Friday, November 14, 2008

A Fall Meal

Well, I had a fabulous photo of the star dish of the evening - bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin. But, my husband's sub-standard (actually my first digital camera from over 10 years ago!) decided to erase the 2 photos I took of this dish. I have a picture of my father-in-law carving it, but it does not show the sheer lucious decadence. Easy and delicious. C said he couldn't taste the bacon in the pork, but as I frequently attest, his tastebuds have been dying off as he's getting older, and unless it has hot-sauce on it, he's not usually a fan. My in-laws loved it as did my finicky, picky young eaters. I'll be making this again.



Luckily, so you can see exactly how wonderful this dish looks, check this out. Kate's pie-in-the-sky blog is fun to peruse. Here's her picture of how it looks. Go check out her site for more lovely tidbits - I spent a happy half hour looking! Her flickr slideshow makes me dream of our next meal!


To round out the meal I made smashed yukon potatoes, french string beans, salad with dried cherries and blue cheese, and a quick apple slices sauteed with cranberries, maple syrup and a squeeze of lemon.

MERINGUES:

For Dessert: I was short on time and ingredients, so I decided to do meringue cookie kisses with chocolate bits. OOOhhh. My children clamored for more! This recipe was incredibly easy - just one egg white and the results were tremendous! I had halved the recipe, but I recommend you make the full batch, so you won't be caught short. I'll be making these again tomorrow, as I had to promise the little ones that there would be more, and soon! Here's the very easy recipe (I left out the walnuts for my non-nut lovers). You could also add 1 tbsp cocoa powder, put an M&M on the top, sprinkles, whatever you'd like. Here's a photo (taken with my less-than-inspiring camera, but you get the idea....)



Ingredients:

2 large egg whites
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
3/4 cup granulated sugar or a bit less - cookies are sweet!
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup good-quality chocolate chopped into small pieces (can also use semisweet chocolate chips)
1/4 cup walnut halves, toasted and finely chopped


Directions

Preheat oven to 275°F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or use silpat.

1. In a medium, clean, grease-free bowl with an electric mixer on high speed, whip egg whites until foamy. Add cream of tartar and whip until soft peaks form. Add sugar gradually, whipping until peaks are stiff but not dry. Beat in vanilla. Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts (if using). Drop by generously rounded teaspoon 2 inches apart on cookie sheets.

2. Bake until completely firm and dry, but still white, about 25 minutes; you should be able to lift cookies from pan. Slide parchment onto racks to cool cookies completely.

Hope you try one of these!

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