Roasted Pork Tenderloins with Lime and Garlic Salsa

This is quick, easy and you can go buy any type of salsa you like!  If you have time, marinate the pork tenderloins for a couple of hours don’t fret…marinate for as long as you can and instead of simmering the sauce while the pork is roasting.  Brown the tenderloins, then put the leftover marinade in the roasting pan and roast all together…the salsa will thicken and add flavor while in the oven.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

2 pork tenderloins (about 2 ¼ lbs)

2 cups lime and garlic salsa

½ teaspoon chipotle chili powder (optional)

1 cup white wine (or chicken stock)

Canola oil

Marinate pork in salsa for 2 hours.  Preheat oven to 425°F.  Heat oil in an ovenproof skillet.  Remove pork from marinade (reserve) shake off any excess. Sear tenderloins, about 2 minutes on each side.  Roast in oven for 15-20 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 130-135°F.  You do not want to overcook these; they should be pink and tender inside.  For a side sauce, I took the reserved marinade, added a cup of white wine and reduced it over medium heat while the pork was roasting.

Baked Rigatoni With Sausage

“Hey Mom…feel like making lunch for the crew?”

“How many constitutes a crew?”

“Oh, the usual” Soph rattled the names off.  I counted eight. 

“Can you make that sausage stuff, you know the one you baked in the oven?  PLEEEEZE”

A quick perusal for the ingredients in the fridge, freezer and pantry.

Pasta – of course - check

Parm cheese –  ah yup - check

Tomatoes –  check and check

Good Italian sausages checkcheck

“Yup, no prob…give me an 1 ½…you have to clean up though!”

And here’s the recipe for that sausage stuff baked in the oven or…

Baked Rigatoni with Sausage

Serves 6-8

3 sweet sausages, casings removed

3 hot sausages, casings removed

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cups beef broth

1 cup white wine

1 large sprig rosemary

1 cup whipping cream

1-cup Parmesan cheese, grated

1 box, 16oz, rigatoni

1 28oz can chopped tomatoes

1 28oz can strained or crushed tomatoes

Olive oil

Preheat oven to 375°F

Cook pasta in boiling water for 5 minutes, you want it very firm in side since it will continue cooking in the oven.

Fry onion in a couple tablespoons of olive oil until soft in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add sausage; continue cooking until no longer pink breaking up any large pieces.  Add rosemary, broth and wine.  Continue cooking on low until reduced, about thirty minutes.  Add the chopped tomatoes and cream.  Cook another twenty minutes; remove from heat. Remove rosemary sprig from sauce.  Add pasta to a large baking dish, pour sausage mixture over pasta and stir to combine, add cheese, and stir to distribute cheese.  Top with crushed tomatoes and bake covered for thirty minutes until hot and bubbling. 

Not Just Eggs Notes:  Any combo of sausages will be fine, depending on how spicy you like your sauce.  Also, try not to omit the rosemary, it really gives it a nice flavor!

Chocolate Cupcakes - Easiest Recipe in the World

Martha’s One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes With ButterCream Frosting

These were the easiest cupcakes I have ever made.  Delicious and moist…perfect Martha knows her stuff!

 It was fun mixing colors to make the spectrum of cupcake colors.   Just a little advice when mixing colors…don’t mix green into pink and add yellow.  It comes out a very disgusting yucky unappetizing green/brown.  I should have pulled my color wheel out!

Makes 24 medium cupcakes

Ingredients

¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ cups sugar

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

¾ teaspoon baking powder

¾ teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

¾ cups warm water

¾ cup buttermilk

3 tablespoons canola oil

1-teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line cupcake pan with paper liners.  Sift cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a large bowl.  Add eggs, water buttermilk, oil and vanilla, mix until smooth.

Pour batter in to prepared tins using a ¼ cup-measuring cup.  Tins should be 2/3 full.  Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 20 minutes.  Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack, cool completely before icing

Martha’s Buttercream frosting

12 oz (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

16oz confectioners’ sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat butter until pale and creamy using an electric mixer on high speed.  Reduce speed to low and gradually add sugar, beating after each addition.  Add vanilla and beat until icing is creamy and smooth.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to use, bring to room temperature to ice cupcakes.  Add food coloring as desired.

