Sheet Pan Bacon Pork Tenderloin with Chili Sweet Potatoes

Easy meal for Mother’s Day

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I’ve been wrapping up pork tenderloin in bacon for so many years (40?) that when I see a photo where someone else has done it, I think they’ve stolen my idea. (Perhaps they have but I’m doubtful. The world is large and I’m but one small cook.) Before the bacon method, I sometimes stuck slivers of garlic into knife-made slits all over the meat, slathered Dijon on top, and covered the whole shebang with almost more salt, pepper, and rosemary than was reasonable. Occasionally, and it’s all here on the blog, I combine all those ideas, and lest you think that was somewhat over the top, it wasn’t. Try it! Pork tenderloin, a bastion of easy-cook lean meat with a plethora of ideas for second round meals, remains a stable favorite in my cooking rotation, especially when it’s BOGO or buy one; get one “free.” This time, as the tenderloins — not to be confused with pork loins (scroll down to see the difference)– were two to a pack, I came home with 4 for about $13.50. Best sous and husband Dave divvied them up and vacuum-sealed them to freeze individually. Given that each was between 1 and 1 1/2 pounds of no-fat goodness and great for just about any cooking method (stovetop, oven, grill, air fryer, or electric pressure cooker), I started looking forward to my choice of preparations for spring and summer. First off was the bacon routine because #1 I could do it in my sleep and #2 I had this sweet sweet potato recipe that I knew was a match made in heaven. Having cooked a number of pork tenderloin sheet pan meals over the years, I knew I could put the meat and sweet potatoes all in one pan in the oven and sit down to eat in a half-hour. Meanwhile, I could find music, pour wine, set the table, and make a green vegetable.

Scroll down to IF YOU LIKED THIS... for a short list of my pork tenderloin faves. Type Pork Tenderloin into the search box for more.

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Chicken-Vegetable Wild Rice Soup

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You don’t have to be ill to make chicken soup, but if by chance you are, this week’s Chicken-Vegetable Wild Rice Soup would certainly encourage healing or at least comfort until you were well once more. I’m grateful to be healthy currently (THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! Hope you are, too.) and have not been in dire need of chicken soup for medicinal purposes. I was, however, looking for a veggie-heavy broth featuring whole grains or beans and lean poultry or fish to fortify us for playing pinochle. A pinochle lunch, so to speak. So what’s a pinochle lunch? It’s a simple, healthful meal we prepare to eat together before we play cards most of the afternoon. I mean, we need stamina, energy, and awareness — not stupor from food that sits like a box of rocks in our bellies. The four of us, and we meet once or twice per month, must have our wits about us as we are pinochle newbies and hence have trouble remembering things like a 10 is higher than a king. How could that be?? Who made these rules?? There is also usually a little wine at this meal, you see. Great for digestion and singing a little ditty or two but questionable in its help for our memories, which are sorely needed for pinochle.

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How to Make Quiche out of Just About Anything

French home cooks always seem to have a dozen wonderful things up their sleeves to make on the spur of the moment. Great ideas to use up leftovers come awfully naturally, as well, and they all appear to know about how to feed 6 people with a cup and a half of milk, 3 eggs, a bit of ham, and a handful of grated cheese. How DO they do it? These folks are always frying croutons, whipping up homemade hot chocolate, baking an apple tart using apples from the backyard tree, simmering cream soups or vegetable pastas, stirring up something tasty with canned tuna … or even making quiche! How is it that even carbs aren’t a problem for them? This is proven routinely by the unending ubiquitous photos of yard-long baguettes being carried home by slim citizens riding bikes down tree-lined sunny Paris streets. (Well, right now they’re limited to an hour out a day and can’t go far from home. Sigh.) Over the years I’ve been writing the blog, I’ve read and seen quite a lot about this phenomenon, but staying in France for two weeks a couple of years ago gave me a much more complete and definitely personal insight. I’m finding it all definitely useful in today’s cooking world.

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Friday Fish: Crab Chili

Looking for St. Patrick’s Day Ideas? Just plug “St. Patrick’s Day” into the search window and find my favorites including Irish Soda Bread with Potato Soup, Salmon on Colcannon, Colcannon Soup, Traditional Kerry Apple Cake, and more.

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 Chili has to be among the most favorite and iconic American meals. Yet when I check that out, I find regular old, B-flat chili — the kind many of our mothers made and we still make year-round — doesn’t come up on the list. Green chile is there and so are flat enchiladas and fajitas.  But I truly don’t know anyone, from nearly non-cooks to chefs–who doesn’t have some sort of a pot of chili in their regular repertoire. There are simply now many, many sorts of chili because it soothes the soul and makes us feel rich, full, and as if there’s just plenty eat around here. A good way to feel.

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Black-Eyed Pea Soup with Country Sausage and Cabbage

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New Year’s Day is the perfect time for any old bean soup

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think a long, cold and frozen day nursing a hangover and watching old movies while playing cards with the kids, right?–  but since I love black-eyed peas and my folks were both raised in the deep south, I’m going with those little beauties this year. (For an interesting article on many New Year’s Day lucky food traditions, click here.)

Have my cookbook, Soups and Sides for Every Season?

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