Pork Loin Recipe

I had never cooked a pork loin until about a year ago. Somebody should've told me how easy this meat is to use! And lean and good for you too compared to many other meats! This comes out very moist and tender. Below is a recipe I found online. Lots of people like their rub to be really spicy. If so, double these amounts like the original recipe was. Or you may like a little less seasoning than I use. Last time I baked one, I didn't add the bacon but think it's best with it. Pork tenderloins are usually just under $10 but often on sale. They're usually found near the smoked sausage/ham/packaged meat area. We have slices the first day as a main entree. With the leftovers, we make a sandwich and add barbecue sauce.

PORK LOIN

1 pork tenderloin, about 2 pounds
3 slices bacon
1/2 T. garlic powder
1/2 t. seasoned salt
1/2 t. basil
1/4 t. oregano
1/2 t. black pepper
olive oil

Mix together dry ingredients. Coat tenderloin well with olive oil. Rub seasonings over tenderloin and lay bacon on top. Bake, uncovered at 375 for an hour or until pork reaches about 155 degrees. Remove from oven, cover with foil and let stand for 10 min. before slicing.

I wonder what other good meal ideas I don't know about?

I'm leaving for Indiana this morning. It'll be a long day of driving. Just hope the weather is good all the way. I'm going to be putting on a meeting for those demonstrators under me on Sat. morning. On Sunday, I'm doing a stamp class for my Indiana customers. Should try to remember to take pictures both days! The rest of the time, Mom & I will be visiting, eating out and shopping probably. May start looking for a new vehicle. Bill says I can come home with one if I want to. (he doesn't want to deal with a car salesman!) He and Tim are getting things done and ready for planting in about a month from now. With more snow on the ground, it seems funny that they will be planting that soon.

Stir Fry Practice

We got some wet snow last night. We were supposed to get 4-7" but don't know what it ended up being. Several schools have a 2 hour delay this morning. Happy snowy birthday Uncle Tim!

Many years ago, my longtime Indiana friend, Marie, gave me a really nice wok. Back then when single, I didn't cook much for just me so it stayed in its box for a long time (used it a few times). But I love stir fry so have recently gotten it out and have been practicing. Have made it three times this winter so far.

The first one was a recipe using pork for the meat and sugar free apricot preserves in the sauce. It was ok but won't make again. Didn't like the bitter preserves or pork.

Last time I used a bottled stir fry sauce with precooked shrimp (shrimp - my favorite like when eating at Mongolian BBQ). The sauce was pretty good but the shrimp got rubbery.

This time I used a recipe for the sauce and it had directions for when to stir fry what. I bought frozen raw shrimp and made sure to cook them "just until done", then took them out while cooking the vegetables. It was much better starting with the raw shrimp! Still need some practice though and will tweak the sauce recipe. The vegetables were a little crunchier than I'd like.

I got some tips from my brother for next time. He makes Cashew Chicken quite a bit.

The last picture was everything before I added the sauce or the shrimp back in. Totally forgot to take a picture of it on the plates. So anxious to try it I guess! Thanks Marie - the wok is really, really nice!

Big Shot Machine Special

BIG SHOT MACHINE SPECIAL

This is a great time to get the Big Shot if you have been thinking about it. With buying it during Sale-A-Bration, it really gives you lots of bonuses (see below)! I use it for most of my cards now and so do many others! It makes putting a nice card or scrapbook page together so fast, easy & fun!

Big Shot Special, available from now-March 30, 2011.

Buy the Big Shot Machine ($99.95) and any other Big Shot Accessories or Dies that total $50.05 or more. Your 10% shipping & state tax will be added to your product total, but your minimum due will be $165 ($150 + $15= $165 + tax).

Besides the machine and the other products you choose,

you will also receive the following:

One (1) Textured Impressions Embossing Folder of your choice- from me--

value $7.95
3 Sale-A-Bration products of your choice---value $35.85 to $44.85
Unlimited answers to your Big Shot questions by me---value, priceless

You will receive one (1) Level 1 Exclusive Hostess Set and $15 FREE product of your choice.

Orders for this Big Shot Special cannot be place online via my website, only directly through me.

Special available from Cindy Kemna, Ind. Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, only. (click on my web site above right for my contact info.)

Sun Dogs

On January 18th, we had these sun dogs while the sun was coming up. I had never heard of them until I moved here. Click HERE to read more about them. If you Google sun dogs, you'll see other pictures too. They're kind of like vertical rainbows on either side of the sun usually when it's really cold but this info. I've linked to says they can appear most any month.

Bill has gone to a gun auction in Ft. Dodge today. He was able to get in yesterday to look things over and said there are some nice guns he'd like to at least see sell - not sure about buying. Will see how high they go.