Meatball Madness

I’ve gone from not liking meatballs at all to loving them.  I couldn’t stand the dense dry over handled too much filler balls of meat that couldn’t be fixed no matter how much tomato sauce or cheese you put over them.  I never liked them fried until they browned/burned and avoided them the way I would spinning food processor blades.

 Well, that was until I found Nate Appleman’s recipe from his award winning San Francisco restaurant A16 and his cookbook of the same name.  He’s also been a damn cute Iron Chef challenger (for all you foodies that are hooked on that show).  I found his recipe ages ago in an old Food and Wine magazine, now his secret is out and he has transformed my feeling of little balls of meat with one ingredient…ricotta cheese.  That’s right, ricotta cheese mixed in with the pork – a lovely addition that keeps the meatballs, light and moist and full of deliciousness.

You would think I’d stop there, having found the perfect meatball recipe, right?  Well, what if you want meatballs and have 8 hungry mouths to feed in a hurry and think… “Ah, I know…meatballs.”  But then think…. “Oh, no ricotta.”  But you have other ingredients that could be just perfect?  Don’t panic.  I found my second most favorite meatball recipe that works.  It’s from this months Gourmet magazine.  The major difference is bread soaked in milk and a tablespoon of lemon zest…I liked it and the recipe produced nice moist meatballs.  The masses liked them too since there was beef in them.  

Pork Meatballs with Ricotta

Serves 6-8

2 lbs ground pork

1-tablespoon garlic powder

2 tablespoons oregano

1-teaspoon hot red pepper flakes

2 eggs, beaten

½ cup ricotta cheese

1-cup panko breadcrumbs

Olive oil

2 - 28 oz cans of chopped Italian tomatoes

1 can of strained Italian tomatoes 

Preheat oven to 400°F.  Mix the veal and pork together in a large bowl using a fork.  Add garlic powder, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Mix to distribute spices throughout meat. Add ricotta, eggs and panko; continue mixing until combined. Shape into 15 meatballs using a ¼ cup measure. Pour enough oil into a large ovenproof skillet to cover the bottom.  Transfer the meatballs to skillet and roast uncovered for 30 minutes, until they begin to brown.  Loosen the meatballs with a large spoon and turn.  Lower oven temperature to 300°F.  Pour crushed tomatoes over meatballs and continue cooking uncovered for 2 hours longer, the meatballs will be tender and the sauce thickened and hearty.

Recipe adapted from A16 cookbook and Chef Nate Appleman

Zesty Meatballs

Serves 6-8

1 medium onion, finely chopped

5 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1½ cups day old Italian bread, torn in ½ inch pieces

1 ½ cups milk

3 large eggs

1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

 ¼ cup (scant) flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

2 teaspoons dried oregano

2 ½ lbs of ground beef or a combination of beef and pork

1 tablespoon grated lemon zest

2 - 28 oz cans of chopped Italian tomatoes

1 can of strained Italian tomatoes

Olive oil

Pre heat oven to 400°F.  Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Cook onions until softened.  Add garlic and cook until fragrant.  Transfer to a bowl and cool.  Soak bread in milk for 5 minutes.  Squeeze hard removing excess milk, then separate pieces so you don’t have one big bread blob.  Stir together onion mixture, bread, eggs, Parmesan, parsley, oregano, and lemon zest until combined.  Add meat and combine using a fork do not over work or the meatballs will be dense.  From into meatballs, should make about 20-24. 

Place meatballs in a large ovenproof skillet drizzled with a little olive oil.  Roast uncovered for 30 minutes, until they begin to brown.  Loosen the meatballs with a large spoon and turn.  Lower oven temperature to 300°F.  Pour crushed tomatoes over meatballs and continue cooking uncovered for 2 hours longer, the meatballs will be tender and the sauce thickened and hearty.

Recipe adapted from January 2009 Gourmet magazine

Mom's Note:  No need to make a separate tomato sauce, using good quality canned tomatoes roasted with the meatballs makes a tasty enough sauce!  Each of these recipes can be doubled to feed your crowd.

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