Crock Pot: Brown Sugar and Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin

Slow-cooker recipes are always something I'm on the hunt for. I get an immense feeling of gratification when dinner is already in the works by 9 am. I especially love when a crock pot recipe doesn't call for me to chop vegetables or brown meat first. Just more or less toss in the ingredients and head off in pursuit of other things to scratch off the to-do list before the baby wakes up from her nap or I have to run and pick up her big brother from preschool.

Tonight I decided to invite my parents over to be guinea pigs...and to watch home movies from about 38 years ago. My parents and husband really liked the pork and especially the glaze that is brushed on the pork while cooking and then also served on the side. It smelt great while cooking. The pork shredded so easily. The only suggestion I received was to cook it for a shorter amount of time. That's the problem with crock pot recipes. This recipe instructed me to cook on low for 6-8 hours. Two hours is a big swing. I set the timer for 6 hours and we ate at the 7 hour mark. Shouldn't the pork stay tender for another hour...or even better, get even more tender with more time? They all said they'd enjoy it again so I've adapted the recipe for 6 hours on low. Only six.

Here's a question my Mother asked me during dinner...was this pork loin or pork tenderloin? Hum. I studied this in college but that I was a long time ago. I'm a vegetarian and I haven't retained a lot info regarding cuts of meat since I never eat them. Is there a difference? Yes. I'll let you google the question for the answer. This recipe calls for pork loin and I used pork tenderloin. Maybe, just maybe, my pork would've been moister had it been a loin. I guess I'll have to try it again to see. Anyone want to be a guinea pig? ;)

By the way - the preschooler ate it! He didn't give it the "thumbs up" or "thumbs down". He kept his thumb in the neutral position. I'll take it.

Ingredients

1 (2 pound) boneless pork loin

1 teaspoon ground sage

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 clove garlic, crushed

1/2 cup water

Glaze

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons soy sauce

Directions

1. Combine sage, salt, pepper and garlic. Rub over roast. Place in slow cooker with 1/2 cup water. Cook on low for 6 hours.

2. About 1 hour before roast is done, combine ingredients for glaze in small sauce pan. Heat and stir until mixture thickens. Brush roast with glaze 2 or 3 times during the last hour of cooking. Serve with remaining glaze on the side.

http://www.candcmarriagefactory.com/2011/01/brown-sugar-and-balsamic-glazed-pork.html

Tilapia with Balsamic Butter Sauce, Thyme Mashed Potatoes and Hericot Vert

Fish is on the dinner menu once a week and the hubby likes Tilapia for it's light texture and flavor. I found a tilapia recipe that seemed easy enough to make in Bon Appetit magazine back in January 2007. If you've been following my blog here and there then you know I've been trying to plan a dinner menu a month at a time and I'm trying recipes that I've been saving for years that I've never prepared before. Here's one of those recipes. I wish I hadn't waited so long because the feedback was possibly the best I've received from my husband in the 9-10 years we've known each other.

I had a few problems making this dinner...well, three. The third problem involves FIRE, but I'll get to that in a minute. Oh wait! Four problems come to mind. I can't believe this meal made it to the table and the feedback I got. I should've thrown in the towel over and over again.

So I gathered up all the ingredients that I needed to successfully prepare a wonderful meal. I started by boiling the potatoes for the Thyme Mashed Potatoes. I've cooked boiled potatoes hundreds of times. It's not hard and 20 minutes is all you need. 20 minutes is all the recipe called for. 20 minutes is all I cooked the potatoes for. But, wouldn't you know it? I messed them up, kind of. If I had been making anything other than mashed potatoes I would've needed to head back out to the grocery store.

When I went to drain the potatoes, they were a mushy mess. They practically mashed themselves as they boiled away. I guess it made my job easier, but they looked rough. To mess up the THYME mashed potato recipe further, as I was mincing the thyme I noticed something seemed off. No, I didn't buy the wrong herb. It looked like thyme, but it smelt so good - like flowers or lemons. I checked the container it came in and sure enough, it was lemon thyme. Okay - not a total disaster, but not what the recipe called for. What ever - a hint of lemon sounded nice with a fish dish.

So with two disasters down and two more to go, including the one with FIRE, it was time to get the Balsamic Butter Sauce going. In a small sauce pan I put in the 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar and the minced garlic. The recipe calls for this to simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes. I needed to start on the fish so I turned the heat down and let it simmer away...until I smelt, nope, not FIRE, but a burning smell. My sauce was turning into charcoal in the pan. Crap! Again, not a complete disaster because I had plenty of balsamic vinegar and garlic left and I just needed to dump it and scrub the pot clean.

So, with three disasters dealt with I moved on to preparing the fish. The fish was not frozen. The instructions called for the pan to be heated on HIGH with a TBS of oil. Not a problem, but when the oil was starting to smoke I felt that the temperature was up too high. I turned it down a bit and added the fish. Well, I guess the pan didn't cool down enough and the fish was cooking very fast. I added some more oil to keep the fish from sticking but the kick back from the oil was crazy. It was although I was cooking something frozen in the pan. Oil was shooting everywhere. I was gentle shaking the pan back and forth to prevent the fish from sticking when all of a sudden, you guessed it, FIRE! Flames were circling around my electric flat top stove. This isn't a gas stove so I was a little freaked out. I called out to my husband, who had no idea I wanted a new kitchen remodel this badly! By the time he got to the kitchen, everything was under control again and no damage was done. I have a handy fire extinguisher, but luckily I didn't need to use it.

I shewed my husband back out of the kitchen and finished cooking the meal. I presented it after all of my near-secret disasters and heard nothing but great feedback. The fish was cooked perfectly, the potatoes were seasoned perfectly and were so smooth, and the sauce was incredible. The meal was truly restaurant quality. Hearing all of this made the whole effort worth it!

http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2007/01/tilapia_with_balsamic_butter_sauce_thyme_mashed_potatoes_and_sugar_snap_peas