This was a sunrise on Feb. 12th. I just have a simple, cheap camera so photos like this never turn out very well.

So glad we were able to put our house on this lot to be able to see the sunsets and sunrises! Flat land, very few trees and no neighbors helps with the view too!

I'm working on things for my Stampers At Heart downline meeting and stamp class for my Indiana customers coming up next weekend. I see that the weather on Wed., the day I want to travel, is not looking good (snow and ice starting Tues.).

Misc. & Chicken Recipe

You can tell Spring is coming by the traffic going by our house now - mostly pickups! The farmers are running around getting organized for planting next month. We do have less traffic in the summer and winter! And what I consider traffic I know is NOTHING compared to what many of you have going by or near your houses! Coming from Carmel to here, I love being back in the country and not hearing the hum of traffic.

I grew up on a country road just north of Carmel that we could ride our bicycles down the middle of. Now it's a very busy 4 lane road with divider down the middle. You have to watch your rear view mirror when turning right to make sure the person behind you is going to slow down when you turn and not plow into you. (also hard to turn left out of the subdivision) From my house, you could hear the traffic even with windows closed. And the lawnmowers!! Somebody was ALWAYS mowing in the summer. I used to wish there could be a day when everybody cut their grass to get all the noise over with at once! Here we live near the cemetery so there is lawn mowing there a lot but it's far enough away that it's not bad at all.

Wanted to mention that we helped Bill's friend, Kyle, move into their new home a couple weekends ago. Our builder, Community Lumber of West Bend, built theirs also, and it's a beautiful house! They have a sage green siding with white trim, kind of a cherry color of woodwork and cabinets (so pretty) and I love their solid surface kitchen counter top color (a little darker than ours). The best thing is that their house sits up high on their lot so their views out their many and big living room windows is awesome! The day they moved it was snowing so I was picturing what it will look like in Dec. for their first Christmas there. Kyle's mom had everyone over to their house for a really nice lunch. Danielle's mom and dad and sister & her family came down from the Dubuque, Iowa area (where we got married!) and were a big help. Her sister had a baby the same age as Camry but this baby Isabelle was already crawling and sitting up. She is really fast!

I mentioned before the blogging break that Bill and I are trying to lose some weight this winter. By now we're doing much better than we were then! (way better!) At the time I mentioned it, I hadn't figured out how to spread the protein and dairy throughout the day right to avoid being hungry. Had choc. cravings with no solutions, wanted something crunchy. We have most of that figured out now and have both lost about 10 pounds so far! Here is our favorite new to us recipe that is "good for you" and tastes good too!

SALSA CHICKEN (crock pot)

boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 3 or can use more or less)
large jar of Salsa
bag of frozen corn
can of drained, rinsed black beans (or 2)
1-2 packets taco seasoning

Put the chicken in the crock pot (can be frozen). Add the beans, corn and I put the salsa on top. Cook on Low 7-8 hours or on High about 4. Shred the chicken with 2 forks. It will soak up all the juices.

This can be eaten as a main dish as is but we like it in a browned tortilla with a little cheese melted on the chicken mixture. For me, I have 1 tortilla folded over but make Bill's with a tortilla on top and bottom. It can also be eaten in tacos, in a taco salad or scooped with Tostitos Scoops. I add chopped lettuce, a little low fat sour cream, green onions if I have them and salsa on the side. Some chopped tomato would be good when in season or jalapeno slices. With 3 chicken breasts, it makes quite a bit. I froze 2 containers for meals later.

Let me know if you try this!

Some have asked how to print just the recipe. You should be able to highlight just the recipe, click on File up above, click on Print, then on your little print screen, click on Selection and it will print just what is highlighted.

Also, if you ever want to go back to find a recipe I've posted, you'll see in the right column that the posts are all categorized like Recipes, Family, Holidays, Farming Related. If you click on one of those categories like Recipes, you'll get all of the posts that have a recipe or all the Farming Related posts for example. Hope this helps.

Sunset & New Equipment

This was Wed. night's sunset. There have been some pretty ones lately. The temp. here was 4 this morning when we got up. Thought we were past this cold of weather.

Bill and Tim went on another road trip today - to Minnesota still looking at tractors. Bill just got home and says that we're now the proud owners of a new (used) 500 hp "red" quad
trac. (Aren't you glad you find things out here Jim & Dave??! Bill says Matthew will be excited.) The advantage of a quad trac is that it's a smoother ride for us older operators :) especially in the Spring for leveling ground and ripping in the Fall. I had just gotten used to the other 4 wheel drive (sorta) . . . This is it in the picture.

I went to the library's program this morning. The program was given by a Rolfe resident who had traveled to Chile to visit her daughter. Very interesting. She said to go there you need to be able to speak Spanish or be with someone who does since the locals do not speak English. She did not like their food.