What Not to Do With a Recipe and also: How to Kick Ass Anyways

I committed the cardinal sin last night with a new recipe. I read the ingredient list a few days before, made a mental note to get the few things I needed, went to the store, and only got one of the things I didn't have.

But that wasn't the cardinal sin. That was venial. Sure it's annoying to have to jet out to the store after work, but still: Forgivable.

The cardinal sin was realizing, after cutting apart a whole chicken*, skinning it, and browning it in oil and butter, while the baby slept and while Todd was teaching kung fu lessons, that I didn't have those ingredients. I didn't even have one ingredient that I was utterly confident of possessing.

The ingredients I didn't have were: Red wine vinegar, sour cream, tomato paste and shallots. I had already realized, still at work, that I didn't have shallots but I stupidly, optimistically figured it perhaps only called for like two tablespoons and could be fixed by adding more garlic and some yellow onion. However, it was 1/3 cup of shallots. Poop.

But what to do about the others? I decided for the vinegar (another 1/3 cup), I'd use rice vinegar with a splash or two of apple cider vinegar. For the sour cream, the only somewhat possible substitute was the butternut squash soup I posted about yesterday. So I used it, 1/2 cup. For the tomato paste, I used about three sun dried tomato-halves. And for the shallots, I just said fuck it and diced half a yellow onion.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is... the recipe was  punch yourself in the face delicious. It took me a long time, an hour and a half from start to finish, and after work, yoga, etc, I was absolutely exhausted. But it was worth it, because it was phenomenally good.

Look, I hate telling people This Is How You Do Something because there's always different ways to every thing out there. I love giving advice but I know 90% of the time it won't get followed, and that's fine. To each their own.  But the only thing that I think everyone should do is to trust yourself, no matter where you are or what your skill level is. And I think that is the secret behind cooking to be honest. You need to walk in that kitchen and know that running out of a spice, or spilling the last of the flour, or having to use stupid soup instead of sour cream will NOT ruin you or your recipe. It just makes it yours.

So go out there get in that kitchen and fight for your right to fuck up your recipes!

*To add insult to injury, the chicken was some funky POS that wasn't a standard fryer but was sealed up in a bag that was filled with chicken broth which meant not only was the sodium content higher (therefore removing some of The Seasoning Power from my hands), but it was uber-saturated, and when I separated thigh from drumstick there was ridiculous aftermath, and chicken blood-water everywhere.

P.S. in case you missed the link up top, here's the recipe: Chicken in Garlic-Vinegar Sauce from delish.com

Pistou Pasta with Chicken and Zucchini

If you aren't a fan of garlic this isn't really for you. Pistou is the French answer to pesto but with less calories. It's merely olive oil, basil and garlic. Delicious! I of course intensified the garlic, and it's only lightly cooked before being served so there you go.

Pistou Pasta with Chicken and Zucchini
serves 2


-Pasta (plus salt and olive oil for the pot)
-1 tbsp olive oil
-20 leaves basil
-1 heaping tbsp minced garlic
-2 Chicken breasts
-2 zucchini (or 1 zucchini and 1 yellow squash), sliced lengthwise and cut into pieces
-1 oz shredded Parmesan, plus more for garnish

I forgot to put the olive oil and Parmesan in this picture, I hang my head in shame:

Get your water boiling and add your pasta. No need to start the other stuff beforehand, because this dinner truly doesn't take long (especially if you have pre-minced garlic). Once the pasta's in, add some salt and olive oil. Interesting fact, the olive oil doesn't keep the pasta from sticking to itself BUT it keeps the water from boiling over, due to it forming a film on top of the water. Interesting, non?

Pistou
-1 tbsp olive oil
-20 basil leaves, finely chopped
-1 tbsp minced garlic

Easy breezy!

Heat 1/2 tbsp in a skillet on medium high.

