Bacon Wrapped Pork Loin

Speechless.


This was my first time really actually searing something.  I have kinda done it before....but not really.  So with some guidance from Wolverine (did you know he is a culinary school grad?!  I am ONE LUCKY GIRL!), I did it!

This is going to be on the menu anytime I have a pork loin.  It was so flavorful and juicy and just oh....my....goodness.

Bacon Wrapped Pork Loin 

What's In It:
2lb pork loin
8-12 slices bacon
2 T poultry seasoning
1/2 T sage
1 t onion powder
1 T salt
1 t pepper
3 T olive oil
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped (3 T from a jar)
2 T olive oil

What To Do With It:
Combine seasonings, garlic, and 3 T oil.  Rub loin generously. Lay out 4 slices of bacon side by side.  Lay the loin fat side down, long ways, on top of the bacon and center it.  You're probably going to have to stretch the bacon a bit to get it to wrap around the loin.  Then lay out remaining bacon, side by side.  Lay the loin down, still fat side down, onto bacon and wrap around the loin.  Flip your loin so that now the end pieces of the bacon are on the bottom and the weight of the loin will help to keep the ends from unwrapping.*  Wrap in plastic wrap and allow to marinate for at least 6 hours.

Over medium high heat in an oven safe pan if possible, heat the 2 T oil.  Once your pan and oil are hot, sear the bacon wrapped loin on bacon ends side first.

Once seared, flip so bacon ends are now up and marvel at it's beauty.

Once seared on the bottom, flip so the ends are once again down, and place into a preheated oven (if you don't have a stove top - oven pan, I would preheat the pan in the oven with a smidge of oil) at 350 degrees F for 45min.

Remove from oven, tent with tin foil, and allow to rest for 10-15 min.

Slice, drool, enjoy.

*You'll notice in the pictures that I wrapped width wise and then length wise, but next time I will do length then width, because I think the extra bacon left over when doing width would help to hold the length bacon on.  Confused yet? :)

I didn't know I liked Cranberry Sauce

But this stuff is phenomenal!  Why did I only make a single batch?  Didn't I know I'd want to eat it on everything?!  Pork loin, stuffing, ice cream, graham crackers, cheesecake, a spoon. :)

I have a tendency to think I know better - just ask Super Mom ;)  Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't.  I certainly didn't the first time I made Chicken and Dumplings and thought that Super Mom must be clearly unable to write out a recipe and the amount of flour the recipe called for was not nearly enough and surely must be tripled.  Well, let's just say I pretty much had this going on and no dinner:

In my defense, I was in college and when you're in college, your brain turns to mush.

Back to the sauce

I took a recipe from a great friend and also looked online at the consensus of fruit/liquid/sugar/gelatin ratios and decided to wing it.  We were taking a risk and I knew it...but I had purchased an almost 4lb bag of cranberries from Sam's, so I figured if it didn't work out, I could try again.  And if it did work out, then I could make a few more batches. Thankfully the cranberry sauce turned out PERFECT! :)  

Cranberry Sauce

What's In It:
12 oz cranberries.  I rinsed and froze mine in 12oz bags.  You can use frozen or fresh.
1/2 c pineapple juice
1/2 c orange juice - I used fresh squeezed because I had oranges hanging around b
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c white sugar
1/4 c cold water
1 envelop Knox gelatin

What To Do With It:
Boil the cranberries in the orange and pineapple juice until they are all popped.
If desired (based on your consistency preference) run through a food mill.  I used this one*.
After you have reached your desired consistency, and while your fruit is still hot, add the sugars and the Knox gelatin.  Stir until dissolved, then add cold water.

Chill anything that is left over after everyone in your home has sampled it....5 times.  Also, if someone in your home happens to do a cranberry sauce covered face plant on a stuffed frog, wash immediately and it might not stain.  :)

*Direct Amazon Link I bought this over the summer and have used the heck out of it.  I am a pretty big fan and would say that for the price it is well worth it.  For this sauce, I used the mid sized texture disc.

Early Thanksgiving was AMAZING!

It was a BEAUTIFUL day that was spent outside and in the kitchen.  We watered the garden, had the windows open, played with the wagon and some fetch with the dog, raked some leaves for the compost, and I even mowed the front yard - it's November and I had the windows open and mowed the yard.  This sure is a change of pace from the frozen Tundra. But we are definitely enjoying it. :)

Looking at that picture, I sure do wish I'd put that cranberry sauce into a prettier container....oh well.  Sometimes the practicality of not having extra dishes to wash wins out. ;)

Speaking of enjoying, we all loved Thanksgiving dinner.  Ze-Ra said grace for us and then we all dug in.  Some of us even wore our dinner ;)

I'll be sure to get recipes posted for the various scrumptious components as soon as I can...well, if I can stop eating them long enough to type ;)

Injury or Death Possible

Saturday morning went like this.....

So what'd'you wanna do today?  Wanna go to the zoo like we talked about? Hmmm, maybe we should go on a hike instead, going to Zoos make me so sad for the animals. We'll see.....didn't you say there was a zoo in Charlotte Oh, I never looked at the actual city, I just typed in Charlotte, NC Zoo. Oh, it's not in Charlotte.  Hiking it is. 

