What's cookin' this week?

So simple baked pork tenderloin
We had one of our all-time favorite dishes this weekend. It's a baked pork tenderloin (or any cut of pork like roast, loin, chops. Your cook times would just vary depending on the size.) The key is the amazing sauce that it cooks in. It's almost one of those "guess what is in this" type concoctions because it really doesn't taste like what I'm about to describe.

We served it with the 90 second Uncle Bens rice that I always talk about and some lightly fried asparagus. The asparagus was leftover from the night before when we'd served it steamed (whole bunch only takes 7 minutes in the micro if you put just an inch of water at the bottom of a covered microwavable container.) Since we like our aspragus a little crunchy, it still had enough umph after that first day to allow it to be fried the second day. The aspragus was stored in a ziploc bag so I just tossed in some breadcrumbs, salt and pepper and then fried them on the stove top in a little bit of olive oil. Yummy!

Here is the recipe for the baked pork tenderloin:
1 1/2 lbs. pork tenderloin
1 can cream of chicken soup (can be cream of anything really - mushroom, celery, etc.)
coupla squirts catsup (say 2T)
coupla squirts worcestershire sauce (say 2T)
(I've made this a bunch of times with no measurement tool available and coupla squirts worked just fine.)
Bake in a covered baking pan for almost 2 hours at 325. I took the cover off for the last half hour.

I know it doesn't sound good but trust me when I tell you this one is a real crowd pleaser and as simple as can be.

Today in my Crock Pot - Southwest style chicken
We're switching to chicken since we had pork the last two nights. I have great luck throwing all sorts of pantry items into a crock pot for something different each time. Some staples that work well with crock pots are the cream of (anything) soups, chicken and beef broth soups, french onion and golden mushroom soups, cheddar cheese soup, tomatoes (either soup or diced), roasted red peppers, and crushed green chilis. The dried soups or soup mixes like beef bouillon, chicken bouillon, onion soup and taco seasoning are also handy. Of course, your tastes may differ from ours but these are what we keep around and use every week. Today's crock pot chicken is going to have a bit of a southwest flair to it. This is what I'm cooking as we speak:
- 2 large chicken breasts
- 1 can cream of mushroom
- 1 can cheddar cheese soup
- about 2/3 of a 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
- 1 can crushed green chilis
Cook 8 hours on low, or in my case, 2 hours on high and 4 hours on low since I didn't put them in early this morning.

Party in the Planning
Just a few short days after our New Years fun, we're in the process of whipping up more festivities. This time for Kristin who is turning 40 at the end of the month (but SO doesn't look it). She had no desire to have a party but requested a girlfriend weekend with just a couple close friends with the preference of somewhere warm. Since the whole gang won't be able to attend the getaway, we're going to have a fun pseudo-spa night first so everyone can toast one of our youngest friends finally joining our ranks. We're going to follow Kelly's lead and request that one of our local nail places hold evening hours for our group of about 10. We can bring in a couple little simple munchies and some adult beverages (in plastic cups) while sitting around getting manicured and pedicured together. The real bonus in our case is that the salon is right next door to one of our nicer restaurants so we could tie in appetizers or dinner if the group chooses. A fun time should be had by all.

Then a week later, it'll be off to sunny (hopefully) Sanibel Island for a couple days in the sand with our new beach toes. Doesn't get much better than that. Thanks to all the hubbies for watching the kids so we can enjoy this girlfriend time.

If you try any of our party ideas or recipes, let us know what you think.