Goode Goodeness: Roasted Rosemary "Melt In Your Mouth" Pork Loin

This afternoon I made "Sunday Dinner".  Ya know, when mama slaves away for a good ole sit down meal.  We we didn't exactly sit at the table, truth be told we rarely do. However, we did have a "melt in your mouth" roast (Puddie's words) and yummy sides that was healthy and filling and I walked away feeling like a triumphant mommy for a change.

This menu came about when thumbing through one of my Gooseberry Patch (GP) cookbooks.

Now I know I have said before that I don't "believe" in "light" cookbooks and that is true. But GP has a built in caveat.  I will use ANY excuse to get another GP cookbook.  And this little booger was just too darn cute and inexpensive not to buy!

Just the other day Puddie told me he originally became a fan of GP on Facebook because I was, but after the food we have been having lately he is declaring that he is now a fan for real!  Lol!!

So, I was flipping through this little number before grocery shopping the other day and this recipe caught my eye:

I heart Rosemary...

Love the smell, love the flavor, and just love that it looks like little tree twigs... makes me feel outdoors-ey.

I remember trying it for the first time and going "THAT'S IT!... the flavor I LOVE in stuffing!"

I love pork loin.  It is yummy.

And lean and healthy--Mommy SCORE!

And very inexpensive. Check out this two pack!  That is $4 per loin!

So the recipe started my creative juices flowing.  I rarely stick to recipes.  That is too boring. And in this particular case, my cupboard (oh...nursery rhyme flashback! I just used the word cupboard...lol!) dictated a few substitutions.  But, we will get to that in a minute.

So, I started out my minicing...err... chopping (whatever you want to call it given my poor knife skills)  6 cloves of garlic.

Then since I knew I was gonna stray from the recipe I threw in some green onions (4 or 5-chopped)because my garlic feels naked without some sort of onion.

Then I stripped the Fresh Rosemary (I was out of dried) off of the twigs and ran the knife through it a little.

I was out of ginger...which is odd because I really don't like ginger much unless it is fresh and in asian cusine or on Gilligans Island... nevermind didn't like that character much either.

Anyhow, I substituted 1tsp of ginger for 1 tsp of Old Bay.  Why? Just because I love it and found it when looking for the ginger... NOT because the flavors even resemble one another...lol!

Then I added 2 tsp of dry mustard...because I was feeling guilty that I had ignored so much of the recipe.

Then a tsp of Kosher salt.

Then a tsp of pepper.  This is where the recipe got its revenge... next time I will reduce this to 1/2 tsp.  It was still VERY yummy... it just packed a little more heat than mama prefers.  Puddie on the otherhand LOVED the heat.

Then I mixed it all up with 2 Tbsp of Olive Oil and spread it on the loins.

I let it rest for 30 minutes and preheated my oven to 350. 

 

Then baked for 1 hr and 15 minutes and...

TaDah!

Yummy!

This made me realize that I don't cook good food for my family as often as I should.  It really is a lot eaiser than I tell myself it is and it makes me proud to feed my family something wholesome that tastes so good and is good for them. 

Not to mention the yummy smells it fills my kitchen with all day long! Move over smelly candles, mama is gonna cook more often! Besides--gives me more excuses to order some more GP cookbooks ;)