Family Dinner - Always a Feast!

Mia studying Portuguese

Tzatziki Dip

Tonight we are expecting family driving down from Prince George which is about a nine hour drive to Vancouver.  I thought it would be nice to make a Pork Tenderloin with mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli and carrots and as a side dish I made Tzatziki dip and a raw veggie platter.   Both the meat and the dip recipes I found on the internet.  My husband was a bit leary of me trying a new recipe for company.  I had faith!  I had also read about 20 of the reviews so I was very convinced it would be good.  

Slow cookers are great in the fact that you can do housework and the dinner just cooks away while you get other things done.  Nice to have company on a Friday - the house always gets a more thorough clean.  So I shall share the recipe I found but with a few alterations of my own:

PORK TENDERLOIN IN THE SLOW COOKER

• 1 (2 pound) pork tenderloin
• 1/2 package envelope dry onion soup mix
• 1/2 onion cut in circle slices
• 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup beef broth
• 3/4 cup red wine
• 3 tbsp. minced garlic  + 3 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp. soy sauce
• fresh ground pepper
• pinch rosemary and pinch thyme
• 2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• fresh parsley

Place a few garlic pieces into the tenderloin (called studding - I learned that today).  Put the meat into the slow cooker and empty the 1/2 pkg of onion soup mix on top as well as the fresh onions.  Pour water, broth, wine, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce all over.  Add the rosemary, thyme, parsley, and black pepper.  Put slow cooker onto low, cover and cook for 4 hours turning meat half way through cooking time. Serve the cooking liquid on the side in a gravy dish to use over mashed potatoes.

We enjoyed this with plenty of cornbread, some rye bread and of course a bit of red wine.

North 54 restaurant, Prince George British Columbia

For dessert, believe it or not we still had room, for some of my lemon loaf and my sister-in-law brought us some delectable dark chocolate covered humungous juicy strawberries from her restaurant, North 54 located in Prince George.  The restaurant is so popular that they unfortunately had to turn people away as they were so booked for Valentine's Day this year.





As with all good family dinners it is a good time to have a few laughs and enjoy each others company as we did.  We did however,  have to keep checking to see if Mia was trying to sneak back into the kitchen to steal another morsel of food.  I have never known a cat to have quite a personality  such as hers.  She is a sweetheart though. If you liked this blog you could see my more recent blog at : http://www.jaxjule.wordpress.com