Beefy Vegetable Soup!

   So the other day I threw together a soup that turned out amazing! I was pretty proud of myself. I hadn't been grocery shopping yet that week and had some things that I needed to use up so I made this soup on the fly. It turned out delicious! Obviously I threw a bunch of stuff in it but you can substitute anything you would like. Maybe it will inspire you to make your own soup on the fly with stuff you already have in the kitchen! :-)

  I started out with some stew meat I had left over. I seasoned it up with salt and pepper and browned it in my pan. Not to cook it through but to "braise" it basically. 

I fried up a few pieces of bacon I had then set those aside. 

 

   I chopped up some celery, carrots and red onion and sweat them out a bit. 

   Then I chopped up the rest of the huge zucchini I got out of my garden and a few red potatoes. Then I grated in about 4 cloves of garlic.

 

   After I let that cook out for a couple minutes I added two cans of white beans, one can diced tomatoes and one can if corn. Add them with all their juices then add four more can fulls of water. I also added some of my cherry tomatoes and diced up some of my other tomatoes from my garden. 

 

   After I added all of that I thought why not add that little bit of ground beef I had left over. So I browned that up and added it to the soup with the stew meat and diced up bacon. 

   Now let it all simmer for 45 minutes to an hour so your stew meat can get super tender. About 10 minutes before I was about to serve I added 3/4 cup of my favorite pasta for soups. Acini Di Pepe. 

 

   Now just serve it up!!! 

   See how easy that was?? It was super delicious! Make sure you season this with salt and pepper to your liking. If I would have had some fresh parmesan I would have grated some up on top. Mmmm! 

I know it's summer but we love to enjoy all types of food year round. People think we are crazy because we BBQ with a foot of snow on the ground and eat soups in the winter!! I don't mind it a bit! ;-) 

  Hope you all enjoy! 

Mandarin Pork Loin Roast!

   So I have several posts I need to make but the other night I made this recipe and just couldn't wait to show you guys. This is something my mom made when I was younger and still makes to this day. I was craving it and decided to give it a shot. Now of course it always tastes better when mom makes it but I was pretty proud of myself for how well it turned out. It definitely hit the spot! 

   Start out with a boneless pork loin. Mine was about 4.5 pounds. Preheat your oven to 350. Place your pork loin fat side up in your pan and season with a little salt. Mix up about 4 large cloves of garlic (I grated mine up), 1 tsp cracked black pepper and two Tblsp dried rosemary. I used rosemary from my moms garden that I had dried out. 

   

   Spread that mixture over the fat of the pork evenly. 

   Bake this at 350 for about 45 minutes. 

Mix up your glaze while this is baking and let it sit and marinate together. 

Stir together:

1/2 cup orange marmalade

6 Tblsp orange juice. (I used fresh)

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup ketchup

2 Tblsp honey

2 1/2 tsp ground mustard

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

2 large cloves of garlic (I grated mine)

  Stir together and let it sit until you pull the pork out.

 

   Pull the pork out after 45 minutes. It will have a beautiful crust from your rosemary, garlic and pepper rub. 

 

Pour 3/4 of the glaze over the pork loin then top it with 1 can of drained mandarin oranges. (As you can tell I used two cans but it's totally up to you!) 

Bake for another 30-45 minutes (pour the rest of your glaze on about half way through) or until your pork is 145 degrees or so.  If you cook it anymore than 150 your pork can become dry. Mine came out at about 145 and was very moist. 

 

   Make sure you let the pork loin rest for about 10 minutes before slicing into it so the juices can redistribute. 

Serve it up with some mashed potatoes and veggies! 

Oh and don't forget to use some of the drippings to spoon over the pork after you plate it up! 

   This recipe is SO delicious! If you try it out please let me know how you liked it! 

Shout out to my mom for giving me the memories of so many delicious home cooked meals!! :-)

Mandarin Pork Loin:

4.5 to 5 lb boneless pork loin

2 Tblsp dried rosemary

1 tsp cracked black pepper

4 large garlic cloves

Pinch of salt 

1 can mandarin oranges, drained

For the glaze: 

1/2 cup orange marmalade

6 Tblsp orange juice. (I used fresh)

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup ketchup

2 Tblsp honey

2 1/2 tsp ground mustard

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

2 large cloves of garlic (I grated mine)

Triple Berry Threat Jam!

  So as you saw in my previous post my mom and I had a "canning" day and one of the concoctions we came up with that turned out amazing is something we named Triple Berry Threat! It's so yummy!!!

  My youngest sister helped with this one and I even let her snap a few photos. :-)

So start out with two quarts of ripe strawberries, hulled. Two pints blackberries and one pint blueberries. 

Add that to your pan and turn to medium heat. Add 1/2 cup of lemon juice. 

Turning on the heat will help when we use our immersion blender. 

    So make sure you have the heat on and add six, yes six, cups of sugar. Trust me this turned out amazing! 

   So now that we've added a tiny bit of sugar we will start to blend it up with the immersion blender. Since the heat was on and started heating up the berries it will be a lot easier to blend up. 

  Here's my baby sister helping mom blend away. 

  Blend blend blend away!

   Ok now add a little pat of butter to keep it from foaming up when you bring it to a boil. 

   Bring to a boil for 10-15 minutes so it reduces a little. 

   Add 2 packages of liquid pectin and let boil an additional 5 minutes. 

Now it's time to put it in the cute jars mom had. 

 

   Now water bath for 10 minutes! 

   See how adorable these jars are?!? 

Our "Triple Berry Threat Jam" turned out so good that we have been using it for anything we can think of. 

Here's is a picture my mom text me tonight. It's Greek yogurt with pecans and some TBT Jam heated up a tad to thin out. 

   Guess how we used it the morning after we made it?? Yep. Pancakes!!! We just heated our TBT Jam up a little so it was more "syrup-like". 

My sister sent me a picture the other day of our TBT Jam on cheesecake! Needless to say we may be a little addicted to it. :-) 

And of course we can't forget the most obvious reason to use it! On toast or English muffin! 

I hope you guys try this out! It is so delicious and I hope you all enjoyed this post. Make sure if you don't have enough to fill a jar all the way to just stick it in the fridge. You can cut this recipe down to just make a jar or two and stick it in the fridge without having to water bath it. Just make sure you keep it in the fridge not in your pantry. Same with jars that don't end up sealing. Put them in your fridge. The jars that do seal should keep in your pantry for about a year. Just make sure and follow all canning safety tips and instructions. You wouldn't believe how easy canning your own stuff is.  :-)

Triple Berry Threat Jam: yielded about 6 pints

2 quarts strawberries

2 pints blackberries

1 pint blueberries

1/2 cup lemon juice

6 cups sugar

2 packages liquid pectin 

A pat of butter (optional) 

Now onto some news about my blog. I've decided to only take pictures and post with my iphone. I know this may sound a little crazy but I am no photographer and when I tried using my camera to take pictures they turned out awful. :-)

Also my husband and I have pretty odd work schedules so I do a lot of my cooking after dark which means I don't have a lot of natural light to work with. All that being said my lighting and pictures may not be top notch but I figured since I have this blog to share my love and passion for cooking it shouldn't matter. To my followers, if there's any of you out there, I hope you will find my blog as enjoyable as any other. Thank you to anyone who reads my blog and I have a lot more to come. I've kind of backed myself up on posts I need to write so stayed tuned!!! 

:-)