Cooking Queen

It's been so long since I've written anything on here! I've been sort of busy. Instead of talking about all the obvious things, I'll go straight to cooking. :) Since I'm now a wife and hopefully one day a mom I have been trying to master the art of cooking. I use to hate cooking maybe because I have no patience for something when its product is devoured and its left overs thrown away or put in a refrigerator. It's not at all like anything else I'd rather be doing when I have a finished product that lasts. On the other hand, I hate that I'm not a good cook! So my goal after the wedding, among a million other goals, was to learn and maybe actually grow to appreciate the process of cooking. Before the wedding I was a pro at cooking tacos. Ask anyone. And eggs, I make great scrambled eggs....Yes that's about it. It stops there. :)

Because I don't have the patience for it, I decided that I'm going to stick to short and sweet recipes, basically anything that doesn't take longer than 30 minutes to prepare and put in the oven. I want recipes that produce great dinners fast. I want to find and master thirty one recipes like this so that in the end, I would possibly be able to cook a different meal every day of the month. I know it sounds crazy but I have plenty of time to learn and I won't have to learn by myself. My husband (I feel so weird typing that) loves to cook, so together we are working on it.

Last Sunday, Jason and I decided to pick a random recipe and cook it. Jason chose a Pork Tenderloin and Roasted Grapes recipe from my Good Housekeeping book and it seemed simple enough. We set out to the grocery store and came back determined as ever. We decided to change a few things in the recipe and it still turned out amazing. I'm posting the recipe on here because I think you should try it. It's ridiculously easy and has so much flavor. As you may or may not know, I'm not a fan of leftovers. Slowly but surely I am changing my ways. The leftovers from this pork recipe were awesome! I give the recipe an A+ and the leftovers an A- (a minus because they are after all leftovers), so this means this is offically my number 1 recipe of the 31 fast meals I want to know how to make. Here it is:

1. Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Grapes

1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed - Jason and I just bought a bottle of whole fennel seeds and then smashed them on a cutting board with a meat tenderizer thing. :) Hey, don't judge. I'm sure there are easier ways but at that particular moment, it was all that we could come up with.

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

1 pork tenderloin (1 pound) - We used a centercut pork tenderloin.

2 teaspoons extravirgin olive oil

3 cups seedless red and green grapes (about 1 pound)

1/2 cup chicken broth

1. Preheat the oven to 475*F. (we did 450* because we have a gas stove.) In cup, with fork, stir fennel seeds, salt, and pepper. Use to rub all over pork.
2. In 12- inch skillet with oven safe handle (if skillet is not oven safe, wrap handle of skillet with double layer of foil.) heat oil over medium-high heat until very hot. Add pork and cook five minutes, turning to brown all side.
3. Add grapes and broth to skillet; heat to boiling. Cover and place in oven. Roast until meat thermometer inserted in center of roast reaches 150*F, 15 to 18 minutes (we did 17 min. and no thermometer). Internal temperature of meat will rise to 155*F upon standing. Transfer pork to warm platter.
4. Meanwhile, heat grape mixture to boiling over high heat; boil until liquid has thickened slightly, about 1 minute. Slice pork; serve with grapes and pan juices. Makes 4 main-dish servings.

Each serving: 245 calories.

I hope you try it and enjoy it as much as we did!