Look, my beloved tongs! Hi, tongs!! When the chicken is browned, add your zucchini and squash:

I like them to hang out together, share their flavors, get acquainted before becoming my dinner, and then lower the heat a bit and remove the chicken to slice it up:

Deliiiiicious! Your pasta should be done by now but be sure to preserve some starchy water before completely draining it. I just put my measuring cup under the sieve and got this rich looking stuff:

Look at that! Completely opaque and you can see the olive oil, still mellowing out on top. Anyways, now, add your pasta to the skillet, the pistou,  a splash of the concoction above and the 1oz shredded Parmesan:

Toss continuously until everything is well coated with the pistou, and you can smell the garlic begin to cook. If you want to mellow the flavor, keep cooking until it turns golden. Once the Parmesan is basically melted up, throw this stuff in bowls:

All that's left is adding some more Parmesan and digging in like a no limit street soldier.

Butternut Squash Soup - deliciousness

This isn't a recipe, just a rave for a soup I just tried from Trader Joe's. Added bonus: it's only 70 calories so you can do fun stuff to it like add cheese or another protein. Another bonus: it has a mere 90mg sodium, a far cry from the lower end of regular low-sodium soups, around 480mg (and that's just for 8oz, God forbid you want another bowl). Even the original version of this TJ soup had 480mg of sodium, enough to feel significant bloat afterwards. And when you're trying to eat heathfully, a puffy stomach after a light meal is unacceptable.

This soup also has about 45% of your DV of vitamins A and C, has 3g of fiber and 1g of protein. Not bad if you ask me!

The flavors are fabulous but subtle, as to be expected with a mellow veggie soup, so I added a little bit of seasonings. Here was my lunch:

1.5 cups soup (105 calories)
1 dash cumin
2 dashes 21 Seasoning Salute
Black pepper
.25oz feta crumbles
1 tbsp snipped fresh chives

Todd had a taste and said it was super good with a sort of Indian flair. The creamy zest of the feta really sent this soup over the edge into Gourmet Land. I highly recommend not only the soup but adding some zing with spices and some cheese. I bet shredded parm would have been heaven, or even shredded havarti with dill. Mmmmm havarti with dill...

Movies I Watch Repeatedly

I am a happy person, and I like to be happy. I like to think, sure, or be moved, but ultimately, I want a shit-eating grin on my face after a movie. I frequently tell people that I do not want to spend $10 in a movie theatre only to leave feeling worse than I did when I came in. So don't be surprised that No Country for Old Men isn't on this list. That movie made me feel dark and cold inside and I didn't even have the heart to finish it. Plus I hate bad hairdos. Onward to the merry-making:

1. Clue

There are just... I can't even... You just don't know how much I love this movie. I first saw it when it came out, I was six, and my dad took me to see it in the theatre. Wait, maybe that was High Spirits (another awesome as hell movie - hey there Liam Neeson). No, no, I'm fairly confident I saw it in the theatre because it only had one ending. But then, back in those halcyon, Pay-Per-View days, my parents ordered it and recorded it on VHS and got all three endings. I was hooked. I watched it over and over again, and by the time high school rolled around, I was watching Clue nightly, or on rotation with the next two movies you'll see in this list.

For those of you who have never seen Clue, it's hilarious, and with an all star cast. Here's just three of the comedic geniuses, Madeline Kahn, Michael McKean and Leslie Ann Warren.

Mustard: "Who would want to kill the cook?"
Scarlett: "Dinner wasn't THAT bad."

And here's the fabulous Eileen Brennan with Colleen Camp:

Peacock: "Is there um, a little girl's room?"
Yvette: "Oui oui, madame..."
Peacock: "No, no I just need to powder my nose."

And of course, rounding out the cast, hysterical Tim Curry, Christopher Lloyd, and Martin Mull (hidden behind Peacock's fascinator):

Undercover: "But your souls are in danger!"
Peacock: "Our LIVES are in danger, you beatnik!"

This movie is one I have almost entirely memorized and I'm probably the worst person to watch it with for the first time because I want so desperately for you to love it just as much as I do. I'll stop it after a joke and say something like "GET IT?!?!! A MAN CALLED HOOVER? CLEANING UP AFTER MURDERS???" But if you haven't seen it and you enjoy comedies and slapstick especially, then you really should give it a try. The cast makes it absolutely fantastic, and eventually you forget this thing is based off a board game. And in a world where they can remake Clash of the Titans with awesome effects but still make it suck, it's sort of refreshing to know what they could do once upon a time with a board game.

