Food Gourmet the Squaw Creek Way

My cousin Jen, way out in CA, has a new blog about cooking.  I have heard she’s a great cook, but unfortunately, I’ve never eaten anything she’s made. Except maybe no-bake cookies 15 (20?) years ago at our grandma’s house.

 

Anyway, her blog is called Food Gourmet the Healthy Way.

A couple of weeks ago, she had a recipe for pork loin, and I “tried” to replicate it.

 

What is Food Gourmet the Squaw Creek Way?

 

FGtSCW Rule #1: Eliminate ingredients if you don’t have them on hand and/or think they are weird.

 

 

Here was Jen’s list:

• 1 pkg. pork tenderloins (2 tenderloins, about 2-2.5 lbs.)
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 T. country dijon mustard (whole grain mustard)
• 4 T. honey
• 2 T. fresh orange juice
• 1 T. finely chopped fresh rosemary OR herbs de provence
• freshly ground pepper to taste
• 3 T. olive oil

 

 

 

As you can see, I clearly did not have the right mustard – I mixed regular old yellow mustard with some of that spicy stuff.  I didn’t have any rosemary and I’ve never heard of herbs de provence.

FGtSCW Rule #2: While you cook, give your son something to keep him busy.

Like Dora.  And Sprinkles.  Just throwing out some examples, here.

FGtSCW Rule #3:  Substitute turkey whenever possible.  Chicken?  Nah – turkey!  Ground beef?  NEVER!  Use turkey!  Pork Loin?  What is that?

Okay, so I tried to follow Jen’s directions as closely as possible, but I had to bake mine a LOT longer.  This was a 3-4 pound turkey breast, straight off the farm. :)  Here are her directions:

Yield: 1 cup of marinade.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Take tenderloins out of package. Rinse and pat dry. Place in a 9x13-inch Pyrex sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.

Take a paring knife and poke holes in the tenderloins (on the top side only) about an inch deep. Peel garlic cloves and quarter each clove of garlic-lengthwise. If they're really big, cut them a bit smaller- about the size of slivered almonds. Place the garlic slivers in each pocket. Set aside while making marinade.

 

Meanwhile, go back to Rule #2 so you can finish the meal.

In a measuring cup or in a medium bowl, whisk together all the ingredients except for the olive oil. Then slowly drizzle the olive oil while still whisking.

Pour the mixture over the tenderloins and put into preheated oven. Bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes, basting once halfway through the baking process.  (I baked the turkey for about 1 hr 15 min.)

Once removed from the oven, allow the tenderloins to rest on a cutting board for about 10 minutes before slicing. Spoon the pan sauce over the tenderloin medallions and enjoy!

FGtSCW Rule #4: Can’t find what you need?  Improvise!!  No baster?  Baby’s medicie dropper will work just fine.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of the finished product.  I cut it into smaller pieces after an hour of baking, so that it would get done faster.  So it wasn’t pretty.  (FGtSCW Rule #5: Don’t worry about how it looks.)  But orange and soy sauce are GREAT flavors with turkey and it was AMAZING!  I steamed some broccoli and rice, and we had a great meal.

 

Next time, I will marinate over night, and use MORE orange juice.

 

Feel free to visit Jen’s blog and see some of her other yummy recipes!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I just want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has commented on my posts.  I love reading the comments - it totally makes my day.  And when my husband comes home, sees my great burlap covered diaper box, and says, "Yeah, it looks like a...cool box," YOUR encouragement keeps me going!  So thanks!  (or "Dank" as my sweet Adam says.)

We interrupt your regularly scheduled…

…party preparations for a little Before and AFter! 
I hate painting.  HATE it.  But I did a lot of it today. 
So as soon as my dad and husband weren’t looking, I did a fun project.  I made this:

Into this:

(I’d sure like to know how Layla at The Lettered Cottage does that B&A picture thing.  It would be cool here, right?)

