Roasted Pork Loin

I found a pork loin on sale at my regular grocery store

and began planning a meal around it.

Search out the sales in the meat case.

Brining lean cuts of pork before cooking is a good way

to keep the meat moist.



For this brine I combined

about 1/4 cup kosher salt

1/4 cup brown sugar

black pepper corns

red chile flakes

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1 quart water



I heated this in the microwave for five minutes

and then stirred to dissolve the salt and sugar.



Then I added ice cubes and allowed the mixture

to come to room temperature

before placing the meat in the brine solution.

After one hour I removed the meat.

It is important to not let the meat sit in the brine for too long

as the brine will change the texture of the meat.

I laid out a grid of cut carrots and onions in a baking dish.

These acted as a rack to keep the roast up off the bottom of

the baking dish.

I salted and peppered the roast and added

Herbes de Provence and olive oil to the roast before baking

at 350 for about one and a half hours or until

the roast reached 140 degrees.

Cover with foil and allow to rest for ten to fifteen minutes

before carving.

Ready to serve.

Roasted pork loin with honey mustard,

the carrots and onion

and Irish potato puffs.

Very nice.

The Foodie Girls know how to eat.

We Now Return You to Winter Weather

One day after returning to "sunny" Southern Indiana, we were greeted with this sight in the early morning hours.

Such beauty.

Such coldness.

What a dichotemy.

Given that the temperatures were in the teens, it's not surprising that the frost is heavy.

*

And now, over a week after the actual event, we finally got to have our "Thanksgiving Day Feast."

However, there were a few caveats.

First, the husband didn't want a traditional Thanksgiving Day feast.

Oh, who am I kidding?

He didn't want turkey at all, but since I already had this turkey breast, his argument fell on deaf ears.

The Foodie Boyfriend asked for an apple pie.

Unfortunately for him, I was sick and I learned long ago that sick people cannot bake.

This was easily the worst pie crust I have ever made.

Still, I managed to score on the filling.

Repeat after me: Sick people should not bake.

Now, let's turn our attention to that turkey breast.

I found a recipe for Honey and Thyme Brined Turkey Breast.


The brine ingredients were honey, fresh thyme, black pepper, brown sugar and of course salt.

Of course I had to buy this turkey breast.

After all, I only paid 88 cents a pound for the thing.

Score!

After dissolving the salt and sugar mixture in the water, The turkey breast was added to the cooled brine.

This then sat in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

Following the recipe directions, I removed the turkey breast from the brine and patted it dry with paper towels.

Then I rubbed olive oil on the skin and patted on a mixture of fresh chopped thyme and ground black pepper.

The turkey breast roasted in a 400 degree oven for about one hour, or until the internal temperature reached 165 degrees.

I removed the turkey breast from the oven and covered it with aluminum foil so it could rest for 15 minutes before carving.

Gorgeous.

I opted to make things simple for myself and roasted green beans with bacon and potatoes with bacon and onion in the oven with the turkey.

The turkey breast was moist, tender and succulent.

The flavors from the brine weren't overwhelming, allowing the turkey to take center stage.

The skin was crispy and delicious, if you like that sort of thing.

*

Apparently, the Foodie Daughter and the Foodie Boyfriend are, as they actually fought over the last piece of meat with skin attached.

It was that good.

The meat was cooked to perfection:

cooked through, but not overcooked and dry.



*

And just how did this rate?

The Foodie Daughter, her boyfriend and I all gave this 5 stars

as we couldn't possibly imagine this being any better.

*

The husband gave this 3 stars.

He thought the turkey should have been cooked more well done

and that it didn't taste like turkey.

*

We are pretending that we don't know this man.

The next day I decided to use some of the leftover turkey meat to make turkey salad.

This time around I opted to add

mayonnaise,

honey Dijon mustard,

onion,

celery (including the leafy greens),

craisins.

This was mixed to taste.

I never go by recipes for this sort of thing.

That hit the spot.

*

Later, my daughter and a friend came over to study and finished off the rest of the turkey salad on crackers.

*

Oh, and that carcass?

That went into the freezer until it's time to make more turkey stock.

It's all good.

Sunday Evening Dinner

Pork loin was on sale this past week, so I just had to get a small roast for us. The preparation for this meal actually began Saturday evening.

I found a recipe for Bacon-Wrapped Maple Pork Loin that sounded perfect. Bacon and maple syrup - what's not to love?

Here I have 4 cups water (since I have a smaller roast), whole black pepper corns, garlic, fresh sage, bay leaf, pure maple syrup, kosher salt and my pork loin.

Oh goody, I got to use my new mortar and pestle.

I heated the water for 5 minutes in the microwave before adding the bay leaf, the torn sage leaves, cracked black pepper corn, kosher salt, smashed garlic clove and maple syrup. I then added 2 cups of ice to cool down the brine and bring the liquid up to the right level.

After carefully placing the pork loin in the brine, I covered the container tightly with plastic wrap and placed it in the refrigerator.

While I waited for the brine to do its thing, I cleaned out my fridge and cleaned the containers in the sink. Now I have a clean refrigerator, clean plastic containers and clean dishwater hands.

All right, now back to the pork loin. I have dried sage, corn starch, maple syrup, three thick-cut slices of bacon, two large garlic cloves and the brined pork loin.

I removed the pork from the brine and patted the meat dry. I placed a rack in a baking dish to keep the roast off the bottom of the pan. The grated garlic, sage and one tablespoon of maple syrup were mixed together before being spread on the loin.

The bacon was wrapped over the pork loin. Then, since I had room, I cleaned and chopped some red-skinned potatoes and placed them in the bottom of the baking dish. I salted and peppered the potatoes and inserted a remote digital temperature probe into one end of the pork loin. This went into a preheated 350 degree oven.

I ignored the recipe's temperature suggestions in favor of Ina Garten's recommendations. When the probe alarm went off at 130 degrees, I removed the pork loin from the oven and brushed a mixture of one tablespoon apple cider and one tablespoon maple syrup over the bacon-wrapped pork loin. This went back into the oven so that the meat could continue cooking and reach an internal temperature of 140 degrees.

I removed the pork loin from the oven and covered it with foil and a kitchen towel so it could rest and reach a final temperature of 145 degrees. The meat will be slightly pink on the inside, but it perfectly is safe to eat, not to mention moist and delicious.

Meanwhile, I placed the potatoes in a bowl and returned them to the still-warm oven until service time.

After draining the excess grease from the baking dish, I poured the juices into a small pan and added one teaspoon water with 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch mixed in to the pan. I stirred and removed from the heat before adding in one more tablespoon of maple syrup. This was then poured over the cut pork loin roast.

Now we are ready to eat.

This pork loin was tender, moist and delicious. The maple flavor was a nice companion to the pork but it was not overpowering.

The potatoes were crisp and had absorbed some of the flavors from the drippings from the bacon and the roast.

I think this dish will have to go into my recipe rotation. It was that good.