Look how CUTE Tim Curry was. RIP cute face


2. Monty Python and the Holy Grail

I really don't think I have to explain my fascination, adoration, obsession and respect for/with this movie. I mean, you know a person is a genius at comedy when a budget shortage (they could only afford one horse, the one the knight rides while slaying the historian Frank) creates one of the best known gags around, using coconuts for the hoofbeat effects. And to top it off, they added the opening skit to mock themselves and it worked.

It's hilarious, start to finish, and I think everyone, everyone knows these movies and all the funny skits within. I mean, one of the nuns in my Catholic all girls' high school played this on the last day before winter break in her history class, and my English teacher, Sister Mary Veronica, let me out to go watch it because she knew how much I loved it. Now that is humor that can transcend. Although I stupidly asked SMV if she ever saw Life of Brian and her face turned serious and she said it was the most blasphemous thing ever, so I guess it's hit or miss. But STILL. This movie, is a hit. Let's take a look, shall we?

Arthur: "Your arm's off."
Black Knight: "No it isn't."

I could go on and on throughout the whole scene, quoting left and right but this is the first glimpse in this scene of where the jokes are going, and while we know there are three more jokes coming (one arm and two legs), the laughs never stop.

"Come back here, I'll bite yer legs off!"

Bedevere: "And what do we burn apart from witches?"
Peasant (Idle): "MORE WITCHES"

And of course, we can't forget how that whore turned John Cleese into a newt. "......... I got better..."

Now, it could be because I'm French but I'm pretty sure the French scene here is one of the most hilarious in the entire movie.

Galahad: "he says they've already GOT one"
Arthur: "Can we come up and take a look?"
Knight: "Non! Of course not!"
Arthur (or Galahad? ack, I'm slipping!): "Well why not?"
Knight: "Because you are English type-suh"
Arthur: "Well what are YOU then!"
Knight: "I'm French! Why do you think I 'ave this outRAAAGEOUS accent, you silly king?"

I mean, come on. This is just the tip of the iceberg on the hilarity scale of just this scene alone, and I'm not even talking about the wooden rabbit or the finale scene either.

I'm taking up so much space with this single post, I gotta condense but I can't stop without....

The Holy Hand Grenade:

Tim the Magician:

The Knights of Ni:

And the Castle Anthrax ("It's not a very good name, is it?"):

"And then, the oral sex!"

3. The Great Muppet Caper

I feel a little weird adding this movie right after a quote about fellatio but this list is in order of favorites and the list can. not. lie!

Anyways, I've obviously watched this movie ever since I was a little kid and yes, even in high school it was on the famed movie rotation. I woke up to C-Span every morning, after the tapes would run their course (I'd long been asleep). I just never got sick of these three movies.

I'm not a musical kind of girl (except for my love for Phantom of the Opera, Les Mis, Wicked, and all the other muppet movies), but I can't get enough of Muppet movies. In fact, The Muppet Christmas Carol could easily be a runner up but it never snagged me the way these three have, so there you go. But seriously, I pour one out for my homie, Muppet Christmas Carol.

So back to this one. With this cast, where can you go wrong?

And Charlos Grodin and Diana Rigg were absolutely AWESOME working with the muppets.

"People aren't breathing down your neck..."

My favorite line of Lady Holliday's is when she's ranting to Piggy about her deadbeat brother (shown) and Piggy says "Why are you telling me all of this?" and Holliday says, with a careless wave of her hand, "It's plot exposition, it has to go somewhere" and for some reason it struck me as hilarious! And as a young kid it sort of taught me about how movies work, and WHY some character will be talking about something off topic. Because it has to go somewhere! In that way that only kids can get a wild kick out of something only semi-funny, that one hit me.

