Cheap, healthy, delicious PORK!

In the spirit of crazy politics and a faltering economy, I'm on a big pork kick lately.
I figure since D.C. politics are into spending on pork projects, and I have so little money to spend, pork is the perfect protein to purchase at the grocery.

Toast to Tidewater, a beautiful community cookbook from the Junior League of Norfolk-Virginia, has some really fab pork recipes. I'll share these two. They both highlight fall produce and would make wonderful meals on a rainy fall night or special weekend meal.

So here's to pork! Pig out!

Dijon-Maple Pork Tenderloin with Apples – pair with Rockbridge Vineyard Riesling
Ingredients
1 package of pork tenderloin (2 per package)
¼ cup Dijon-style mustard
6 tablespoons maple syrup, divided
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
4 Granny Smith apples, peeled and cut into wedges

Directions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Mix Dijon-style mustard, 2 tablespoons maple syrup, rosemary, salt, and pepper to make a sauce.
- Cover tenderloin with sauce.
- Cook in roasting pan in preheated 325 degree oven for approximately 25-35 minutes, or until internal temperature reaches 160 degrees.
- Cook Granny Smith apples in large skillet on high heat until brown.
- Stir in remaining 4 tablespoons maple syrup.
- Serve with pork.


Autumn Pork Tenderloin – Pair with King Family Vineyards Michael Shaps Viognier
Ingredients
1 ½ pounds pork tenderloin
½ teaspoon salt or more as needed
2 cups apple juice (or enough to cover the tenderloin in the baking dish)
1 cup apple butter
½ cup brown sugar
4 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves

Directions
- Prick pork tenderloin all over with a small knife.
- Sprinkle pork with salt; place in a 13 x 9 x 2” baking dish.
- Pour apple juice, to cover, over pork and let stand for at least 30 minutes at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to several hours.
- Mix apple butter, brown sugar, water, cinnamon, and cloves in a separate bowl; set aside.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Drain apple juice from baking dish.
- Bake pork in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes.
- Remove pork from oven; brush with apple butter mixture.
- Return to oven; bake for additional 10 minutes.
- The internal temperature of the pork when done should be between 160-165 degrees; do not overcook.
- Let pork sit for 10 minutes before carving and serving.

Nostalgic for Pot Roast

It was a ritual at our house to have pot roast on Sundays.

My wonderful family was like the many other American families that have always minded its grocery bill, recession or no.

Pot roast is delicious, feeds a whole family, and even leaves leftovers, all costing maybe $30 at the most.

So on Sundays, Mom would throw a mean chuck roast, lots of red potatoes, carrots, celery, any other vegetable that needed to be used, a lot of spices and tons of garlic into the crock pot and turn it on "low."

We'd roll off to Sunday School and church for a couple of hours. The house would smell and feel amazing when we'd get home and change out of our Sunday clothes. Mom and Dad would go about working on the house or in the yard. I'd help them, do homework, whatever - but we'd all busy ourselves until dinnertime - like we had to stay occupied because we couldn't wait to eat. The roast would slow-cook all day, the smell only getting better and richer throughout the house.

We rarely ate dinners together at the table. But on those Pot Roast Sundays, Mom would make garlic toast as the rest of us would fix our plates, and we'd all sit down together at the table to enjoy what we'd been waiting all day to eat.

It was a really simple thing - a pretty simple meal really - but a time we spent together, enjoyed together, and were thankful for. It's a little nostalgic memory that means a lot to me.

I found this recipe for "Slow-Cooker Pot Roast" in Recipes Worth Sharing, a new compilation cookbook that honors community cookbooks and is loaded with simple, delicious recipes that don't cost much to create.

For old-times sake, I enjoyed this recipe last Sunday and have actually been digging on the leftovers all week. It's a fabulously easy, inexpensive recipe that yields tender meat and tons of flavor. Start your own tradition.

