Recipe - Pork Tenderloin with Mushroom Sauce

Melt In Your Mouth Pork Tenderloin
with a Creamy Mushroom Sauce (Easy-peasy!)

• Pork Tenderloin (just your average size, approx 1-2 lbs
• Spice blend of your choice (use something with a bit of a kick as the creamy sauce tones it down.) Spice Blend Suggestions - Club House Cajun, Southwest or Spicy Bourbon; Make your own blends with what you have on hand like, combining all or some of garlic powder, chili powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper, oregano, all spice, Cinnamon, nutmeg, thyme
• 1/2 small can Cream of Mushroom soup
• 1/4 cup milk (any fat content)
• 1 tbsp dijon mustard (or any of your fav mustard, grainy, honey, etc.)

1. Completely coat all surface area of pork tenderloin with dry rub spice blend. Let merry in fridge for at least 2 hours up to overnight if possible, but not necessary.
2. Preheat oven at 400 degrees
3. On med to med-high heat in a preheated non-stick pan add a small amount of oil and brown 4 sides of pork tenderloin for 4 minutes each side.
4. Put browned pork on oven proof pan or dish and place in oven for 10 minutes. DO NOT COVER.
5. In small sauce pan combine, soup, milk and mustard simmer on low until pork is done.
6. Remove pork from oven, let rest by covering with foil tent for 8 minutes.
7. Slice pork in 1/2 inch slices and drizzle with mushroom sauce. So tender it melts in your mouth, literally! Serve immediately for best mouth watering results!

***Use as an appetizer by slicing pork about 1/4 inch thick,put on a buttery cracker or crunchy piece of toasted baguette buttered and drizzle with mushroom sauce.

Recipe - Carrots (Side Dish)

Tehya's Carrots - 
Kids love them and they can help make them

• 1-2 carrots per person - sliced 1/4" thick (for more nutrion add parsnips, turnip, any root veggies)
• 1/2 tsp brown sugar per carrot
• 1/2 clove garlic per carrot - minced
• 1/2 tsp olive oil per carrot
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Place carrots in small oven dish with lid or create a pinched tight foil packet and placed on cookie sheet. Sprinkle all the ingredients over carrots.
3. Bake for 30-45 minutes depending on how many carrots are used. Be careful of steam when opening.

Recipe - Chili

Tash's Fool Proof CHILI

• 1-2 lbs ground beef or pork, chicken, turkey or combination of meats
• 2 cans 798 ml/28 fl oz of diced tomatoes (stewed if available) 
• 1 can 540 ml/19 l oz beans (red kidney, bean medley, black beans, chick peas, navy beans) for vegetarian chili (or if you want to boost the nutritional content) add 2 cans of beans and exempt meat
• 1 small onion- finely diced
• 4 garlic cloves - minced
• 1carrot - 1/4" diced (OPTIONAL)
• 1/4 cup or small can sliced mushrooms
• 1 large bell pepper (any colour or combo of colours) -  1/4" diced
• 1 jalapeno, scotch bonnet or chili pepper - finely diced (OPTIONAL, for heat content purposes)
• 2 (hydrated) dried chipotle peppers or sun dried tomatoes - finely diced (OPTIONAL)
• 1/4 cup chili powder
• 2 tbsp cumin
• 1 tbsp ground pepper
• 1 tbsp Club House Cajun spice/1 tbsp Club House Roasted Garlic and Pepper spice (OPTIONAL)
• salt to taste

1. Brown meat, drain and set aside.
2. In small saucepan boil carrots until tender, drain and set aside.
3. Hydrate chipotle peppers in mug of boiling water until tender.
4. In large pot add enough oil to prevent sticking, on medium heat saute onion, garlic, peppers, mushrooms for 5-8 minutes. Add all spices and saute for another 3-5 minutes or until spice aroma fills the room.
5. Add tomatoes, carrots and meat bring to a gentle boil and reduce heat to low. Add beans, cover and simmer for as long as you can. The longer the simmer the greater the chili flavour.

**note** add or remove any vegetable or spice for personal taste. If chili is too thick add water. If chili is watery, cook longer with lid tilted to allow steam to release from pot.

Chicken Wings for the Emotional Eater's Soul

Things that trigger emotional eating:

• Starting a new career 
• Sleeping alone
• Paying for gas with quarters
• April snow
• Emotional eating

All my buttons have been pushed lately. Resulting in polishing off a whole pizza to myself at one sitting and binging on chicken wings til maximum capacity. Why resort to food? I don't know. The impulse is overwhelming, the taste incredible, the result: guilt.

But seriously, why are chicken wings so good. Why can't I resist them even when my reason for eating isn't a result of an emotional breakdown? It's the sauce. Yep, I'm pretty sure its the sauce. Or the dipping. Oh, how I love food that you dip. But just ranch, NO BLUE CHEESE. I really have a hate on for blue cheese. Not the cheese itself just the gooey sauce they confine it to for dipping.

Have you ever seen anyone pull the meat off the bone with their fingers instead of their teeth? I have. You know who you are ;) It's strange and defeats the purpose of just getting in their and embracing the carnivore deep inside. Strangely enough, at first glance this friend of mine would be perceived as a chicken wing shredding machine.

...Sorry, side tracked!

What a week. Finally I get a job in my field. I'm working with some great people and on a good career path for once in my life. But the thought of screwing up this opportunity has left me mentally exhausted and hungry. As each workday ended my anxiety heightened with the anticipation of what the next day would bring. As the anxiety rose so did the number of trips to the fridge. I polished off the pickles, chips, cheese, Sunday ham, pizza and finally splurged on a pub night filled with chicken wings. I must confess I was almost as happy to indulge in a feast of deep fried fat dripping in hot sauce as I was to have the week end.

