Garlic Mustard Pork Loin

Kroger had a sale on pork loins the other day. I was able to buy a 3.5lbs pork loin for only $8.00!! Next step was figuring out how to cook it. I had never cooked a whole pork loin before. Everyone I talked to had different ideas. All of them sounded so good that I decided to mix them together and come up with my own dish. Here is what I used…

1 Pork Loin (2.5-3.5 lbs.)

1/2 cup white wine

Spicy mustard

6 cloves garlic

Salt and Pepper

I know 6 cloves of garlic sounds like a lot, but I love garlic. It was just the right amount. First I took the pork loin and put it in a roasting pan. I sliced some small holes in the top of it. Take the garlic and mince it up real small. I then stuffed the holes with as much as I could. I took the remaining garlic and spread it over the top of the pork loin. Then take the wine and drizzle it over the top getting into the holes as well. Now I took the mustard and covered the entire pork loin. Sprinkle the top with salt and pepper and it is ready to go in the oven. I cooked it at 400 degrees for 1.5 hours basting it every 15 minutes. Total cost to me was just the $8.00 for the pork loin. I already had everything else. Here it is coming out of the oven. It was cooked just right. Adjust the time according to the size of meat you have. It is also great as left overs!

Greetings from Miami

Hello from Miami Florida! Sorry I have not posted in a long time, but I have a new job. It requires me to travel to Miami Monday through Friday. So far it has been great. One thing I am getting used to is hotel living. My days have been very busy, so I don’t have much time to explore Miami. All my free time is spent in the hotel. Does anyone have some ideas about how to make hotel living easier? I normally don’t like living out of a suitcase, but that is what I will be doing for the next couple months. Things maybe a little slow on Solitary Refinement until I get back to my normal Savannah life. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks!!

Huevos Rancheros

The other day I had Mexican for lunch at work. I wanted something different that I had not tried before. Huevos Rancheros sounded very interesting. Little did I know it is such a cheap and easy meal! Instead of paying $5.00 I decided it give it a try myself at home. This dish has many different variations that you can try. Here is my basic version…

2 tortillas

2 eggs

Salsa

Cheese

I started by frying the eggs. I made sure they were deeply fried to avoid the yolk from running. Then all I did was put them on top of two tortillas, add some salsa and grade some cheese over the top. I use two tortillas instead of one to keep the whole thing from falling apart. This is a very cheap and fast meal. Great for a quick breakfast before work. Does anyone else have any interesting ideas for this?

Food Styling Tips

No wonder my photos of the food I cook don’t look good! Slashfood.com has an article about how to make food look good for a photo shoot. Here are some of the ways on their list…

– Half-cook barbecued ribs are painted with wood stain for a glossy, extra juicy look.

– Dyed, whipped shortening often subs for milkshakes because it looks so dense and creamy. Mmmm, Crisco.

– Motor oil makes great pancake syrup – super thick and glossy.

Interesting! I promise all my photos are the real thing. Normally I am so hungry to eat what I just cooked I don’t spend the time to make it look nice. Thanks to Mrs. P. for sending me this!

First Review of the Steam Buddy

I used my new Steam Buddy for the first time today. My first impression is that it works fairly well. I think it is one of the gadgets that needs a little practice to master. I first tried a pair of pants. The pants were considerably wrinkled. A couple quick passes over them and the majority of wrinkles were gone. Not all the wrinkles were gone. I think with a little practice it will work really well. I did have some trouble with a heavy cotton shirt. The Steam Buddy uses the steam to “relax” the fabric and let the wrinkles fall out. The heavy shirt would just not relax. Maybe I am using it wrong. I think it would work really well on lighter fabrics. I still have not tried the creaser attachment, as soon as I do I will let you know how it worked. I will also post more about it when I have had time to try it out more. Here is a before and after of the pants.

Before…

After…

NOTE: I have stopped using the Steam Buddy and have gone back to a regular iron. I was not getting the results I was looking for. 1/28/09