October - The 11th Hour

The last day of October and I have finally completed my own menu.  I don't have much to say, however, because I'm tired.  Previous posts proved accurate - this menu was too ambitious.  I didn't even make the salad.  And Son #1 made the potatoes. I lucked out with the pork roast - my grocery store was selling the required cut of roast buy one get one free.  And as mentioned by others, the sauce makes alot...so it's frozen and I can make this again.  Which, I will, it was definitely a keeper. Everyone agreed on this point - a great partnership of flavors.
 Son #1 make the potatoes and they were very tasty - needed salt - but his first solo attempt at mashed potatoes was completely admirable.  The beans were...beans.  Nothing special there and I've made better..  The pears were disappointing.  I should have taken more care to make sure they were ripe...I don't think the lack of taste was the fault of the recipe...the ingredients have to cooperate.
Overall this menu gets a 6 from me - maybe a 7 as I'm glad to have this pork recipe for special occasions. 
Bring it on Gal #3...and please make it simple.

October at Gal Two's House

Gal One, I love you, but WOW! This was not an easy menu. I started prepping and cooking around 10am, and The last dish got washed around 8pm. No, That time was not all spent in the kitchen working on the menu! Never the less, there was a lot to do and I think I used almost everything in my cupboards (pots, measuring cups, bowls, etc.), and I was ready to scream due to my severe lack of counter space! (The counter space has nothing to do with Gal One; but thank goodness this is the last menu I will be making in this kitchen!) Dinner also ended up being pushed back a few hours (thank you Mr. Two's job!) and so I was hungry and tired as I finished up which didn't help.

Did you make it through all that up there?

On to the menu!

I started with dessert. I asked Mr. Two and he voted for the pears to be chilled instead of warm. I am SO GLAD I did it this way because I would have never made these after dinner last night. I was beat. But I'd like to try it warm another time. 

 I was scared about peeling the pears, but it's super easy!

 My pears floated... there was no nice, neat submerging them in the sugar-water. No biggie, I just kept rolling them over with a spoon. I had ripe pears and they cooked for just 15 minutes and were fine!

 Next came the pork loin. I bought it pre-packaged (I had a coupon). It's nice that you can do this ahead of time and put it back in the fridge, which is what I did.

 Note the use of dried and not fresh rosemary below. I've had fresh growing in my herb pot all summer, and when I went to pick it I found it all dead. :( I think it would have been better with fresh, but oh well!

 My beautifully trussed pork, seasoned and ready to go in the fridge.

 In an effort to get some more things done not last minute, I made the dressing ahead (not waaaay ahead, just a little). I wasn't a big fan, but I'm also not a big salad dressing person in general!

 It was pretty though :)

 Once the pork went in I started my cherry brandy sauce (with less chicken stock per a previous tip). Please note my adorable brandy bottles, they each are 1/4 cup. The onion I chose at the store however, not cute! EVIL! I was crying and my nose and throat were burning. A lot.  

I actually think I could have used more liquid! Mine thickened up a little too much. Oops! Still yummy.

This was prep for the potatoes. As with everything, I halved the recipe! This entire menu halved still made lots of food and we have leftovers! I did cut the garlic down a wee bit in this recipe.

 Our mashed potato expert at work

The final result was really good! Mr. Two said it made a nice change. I could have used a little more liquid though; I had no issues getting all that liquid into my potatoes. I thought they were a great pair with the spicy pork!

The finished salad. Mr. Two was ... hesitant to say the least! (I may or may not have force fed him a single bite...) He declared it "not gross". I thought it was OK, but not great. For me there wasn't a whole lot of taste. It did pair well with the rest of the food. I wont be making it again because the ingredients we don't use at home (the vinegar and mustard, etc.) and Mr. Two ....

 Our lovely dinner table! Yes, we had corn out of a can and not the green beans. I didn't have a pan, burner or energy left for them! I will make them later this week though. 

The pork! Our FAVORITE! This is a keeper and will be made again. It's easy, make ahead and it came out VERY juicy and tender and flavorful. Not sure if it was the dried rosemary or the pepper (or a bit of both) but it was a bit spicy/strong. Perfect with the other food. The cherry sauce was just right!! We loved the sweet with the spicy pepper crust. AMAZING!

 My beautiful plate. This was a very visually appealing meal and very fall looking. You could make this for a major holiday!

 Dessert. It was easy and simple and with a little ice cream and chocolate, YUM! I would make this again. Nice light and cool dessert after that heavy meal.

October: A suprise

This month was a surprise all around. When I first read the menu from the charming Gal #1 I was hesitant to say the least. Pork...cherries....brandy sauce....oh boy. I do not eat pork, hardly ever. And cherries are my Mr. Gal #3's favorite fruit, my least. So we were in for a interesting turn of events to say the least. But here follows some things I learned while making this menu and some tips I have for those to make this surprising feast.

Here we are trussing the seasoned pork...not as hard as I thought. I googled a video on how to truss and vaala! We have a perfected seasoned and trussed center cut pork loin!

 The directions said this would make a difference in cooking the meat evenly and keeping it tight, and it did! When it came out it looked awesome and smelled super! (Even for pork!)

Next up after the meat was started was the potatoes. I love mashed potatoes but had some doubts about how much garlic was going in the mix! But we followed directions and wound up with awesome garlic mashed potatoes that have been requested again already!

 Ingredients...

 Dad cut and washed the potatoes, it is important to cut them to the 1-inch cubes, you will need them that small to absorb the liquid in the cooking process! Also after they have cooked and you remove them from the heat, let them sit while you get some other things ready, that way they have time to absorb the liquid because it will look soupy if you don't!

And now for the sauce, that is now replacing cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving, per request of Mr. Gal #3.

 Ingredients....brandy and all!

 Cooking the onions....very important you let them get golden brown, they are too strong in the sauce otherwise. They were perfectly browned and added a richness to the sauce, not an overwhelming onion flavor. However, if you have medium to large onions, just add one.

 Cooking away! A suggestion made by Dad, the author of the sauce, is to cut the chicken stock down by half. This will allow the sauce to become syrupy more quickly and taste the same. Our sauce never did become quite syrupy because of how much liquid there was. Don't underestimate the cooking time if you are going to use the 3 cups of chicken stock...ours was on the stove for 25 minutes!

 The final meal....

And dessert came after.

 

This was a wonderful end to the meal. Light and sweet it made for a nice refreshing dessert after a hearty meal. The salad from the menu is missing from this update because it was forgotten in the making. However, there will be a short part 2 to blog on the salad being made for the leftovers of a surprisingly wonderful meal. With all the reservations I had about making it I was blown away with results. Mr. Gal #3 is giving the main course a 10!! Not easily achieved, awesome job Gal #1! Thumbs way up!