And I also want to say that I think it was semi-revolutionary, or at least extraordinarily impressive, to have Piggy and Kermit do the bike scene in the park:

And the songs! The best one by far is Happiness Hotel. "If you don't mind friendly animals and can learn to stand the smell then welcome home to Happiness Hotel!"

Little did I know that after a few cats, a 95lb dog and a toddler, I could basically sing the same thing about my own house as an adult.

Anyways. These movies are still big parts of me, my heart, my sense of humor and my fond memories. You know a little more about who I am (maybe more than desired or expected), and I hope you love these movies too, or if you've never seen them, at least give them a shot. And if you have seen them and hate them, then I will just have to start watching them on rotation again to right the bigger wrongs of this world and also to drive Todd insane.

Warrior Dash

I can honestly say that I've never done anything quite like Warrior Dash. It was fun, excruciating, exhausting and exhilarating. The premise of the Dash is a race with obstacles, mud, beer and food, in that order. I wish more of our friends could have made it there with us but to be honest, with a toddler and work and all that stuff, it was kind of nice for Todd and I to just get away together. But it's not the run of the mill date, that's for sure.

What kind of a date requires warrior face paint?

A Todd and Jil date, that's what kind of date! We left Alexandra with her grandparents for the day and the night because we just had this sneaking suspicion that after running 3.4 miles in the hot sun on a summer desert day, battling countless obstacles, crawling through a mud pit under barbed wire and then celebrating with some beer and burgers, we'd probably be too tired to sufficiently take care of a child.

We got there well over an hour before our start time (start times were staggered every 30 minutes from 9am to 4pm) and sort of roamed around. There were SO many people, and as many people as were hanging around you knew there were several hundred more people on the course. The parking area, where the above photos were taken, was so incredibly enormous and so was the course. As we walked into the area, we walked by the portion of the course where you have to crawl up a 25' tall cargo net and an equally tall mountain of hay bales. I started to get a little nervous.

I met up with a couple of coworkers who decided to run it, and then before you know it, it's time to run. We started off at a brisk pace and I think we went close to a mile before the first obstacle, which was hurdling over wooden barriers and then scooting on your butt under low beams, and repeat that about four times. Getting back to a run was hard. Maintaining it was harder. I wasn't able to achieve my goal of never walking, but I did achieve my goal of completing the thing in 40 minutes (I had hoped for better but I walked too much). Todd was my hero, he kept pushing me and motivating me to keep jogging.

The coolest thing, though, I think, was battling that cargo net. I'm not a fan of heights, and neither is Todd, and the top of that bitch was just a skinny 2x6. So you crawl to the top, swing your leg over as if you were mounting a horse, and crawl down. But once I swung my leg over and was on my way down, I was so proud of myself, and I felt damn near giddy. Plus, the short break of being off my feet helped calm down the searing pain in the ball of my left foot (nerve damage) and I was able to run again.

The other obstacles varied from jumping/scrambling over abandoned cars,  running through a wash, the cargo net and hay bales, scaling up and back down a 10' tall wall, and more than I can't remember. But the last two were pretty wild: leaping over two rows of FIRE, yes, FIRE, and then, right after that, jumping in a mud pit, up to your hips, and then having to crawl through the mud pit (complete with horrible rocks and pebbles on the bottom) on your hands and knees under barbed wire.

This is what all of that does to you:

It makes you a motherfucking warrior, that's what.

How to Kick Your Own Ass

I ate myself stupid on vacation and with the exception of a solitary two mile run in San Diego, I didn't work out for two weeks. Now I feel gross, puffy and out of whack. Today starts Back on the Straight and Narrow for both my diet and my workouts.

I love working out and missed it profusely, but even for those of you who loathe the gym, I found two great workout routines that absolutely slay me, in a good way, don't require a gym and take less than 30 minutes even if you do them back to back. You can do all of these workouts at home and with the exception of a medicine ball (which can be easily replaced with any heavy-ish household item), there are no accessories needed. And since they're quick and explosive, they're also really fun.

