BCP: Roast Loin of Pork with Fennel and Sauteed Cabbage

This is probably what most people would consider a "Sunday Night" meal. It's really not complicated but it's probably not something I would have the patience for after working all day.

You need to first grind together the garlic, salt, mustard and thyme to make a paste for the pork. Use your hands and have some fun spreading it around--then let it sit for a while.

Meanwhile, cut up tons of fun veggies like carrots, onions, potatoes and fennel. The seasoning for the vegetables is simply olive oil, butter, salt and pepper. You roast the vegetables for a bit and then add the pork to the pan and cook for 30-50 minutes.

After you let the pork rest, you can slice it thickly.

Sauteed cabbage makes a nice accompaniment to this dish. And bonus--it's Martha Stewart's recipe! The best part is that you simply slice the cabbage into thin ribbons, saute in butter and season with salt and pepper.

Overall this was an excellent meal. I would definitely make the cabbage and the roasted vegetables again. The pork was fine but I'm beginning to recognize that pork is just not my favorite (unless it's ribs!). Pork loin doesn't have enough flavor for me and even cooked properly, is still a bit dry. But if pork's your thing--this is a good one.

BCP: Chicken Soup with Matzo Balls

Happy New Year! I thought I'd start the year with a comforting recipe to get you through the winter cold (even though it's quite warm and sunny here in Florida). I love soup so the thought of making this recipe was quite exciting. I've made chicken soup from scratch many times and enjoy the process.

Sometimes making homeade broth can intimidate people but it really is a snap. You don't have to peel any vegetabes or chop them just so--you basically give them a rough cut and toss 'em in with a whole chicken and some herbs. I was able to find a packaged assortment of herbs instead of buying them all individually. Otherwise I probably would have just used the dried variety to save money.

Your house will smell wonderful as the soup simmers for a few hours. Then you remove the chicken, let it cool and cut off the meat. Meanwhile, you strain the rest of the contents of the broth, let that cool in the refrigerator (I left mine overnight) and skim the fat off the top. The broth is now ready to use.

I've never had matzo balls before so I don't even know how to judge this recipe. I'll be kind and say they weren't the best thing I've ever made. My kids kind of liked them though which completely shocked me.

I don't know what my problem is but I suck at whipping egg whites. No stiffness at all which I'm sure affected my end product. Anyway, I ended up throwing out most of the matzo balls and just serving the soup with noodles. Everyone loved it!

BCP: Shortbread Cookies

Does this look fun to you? Me neither. Some tips for next time:

#1 If you've never made pie crust before, you need to realize shortbread has a lot of pie crusting skills involved.

#2 Don't use a food processor when the directions clearly call fo a mixer (and you don't have a paddle attachment).

#3 Shortbread dough is sticky.

#4 Don't overbake the shortbread.

Next....

BCP: Caramel Chocolate Nut Ice Cream

Let me begin by saying I'm a bit of an ice cream fanatic. And I love lots of "stuff" in my ice cream. Not to mention in addition to the stuff in the ice cream, I normally add a touch of peanut butter and dry oatmeal as my ice cream topping. Yes, I'm disgusting (or so my husband says!).

My sweet, dear hubby once again helped the cause by single-handedly making this ice cream for me. We bought an ice cream maker at Lowe's about 8 years ago and I think this is the third time we've used it. It makes great ice cream and is easy to use but I can't seem to give up my Edy's--it's cheap plus you don'thave to wait when you need a fix.

This ice cream required many steps. First, to make the "caramel" element, hubby slowly (and I mean ssslllooowwwlllyyy) stirred and stirred waiting for the sugar to disolve into water over a very low heat setting. Then he combined this with straight heavy cream (Ina skips a ratio of milk and halfnhalf and just goes straight to the good stuff). Pour this into an ice cream maker for awhile. Then mix in chopped chocolate truffles and pecans.

The end result was a very rich, almost buttery ice cream. It had a slightly burned flavor that I think was intentional. It was good but really too much. I might make this again and scale down the cream. Or maybe I'll just stick with Edy's:-)

The World As I Know It Has Ended.

My computer bit the dust this week. Ouch. I am squeezing in a quick internet session at the library--so much to do in 25 minutes!!! Anyway, thanks for stopping by and I should be back in action near the end of December (we leave on a cruise in three days!). Don't give up on me--I'm still cooking!! It will just take a bit of catch-up once we get our new system.

BCP: Pesto, Pesto Spaghetti

What can you say about pesto that hasn't already been said? Garlicky, oily, cheesy, basily deliciousness. I think that about covers it.

No real surprises to this recipe aside from some walnuts and pignolis.

Oh, if you want some good, clean fun, drive down to your local supermarket and start asking random employees what aisle pignolis are on. The blank stares are worth the price of gas.

Ina should probably include "pine nuts" in parenthesis just to give readers a fighting chance.

I get a two-fer with this recipe as once you make the pesto, just toss it with cooked spaghetti to satisfy another BCP recipe. Yea!

BCP: Tropical Smoothie

You really don't need a recipe to make a smoothie. That's the whole beauty of this drink--throw a bunch of stuff in a blender and get something new each time.

My kids really liked this recipe and drank the majority of it themselves. Then again, we usually drink spinach smoothies in our home so the fact that this smoothie was a beautiful fuchsia instead of bright green was a huge selling point.

If you want a diversion from the traditional smoothie, throw a banana, two cups of loosely packed fresh spinach and a cup of water into the blender. Blend until smooth. It know it sounds really disgusting but it's actually quite tasty. And it's a super easy way to get in your veggies!