October 31, 2009...Halloween!!!

So...over the past 2 weeks, I have been experimenting with ingredients I had never previously cooked with. As silly as it sounds, I had never tried to cook an entire pork loin (or any pork loin for that matter). The result...YUM! I LOVE pork loin! It's so easy to cook and you can do so much with it. I am definitely searching for more of RR's recipes that include pork loin from now on. I've also been making dishes with tarragon. I've always liked the flavor of tarragon, but never used the fresh herb in a recipe before. My fiance and I loved (and devoured) Rachael's chicken casserole with fresh tarragon. Mmmmm... Another new ingredient I've recently tried is tamari, which is aged soy sauce. In some of my earlier blogs, I used regular soy sauce in recipes not realizing that there was much difference between the soy sauce packets I've saved in the junk drawer (you know you have one too) from all the Chinese food take-out we used to eat. Well, now I can say, there is a difference! Tamari has a richer quality as opposed to just a saltiness like soy sauce packets have. I went back and made the Orange BBQ make-your-own take out using the tamari instead of soy sauce packets and it made a huge difference. I highly recommend it.

Here are the recipes I've made over the past 2 weeks including tonight (Halloween):
Oct 31...Deviled eyeballs (LOL...a nice twist on traditional deviled eggs)
Oct 30...Reuben stuffed potatoes
Oct 29...Orange BBQ Cashew Chicken
Oct 28...Honey mustard chicken tenders
Oct 27...Baked Shells Casserole
Oct 26...Philly Cheesesteak Lunchbox roll-ups
Oct 25...Not Your Mama's London Broil
Oct 24...Jerk Chicken (yes, again....my fiance LOVES it)
Oct 23...Split dog foot longs
Oct 22...Florentine Dream Burgers
Oct 21...Rollover pork loin black bean chili (a new favorite)
Oct 20...Indian Curry Roast Vegetables
Oct 19...Roast Pork Loin with Oven roasted veggies
Oct 18...Chicken casserole
Oct 17...Inside out sausage chops (not really a fan of this one, sorry)
Oct 16...Tuna casserole (not as good as the chicken version!)
Oct 15...Maple glazed pork chops with scallion smashed potatoes and escarole
Oct 14...Hot Reuben dip (and leftovers!!!)