Slow-Cooker Pot Roast
Ingredients
- 1 (3-pound) boneless beef chuck roast - 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 large garlic cloves, sliced - 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour - 1 teaspoon prepared horseradish
- 1/2 teaspoon salt - 1 teaspoon prepared mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper - 1 bay leaf
- 1/3 cup olive oil - 8 small read potatoes, peeled (about 1 1/2 pounds)
- 1 1/2 cups red wine - 8 carrots, peeled and quartered
- 1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce - 3 ribs celery, chopped

Directions
- Cut the roast into halves and make small slits in the top of each half. Insert a garlic slice into each slit. Coat the roast with a mixture of the flour, salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and brown the roast on all sides in the hot oil. Place the roast in a 6-quart slow coooker and add the wine and onion. Mix the tomato sauce, brown sugar, oregano, prepared horseradish, prepared mustard and bay leaf in a bowl and pour over the roast. Add the potatoes, carrots, and celery and cook, covered, on Low for 8 hours. Discard the bay leaf before serving.

Serves 6+++

Leftovers make great sandwiches or are delicious mixed as a sort of goulash with jasmine rice.

Cookbook Industry's Economic Forecast Strong

This article from Kim Severson of the New York Times will hopefully blow your mind and excite you too.

Severson touches on many points that I myself have discussed in casual conversation from time to time - the quality of mass-produced food products; the almost 21 million people in our nation with diabetes and the junk food many of them are eating; lack of subsidies for organic farmers, government subsidies for cheaply-grown commodities and the agricultural industry's reliance on oil and petroleum to harvest and transport massive amounts of grains, sugars and animal products (once known as 'meat') - and all the very complex mutual relationships that exist among those bureaucracies, etc.

Those are all very broad, complicated and multi-faceted issues, but there are, in my opinion, some bottom lines I'd like to discuss:
1.) It's hard to trust in the nutritional value of anything you buy in a grocery store.
2.) Anything that's pre-made and pre-packaged is going to cost more and likely hold less nutritional value than a meal made 'from scratch'...so why would you pay more money for something that's processed, might alter your genetic code, contains unnatural substances like preservatives, and really only tastes decent because it has more sodium in it than a cow's salt block?

Well, one answer is that people in our society buy and eat these processed foods because they're convenient and we've either been programmed or programmed ourselves to identify them as "tasting good."

(Funny side story here: I always use that nasty, calorie-free spray butter. I was eating dinner at a friend's recently, and inquired as to what was done to the rolls to make them taste so good. The answer: "I put real butter on them."
Well holy cow.)

Points are these:
1.) While fast food is kind of fast, cooking your own meals and preparing your own food really doesn't take any more time than a 10 minute wait in the drive-thru. The end result is much healthier and satisfying too.
2.) Consuming real food with as few false ingredients or contaminants - i.e. locally or regionally grown vegetables, meat from local butchers that actually looks and smells like meat, locally harvested organic butter, milk, and cheese, beans, unprocessed rices, etc. - all of these things are healthier, and while some organically grown products may cost more, it can be argued that their sale helps local economies, and their consumption will save you from a heinous doctor bill, sooner or later.

So why doesn't everyone jump on the organically grown bandwagon?
As Severson points out, the cost of food is rising, and the dollar menus may remain appealing to Americans as their pockets get tighter, along with their pants.

I would argue, however, that along with my previous point that cooking at home really isn't that time-consuming, buying real food products to cook at home really isn't that expensive.

Ingredients for red beans and rice won't run more than $15, will yield enough tasty grub for a good number of people, and the dish is filling and pretty basic.

How to make red beans and rice? Well, here's where the cookbook industry comes in.
There are thousands of cookbooks with hundreds of recipes in them. If people do start seeking the value of real nutrition and real foods, and putting forth the effort to cook at home and save their health, then the cookbook industry will be a great resource for millions.

Shameless plug: Cookbook Marketplace is a great place to start one's cookbook collection.
It's my theory that while you might spend $20 on a cookbook, you'll save on grocery and health-related bills in the long run. Plus, you'll enjoy tastier food.