I’ve been looking for storage baskets for under my coffee table for a few weeks now.  They are to store toys, and I didn’t want the toys to be seen.  They had to be light weight, and probably most important, cheap.  Not an easy find.

But in the process, I realized that a diaper box fits perfectly on that shelf.  Three or four of them would give me a ton of storage, and the option to sort the toys so Adam can pull out just what he wants.  (Amazingly, the kid picks up after himself sometimes.  He must have learned it at daycare, because he didn’t learn it from us!)

But c’mon!  I’m not going to have diaper boxes hanging out in my living room!  So how do you make a diaper box pretty? Burlap, hot glue, ribbon, cardstock, and coffee!

So first, I primed with gray.  Not a good idea.  I’ll show you why, later.  I should have hauled my lazy butt to the basement to get the white.  But I had to cover the bright yellow with something, and as I said, I have a lazy butt.
Next, start with the burlap.  I left the flappy-thingies on, and started by wrapping some burlap around them and securing with hot glue.

After I wrapped the flappy-thingy (technical term, here), I folded it down.
And pulled the burlap down the side and glued.
I have found that with burlap, it works best if you glue a couple of inches, and use the fancy-schmancy tool (stem of a fake flower) to burnish the burlap and pull it tight as you go.
After doing both ends, I measured a piece of burlap to wrap around the long sides. I centered it on the back and glued it on using the same “burnish with a stem” technique.
Then I had these ugly seams. 
So I folded them under, and glued them down.
Keep wrapping and gluing until you’re all the way around.
Fold and glue the ugly seams.
Stand back, and decide it needs a little something. Glue some black satin ribbon around the top and bottom.
Get out your handy dandy tag punch from Creative Memories.

(Okay, see the gray spots on the box on the pictures above?  That’s where the gray primer is showing through.  Blech.  Luckily, you can’t see it as much in person.  The flash really brings it out.)
Whoa!  That bright white cardstock is, well, too bright!  Enter the leftover coffee from this morning. I let it soak for a few minutes, dried with the hair dryer, and distressed it using one of those chalky thingies for scrapbooking.  I’m not sure what to write on it yet, though.  Maybe just numbers (I’ll hate it if Adam puts them back out of order, though) or the name of the toys – blocks, tractors, puzzles, food (but what if we decide to change categories?)  I don’t know…any suggestions?


Total cost:

Diaper box: Free
Burlap: $1.99/yard at Hobby Lobby.  I used less than a yard.
Ribbon: $1.99 at Hobby Lobby – TONS left.
Hot glue: Who knows?
Tag: um…pennies?
I love it!  And I have to thank the bloggie world for introducing me to burlap!  I love neutrals in my home, but need some texture, and burlap is perfect!

Okay – now for the linky parties:

Party To-Do List – Day 3

So, if you’ve been following along, you’ll notice that my to-do list is getting more detailed.  That’s because I forgot what a pain in the patootie most of these projects are.  There are a million little steps and I HATE PAINTING.  Can I say it again?  I HATE painting.  But, I am determined to get this done!

Finish  Ballard shelves:

Sand

Paint

Figure out where to attach the corbels (Sunday)

Attach them (Sunday)

Fill/paint screw holes (Monday)

Poly (Wednesday)

Hang (Thursday?)

Accessorize! (Friday)

Finished unfinished cabinet in kitchen

Attach sides  (Decided to skip this step)

Sand

Prime

Predrill holes for knobs/pulls (Sunday)

Sand (Sunday)

Paint (Sunday)

Sand (Monday)

Poly (Monday)

Reattach doors (Wednesday)

Attach hardware (Wednesday)

Get the top from the Junk Refunkery

 

  

Paint the pantry

Remove doors

Sand

Wood putty scratches and pull holes

Fix that darn broken drawer (Sunday, I hope!)

