Misadventures with Tori

Everything’s been going terribly wrong in my kitchen this week…. so I thought my blog needed a new name.

First there was the pork…. OH so tasty… but it was RED! (still not sure why.)

Then there were the snickerdoodles… Who knew that the margarine wouldnt substitute for butter and would make them REALLY runny? not me! (the WC girls did…. but they’ve got an abnormally high cooking IQ.)

Oh the Rootbeer Float cupcakes were the worst…. ugh.
First, I couldnt find the extract.
Then I didnt have the liners + baking powder. (idk where it ran off to!)
Then they overflowed b/c my cream of tarter didnt rise.
I followed the glaze’s directions… and it was WAY too sugary.
It wasnt a glaze.. more of a sugary frosting. (think cinnamon roll frosting.)

Needless to say… its been a BAD week in my kitchen. (LOL)
I’m still kicking and fighting though…. I hope it only gets better from here! :) 

Its here, installed and working! Life is good!!!
(now, if only the rest of the kitchen was as awesome :))

Stuffed Pork Tenderloin - courtesy of AllRecipes.com

One of the reviews used boxed stuffing, so that’s what I did! 

INGREDIENTS
1 box Stove Top stuffing for Pork
4 celery ribs, chopped (I used two)
1/2 apple, diced
or
4 celery ribs, chopped
1/2 apple, diced
1 small onion, chopped
2 tablespoons butter
6 cups cubed day-old bread
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 (1 pound) pork tenderloins (mine was 1.3 lbs, so I cut it in half)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS
In a small skillet, saute celery and onion in butter until tender.
In a bowl, combine the bread cubes, celery mixture, apple, salt and pepper; set aside.
If you’re using boxed stuffing, prepare according to box and let sit.
While its resting, cut the apple and celery.
IF you dont care for crunchy celery, saute it a bit.
Mix everything together.
Cut a lengthwise slit down the center of each tenderloin to within 1/2 in. of bottom.
Open tenderloins so they lie flat; cover with plastic wrap.
Flatten to 1/2-in. thickness.
In a large skillet, brown pork in oil on both sides over medium-high heat.
Spoon stuffing onto one tenderloin.
(If you use box stuffing, you’ll have a bit less than 1/2 left. We heated it back up and ate it as a side.)
Top with the second tenderloin; tie with kitchen string. (I didnt have any and it sucked! I had to use toothpicks… not as pretty… and it was hard to get apart.) 
Place on a rack in a shallow roasting pan (or Pyrex).
Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 50-60 minutes or until a meat thermometer inserted into meat reads 160 degrees F.
Let stand for 5 minutes before slicing.

This is great… if you eat it all together. The pork on its own is a bit bland. I’d recommend a mild marinade for the pork before cooking.

Pork pre-slicing - it looks RED! I thought I’d seriously botched something up.

Look what DH and I bought….

I’m soooo excited! Its cooking now so we can have cotton candy while we watch our movie!  

DH making cotton candy :

well… kinda!

Our wedding (and my car accident - LOL) made Motor Trend!

For your laughing pleasure : the article!

Our friend Emily makes monsters for MINI folk to keep in their cars as co-pilots/companions. She just did an update and ours are on there!

Meet Juju and Karma
(relaxing in a bed of daisies and filler left over from our rehearsal dinner) 

She’s got more that need a good home…. email for adoption info!! (shameless plug for her!) 

From Em….

About 2 months ago I went to my friend Krystees’ house where I noticed some craft books on how to sew nifty little creatures. They were cool but I decided “Fuck that! I don’t need patterns!” so I had the brilliant idea to pick up sewing after not touching a sewing machine for about 13 years!!! Well this is what happened. I made some little monsters from the depths of my brain and put them on a website I belong to. Originally there were 23. I didn’t even know if people would like them…well in about 3 days they were all gone!!! I am now nearing 100 of these little guys.

I wanted to offer them to the rest of my friends. They are $25 each (standard shipping is free,for priority please add $4.80), I accept paypal to emilymartian13@earthlink.net.

If you would like to be put on the list please send me a message or paypal (payment puts you higher on the list). Please include any special requests or suggestion (i.e. colors, number of eyes, etc…but don’t go to crazy).

As of right now I have about a month turn around time (time may very due to amount of people on the list)

Here are some examples…you can find more that have been adopted in my Monster Adoption folder.

Thanks for looking
Emily “StoopidGirl” Martian
http://www. rogueminis. com

A friend of ours made this for us at the Dragon… and it was GREAT! I seem to have botched it up… its more mild and only okay… the potatoes took forever, and the shrimp got a bit tough. Next time, I’ll have to add something to make it better. (the flavor is good, just REALLY mild.) 

Shrimp Boil (ala Deborah)

4 TBSP of salt (we used sea salt) 
1 box Zatarain’s Crab and Shrimp boil (I kept the bag closed, I’d recommend opening it.)
1 pound shrimp (we used pre-cooked because it was cheaper… but whatever works.)
1 pound crab (recommended, our market was out, so we skipped it.)
5 potatoes (we used white and quartered them. I’d recommend using SMALL ones and cutting them into bite sized chunks so they cook faster.)
3 ears of corn (I broke them in half)

The box’s directions-
Boil 3 quarts of water and add 4 TBSP of salt.
Once it’s at a rolling boil, throw your shrimp in and let them boil for a minute.
Add everything else and let simmer in water until cooked.
(ours took about 20-30 minutes.)

I’d recommend starting your potatoes first, then adding your corn and shrimp a few minutes before its done. 
Also, let it sit in the water a few minutes… this made the flavor much stronger! :) 

no recipe even needed! homemade burgers +fries… mmmm

Karen over at LovestoEat , tagged me, and now I’m “it.” (Make sure you check out her blog)

1. Why did you start your blog?DH bought me a website a while ago… and I would randomly blog things as I found em. I just deleted it all and started it over as a cooking blog so I could participate more on the What’s Cooking board.

2. How did you come up with your blog name? blog.websitename.com - VERY creative… i know.

3. Do your friends and family know about your blog, and what do they think? Nope… Its only been up since Sunday… so I’m slowly telling friends as I talk to them.

4. How do you write posts? as I think of them.

5. Have you ever had a troll or had to delete unkind comments? nope!

6. Do you check your stats or care how many people read your blog? If you care, how do you increase traffic?Yes- I love to know people are actually reading what I put out there!

I wonder who I should tag? Let me find a ton of new ones… I’m going to tag some of my favorite WC nesties!

the lovely TPOX of tacobake : Proceed with Caution

baking blonde that makes my thighs grow with each lovely entry : Baking Blonde

katie of the amazing scones : Good Things Catered 

Here’s some TacoBake for you!
Enjoy!