Here's the first one. I've done it before and then followed up with this beast, also from Women's Health Magazine, and I have to tell you, for the first time in years, since I started exercising actually, my CALVES were sore. I'm used to sore quads, hips, abs, arms and back but never calves. I was blown away. I did a handful of moves from the first workout on Thursday, and didn't get the soreness in my calves (but my quads are STILL dying) so it could have been something in the second workout or just the miraculous combination of both workouts back to back that kicked my ass the way it did.

I hope you all enjoy those workouts and the strength you'll gain from having done them. Now pass me a margarita and some salty snacks, will ya?

When Life Gives You Lemons

When we first moved into this house, the tub drained horribly and eventually we were standing in seven inches of water while showering. Todd called his super awesome plumber Hugh who quickly cleared the clog. Life went back to normal.

Cut to oh, about two months ago when I, Todd's super awesome wife, notice that the water was starting to drain slower and slower. I told Todd, "Hey, you should call Hugh because it's happening again with the drain" and Todd told me no.

Cut to Friday when we are standing in water while showering, when the scummy remnants of a previous shower/bog render it impossible to bathe Alexandra without cleaning it, rinsing away the cleaner and waiting for the large puddle/bog of Comet water to drain, rinsing it AGAIN, waiting for the large bog to drain, etc etc etc.

So I snarl to Todd, over my shoulder as I'm trying in vain to clean this fucker, "WHY DID YOU NOT CALL HUGH WHEN I ASKED" and he said "I wanted to get my money's worth" and I said "I don't even know what the hell that means" and so he waits until Saturday to call Hugh who doesn't work weekends and then calls Calvin who doesn't work weekends. So of course we have to wait until Monday morning. That's the lemon we've been given. Here is the super sweet, super cute lemonade:

Parmesan-Basil Rice Bowl with Chicken and Veggies

Alexandra is finally napping, and I got my nap in too so I figured blogging is the other thing I cannot possibly do while she's awake, so, compliments of Alex's nap, here's today's post!

Rice Bowl with Chicken and Veggies
Serves 2


-1/2 cup Basmati rice
-Olive oil
-Salt and Pepper
-2 chicken breasts (or in my case, one chicken breast and two measly breast pieces- thanks, Fry's!)
-8oz green beans, trimmed, halved and parboiled
-Cherry tomatoes, a large handful or so
-Several basil leaves (but not a shrubbery, more on this later)
-4-5 scallions
-1.5 oz shredded Parmesan cheese

The players!

Please note the size of the bunch of basil. This is what Todd brought me when I asked him "Could you go get me some basil out of the garden, I don't have shoes on right now." He brought me a basil shrubbery ("A shrubbery? It can't be done!" "Noooo he said the word!")

Aaaanyways. Start your rice. Thoroughly rinse your rice in cold water, and I mean, feel like you're wasting a ton of water because trust me, the starch on rice, if it stays there, will create mushy, clumpy rice.  Add rice to a small saucepan, adding 1 cup plus a splash of water, a drizzle of olive oil and a good amount of salt.  Season your chicken with salt and pepper, and heat about 1tbsp of olive oil in a skillet, and set those puppies in there once it's hot:

See that big fat piece on the right and how there's that crease down the length of it? When I flipped the chicken later, after it browned, I jammed my fork into in, pressing the unexposed meat to the kiss of the skillet:

I also semi-stacked the smallest piece of chicken on its bigger buddy in order to keep it from drying out. Now that the chicken is browned and possibly tortured by fork, add your veggies!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, eh folks? Add a bit more olive oil and remove chicken for dicing.

While your chicken rests from the heat for a spell, check on your rice. It should look like this:

Actually since a small amount was stuck to the bottom of the pan, I'd recommend removing your chicken, checking your rice and THEN dicing your meat. But what can you do. So now, take your basil, chopped scallions and Parmesan and add to the rice, stirring it until evenly mixed. Rice, by the way, should never be stirred until after the cooking time has passed or else you'd get that clumpy bullshit I mentioned earlier. Oh, and give your veggies a toss (use tongs!)