Sand drawer fronts (Sunday)

Putty hardware holes on drawer fronts

Prime doors (Sunday)

Prime face of cabinets

Predrill holes for hardware (Sunday)

Prime drawer fronts (Monday)

Paint doors (Monday)

Paint face of cabinets (Monday)

Spray hinges ORB (Monday)

Poly (Wednesday)

Attach doors and hardware (Thursday)

 

Trim around kitchen windows

Prime trim

Prime windows (Sunday)

Paint trim (Monday)

Paint windows (Monday)

Cut (Daddy’s doing that!)

Get Daddy to help (He’s here today!)

Hang (Wednesday)

Fill/paint nail holes (Thursday)

Poly (Friday)

Ugh!  I have a lot to do!  And when I take into account the dry time needed between coats of primer/paint/etc., I will be pushing it pretty darn close to party time!

 

Edited to add: I’m already behind.  A lot of the “Sunday” items didn’t get done because my dad had a headache. :(

Party To-Do list – OOPS!

I tried to post a new “Party To-Do List” update, but I accidently replaced my original post with the update.  Sorry!

If you missed it, I’m having a Pampered Chef party at my house next Saturday, and I decided to use it as motivation to get some projects done.

So here’s the update.  I’ll show some before and afters later!

Party To-Do List – Day 2

 

Here’s what I accomplished yesterday and today:

Finish  Ballard shelves:

Sand

Paint

Poly

Hang

 

Finish unfinished cabinet in kitchen – The upper cabinet is leaving.  The Ballard shelves will go above here.  Please ignore my junk and lack of kitchen flooring.

Attach sides  (May skip this step – gotta talk to my Dad about it.)

Sand

Prime

Sand

Paint

Sand

Poly

Get the top from the Junk Refunkery

I have no idea what to do about that top drawer – the drawer front is broken.  We have some matching drawers downstairs, but they’re 24 inches deep(ish) and these are 12(ish.)  So…jigsaw the end off one of the other shelves?  Pry the front off of this one and put a new front on it?  This is a project for my dad.I had to sand the heck out of these doors.  They are gouged from 60-70 years of wear and tear.  There are still a few minor imperfections, but oh well. :)  

Paint the pantry

Remove doors

Sand

Wood putty scratches and pull holes

Prime

Paint

Poly

Hang trim around kitchen windows – Sadly, I haven’t completed anything on this list!

Paint

Cut

Get Daddy to help

Hang?

I’m pretty happy with my progress so far!  I may have to take a day off to get it all finished before Saturday, though.

Mommy of the Year Award!

So, my family has been getting a big kick out of this story, so I thought I better document it.

 

One morning last week, I had to take a Creative Memories order to work with me.  So I threw the big box in the front seat, started the car, and went back in to get Adam.

Brought him out, buckled him in, and noticed that the thermometer on the car said –8.  Brrr…code.

I threw my purse on the passenger seat next to the box and started down the road.  We made it the .4 mile to the highway with Adam saying, “Brrr.  Brrr. Mama, code.  Code.  Sow (snow), sow, brrr, code,” the whole way. 

I gave my usual response, “I know baby, I know it’s cold.  It will warm up soon.”

He continued complaining, so I turned around to check and see if he’d taken off his mittens.  And, that’s when I noticed his window was rolled down.  Oops!  Luckily, we weren’t going very fast yet, but does it matter when it’s –8 actual temperature?

 

So how in the world does a 19 month old roll down his window?  He doesn’t.  The window “buttons” are in the middle of the car by the shifter.  When I threw my purse in the car, apparently it decided to roll down Adam’s window.  Why I didn’t notice earlier, I have no idea. 

(Not my car, but very similar.  Image from Motor Trend.)

Like I said, my family has been getting a big kick out of this.  I didn’t think it was funny at the time, but now I guess, it makes me chuckle a bit.  And since I posted it to my facebook status, I’ve been getting comments at the gas station like, “Does it get cold in there with the windows down?”

But we all win Mommy of the Year at some point, right?  I’m sure this is the first of many for me. :)

 

And now here’s a pic of my sweet little boy, with the window rolled up, on a sunny, 20 degree day.