And since we're going on a spur of the moment hike, why not head out to Crowders Mountain State Park.  It's less than 20 min from the house and it's beautiful!  Which trail should we hike?  Oh, definitely a 4+ mile trail marked strenuous would be best and absolutely the one with a sign like this:

The pictures will speak for themselves...Te-Man almost made it all the way to the top before he fell asleep.  That's alright though, he woke up before we were finished with our picnic lunch, so he still got to enjoy the view.

 Just getting started

 Ze-Ra on the Rocks

The boys! 

Why are you taking my picture?

You know I won't smile.....haha

Halfway!!!

Te-Man almost made it!

 WOW!

 :)

 Could see Charlotte just on the horizon

 Ze-Ra exploring

Livin' on the Edge

My mountain goats!!

We will most definitely be going back soon!

Ft. Jackson Visit Pics

I got up at my normal time so that I could get things started for the day.  Any time I sleep in, I wake up and have insta guilt and I am completely irritated at myself for being so lazy and putting myself behind schedule for the day.  And I have now been up for almost 2 hours and all I have done is attempt to put on lipstick, hated it, and wiped it off....painted my toenails, fed/watered the dog, and started coffee, oh and I ate a handful of dehydrated apples.  :)

I did not get breakfast started, I did not start on the 3 million loads of laundry, I did not sew, I did not unload the dishwasher, I do not have a witty post to type today.....well, you get the idea.  I just sat here and waited for this....

and it was kinda nice.

I don't want you to feel cheated for stopping by and reading such a boring post, so here's a pic or two of the Te-Man from our Ft. Jackson visit yesterday.   We had a blast exploring out at the lake!  There is no place that little man is happier than outside! :)

We also stocked up on clearance Halloween stuff while we were there.  We should be all set for wigs, haha!   :)

We're having E.T. for dinner on Sunday?!

The Land of Honey is celebrating Early Thanksgiving - this Sunday in fact! WOO HOO!  I have a ton of new recipes that I am so excited to try out and what better way than to have a trial run. :)  

What's on the Menu?

Cornbread Stuffing

Jarrahdale/Potato Mash

Cranberry Sauce

Roasted Pork Loin

Pumpkin Pie 

Now, a trial run implies that you would be making it again right?  Well in order to do that you'd need enough of everything to do so....uh oh. I only had 1 jarrahdale pumpkin from the Super Parents, and the Pumpkin Farm I went to a few weeks back only had one and it was for the display. :(   I also only have one pork loin but I'm not fretting that one...I could always use my trusty Turkey recipe the second time if need be - hopefully we won't blow up any pyrex this time ;) 

Fast forward to today - I left early for picking up Ze-Ra from Girls On The Run because I had a few errands to run....well, you know me and I'm perpetually done early - 25 minutes early in fact.  What's a girl to do? Run to the Pumpkin Farm to get more candy roasters, that's what.  :)  Well, unfortunately, no candy roasters, but they had some other amazing finds.  

 4 huge pumpkins for $10 sounds like a great deal to me! 

Do you see what I see?!  A jarrahdale!!!!  It's the one from the display and it's more than twice the size of the one I already had. I was such a happy girl!

Then, you see the pretty one in the front - that is a fairyland pumpkin that is supposedly good for cooking.  It should be less sweet than the candy roaster and should be good for more savory dishes - I'm thinking a soup perhaps. 

Finally....what are those crazy bumpy ones?  They look like they have some kind of terrible disease....

They are peanut pumpkins! And they totally look like someone crushed up peanut shells and glued them to the outside....it's crazy.  The super sweet Pumpkin Farm lady told me that she doesn't really cook with pumpkins, but her brother does...in fact, he "cooks with them a lot, and he knows pumpkins.  He swears by these peanut pumpkins here".  Well, as much as I am in love with the candy roaster, we'll see how these bad boys pass the test :)

Notice the pork loin in the menu list isn't a link....anyone have any recipes they love and think I can't live without?  I have one, but it isn't really a Thanksgiving flavor.  

No promises on the time frame for posting E.T., I might be in a food coma. ;)  

I need a garden gnome....

He should be in charge of showing off the garden once a week.  I think I'm adding it to my list...maybe we'll hit up a flea market or a yard sale this weekend and adopt one. I think I'd name him Gilly and maybe he'd help me turn this sandy, nutrient void, dessert into a garden! :)

At this point I'm thinking we're going to get some kale, onions, radishes, cilantro, and maybe some beets this year.  The rest of the onions and the garlic will wait til next year.  Everything else will probably end up being some fun organic matter to till into the soil. :)

Here are this week's pictures brought to you by future Gilly the Garden Gnome.
Kale

 

 Started from Seed

 

Purchased Seedling

Radishes

 YUM!

Lettuce

NOT in rows....and not thinned completely yet either.  I figure I'll eat it as a I thin it. :)

Cabbage (with a peak at the broccoli and peas)

Collard Greens

I'll just say it, 'cause we're all thinkin' in....pathetic.

Carrots

See collard comment.

Garlic

There are tons of these little sprouts!!!! I wonder if I should cover them with straw once it gets chilly....

Onions

YEE-HAW!

Cilantro

We need about 12 of these plants to keep up with our cilantro addiction.  This guy will be coming inside in a week or two. 

Peas 

FLOWERS!!!!

I LOVE gardening!