High on the Harvest Hog

I love fall! I love the colors, and the warmth and the rich yummy recipes. I've included one today that I wrote last fall. I hope you enjoy it! I've included a few side items, a dessert, and even some wine and beer suggestions. Let me know how you like it.
Ingredients
5 lb boneless Pork Loin
1 tbsp. ground black pepper
1 tbsp. salt
½ tbsp. garlic powder
¼ tsp. ground cloves
¼ tsp. cayenne
2 tbsp. dark brown sugar
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
4 pieces of kitchen twine to secure the loin

Stuffing Ingredients
6 dried black mission figs
1 very ripe pear
2 tsp. grainy Dijon county mustard
1 tsp. dark rum
1 tbsp. molasses
½ cup good dry red wine
1 box pork stuffing
1 cup low sodium chicken broth
2 tbsp. melted salted butter

Directions
Pre-heat oven to 500 degrees. Wash and pat dry the pork loin. Slice the loin almost in half length wise to open it up. Trim the excess fat and pound meat to about 1 inch thick. Rub the meat with oil all over and set aside. In a small bowl mix together the dry seasoning and whisk with a fork. Apply this dry rub all over the meat and refrigerate for 15 minuets.

In a small bowl rough chop the figs and the pear, adding in the mustard, rum, molasses and wine. Salt and Pepper may be added to taste at this point. Let this seat for 10 minuets. Bring 1 cup of low sodium chicken broth to a boil adding in the butter. Once this reaches a rolling boil add in the dry stuffing mix and the fig mixture. Fluff with a fork. The mixture may seem a little wet, but it will firm up in the oven.

Remove the pork loin from the refrigerator and fill with the stuffing mixture. Lightly jelly roll the loin and secure with kitchen twine. Roast at 500 degrees for 20 min and then reduce heat to 350 degrees until the juices run clear and the meat thermometer reads 180 degrees. (About any additional 45 minutes.)

Recommended Accompaniments
Honey Glazed Carrots
Roasted Potatoes with Herbs de Provence Seasonings
County Grain bread

Recommended Dessert
Apple Crumble

Recommended Wine
Leinenkugel German Style Marzen beer
Mirasou Pinot Noir
*This is a very hearty flavor packed meat. You will want to have fairly simple side dishes.*

A Change of Tune

So, after another little extended leave of abscense, I'm back. They say a little near death experience is sometimes all it takes to put things into perspective. Well, in July, I had mine, and I've spent the last few months trying to roll things into some sort of order. While it's nowhere near perfect, there is some order.

When I orginally started this blog, I titled it Sweet Sunday Dinners. I stand by my title, but I'm heading towards a new direction. The focus now is to feed my family in a manner that is as clean and healthy as possible, while maintaining a workable budget. It's about finding a balance between juggeling all of the hats I wear... wife, mother, daughter, friend,aspiring business woman and most importantly a God loving Christian woman. I invite you to come along with me on my journey. Maybe we can all learn something new, help each other out, and at the end of the day be a better person for it.

The first post which will be later this week will bring my whole experience to light. While it's not really a deathly experience, I can assure you, I have never been sicker, and it totally changed everything, from the second I walked out of the hospital on July 20, 2010.

A Hot Mess

I... have a dream. It is of my house being sparkly clean, and of my husband coming home to a hot dinner every night. It is of me mastering the art of working with fondant, an of managing not to get flour all over me, the kitchen floor and possibly the cat when I am baking. It is of the inside of my car not resembling a suitcase on wheels, and of my office not having dust on the side board.

I strive daily to make these dreams possible, however...... in an effort to pay some things off and be able to stay at home full time and dedicate my days towards doing these things, growing my cake business and hopefully having another baby, I currently work 9-4 Monday -Thursday, and 8-12 on Fridays. I then leave that job and go take care of all of accounting for a dear friend who owns a stained glass company from 4-6 at least 2 nights a week and most weeks on Fridays from 1-3. Then 2 nights a week Kate has softball usually running from 6:30-9. I almost always have a cake to do on Thursday nights,& 2 on Friday nights. Saturdays are spent trying to cram in whatever I didn't get in during the week, Sundays are spent at Church, then back to the ball field. To say I am tired these days would be an understatement and I believe I may have stopped looking in the mirror for fear that it may shatter. I did manage to look decent for Easter and was quite proud of that until I realized that I had forgotten to paint my baby toe on my right foot. I was extremely proud of the Easter fest that I put on with the exception that my entire family who is ALWAYS late showed up 30 -45 minutes early to find me with my hair on top of my head, in shorts and a t'shirt.

