Triple Bacon Threat

Often when i am cooking i am actually making a few things at once - for some reason i find this more challenging, but it involves me having an event! I was heading over to my friend Victor's for his annual post-christmas dinner, and he had heard about my chocolate covered bacon and requested i bring some. I had been planning on making potato salad, so i figured i would do both.

Of course i was hungry, so i thought while i was making the chocolate covered bacon and the potato salad, i would make myself a BLT with avocado. You know, just to tide me over until the meal. (and to keep me from eating all the bacon)

Here you can see the assembly. From left to right (chopped potatoes, bacon, cooking bacon, blt ingredients)

I thought since i was making the bacon anyway i would add some to my potato salad. I also used a little of the grease to give it a bit more flavour.

Maple Pork Tenderloin ala Jarred

Jarred's cooking of pork loin inspired me to try it myself. I was a little nervous as i'm pretty inexperienced cooking meat, but i thought that i'd seen it a few times, and i looked up a few articles online - i felt prepared. I decided to use a PC Maple Bacon marinade (pork with pork? sounds good to me)

As a side, and since we had a bunch i made potato salad. My secret to potato salad is once the potatoes are cooked and still warm i soak them in white vinegar for half an hour. I also put in half of the onions i am planning on using. This gives the salad a really nice tang, and allows for a creamy dressing that has a lot of flavour. For the dressing i mixed equal parts mayo, sour cream and dijon mustard along with chili flakes, pepper and dill.

I had bought a bunch of Ontario strawberries, and was inspired to make this kinda decedent salad that i saw once on a cooking show. It is made of avocado, cucumber, strawberries, lime juice and crab meat. You cut everything approximately the same size, then gently toss to mix, dressing it with lime juice and a bit of olive oil.

The pork was a bit dicey as when i thought it was done i cut it open and it was still pretty rare inside. I was terrified of poisoning my family so i put it back on the grill for a while longer, and tented it in foil for ten minutes after. I probably over cooked it, and would be a little less cautious a second time, but it was good and the maple bacon sauce was pretty tasty.

Pork Loin

Ready to Serve

Orangeville Blues Festival Meal

My parents moving up to Mono got us all involved in the Orangeville Blues Festival. My sister and I bar tend in the beer tent each year, and my dad and mom sell tickets. Along with that my father is one of the organizers and writes grants and does the financials.

This year on the saturday after our shift and before we all headed out to the David Wilcox concert a bunch of people headed back to my parents place for a meal. It was very well received! My mother made all of the salads in advance, set the table and had the ribs going in the morning, so when we all arrived we really just had to get our plates and dig in. It was very smooth.

Homemade Carrot cake



Strawberry Rhubarb pie

(the rhubarb was from the garden)

RIBS!!!!

Jerk Chicken

A multitude of Salads

The Table

(its new - isn't it pretty)

We had to have two crock pots going for this one!