Yummmmmm. Turn off the heat, put the back on the pan and leave it on its still-hot burner. Now add your chicken back to the skillet and cook through:

When it's done-zo, plate your rice:

This picture is giving me vertigo, and I feel like the bowl on the right is going to fall off the counter. Anyways, use bowls because this dish is a rice bowl! You're going to want to stir everything together, mmmm. Add your meat and veggies:

Devour with reckless abandon! Ok, I gotta go now. Alex is awake and I have a basil shrubbery I need to deliver to the Knights of Ni.

LOL Forever

From Regretsy.com, which shamelessly LOLs at stuff off Etsy.com:



http://www.regretsy.com/2011/08/21/weekend-flashback-more-cushion-mnsfw/

Kitchen Essentials: What I Fangirl Over

1. Kitchen Scale

This is my beloved Escali kitchen scale. I got it about six years ago from Amazon.com and I think I paid less than 20 bucks for it. I've never had to change the batteries although after a few instances of dropping it on the counter, Todd finally taped the battery cover to the bottom of it so it would stop falling off. Anyways, this bad boy helps me keep track of portion sized, specifically for pasta and veggies. Pasta is one thing we all underestimate and veggies are what we tend to overestimate. Anyways, it also helps when I'm cutting up Costco sized filletts of steelhead and I need to make sure I don't shortchange a serving size. It's WONDERFUL. Not just for calorie counters, but for making food last longer, and that saves you dollars as well as pounds.



2. Ramekins

Oh, oh how I love ramekins. I heat up Alex's food in them, since they're baby sized (and also since EVERY last baby bowl I bought her, the ones that come with lids, have since disappeared. I only know of one's location, and that is in Todd's little humidor, where it sits, half full of water, prolonging the lives of his cigars). I mix marinades and rubs in them. I measure shredded cheese in them. I use them while cooking to separate out smaller ingredients (like scallions and cilantro for pad thai). I store our salt and pepper shakers in them since those things shed S&P the way Patton sheds fur. I adore them. I think I got a set of 12 when we got married, and have since lost a few to God knows what, but I fully intend to get more. Perhaps even different sizes. Oh God, I have yet to wade into and fully immerse myself in the pleasures of multi-sized ramekins. Insert Homer Simpson gagging/drooling/ecstacy noise... here. And here. And here.

3. Rubber Tongs

These puppies have become more and more integral in my cooking experiences. They're of course great for flipping pieces of meat in a nonstick skillet (don't scratch that Teflon!), but lately I'm realizing just how wonderful they are for everything. Of course, pasta is BFF to tongs, especially when you transfer the pasta to your skillet of sauce/veggies/meat/all of the aforementioned and toss them all together to coat. But now I'm leaving my wooden and metal spoons behind in favor of these bad boys for sauteing, stir-frying, tossing roasted veggies while doing an oven check. They're wonderful, they're dishwasher safe, and they're gentle on Teflon as previously mentioned.

4. Cast Iron Skillets

I own two cast iron skillets, and a cast iron griddle and I LOVE them. First of all, they add iron to the food you cook with them! How rad is that, especially for pregnant women who want to avoid taking iron supplements (hello constipation), or for people just looking to bulk up on that mineral? Secondly, you don't have to wash them. Yes, I'm serious! The come seasoned and washing with soap and water strips the seasoning so it's best to just wipe them out with a cloth after using, or with just hot water and a naked (aka soapless) scrub brush. Thirdly whatever you cook in them can intensify the next meal you make, so if you cook bacon in the morning and simply dump out, then swipe out the excess grease with a paper towel, and then decide to cook up some chicken for dinner, that chicken is going to be infused with delicious baconness. And there is NOTHING wrong with bacon infusion. Nothing.