So, now that I have gotten that off my chest, I'm going to go have a glass of wine and get to work on the first of 2 cakes.

Wrecking my Manicure

I love gardening gloves. I have 5 pairs, pink ones, green ones, blue ones with little rubber grips on the fingers, and 2 leather pair. Yep, I love gardening gloves. Now, as much as I love my gloves, I cannot do a dang blasted thing with them on!
Today, after a winter of giving myself a lovely manicure every Sunday night, and having great natural nails, within 2 hours I managed to break 2 nails (using the wire brush hooked onto the drill sanding down an old fashinoned "mushroom" metal chair), get black paint on my white tips when I started to paint the same chair, and to get dirt under every single last one of them when I battles a bit of wire grass that has somehow snaked it's way into my lirope.
At the end of the day, I got my chair painted, conquered the wire grass(at least in the strawberries), and got the settee sanded down. It's almost 10 o'clock here in the old South, and I'm heading off to do what any good southern girl would do at this point............run me a hot bubble bath and try to salvage my nails!

70 and Sunny

It's that time of year again! Looking forward to the weekend, it will be in the high 70' almost every day for the rest of the week! I am anxiously awaiting the day that I feel comfortable to sit out my big green ferns, little pink begonias, white geraniums, and white with pink impatiants. Yes, I know they are such typical little plants,but I swear for my planting area, they jut can't be beat!

My husband tillered the garden up last weekend, and the Easter bunny will be bringing me the tender little bedding plants I talked about above, and a big bright shiny new compost bin! I'm also planning to do a new patio area around my swing with some of the brick pavers my mom gave me with a vintage wrought iron settee, chair, and little table, also courtesy of mom (she actually saved up to buy it when she and my father were first married back in 1971) and another patio made out of some gorgeous big pieces of granite slabs that my husband gave me from a job he did at a quarry, a bench to sand and repaint, an Adirondack chair to sand and repaint.... need I go on?! Now, I have a whole big bunch coming in for Easter Sunday and I've got a mere 3 weekends to get to gettin it all ready! Pray for me, and I'll keep you posted!
Have a fabulous day and I hope your weather is as great as mine. Also, check out my new blog Sweetiez Pies to hear about my new business venture!

A Spring Cleaning

Growing up, I was always excited about my birthday. It's April 12, and almost always fell to where I was on spring break and able to do something extra fun. The downside of this, was that every year my mother inevitably did her "Spring Cleaning" that same week. My granny (my great grandmother) came and stayed for the week, and bright and early Monday morning, all the curtains came down in the house, the windows got opened for the first time,and the rugs got hung out on the line. Now my momma had those blasted Cabin creek curtains.. ya'll know what I'm talking about, the long ruffled affairs with the colored trim for the majority of my growing up days and getting them ready to be hung back up was a darn 2 day affair, washing, hanging on the line, spray starch, iron, spray starch again, and the rehang. the only thing worse she has ever had in window treatment was those blasted scarves that we never seem to get right. Of course while the curtains were down, the windows got washed inside and out, the carpets got shampooed, the wood work got washed, the cabinets got washed, and the worst, longest most dreaded task was that the walls got washed!The best part was that everyone got new bedding, and I got to sleep with my granny in the "guest bedroom".
Looking back as much as I dreaded those long days, spent with my momma fussing because I kept dropping the end of the curtains while she was ironing and my granny fussing at my momma for fussing at me, I relish the memories. Now, as I look up at my own drapes, I smile... knowing that I recently went to the store and brought a big jug of vinegar (for washing my woodwork), a big jug of bleach, for wiping down my walls, and a bottle of Niagara Starch to make memories with my own daughter.

Good Day Sunshine

It's going to be a beautiful 72 degree sunny day here in Virginia!After a 6 month hiatas, I am back to my little blog. I have faithfully read yours, and enjoyed every single second of them.

A question to ponder for today..... if you wake up in a good mood, committed to having a good day, do you think it just happens, or do you really have to work at it?