Kids Party Idea and Tasty Barbecued Pork Tenderloin

Movie Viewing for Cheetah Girls One World Premier
The girly gatherings around the Disney movie releases have been so fun that we're having one ourselves for the August 22 premier of the One World movie featuring the Cheetah Girls on the Disney Channel. Similar to the parties held for the Miley Cyrus Best of Both Worlds 3D and High School Musical 2, we'll have the girls over for pizza and a craft and then they'll settle in for the big show. This movie takes place in Bollywood instead of Hollywood and the Cheetah Girls will be wearing lovely, traditional Indian clothes for the big finale.

So based on that, the girls at our party will be making their own saris for their craft! Using the simple instructions found online (http://www.wikihow.com/Dress-in-a-Sari), we are going to transform 4 yards of tulle into a cute mock-saris for each girl. (Since tulle is only about $1 per yard, it was the obvious choice albeit a see-through one. The girls will be wearing their shorts and t-shirts under it anyway). We'll finish it off with a pin from the Dollar Store and make sure to take lots of pictures.

Pork Tenderloin and Tomato, Vidalia Salad
I haven't been doing much original cooking lately as most of my stand-by favorites are the summer salads featured on my website. I did, however, use a variation of one of the favorites last weekend to make a tasty meat and salad combination.

Tomato, Vidalia Salad Ingredients:
1 package plum tomatoes, chopped (for extra color, use yellow and red tomatoes)
1/2 small vidalia onion, chopped
1/2 cup vinegar (I used a garlic and oil vinegar found at regular grocers)
6 T olive oil
1 T minced garlic
1 T fresh basil, chopped, cut or ripped
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients. After a half hour or more, pour off the liquid into a large ziploc bag and place the pork loin in the marinade. Marinade 1/2 hour or more in the refrigerator. Grill tenderloin 10-15 minutes (depending on size - until the juices run clear and the meat is firm). Serve with the salad as a garnish.

Chicken Do Over

I admit that sometimes the result of combining my favorite ingredients does not work out as well as I had originally hoped. That happened this week with crock pot chicken. The problem wasn't so much the way the chicken tasted but the way it looked. (Crock pot meat isn't always the most attractive presentation anyway). If you don't mind really white chicken, it's worth making it. In the crockpot, I combined 3 large chicken breasts, a can of chicken broth, a small container of ranch, and some garlic bits*. It was cooked on high about 6 hours. Again, it tasted fine and the texture was great. Shaking black pepper all over it worked wonders on the color too!

Since only half the chicken was used on day one, I whipped up a much better recipe for day two. This would work well with leftover turkey or (somewhat bland) chicken. It's a variation on a recipe Aunt Cheri made for us a few years ago and it tasted just as good last night.

Chicken Cream Sauce Recipe
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup cooked turkey or chicken - chopped
chopped vegetables (1-2 cups total)
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup white wine
1 cup chicken broth (or bouillon and water)
2 T. flour
1 can cream of anything soup
1/2 t. celery salt
2 T. butter or margarine

Chop fresh vegetables and cook in a frying pan using the margarine. In a separate container, combine the sauce ingredients (milk, soup,wine, broth, celery salt and flour) and whisk. Add to vegetables and add in chicken and any canned (or fully cooked) vegetables. Cook for 5-10 minutes.

Great served over rice or those frozen puff pastries.

Since I was, in effect, putting perfume on a pig for this recipe, I just used what I had in the fridge for the veggies which was green onions, celery and red pepper. I then added some leftover peas and chopped some cooked corn off the cob. Colorful and tasty.

And even better yet, there's still enough left over for tonight now that all the vegetables are combined in there too.

*I love the crispy garlic bits from the Garlic Co. They are fun in salads, soups and just about any recipe.