Revisiting the Past: Pork Loin, Mashed Potatoes and Caesar Salad

We have been fortunate to have Walter's parents in town this weekend for a great visit despite the blustery, cool weather.  Last night I decided to revisit a recipe for Herbed Pork Loin that I made back in February.  I made some modifications, which is so much easier to do after having made once.

Pork - it is a beautiful thing

This recipe, courtesy of Paula Deen, was very tasty the first time I made it.  At that time, I used a pork tenderloin, and for the most part followed the directions with the exception of cooking time, which  needed to be reduced.  This go around I bought an actual pork loin.  After seasoning the loin with the fresh herb combination, I placed it on the roasting rack in the pan.  I then added chicken stock to the bottom of my roasting pan (about 1/2 inch deep) and then placed full sprigs of rosemary, basil and thyme in the stock.

The loin baked at 475 degrees for 20 minutes, and then reduced the heat to 425 degrees for 40 minutes (or until a meat thermometer reads 150 degrees in the center).  As an addition this time, I made a reduction sauce from the pan juices that accumulated in the pan.  For those that might be interested, here's how I did it.  Transfer the juices from the bottom of the roasting pan (minus the herb sprigs) to a sauce pan.  On medium high heat, bring the juices to a steady boil. Add grated onion (3 tablespoons), salt and pepper to taste.  Then add 1/4 cup of white wine, and if needed, scrape the bottom of the pan to deglaze.  Continue to cook until the sauce slightly thickens and is reduced in half (about 3-5 minutes).  Drizzle the sauce over the cut pieces of pork.

On the side, we had some of the best tasting mashed potatoes ever.  I warned in the post for Gardener Pie that I would be revisiting Martha Hall Foose's mashed potato recipe.  Less than a week later, that's what we did.  My sous chef Jake was in charge of pulling this together.  Instead of using russet potatoes, as called for, we used small red potatoes (1.5 pounds).  The skin was left on, and we diced into 1 inch pieces for boiling.  From there, we followed the directions to a tee.  These were the creamiest potatoes, and the additional red skin in the potatoes added a little color and extra flavor.

Help in the kitchen is a wonderful thing

Jake is developing into quite a home chef, and has found a great recipe for homemade caesar salad.  We had his salad with steaks on Saturday night, but it was so good we needed an encore last night.  Jake found his Caesar Salad recipe on another blog called Simply Recipes.com.  This is a very simple, yet delicious salad.  We cheated a bit, and bought store bought crostini that we coarsely chopped in place of the homemade croutons.  Otherwise, we followed the instructions.

This was a great meal followed by a Hubbell family tradition -- a heated game of Trivial Pursuit.  Walter and I almost grabbed a win, but Suzy and Jake proved to be the smartest ... this round.