French Friday with Dorie: Chard-Stuffed Pork Roast

  

IMPRESSIVE STUFFED PORK ROAST--MY FAMILY LOVED IT!

 Today was my fun day with honey...we played in the kitchen.  

HONEY IS ONE OF MY BEST KITCHEN HELPERS--SHE'LL BE TWO IN THREE MONTHS

We made a plan.  Besides the assigned pork roast we decided to create a meal by using up items around the kitchen and then invite Honey’s mom and dad to stay for dinner.  We knew No. 1 Son would be hanging out with us for awhile and Hubby would come, so that would give us enough to have a little fun.

Thanksgiving was a little strange for us this year as we traveled out of state and dined with extended family.  It was fun, but after the meal, visiting, playing games, and eating dessert, we all went our separate ways and we had no leftovers.  Later that evening we were all ready to make a turkey sandwich or have some pie...but we had none.

We had provided some desserts, lovely fruit platters, relishes, dips, etc...but none of the basic feast foods. And when you want a turkey sandwich, more fruit does not cut it.

I’m not complaining, but it was an adjustment for us.  We foodies are used to having lots of leftovers crammed into every fridge, pies lining the countertops, etc...and it was a bit of a let down after the day was all over.

We did enjoy spending time with family and friends, and the dinner was wonderful, but we missed some of our traditions.

STEPHY-WEPHY FINALLY GETS HER FAVORITE MEMORY FOOD--READY FOR THE OVEN

Stephy-Wephy was sad that she did not get to eat her once-a-year green beans with the Campbell’s mushroom soup and the fried onions on top...this is her favorite Thanksgiving food.  I can never understand why this would be a favorite, but it has been since she was a very young child...like her special comfort food.

And other foods that we always have were missing.  So we decided to make our favorites over the holidays and add them to our meals.  As a side for the pork roast, we made Stephy’s favorite Thanksgiving dish...those green beans that she dreams about.  And we made her hubby’s favorite cookies, oatmeal with some kind of chocolate mixed in.

Honey and I had lots of time as we waited for the roast to roast...and we like our meat done...no pink for us.  To fill our time we found lots of veges that needed using, made mashed potatoes and gravy, fresh cranberry relish, etc.

OUR ROAST CAME PRE-CUT...I FIXED IT UP A LITTLE

To prepare for the stuffed roast project, Honey and I went shopping and found no good looking chard.  Wrong season for us.  So we used spinach which was a great choice.  And we decided everyone in town is having roast pork as a holiday meal because we went to 3 stores, the last being Costco, and found only 1 roast remaining at Costco.  So we took it and were grateful to make the find.  Our roast was already cut in half and tied together...deboned....I did not check, maybe it was not the correct cut of meat.  But it was the only one available unless we wanted to keep driving around, but our luck was not great so far, so we were satisfied.

THE STUFFING MIXTURE IS READY FOR THE ROAST

THE STUFFING IS PLACED INSIDE THE PORK ROAST

Our roast was 5 ½ pounds...a little more than double the size required by the recipe.  So we doubled all the stuffing ingredients, used cranberries for the season, and used the other ingredients as written. Except that after I cooked the spinach it looked so dwindled away that I cooked a similar amount again, which after combining all the ingredients I really did not need to do.  But I liked the look of all the stuffing so I decided to cut our large roast into quarters and to stuff each cut.  Everyone liked the look and loved the stuffing and the way the roast was flavored.  Turned out really good.

OUR LARGER ROAST WORKED WELL WITH MORE AREAS STUFFED

STUFFED, TIED TOGETHER AND OVEN-READY

But due to the larger size and because we like our meat non-pink, we had plenty of time to do additional cooking.

FRESH FROM MY BACK YARD

For the cranberry sauce, Honey and I went to the back yard and picked a bag of oranges.  The recent cooler nights have sweetened our citrus fruits and they are now ready to be used.

We placed fresh cranberries and apple and orange chunks into the food processor, pulsed several times to chop and combine these fruits together, added sugar to taste and we had our very wonderful, fresh, chunky cranberry sauce, which was suggested as a garnish for this cranberry-spinach stuffed pork.

FRESH CRANBERRY SAUCE INGREDIENTS READY FOR PROCESSING

DELICIOUS!

