Wow Your Parents!

Want to wow your parents? Or, anyone really. Except your veggie friends. And want to wow them while not killing yourself? Yes. Okay! I've got the recipes for you!

I made a herb crusted pork tenderloin, gorgonzola and porcini risotto, and roasted asparagus.

These are the recipes I used:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/herb-crusted-pork-tenderloin-recipe/index.html
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/gorgonzola-and-porcini-mushroom-risotto-recipe/index.html

For the pork, I used a 2lb tenderloin, rather than the 4lb. And I don't know what that recipe is talking about when it says that a 4lb tenderloin will only yield 6 servings. The 2lb tenderloin easily could have rendered 6 servings! Because I was using a smaller piece of meat, I changed the temperature and cook times. I did 15 minutes at 450, and 30 minutes at 375. I think could have done an additional 5 minutes at 375 to get it just right. But I didn't have a meat thermometer, so I was sort flying blind.

I used all fresh herbs, and used 3 teaspoons rather than 2. I used kosher salt. Kosher salt on roasted meat is awesome, and I happen to really enjoy it. But if you don't, then you might want to consider cutting down on the salt a little, because it was admittedly close to being too salty.

I had conveniently prepped the asparagus, using olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and lemon juice. Made sure the asparagus was thoroughly covered, put it on a baking sheet, and as soon as I took the pork out I put the asparagus in for ten minutes at 400. Make sure you turn the asparagus, or shake it up a little, half way through. The pork should rest for ten minutes after coming out of the oven, so this was a good way to productively use my time and limited oven space.

On to the risotto. This was my first time making risotto, and it was more demanding that I expected. Not in a complicated way. In a stirstirstir way. For the first part of the recipe I followed everything exactly. My mom only had red onions, so I used a red onion. A yellow one probably would have been better. But oh well. Once you get this recipe going its going, and unless you have someone else in your kitchen who can help you stir, be prepared to be very busy for about 30 minutes. I actually used all of the original chicken stock and had to add an extra cup in order to get the risotto past super crunchy and to al dente.

Once I took the risotto off the burner, I added the cheese. I made substantial changes to the cheese. I did 3/4 cup of parmesan, and about 1/2 cup asiago. I only added about 1/3 a cup of gorgonzola. And I'm glad I did it that way, because it stopped the gorgonzola from taking over the flavor. It was nicely balanced, and tasted great.

My only other word of warning on the risotto is that you should definitely use low-sodium chicken stock. Otherwise it will be just a touch too salty.

Overall, the pork tenderloin was really easy to make, asparagus is always a hit, and the risotto looks and tastes a lot more difficult than it is. Your parents will think you're classy. And isn't that always the goal?

Fall Flavors!

For tonight I decided to celebrate the arrival of Fall with a meal highlighting some of my favorite fall flavors. I had fantastic assistance from friends, who brought lovely items. Particularly in the theme was Floren's pumpkin gnocchi, which paired nicely with the Butternut Cider Bisque.

The bisque was my first ever attempt at soup. I was really happy with how it turned out. Dean told me once that he enjoys making soup because you can't overcook it. The longer you cook it the better it gets. TRUE STORY! I was displeased with the consistency, so I just let it simmer. For a long time. And eventually it was thick and lovely. It needed salt and paper IMO, but I'm also a big fan of the salt and fresh ground pepper. It worked nicely for my guests, because I had a range of tastes at the table, and so everyone seasoned to their liking. But, overall, this soup was easy and delicious. Very nice fall flavor! The picture, as I'm sure you can figure out, is not of the soup. Because, well, it wasn't very exciting. So instead its a picture of my nice table setting. Nice...other than the one non-matching bowl. Because I only have six bowls. =(

Do I even have to tell you about the bacon wrapped dates? Bacon is delicious. Cream cheese is delicious. Almonds are delicious. Dates are...well...not as delicious as all those other things, but when you put those delicious other things in and around a date? Wow. Wow! Super easy, crowd pleasing appetizers. I cooked them longer than was called for, but that's because my bacon was a little thick (I had wrapped the bacon around more than once because I cut the pieces too long) and because I like crispy bacon. Very successful. Great if you need to bring something to a potluck. You'll be a star. And this pic is not cute, but they just came out of the oven, and trust me they tasted amazing.

Finally, the pork. Pork tenderloin is lovely, but I really had cook time issues with this recipe. I ended up cooking the pork for about 20 minutes rather than 10, and it still wasn't done! I sliced it and cooked it for a few more minutes, and that worked. It had fantastic flavor, though. The cranberry stuffing, which isn't really stuffing at all but more of a thick paste, smelled delicious and the pork really sucked in the tart and sweet combination of flavors. I traded out the cascabel powder for ancho, because, I'll be honest here, Cville grocery stores are not the place to find the fancy spices. Anyways, the substitution was fine. The strangest part of this recipe was the Chicken Sauce. I really don't know what that was for. But I will say, whatever this sauce was for, it had fabulous flavor! I think I'll try to make it a base for a hearty soup. Final note on this recipe is that the veggies were fine. Should have used butter, though. And, as always, more salt and pepper.

The most difficult part of this menu was that everything became super active at the same time. The cook times were all different, but it resulted in me doing a crazy amount of different things all at once. The soup needed to be run through the blender, the dates needed to be stuffed and wrapped, the veggies needed to come out of the oven, and the pork needed to be browned. All at the same time! Yikes! And I'm not really sure I could have avoided that. But I wrote out a schedule, and at least I knew what needed to happen next, which was really helpful in getting everything done. Didn't even come close to hitting my timeline, but the courses allowed me to get away with my timing issues.

The Menu:

Baked Brie: courtesy of Mario. Delish, really.

Bacon Wrapped Dates: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/bacon-wrapped-dates-stuffed-with-cream-cheese-and-almonds-recipe/index.html

Butternut Cider Bisque: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/cooking-live/butternut-cider-bisque-recipe/index.html

Pumpkin Gnocchi: courtesy of Floren. Awesome.

Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Cranberry Stuffing and Root Veggies: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/roasted-pork-tenderloin-sun-dried-cranberry-stuffing-roasted-root-vegetables-recipe/index.html

Chocolate Lava Cakes with Peanut Butter Filling: OMG. Amazing. From Katie. http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/molten-chocolate-cake-with-peanut-butter-filling

One last thing. And this is really important. The food my friends brought was really excellent. Mario's baked brie was beautiful and delicious, and was devoured. Floren's gnocchi was an awesome addition that fit perfectly with the fall theme and tasted great with the soup. And Katie's dessert was...WOW. WOWOWOW. Not only was this a complicated dessert that she executed flawlessly, because the cakes had perfect consistency and were moist but held their shape nicely, Katie had ridiculously gorgeous plating. It was restaurant worthy. Five stars, Katie. Five stars. (Also, the way to win a fab review from me is to combine chocolate and peanut butter and make it warm and gooey. WIN!).

So, happy Fall everyone!