Recipes

Family recipes are the best! Here are a few of our favorite's.

My attempt at caprese salad.
My attempt at caprese salad.

Main Dishes

I had just given up on making pork dishes when I found this wonderful recipe over at Mel's Kitchen Cafe. Now I must admit that I have never meet this woman. But to me... she is a goddess in the kitchen! I had just found her website and had tried a few other items when we found this pork tenderloin recipe. Liking her other recipes we decided to give this one a try. And I am so thankful we did. This is one dish that I can cook that the whole family loves! Most recipes I like to play with and I hardly follow the recipe as it's written. That is, unless is comes from Mel. I never ever mess with her recipes! Give it a try. You can thank me later.

Citrus and Soy Marinated Grilled Pork Tenderloin

Serves: 6
Preparation time: 15 Minutes
Ingredients:

Directions:

  1. Combine all the ingredients except the pork and mix well. Pour the marinade into a ziploc bag or baking dish and add the pork tenderloin, making sure the marinade completely covers the pork. Marinade for 8-10 hours.
  2. Preheat an outdoor grill (charcoal or gas). Grill the pork tenderloin about 3-4 minutes on each of its four sides (the exact time will depend on the temperature of your grill) or the internal temperature is about 150 to 155 degrees. Remove from the grill, tent with foil, and allow to rest 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

The one thing I do have to say about this recipe is that I usually have to cook the meat a little bit longer than she calls for. Just make sure to check the temperature before removing from grill. Otherwise the meat will still be raw in the middle.

Meatloaf

Serves: 6
Preparation time: Approx. 15 Minutes
Ingredients:

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375 °
  2. Empty Saltine crackers into a gallon sized plastic bag and smash until the pieces are little crumbs.
  3. Combine all ingredients making sure to leave 1/5 of the soup in the can for later, mix well.
  4. In bread pan place meat mixture.
  5. Place bread pan on rack in middle of oven and cook for 55 minutes.
  6. Remove from oven and spread remaining tomato soup over the top of the loaf. Return to oven and cook for 5 minutes.

Side Dishes

Roasted Vegetables

Serves: 6
Preparation time: Approx. 20 Minutes
Ingredients:

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 425 °
  2. Slice the zucchini and yellow squash in half crosswise. Cut each half again lengthwise, and slice each of the halves into 4 equal, 1/2 inch pieces. They should look like sticks.
  3. Slice egg plant in half and slice pieces into half moon shapes.
  4. In a bowl, mix together the zucchini sticks with the white parts of the scallions, onion, tomatoes, mushrooms, celery leaves and basil.
  5. Sprinkle with salt and pepper
  6. Drizzle with olive oil and mix to combined all ingredients.
  7. Pour into a large baking dish and bake for 20 minutes. Garnish with the sliced green tops of the scallions and the extra chopped basil.

This recipe was adapted from Dr. Furman.