I need a new vice or at least a healthy alternative. I'm on a mission. A "replace the chicken wings" mission. I'd love to say that the inspirational tales of others are enough to distract me from my present stressful life, but that would be a lie. However, curling up with a plate of something yummy paired with goblet of red to embark on a Chicken Soup for the Soul evening could possibly be a welcomed distraction from life's stressful moments.

Something yummy for the plate needs to be something yummy for the waistline ;) Any suggestions?

"The Ham Bone's Connected to the Soup Bone."

mmmmmmmm Ham! Good ol' salty ham. Sundays, holidays, any day! Paired with gooey scalloped potatoes and honey garlic baked carrots....oh my, I'm hungry! I asked myself how a meal could possibly get any better? I answer- Soup. That's how!

 If you think you don't like ham or you've had ham that is boring and too chewy you must try Guy's (as in Guy's Big Bite from the Food Network) ham recipe. Actually, it's his dad's recipe and while watching him create this mouth watering slab of meaty goodness during a Food Network Christmas special I could barely contain myself from running full force to the store for all the ingredients. By new years my patience had worn thin and I had a family gathering to test what turned out to be the best ham recipe of all time! Fruity, spicy, tender...the list goes on. Just try it for yourself. Try it this Sunday. Make it date. I promise it will be worth it.

That was a great day of birthday celebrations, wrapping up a fun holiday season. In our family we celebrate with food and lots of it! 6 hours in the kictchen and it was well worth it. We ripped that ham to shreads, we devoured a rocky road cheescake in record time and all that remained was a ham bone. One lone ham bone that had too much potential to go to waste. Wrapped tight and waiting pateiently in it's frozen abode I thought long and hard about how to proceed.

Pea Soup? Too predictable.
Navy Bean Stew? Too Charlie.
Garbage? Not a chance.

I got distracted from the bone. Life went on. Billy moved to town. Billy saw the bone. Billy inquired. Billy hates ham. Billy likes soup. Billy brought me fresh East Indian yellow curry from Toronto. Billy wanted to try lentils. Ian hates lentils. Ian likes ham...

CURRY LENTIL SOUP WITH HAM comes to life!!!

This is how the magic happens. I'm unexpectedly inspired. I'll lose sleep over a ham bone, but I'm also entertained, "The ham bone's connected to the soup bone. The soup bone's connected to the veggie bone." I live for this. I'm inspired and passionate and in the end it brings me together with the people I love and we all savor in the flavour of it all. They may not join in on the singing, but hey, I get down.

Lentils, curry and ham together make one unbelievably tasty soup. I created a soup masterpiece!!! (Yep, tooting my own horn keeps me returning to the kitchen!) Mild curry flavour, just enough veggies, firm lentils and smokey ham. All I can say is, mmmmmmmmm Ham!

If I could only be so passionate about the kitchen clean-up ;)

P.S. I'd like to thank Melanie for the Rocky Road Cheesecake. I could never compete with her recipe. Maybe she'll let me post it one day ;) Everyone should experience such decadence!

P.P.S. mmmmmmmmmmm Cheesecake!

Blogging = Chili (& lots of it!!!)

Like one of my favorite cook books, "Rachel Ray 365: No Repeats", the last 2 hours left me searching for "Blogging 365: Layout Template Colours".  Do Tash and Blogging mix? Is this a recipe for disaster? This experiment could end many different ways and oh man, am I ever interested to see the results. 

My first experience with Blogging (the initial layout of the Blog) has left me 3 pots deep in Chili! Should I be worried? How many months worth of beef stew will "linking" and "posting" leave me with?  

Chili is one of my many "comfort cooking" dishes. You may be asking what "comfort cooking" is? Well, it's basically cooking a dish that I can not mess up no matter how distracted I am, how frazzled my brain is or how lost in thought I may be. Alone in my kitchen (I'm always alone when comfort cooking) I make insanely large quantities of one particular dish. 

Depending on how long it takes to reverse my mood or come to a decision, I could end up with a packed tight freezer full of sauces, soups, stews and casseroles, plus  more than enough to feed the neighbors. To lessen the load in the past, I've eaten chili for lunch and dinner for 2 weeks straight. F.Y.I. I lost a few pounds on that diet. Who knew?!

Why do I comfort cook? To cope. Cope with what you might ask? Many things- frustration, aggravation, anger, annoyance, inadequacy, boredom, basically any feeling that isn't leaving me feeling so great. So I "comfort cook". (Which usually leads to comfort eating, but we'll touch upon that subject at a later date.) 

Good FOOD = Good MOOD

If you see me comfort cooking my advice to you is to back away! Slowing and silently retreat. Leave me to my thoughts and never, I repeat NEVER try to talk sense into me. I am probably in a mood that has left a particularly bad taste in my mouth and I am controlling my temper by achieving a particularly good taste in the kitchen. Hence the need for fool proof dishes...Hence the title- "Blogging = Chili (& lots of it!!!)"...There is a formula to my madness...

Difficulty Blogging = Comfort Cooking

Comfort Cooking = Comfort Eating

Comfort Eating = Thoughts of Dieting

Thoughts of Dieting = Comfort Cooking

It's a vicious cycle, I know, but now you see how food, primarily the cooking of food helps me keep my SANITY. Everyone gets fed, the fridge is stocked and my mood lightens. It's a win-win strategy. 

Until I step on the scale ;)

**note**

I will be posting "Tash's Fool Proof Chili" (and other comfort cooking recipes) soon enough. If you are a real chili lover there are a few cook books you may draw inspiration from and include interesting chili tid-bits like:

• Chili Madness, Jane Butel
• The Ultimate Chili Cookbook, W. C. Jameson
• Killer Chili:Savory Recipes from North America's Favorite Chili Restaurants, Stephanie Anderson