Thank you for dinner . . . that was a good dinner . . .

These are the words that, upon their utterance, allow me to rest easy in my dining chair knowing the meal I've so lovingly prepared was met with the ultimate praise . . . from my almost-four-year-old.   I must note before outlining the tasty dinner we had tonight that the pressure of having to take photos of my meals and document them here is making me stretch the creativity a little . . . green beans are pretty boring, but green beans with . . . oh, sorry . . . you'll have to wait until you get a little further into this post. 

First up, my herb-rubbed pork tenderloin was quickly browned in the pan before roasting in the oven.  I threw a couple of crushed cloves of garlic in the oil first, then removed them as they started browning, so I'd have some garlic-flavored oil for the tenderloin. 


These are the tasty fried bits of garlic that found a perfect home atop the mountain of cheddar mashed potatoes.  My green beans were quickly sauteed with green onions, a little soy sauce and lemon, and . . . wait for it . . . RADISHES!  I love radishes in salads, but I've never had them cooked, and they're like most root vegetables - they get sweeter when they're cooked a little.  Yum.   You can probably tell from the colorful spoon in the middle of my plate just who got to share my dinner with me. I really do need something other than white plates to make my food look at little more appetizing . . . sorry.

Lastly, I made a slow-cooker pudding inspired by a recent Rachel Ray recipe (yes, she's kind of annoying to me, but I don't think anyone would want to have to watch me on TV as much as that either). It was supposed to be a lemon/banana pudding, but my oldest son isn't partial to lemon, so I just used vanilla and a little cinnamon. The bananas were just getting ripe, so they kept their texture through the cooking process and got this nice caramelization on the bottom that when flipped over break up the otherwise bland color of the dessert. Of course, I was out of whipped cream and had to substitute . . . sniff, sniff . . . my BFF Haagen Daas Dulce de Leche ice cream on the side. As my husband says, that ice cream could make even a bowl of . . . well, you know . . . taste good. The texture of the "pudding" is more like a cakey-souffle. For this girl who likes all things creamy, custardy, and creme-brulee-y, it was the bomb.

TTFN! Here's hoping my next post is a Sewing Room update with my overdue paintbox blocks from last week!