Wednesday, December 3, 2008

New Recipes for the Dinner Party

I recently had a Christmas and retirement party for the school system counselors. One our the counselors is retiring and I wanted to prepare a nice dinner for her. Since I love looking through cookbooks and recipe websites, I decided to try a couple of new dishes. Here's the menu:

Appetizers: Roasted Cashews with Rosemary
Cream Cheese Pineapple Ball with crackers
Blue Cheese Crisps
Hot Apple Cider

Dinner: Teriayke Pork Tenderloin
Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes
Roasted Asparagus with Herbs de Provence
Sweet Broccoli Salad
Yeast Rolls with Honey Butter

Dessert: Too Much Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Fudge Buttercream Frosting

I really liked the pork tenderloin! I have tried other recipes and I think this might be a favorite. The cashews were really good and quite easy to prepare. But the best thing was the chocolate cake!!! I found two different recipes for the cake and the frosting and the combination is terrific if you love chocolate like I do. I'll try to post all of the recipes but forgot to take pictures!


Teriyake Pork Tenderloin (12 servings)
1/2 cup and 2 T. Soy Sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 T and 1 t brown sugar
2 t ground ginger
2 t freshly ground pepper
3 lbs. pork tenderloin
Combine the first four ingredients and place in resealable plastic bags along with the pork tenderloins, after removing fat. ( I used 2 gallon size bags ) Seal bags and turn to coat the tenderloins. Refrigerate overnight or at least 8 hours.
Drain and discard the marinade. Place tenderloins in a 11 x 7 baking pan sprayed with Pam. Bake uncovered at 425 degrees for 23 to 35 minutes or till meat thermometer reaches 160 degrees. Let stand 5 minutes and serve with the drippings from the pan.
Roasted Cashews with Rosemary
2 -9 0z cans roasted whole cashews
2 T unsalted butter
1 1/2 T brown sugar
3 T chopped fresh rosemary
1 t kosher salt
1/2 t cayenne pepper
Preheat over to 375 degrees. Spread cashews in a single layer on a lightly greased baking pan and heat for 5 minutes. Maintain the oven temperature. Melt the butter and brown sugar in a large stockpot over medium heat, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and stir in the rosemary, salt and cayenne pepper.
Add the cashews to the stockpot and toss to coat. Spread the cashews in a single layer on the baking sheet and roast for 5 to 10 minutes or until light brown, stirring occasionally.

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