Family Chow Hall

Scrumptious hush puppies - those crispy little lumps of dough with cornmeal and onions in them (they are often served with fish) - can be made in your very own kitchen rather easily.

Last night turned into a “I’ve got to use up all of these leftover” night. My mother used to say, “We’ve got a little bit of everything but not much of anything.” How true that sometimes is.

I had leftover macaroni and cheese, leftover spaghetti sauce, leftover grilled chicken breast, and leftover corn. (And more, but these were the only things I could use.)

The macaroni, spaghetti sauce, and chicken all went into a casserole. I added a little V-8 (I’d frozen a half can of it a couple of weeks ago) and mozzarella cheese. That turned out pretty well.

With the corn, I thought I wanted to make corn fritters, but ended up deciding on hush puppies. Corn fritters are more like a pancake, I’ll save that one for breakfast one of these days.

HUSH PUPPIES
makes 20 hush puppies

3/4 c. cornmeal
1/3 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 t. sugar
half of a small onion - minced (about 1/4 c. or less)
1/3 c. milk
1 egg, beaten
2/3 c. corn
shortening or lard

Combine the dry ingredients - cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt and sugar - in a medium-sized bowl. Next, combine the wet ingredients - onion, milk, egg, and corn - in a separate bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and stir until mixed. Heat the shortening in a deep fryer to 375 degrees or in a pot on the stove to medium heat. To test, a drop of water should crackle and spit when dropped in the oil.

Drop by spoonfuls into the hot grease. If you add too many at a time, your grease will cool and you’ll get soggy hush puppies. Instead, take your time and slowly add one plop at a time until the fryer is full. Turn them after a couple of minutes and take them out when they are golden brown. Drain on a wire rack placed over a paper towel.

Enjoy!

Mmmm… Mmmm… With just a little planning, it’s easy to make a delicious and tender grilled pork tenderloin.

Alright, by its name, we know that pork tenderloin is supposed to be tender. How many times, though, have you made it and it was most defintely NOT tender? I know for me it’s been plenty. In the past, I have heard a lot of comments like, “Good pork, Mom, pass the gravy,” and “Do we have any more potatoes?” or “Didn’t you make gravy to go with this?”

It’s so easy to overcook pork - you know it must be thoroughly cooked, but it seems like a minute too long can toughen and dry out the best cut of pork.

A solution is finally here. (Actually, it’s been here for a long time, this is just the first time I’ve implemented it.)

…BRINING…

Yes, brining. Soaking the pork in a solution of salt water for a few hours before cooking it.

Now, I had to do a little research to answer a couple of questions —

There are differing opinions to both of these question and I would say that there must not be a steadfast rule for either, or else I doubt I would have gotten it right on the first try. This is what I did:

I’m sure that you can brine your pork tenderloin before doing almost anything at all with it, so if you have a favorite recipe, try brining and then using that trusted method. Below you will find the ‘recipe’ that I used last night:

Grilled Lemon Pepper Pork Tenderloin

2 pork tenderloins (they usually come in packages of two)
6 c. water
3 T. salt
1-2 t. Lemon Pepper

Begin by dissolving the salt in the water. Remove the pork from the package and submerge it in the salt water. Refrigerate for 6 hours, give or take a few. Heat your grill to medium-low heat. Now pull the pork out of the brine and pat dry with paper towels. Sprinkle with lemon pepper - no need to salt it! Grill 10 - 15 minutes, turn. Grill another 10-15 minutes. Use a knife to cut into the thickest part and check. There should not be any pink in the center at all. Mine took exactly 30 minutes. Slice into fairly thick slabs and chow down.

Last night this fed 7 kids and 3 adults, but I think we all would have eaten a little more. I’ll say it would serve 6 - 8 happily. I served it with a spinach-almond salad, sweet potatoes, and applesauce for the littler kids.

My sister and her three awesome boys are visiting this weekend and I just love having them here. She drove over 9 hours just to see us, which is no small thing when you are the only one driving.

While here, we have been eating lots of prepared food, quick food, popcorn and we went out for ice cream. I have been doing very little cooking, but that’s okay. Visiting with my sister and nephews is more fun. Last night, seven cousins played laser tag together.

To start off our morning, I got up and made a large batch of waffles. A few months ago, my 12-year old daughter (who loves making pancakes every Saturday) made an interesting discovery. She’d made pancake batter, then we all decided we would rather have waffles. So, we simply poured the pancake batter into the waffle iron and SURPRISE! They were better than the waffles I usually make. Now I have thrown out my old waffle recipe and just use pancake batter every time.

This morning I added some cinnamon and they were very tasty. I think adding some finely chopped pecans would make them even better.

Cinnamon Pecan Waffles
makes 3 large waffles

1 egg, slightly beaten
2/3 c. white flour
1/3 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 c. milk
1 T. sugar
1 T. baking powder
2 T. light olive oil
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 c. finely chopped pecans

Combine everything, using a wire whisk. Plug in the ole’ waffle iron and get going. It takes some time and often they disappear faster than I can cook ‘em. Sometimes the kids are even lined up, waiting for them to get done. Top with syrup or blueberry sauce.

Enjoy! We did.