Sunday, March 30, 2008

Spicy!

Tonight's Menu

  • spiced pork tenderloin w/mango salsa
  • whipped chipotle-orange sweet potatoes
  • whole-grain tortilla chips
  • green salad "bar" w/homemade ranch-style dressing
Dudes! I know, I have not posted in forever. Sorry about that. We've had a stressful couple of weeks here in the Badger household, and for simplicity's sake I reverted to a lot of old standby meals that I've already told you about ad nauseum.

Tonight's spiced pork tenderloin was this recipe, broiled in the oven for 10 minutes per side (for a total of 20 minutes). I actually made this and the mango salsa (this recipe but without the peaches) a couple of days ago and just warmed up the pork tonight.

In last week's CSA box we got three tiny little sweet potatoes, not enough to make fries with, and I've been trying to think of a way to use them. I ended up chopping them into chunks (without peeling) and simmering them in water until they were tender, then peeling them and dumping them into the food processor with a canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce (I didn't add any extra sauce, though), some salt, and about a teaspoon or so of orange zest (the oranges were also from the CSA box, whee!). This made a nice, slightly spicy puree which I dumped into a serving bowl and drizzled with a teeny bit of really good EVOO. I thought it was fabulous but DH didn't care for it because he doesn't like chipotle. More for me!

Tonight's salad bar was just mixed greens from the CSA along with grape tomatoes, sliced cucumber, and sliced baby carrots. However, we were nearly out of ranch dressing and I haven't had a chance to get out to the store to buy more (did I mention STRESSFUL WEEK?) so I made my own. It was so easy, too! I don't have measurements because I just kind of winged it, but basically I took some mayo and whisked in enough buttermilk to get it to the consistency I wanted it. Most of the recipes I saw online called for sour cream, but we were pretty much out of that too (I KNOW! I'm going shopping tomorrow, I swear) so I added a little bit of plain yogurt for extra tang. Then I whisked in some garlic powder, onion powder, dried dill, dried parsley, salt and pepper. I'm really happy with how it came out, except that I added a little too much dill.

Alrighty! Tomorrow, grocery shopping! And Wednesday, another CSA box!

3 comments:

Jaye Joseph said...

Good Lord those potatoes sound good. I've got a sweet potato sitting here and I might just have to do this this week.

The Raving Badger said...

The potatoes sound great. Will try.

As for dressing, I did this for a friend with a death in the family the other day and they loved it:

Take a couple of garlic cloves, a pinch of salt, fresh ground pepper, seasoned rice vinegar, dry oregano and basil (a good amount), and a dash of dried parsley. Use and immersion blender to make smooth and start adding EVVO. It will come out nice and thick.

Play with the flavors to your taste. I like lots of herbs. Note on EVVO- you can use the immersion blender to make it really emulsified, or you can just add it and shake by hand. It's creamier with, and more vinagrette without. You can even leave out the garlic. Your choice.

The Raving Badger said...

Damn. It's EVOO. Duh.