Then because we had extra time, we baked  cookies.  I’ve used the same Oatmeal Cookies recipe for the past 30 years...guess that makes it my go-to Oatmeal Cookies recipe.  Always treats me well.  It started out as a Betty Crocker recipe, but I made several changes...like no margarine, only butter, a shorter and hotter baking time, old fashioned oats rather than the quick oats, more brown sugar, more vanilla, etc.  And I combined the ingredients differently than Betty suggested.  This was an old hand-mixed recipe.  And it’s the best oatmeal cookie recipe I”ve ever tried and the only cookie Stephy’s Hubby eats...and he eats them by the dozens.  I change the mix-ins according to desire and season/holiday and for today we added red and green chocolate MM’s.  Honey loved them!

This is what I do:

MY FAVORITE OATMEAL COOKIES--CHEWEY OR CRISPY; WITH OR WITHOUT MIX-INS

Kris’ Oatmeal Cookies

4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Sift above together and put aside

Preheat oven to 375^.  Don’t grease baking sheets; I use silicone mats to make everything easy.

Using a mixer, beat 2 cups room temperature butter until smooth and creamy.

Add 2 cups granulated sugar and 2 cups firmly packed brown sugar, beat again until creamy, scraping down the sides of mixer bowl as needed. 

Keep the mixer runninig on medium, and, one at a time, add 4 large eggs, and mix again.  Now add 1 ½ Tablespoons vanilla and mix again.

Now, add the dry ingredients and mix slowly just until combined.

Then add 3 generous cups old fashioned oats and mix again just until combined.  If the dough is too sticky add up to ½ cup more flour.  Dough should be a little sticky, but easy to handle.  Too soft a dough will spread too much in the oven, and too much added flour will result in dry, hard cookies.  Higher altitudes seem to need a little more flour.

Then add nuts, chocolate chips, coconut, M&M’s, or other kinds of chips as desired...to me, the more the better.  For today, we picked up a bag of Christmas chocolate M&M’s at Costco and used just over ½ the bag.

Smaller cookies...using about 1-2 teaspoons dough, bake in about 7 minutes.  Larger cookies...using about 1/4 cup per cookie will take closer to 10 minutes.  For soft cookies, bake a lesser time, for crispy cookies a little longer.  We like crispy but find that most people like the softer, chewy cookies.

When done, remove cookies from oven and let sit for a minute on the baking pan before transferring to a cooling rack...but remember that the cookies continue to bake while on the hot baking pans...and this will make them more crispy.

I usually bake ½ the dough and refrigerate the remainder.   Using plastic wrap,  I roll ½ the dough into easy to use logs for baking the next day...they are quick to bake and this gives fresh and hot-out-of-the-oven cookies the next day.  And at this time of year, when I seem to need to take a plate of cookies everywhere I go, I can have a couple of pans of freshly baked cookies within just a few minutes.  Carefully wrapped dough keeps in the fridge for a week.  This dough also freezes well.  (If using hands to form a log of dough, wet hands just a little and the sticky dough will not stick to hands.)

 

 

 

 

Honey and I had more time as we waited for the roast to get done and for our hungry family to arrive, so we went out to rake a few leaves.  That’s what we do in AZ in Dec.  We don’t shovel snow, but we do rake leaves.  This was a first for Honey and we had great fun.  She’s a good helper!

 After raking, No. 1 Son appeared and Honey shared a little music with him...and then it was time to load up our plates.

HONEY ENJOYS BEFORE DINNER MUSIC WITH NO.1 SON

THE ROAST HAS BEEN ROASTED--IT IS DECLARED TO BE DELICIOUS!!!

The Stuffed Pork Roast got raving reviews...it is tender and well seasoned and very pretty.  The house smells good and the pork went well with all the other items we found to use in this meal.  I had planned to make a fresh garden salad, but we decided that we had made enough.

MY FIRST PLATE OF FOOD...SEE THE STUFFED PORK ROAST GARNISHED WITH THE FRESH CHUNKY CRANBERRY SAUCE?--This is a half slice

Note: I usually cover my pork roasts while in the oven which keeps the juices in the pan...giving me gravy makings.  This uncovered roast’s juices all evaporated so I had to use packaged broth as an ingredient for my gravy...it was good, but not pork.

Hope you are all enjoying the wonderful month of December.  This pork roast would make a terrific main meat dish for a Christmas or New Year's dinner.  It is beautiful, relatively easy, and complements the season.  Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas or Happy Holiday Season!!!