortening. (I used my fingers.)

Make a well in the center and pour in the molasses.

Stir til moistened.

Carefully fold in blueberries with milk to moisten.

I used a small ice cream scoop that holds a scant 1/4 cup to scoop batter into muffin pans and on cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

Dropped on the cookie sheet...

Here is one of the projects Jay and Justin have completed... I had this idea to enclose the area under the open stairs from the "back porch" that we had built last year on part of our huge deck. The patio area always looks so cluttered because of things that take up too much room to store in the garage with two cars. The first three pictures are before from different views:

This is what it looks like now...

SUPER APPLE NUT BREAD

 Summer 2020 is definitely come and gone. We are now in the midst of Fall 2020. COVID-19 has made quite an impression on everyone this year. When this virus hit the United States, I gave the latest stats on the number of cases and deaths in the U.S. and even the world  on each post. I also labeled each post with the number of days since we had started staying at home. The doctors had predicted that by the end of 2020 we would have 200,000 death just in the United States. Little did we know that we would surpass that number before mid-October. 

I went through a period earlier in the summer when I was depressed. There is no other way to describe it. I have always been a "people person" and it was difficult not seeing and doing things with my friends. I tried to stay busy with "hobbies" that always kept me busy. I have made at least ten Blankets of Hope and not sure how many face masks - I lost count. I have read a couple of books. For some reason reading was harder for me to do. I think it's because to read means just sitting a lot and I felt like I was sitting enough. 

When the pandemic originally started here, I created a texting group with my canasta/quilting friends so we could stay in touch. We had been meeting twice a month to play cards. During the summer when it looked like the end was not coming anytime soon and doctors said small groups gathering outside and staying 6 feet apart while wearing masks was ok, we started meeting in a park every other week and social distancing and wearing our masks. Now that it is getting cooler, we will eventually have to stop that. Winter is going to be hard.

We haven't been able to be with our MO grandchildren as much as we normally are in the summer. They didn't play ball so there were no baseball and softball games to go to. We didn't have day trips with them because places were closed. In August as some things opened we did go to Powell Gardens and that was fun. We did travel to CO in July and stayed with our CO family for the weekend which was also good. 

School was delayed in MO until the Tuesday after Labor Day and Madison and Tyler wanted to "go to school" and so far it has worked out. The CO gkids have always been homeschooled. A couple of years ago they changed to the public school's "schooled at home" program. I pray for all of them every day that they will not be infected with the virus.

Our church closed mid-March and still has not opened for in-person gatherings and meeting. Our Senior pastor and another pastor retired and we had a drive-by saying farewell  to them. Our two new ministers are very nice and trying to get to meet members. Zoom has allowed the church to continue with some studies, etc and we joined a book discussion on White Fragility Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism. Our services have been streamed online and Walter our music director has live streamed his piano music every Wednesday evening for almost an hour. Our worship director Matt and his wife entertained us with their music during the summer on Monday nights. In Sept the church had a Worship on the River and members came with their chairs and masks and with social distancing, worshiped in a park on the MO River. Last Sunday we gathered at the church and watched the service as it was streamed on the TV. Yesterday the Lead Pastor Yvi preached in-person around the fire pit at the church. (The weather was in the low 40s so not as many people came as would have if it had been warmer.) 

The last two weeks we have had some projects done around the house and Saturday night we got to "hang out" with Madison and Tyler while Patrick and Lori had a date night. I guess I am getting used to my slower, less involved, lifestyle. Today I will be back at Hillcrest Thrift Shop with my volunteering (cleaning) for a couple of hours and then going to the YMCA and walking against the current for 30 minutes in their Lazy River.

I am also back in my kitchen baking after a break of several months. I made this Super Apple Nut Bread from the Heartstone Inn in Eureka, AR so I could use some chunky applesauce I had opened. It didn't call for chunky applesauce but since it was called Apple Bread, I figured it deserved some chunky applesauce. I didn't realize until I was getting ready to write this post that I had not added the cinnamon sugar on top as the recipe called for. Oh well, it was still good. I will include it with the recipe, but just know if you decide to skip it, the bread will still taste great. Maybe if you are a cinnamon sugar lover, you will want to sprinkle it on top before you bake the bread. I also used pyure, an all-purpose stevia blend for the sugar to reduce the sugar. The organic stevia leaf extract is blended with organic erythritol. It is measured 1:2, pyure to sugar in a recipe. I used a little bit more of it for the sugar in this recipe. I only gave one loaf away to a neighbor and kept two of the loaves for us.

Since I was a little long winded, here is a LINK to print just the recipe.

SUPER APPLE NUT BREAD

1/2      cup packed shredded carrots

1         cup applesauce (I used Peachy Chunky Applesauce)

1/2      cup oil

1         teaspoon vanilla

2         eggs

3/4      cup sugar (I used 1/2 cup pyure all-purpose stevia blend)

2         cups flour

1         teaspoon baking powder

1/2      teaspoon soda

1/2      teaspoon salt

1         teaspoon cinnamon

1/2      teaspoon nutmeg

1/2      cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9 x 5 - inch loaf pan or three mini-loaf pans. Sets aside.

Combine the carrots, applesauce, oil, and vanilla in a bowl.

Add eggs and sugar,

mixing well.

Mix dry ingredients and nuts together.

Stir dry ingredients into the applesauce mixture a little at a time.

Mix only until all ingredients are blended. Do not overmix.

Pour into prepared pan(s). Spread batter evenly.

TOPPING: (optional)

Combine 5 tablespoons sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and sprinkle over batter. 

Bake for 1 hour or until tester comes out clean.

Bread should have a crack down the center. (about  40 - 45 minutes for mini loaves)

Remove from pan and cool on wire rack. 

UPDATE: I froze one of the loaves I made and finally got around to eating it the end of January. It froze so well. The loaf tasted like I had just baked it! Definitely a winner!

Here is one project we had completed on our house. When we had part of our huge deck enclosed last year, we left the underside of the roof exposed. To make it more comfortable out there, we had some foam insulation sheets and bead board up. We can really tell the difference in the temperature in the room