Bourbon Glazed Pork and Easy Corn Casserole

For this week's post, I've got a twofer. Both recipes are easy, and the pork's savory flavor complements the slightly sweet aspect of the corn casserole. The corn casserole can be made a day ahead to make things even easier.

Bourbon-Glazed Pork Tenderloin
Serves 6
Preheat oven 425 degrees

1/4 cup Kentucky Bourbon (plus a little for the cook. ;) )
1/4 cup light soy sauce
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 large cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup vegetable oil
dash hot sauce
2 pork tenderloins, about 1 1/2 to 2 pounds

In blender or food processor, combine bourbon, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, mustard, ginger, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, and oil. Pulse until smooth. Remove tenderloins from wrapper and tie together into a roast. Place tenderloin and marinade in a ziploc bag and refrigerator for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.

Place tenderloin on a rack in baking pan and roast for 25-35 minutes per pound or until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees. Allow to rest for 15 minutes before slicing.

If you want to grill the meat: cook 4 inches from a hot charcoal fire for 15 to 25 minutes or until the pork has reached 165° internally and is no longer pink in the center. Baste occasionally while cooking.

Slice in 1/2-inch thick slices to serve.

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Easy Corn Casserole
Serves 8
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1/4 C egg substitute
1/4 C canola oil
1 small (8-3/4 oz) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 small (8-3/4 oz) can creamed corn
1 8-1/2 oz package corn muffin mix
1 C plain non-fat yogurt

Combine all ingredients and stir well to combine. Pour into an 8" square baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake 45 minutes until set.

Enjoy!

copyright 2009 What's Cooking?

Pear Cobbler

Now that our kitchen is nearly half painted, I've been able to breathe a little and get down to some cool-weather cooking. As a treat for us, I made an old favorite this week. The pears at the market were rock hard when I brought them home, but a day and a half in a bag with a banana did the trick!

Pear Cobbler
Serves 6
Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Filling
6 ripe pears: peeled, cored, and sliced
3 T brown sugar, packed
1 T lemon juice
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground ginger

Crust
1/3 C flour
3 T chopped walnuts
1-1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 C milk
vegetable oil

Combine filling ingredients in a bowl, stirring to coat the pears with the seasonings. Transfer to a casserole dish.

In small bowl, combine the first 4 crust ingredients. Stir in milk and enough oil to moisten. Drop by teaspoonfuls on top of pears. Bake, uncovered, 25 minutes or until browned.

Each serving: 200 calories

copyright 2009 What's Cooking?

Vanilla Ricotta Creme

Here's a nice easy dessert that I found through the South Beach Diet cookbook for Ricotta Creme dessert. I'll list the basic recipe, but you can add all sorts of flavorings to make it a special treat for any mood.

Vanilla Ricotta Creme Dessert
Serves 2

1 C part-skim ricotta cheese
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 packages sugar substitute (I use splenda)

With a blender, whiz up the ingredients until the cheese is nice and smooth - I've found an immersion blender works great for this.

Pour mixture into individual serving cups and refrigerate until ready to eat.

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Variations:

Orange (pictured): add 1 T orange liqueur, or a bit of orange zest
Almond: add 1/2 tsp almond extract and reduce vanilla extract to 1/4 tsp. Top with toasted slivered almonds.
Mocha: add 1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder. Just before serving, top with a dash of espresso powder and 1 tsp mini chocolate chips.
Lime Zest: add 1/2 tsp grated lime zest
Peanut Butter and Chocolate: add 2 T peanut butter and 1 tsp cocoa powder, then blend.
Pumpkin: Add 2 T canned pumpkin puree and 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice. Top with a tsp of whipped cream.

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Experiment with flavors on your own, then let me know what you did so I can try them too!

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The texture of this recipe is very loose. If you want it to be more like a pudding, mix in a beaten egg, spray an oven-safe dish and bake until a knife comes out clean. Equally as yummy!

copyright 2009 What's Cooking?

Scones

When Marble Man and I visited England many years ago, we fell in love with teatime. No matter where we went, one of us asked, "Is it time for tea yet?". Mostly it was the scones that had us hooked. When you get a basket of those delectable pastries in Engand, they aren't shaped like a triangle like the way they are in this country, but small and round like our biscuits. And they are very moist and tender.

When I got back home, I set about finding a really good scone recipe. The one I found has a surprise ingredient (plain yogurt), which adds a little "tang" to the final result, as well as tremendous moisture and tenderness. Purists may say it's not a scone, but a flavorful "something else", but we love 'em anyway. Marble Man does a little happy dance when he smells a batch of these scones baking in the oven!

Scones
**Makes 8 large, or 13 biscuit-sized
Preheat oven to 375

3 C flour
3 T sugar
1 T baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 C cold butter, cut up
1-1/2 C plain nonfat yogurt

Lightly butter a baking sheet. Mix flour, sugar, powder, soda, and salt in a bowl Add butter, cutting in with a pastry blender, until mixture looks like coarse meal. Add yogurt, stirring until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl. Gather into a ball.

Lightly flour board and knead dough just until smooth. Pat dough into an 8" circle. Cut into 8 wedges and place 2" apart on baking sheet.

Bake until lightly browned, 18-20 minutes.
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** I've found that making 8 wedges means these scones are HUGE and equal about a day's worth of bread all at once. I roll the dough out to about 1" thick and use a biscuit cutter. That way I get 12 scones out of the recipe.

copyright 2009 What's Cooking?