Oh, yummy ....supper was great today !!

So, our nearest huge Safeway just underwent a complete renovation... and now is trying to impress us with a Sobey or perhaps even M&M style butcher area. They must have had to hire about 8 extra people... but plenty of them are just standing around. Either they lost customers who got fed up with trying to shop around construction..or nobody is brave enough to ask for different cuts of meat. Seems they prefer little plastic packages.
I noticed today that they had several varieties of stuffed meats and chicken... and thought... well, why not? but...in my case it was "why not stuff my own"? It's cheaper and more tasty. Honestly, it is so quick and easy;just do it yourself. I have tried their stuffed pork chops once ..... total disappointment. Seeing as it is more costly, it better taste great or why bother spending extra? so, off I went to the other section... bought the biggest pork tenderloin that I could find and came home to emulate the butcher's special. (The little pile of string is green crochet cotton... somebody pilfered my kitchen string to do something...and I couldn't find it.)










I sliced it down the center, not all the way through... and also stopped about an inch short of either end just so it would hold together well once stuffed. I then opened it up and made a second horizontal slice inside so that I could open it up a bit more and have more room for plenty of tasty stuffing.










In butter and a bit of olive oil, cook some onions and celery til soft. Add some spices during the cooking... stirring occasionally. This time I also sliced a small Serrano pepper...(hotter than a Jalapeno)... so be a little careful if you use one. I wanted to make the stuffing spicy and tasty don't forget. Add some bread crumbs and a few tablespoons of diced tinned tomatoes and a bit of the juice. Just enough to moisten and give a bit more flavour. If you are going to cook it right away you can stuff it with the warm mixture...but if you are going to cook it later... let the stuffing cool completely before putting it in the tenderloin. Truss with a string going horizontally across several times to hold in the stuffing...or use some small skewers and string. As a matter of fact... you could even do this at night...cover it well, and cook the following day. Before baking... smear Dijon mustard on the meat portion of the tenderloin... coat with some crushed crumbs. I prefer Stoned Wheat Thins for crumbs. Roll them with a rolling pin in a cookie sheet to limit the mess. Press onto the mustard. Lightly salt and pepper. Bake in 350F oven for about half an hour. Of course, this depends on size of tenderloin... and your preferred done-ness.









Oh, then.... as usual, I wish I could somehow get those recipes from the Iron Chef. Recently I saw one with cauliflower. Sliced like this. All I knew for sure was that it was done in a pan with butter... lemon zest and a bit of juice...and some sweetner... I used a bit of honey, salt and pepper... and I used a teensy sprink of nutmeg. I cooked a whole small head of cauli and the two of us ate the whole thing! piggy wiggies! YUM!










and... who do you know that has "envy lunches" like this to heat up at the office and make the guys drool? They still need another veg...but...no cauliflower left tonight! lol...