5. Hand-held Blender

Now, I don't use this guy a whole hell of a lot, but only because it's not soup season right now. But the things that are simplified thanks to this Smart Stick are many: soups, sauces, smoothies, baby purees, batters, etc. What I use it mostly for are sauces and smoothies. There's a delightful red pepper salmon dish that I should blog about, and its sauce once required a lot of steps and a big bulky blender, but now I just whip out the Smart Stick and its accompanying measuring cup thingy, blend it all, remove the business end of the blender and put it in the dishwasher. Done-zo! Smoothies are super easy too. We also have the Magic Bullet and in some strange sort of Brand War, Todd only makes his smoothies with the Bullet, and I only use the Smart Stick. The Bullet is tempermental with its two differently-shaped blades, and the size of the container matters for how smoothly the thing will work. None of that fussy bullshit from my darling Smart Stick.

Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Veggies (aka Fast, Facile and Filling)

I made this last night, and as previously noted in the Aleve post, I was sick and didn't want to deal with any sauteing/stirring/monitoring bullshit. I wanted to sit on the sofa and talk about how tired and sick I was, and how brave I was for venturing out of bed. I think Todd listened. I'm not sure.

Anyways, aside from the bowl I used to toss the veggies in olive oil, and the first roasting pan I used before realizing it was too small, this is a one dish meal. And aside from the preliminary chopping and the super fast rub I made, all this is is putting it all in a pyrex and sitting on the sofa to watch TV and complain about how tired you are. Enjoy!

Pork Tenderloin and Roasted Vegetables
serves 2 - 4 (I've already discussed the face-stuffing factor)


The Players!

Honey Garlic Rub
-2tbsp olive oil,
-Minced garlic, a ton of it
-1tbsp dried thyme, maybe more
-Honey, a hearty drizzle at least
-Salt and pepper to taste
-1lb - 1.5lb pork tenderloin (ours was 1.30lb)

Roasted Veggies
-1 zucchini
-1 yellow squash
-1 red bell pepper
-6 medium to large mushrooms
-1/2 yellow onion
-A handful of cherry tomatoes (I like the Mini Pearl Tomatoes - and I also enjoy the pun)
-Minced garlic, not as much as the rub but plenty of it
-Olive oil, at least 3 tbsp
-Salt and pepper to taste
-2 small potatoes

Set oven to 400 if you're using pyrex, and 375 if you're using a regular roasting pan. Okay, so for your rub, add all those ingredients together in a small bowl. I adore ramekins and I keep meaning to post a Favorite Kitchen Things post where they are the stars of the show. But that's another post.

By the way, when I say a ton of garlic, this is what I mean:

All that stuff on my knife is minced garlic.

Add the rest:

I did this to try and show the amounts I used. The globby goodness to the left of the garlic is the honey, swimming in a small inland sea of olive oil. Actually, with that blob of thyme up top, it almost looks like a baby seal. Oh crap, now I gotta try and make it look like a seal in MS Paint. BRB.

What a cutie!!

Anyways, mix all that voodoo together, strip your pork tenderloin out of its condom, I mean, out of its packaging, and put it in the pyrex. Apply rub and place the pork in the center of your largest pyrex:

Shut up you perverts, this is the first tenderloin I've ever had that came with a helmet head. And there was absolutely no angle I could use to eradicate the um, suggestive shape. Onward!

Chop all your veggies except the cherry tomatoes and the already minced garlic, and using a big bowl with a lid, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. You don't HAVE to use a big bowl with a lid, but it makes it so much easier. I like big chunks of mushrooms, and I like doing half moons with my squash and zucchini:

Now, add these tasty bitches to the tenderloin so it will no longer resemble a sad, lonely penis:

Aw, so much better! Now, toss this tasty dish into the oven for 30-35 minutes. If you're not concerned with aesthetics or plan on serving this already sliced, go ahead and commit my favorite pork tenderloin cardinal sin, and cut that bad boy right down the middle to check for doneness. I find this is much easier than running around asking Todd where in hell I put the meat thermometer:

 
Perfecto! Barely a dusky pink in the center, so I let it rest while I ran around getting plates and silverware because I was too busy taking pictures of my food and complaining about how tired I was to do it myself or at least ask Todd to do it for me.

Enjoy! We definitely did. The pork was amazing and the veggies the pinnacle of perfection. We had a small serving of both pork and veggies left so considering how we like to eat, I'd say this could feed four more restrained adults.