Food and Friends

Saturday evening David and I had a lovely dinner party with some of our dearest friends. It was a blur of food and laughter, impressions and speech therapy. Not to forget some pictures of the most amazing bangs I have ever seen (I can't go in to any more detail than that, to protect the innocent ,you know). I also had one of the most lovely conversations about secret eating, a club that I am proudly a member of. Trust me, there will be much more on that topic later.





The theme of the dinner was "Monica trying to cook with soul". Soul food happens to rank among my favorite culinary experiences. I LOVE fried chicken. I LOVE pecan pie. I could go on for days. The menu consisted of Grilled Pork Tenderloin, Collard Greens, Caramelized Onion Corn Bread, Baked Mac N Cheese, and Hello Dolly Bars. I stuffed my face until it darn near exploded.





If only I had pictures to share of the yummy things we ate. Soon I will be borrowing a quality camera and will be posting as many pictures as possible. It will give me a great excuse to have a baking extravaganza. Not that I ever really need an excuse.





Anyway, back to the meal. Here are the recipes, I hope you try and enjoy them.





PORK TENDERLOIN


1 pork tenderloin


1/2 C light beer


3 Tbsp Tamarind paste


1 Tbsp chili powder


1 Tbsp garlic powder


1 Tbsp onion powder





Put the first 4 ingredients in a Ziploc bag and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. Remove the tenderloin from the bag and rub the garlic and onion powder on the meat. Grill for about 40 minutes and let rest for 10 before slicing into this baby.








Collard Greens


I buy pre-cut pre-washed bags of greens from Safeway or Trader Joes. It makes life easy and less gritty.





1 bag of collard greens (roughly 6 cups)


2 Tbsp olive oil


1/8 C champagne vinegar


2 tsp garlic powder


dash of cayenne pepper


hot sauce (my preference is Tabasco chipotle sauce)





Add the olive oil to a large pan or stock pot over medium heat. Add the greens and vinegar, stirring constantly. Cook the greens until they are slightly wilted and bright green in color. Add the garlic powder and cayenne before giving a few last stirs and turning off the heat. Add hot sauce to taste (this can be done to each individual portion or the whole mess of them if everyone who will be eating likes the heat).

Caramelized Onion Corn Bread

For this recipe use your favorite cornbread recipe or mix. I use Marie Calendar's mix (I get a big bag from Costco) that you just add water to.

Cornbread mix and needed ingredients

one vidalia or other sweet onion sliced thin

4 Tbsp butter

Melt the butter in a sauce pan. Add the sliced onion and cook on low for about an hour, stirring occasionally to make sure they don't burn, until the onion take on a nice brown color. Mix the cornbread with ingredients and pour into pan. (8x8 is what I used) Add the onions on top and then bake the cornbread according to the instructions.

Baked Mac N Cheese

I happen to be lactose intolerant so I only get to treat myself to delicious mac n cheese once in a while when I take my Digestive Advantage lactose intolerance pills. It's a good thing to because otherwise I would probably eat it every day and be as big as the moon.

2 Tbsp butter

3 Tbsp flour

1/2 C cream or milk

1 C sharp cheddar cheese

1 C fontina

1 C gorgonzola

1 box macaroni noodles.

Preheat the oven to 375. Prepare the noodles according to the directions on the box. In a sauce pan melt the butter on medium heat. Whisk in the flour until a paste forms. Add the cream and continue whisking, then add the cheese. Whisk until just melted. Add the noodles to the pot and stir to cover. Pour the mixture into a greased 9x12 dish . Bake the mac n cheese for about 45 minutes to an hour or until the top has a nice brown around the edges.

*I recommend adding copious amounts of bacon if you are serving this to carnivores.