About Karen

We’ve been focusing on cooking more at home lately (except of course when we travel for work) and teaching the kidlets their way around the kitchen more and more. Over the weekend our oldest, who will be twelve in a month or two, actually made an entire batch of cookies all on her own with no physical help from either of us…just the occasional question. She’s been helping more and more with making dinner and it’s been a big help in overcoming her picky eater tendencies!

In fact, tonight she even helped with making dinner and didn’t balk at the addition of spinach to the stuffing in our stuffed pork loin and even sampled the brandied cranberry sauce I made on a whim without complaint. This is a very simple and elegant dish that only takes about an hour to prep and cook. I’ll admit, I cheated a bit and used (gasp!) a boxed stuffing mix, but when you’re under the gun for time, it’s a shortcut I’m willing to take on occasion. We topped the finished stuffed pork loin with a delicious brandied cranberry sauce that I made from scratch while we waited for everything to finish baking. To round out the meal, we made homemade yeast rolls and steamed broccoli. Yummy!

Stuffed Pork Loin

2 lb Pork loin
1 box stuffing mix plus the ingredients it calls for
1/2 C chopped fresh spinach
1/4 C extra virgin olive oil

Heat oven to 350F. Make the stuffing mix according to the instructions on the box, or substitute your own stuffing if you desire. Once the stuffing is off the heat, add a 1/2 C chopped fresh spinach. Butterfly the pork loin and pound it out with a mallet if you’re using a tough cut. Spread the prepared stuffing and spinach mixture evenly on the pork loin. Starting with one of the long sides, roll the pork loin up and secure with a wooden skewer or use kitchen twine to tie it. Heat a skillet with the EVOO and sear the stuffed pork loin on all sides. Place on a foil lined cookie tray and back in the oven for about 45 minutes until the internal temperature reaches 160F. Allow meat to rest 15 minutes before slicing to serve. Slice into 1″ thick servings and serve with brandied cranberry sauce.

Brandied Cranberry Sauce

1 bag of cranberries
1/2 C orange juice
1/3 C water
1/3 C brandy
1 1/2 C sugar

Wash and sort cranberries. Combine cranberries, orange juice and water in a saucepan over medium high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for approximately ten minutes. Add sugar and brandy and reduce until the sauce begins to thicken. Serve over the stuffed pork loin or with warm rolls. Brandied Cranberry Sauce will keep in the fridge for approx two weeks.

This week at my kids’ school they had their yearly Grandparents Day. All the grandmas and grandpas come and see what their grandkids are learning and working on, the kids do special presentations and show them around. One of the highlights is the coffee and pastry table and the 5th grade parents get to provide the pastries.

That meant that I had to make 2 dozen muffins on Sunday.

I didn’t want to make boring blueberry muffins or buy something horrid from the store, so I started poking around in the fridge and found a couple of leftover oranges and a box of dried cranberries. Perfect!

I dug through my recipes and found that the muffin recipe I -thought- I had was actually for scones. Shoot. So I went in search of a new one and found a perfect start on BakeSpace and altered it slightly. I should make another post entirely for BakeSpace, but in a deliciously decadent nutshell, it is a social networking and recipe site for foodies started by the amazingly talented Babette Pepaj.

Cranberry Orange Muffins
(I doubled the original recipe to make 2 dz muffins. Halve the recipe below to make only a dozen!)

2 cups dried cranberries
1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
4 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsps baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (I never use this much salt, honestly)
1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temp
4 tsps grated orange zest (reserve some for topping)
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup milk
Raw sugar for sprinkling on top (if desired)

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Put the dried cranberries and orange juice in a small saucepan, bring to a simmer over med. heat. Remove from heat, and set aside to cool and plump. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl and set aside. In another bowl, cream butter, orange zest, and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold the flour mixture into the butter mixture in parts, alternating with the milk, until just combined. Fold in the cranberries. Do not over mix. Spoon batter into paper lined muffin tins and sprinkle the tops with raw sugar and a piece or two of orange zest. Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes. Cool and enjoy!

Original Recipe on BakeSpace