Joan's randomness: August 2009 Archives

I go back to work tomorrow, so you won't have to hear nearly so much about my attempts at housewife-ness. But until then...

Here's another recipe! This one's super-zesty, which is what I love about it. It's honey spice-rubbed pork tenderloin, and it's from Kraft's Food & Family magazine, the spring 2008 edition.

Here's the final product:

And here's the recipe:

- 1 pork roast
- 1/4 cup Catalina salad dressing
- 1 tsp. red pepper
- 1 tsp. garlic powder
- 1 tsp. dry mustard
- 1/2 tsp. Season Salt
- 1 Tbsp. honey

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place meat in a baking pan and brush meat with 2 Tbsp. of the dressing. Mix dry ingredients and rub onto the roast. Mix remaining 2 Tbsp. dressing and the honey; set aside.

Bake 15 minutes; brush with the dressing mixture. Bake an additional 10 minutes or until the pork is cooked through. Remove the roast from the oven; cover it with foil and let it stand about 5 minutes before slicing.

Once you slice it, it'll look like this:

And it will be yummy!! I especially like the ends, which have lots of the spicy rub on them.

My week off has really given me a chance to explore my domestic side. Not only is my house as clean and organized as it's been in a long time, but I've been cooking regularly.

Saturday night's dinner was a favorite of mine, bacon cheeseburger pasta, and I thought some of you might like the recipe.

Here's the finished product:

The recipe is from what used to be called "Quick Cooking" magazine, back in 2000. Here it is, with a few subsitutions of mine:

- 8 ounces uncooked pasta (tubes or spirals are best)
- 1 pound ground beef
- 6 bacon strips, diced
- 1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed tomato soup, undiluted
- 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese

Cook the pasta according to its package directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook your ground beef over medium heat until it's no longer pink; drain. Then, cook your bacon until it's crisp in the same skillet and drain again. Drain your pasta, then add it to the skillet, along with the soup. Mix it well and heat it through; then, add the shredded cheddar cheese. Cook (the original recipe says covered, but I do it uncovered) until the cheese is melted, then serve from your skillet.

The recipe says it makes 4 to 6 servings; usually, I make mine with a whole box of pasta, which is 12 to 16 ounces instead of 8, so it makes MANY more servings for pretty much the same cost. It's just a little less juicy, and that's fine with me!

Anyone have any other one-dish recipes to share? Casseroles and skillet meals are my favorites because I'm basically lazy - the fewer steps and dishes, the better! But I get tired of just pasta as the base, so if you have one that uses potatoes of any kind, my mother - who hinted today that I need to branch out - would really appreciate it!

Have you missed me? I took this week off to celebrate my daughter's first week of fourth grade. Boy, I'd love to be a stay-at-home mom; this week has just been awesome.

Tonight's adventure in domesticity was a particularly good one. Lest you think that all I do is eat at the various dining establishments of York County, no, I do make food at home too, and here's proof - a photo of Sarah making homemade ice cream tonight.

It's not quite done chilling yet, but it soon will be. It's cookies and cream, and we're really looking forward to trying it!

So what are your favorite ice cream flavors? I need suggestions for the next time we make it!

Remember when I posted about the cake disaster that only an editor could love?

Well, my friend Megan then told me about CakeWrecks.com, a site dedicated to showcases cakes, well, gone wrong.

It cracked me up! Do yourself a favor today and check it out. And, just because I like to talk about food, post me a comment and tell me what your favorite kind of cake/icing combo is (and where you buy it, if you don't feel that buying a cake is some kind of sin against humanity.)

Important note: The cake pictured here is decidedly NOT a wreck - it was decorated in 2007 by Mary Jo Sturgill at her home in Dover Township, and I picked it for the blog because my daughter loves cake AND ladybugs! So, this one's for Sarah. :)

I've been excited this summer because a hummingbird has been visiting the large butterfly bush outside the front window of our house.

Yesterday, while editing some reader-submitted photos to run in various sections of the paper, I came upon some really great hummingbird photos from Teresa Strickler of Dover Township. In fact, these are so good that they're going to be the basis for a future Weekly Record centerpiece, but for now, I just wanted to share them with you.

I can't wait to read what my writer, Barb, comes up with to go with these and Teresa's other photos. I asked Barb to talk to some gardeners about what plants attract hummingbirds - for instance, I had no idea my butterfly bush would. And I know you can get those red sugar water feeders at the store, but are there other things you can put out to attract them?

If you know, let me know. I'd love to get some more at our place!