A day at the Santa Ana Zoo with the boys

"Fifty Monkeys at all times..." was the unusual request made in 1952 by Joseph Prentice, the founder of the Santa Ana Zoo. Today the  Santa Ana Zoo is a 20 acre oasis tucked in the middle of Orange County's urban jungle.

 Wiley and Ivan love it!

Wiley leads the way

One of the "fifty monkeys"

 Monkeys lounging in the sun

 

Looking for Indiana Jones...

 ...and for endangered species

Gramma Barb made sure they didn't go too far!

Some of the exotic birds in the aviary

 Monkeys checking us out

Snack time...it's a long trek for a one year old

Wiley's favorite bald eagle

Very disappointed that the anteaters weren't out today

Our view of the Rheas and Guanacos from the train

 Going to The Farm

 Wiley met some new friends in the egg garden

It's a great place to hangout

Ivan's loving the ride

 Time to ride the carousel

Lots of fun on the carousel

 The boys and their horses

Gramma Barb and Wiley having a good time

Feeding the goats

My neck's longer than your neck

 

 Time to wash off all the goat slobber

Mommy says it's time to go home

 

We'll be back!

Brown Sugar Spiced Pork Tenderloin

When we eat pork at our house, it is usually a pork tenderloin. Several reasons, they are tender, they are lean and they come in a four-pack at Costco for $1.99 a pound. Through the years I have tried many different rubs and marinades, trying to find something we both enjoyed. I don't remember liking any of them enough to make them twice. That was until I found the following recipe last fall. It is really fantastic, amazing, and many other adjectives! It has a spicy rub that you apply first and then your sear it in olive oil. Next, you cover it with a glaze and it goes into the oven for 25-30 minutes. It is now my go-to recipe for pork loin or tenderloin. 

The first time I made it we really loved it. I made it again during the holiday's when our son was here and he really enjoyed it. This past week, I decided to make it again and wanted to share half of it with our daughter and her family. I mixed up the spice mixture and the glaze, then I seared both of them and covered one with the glaze and put it in the oven for us. For the second one, I covered it with foil and took it with the glaze over to my daughters house so that she could glaze it and cook it for her family. From the comments I got from her, they really loved it! Now I'm passing it on to you so you can enjoy it too!

This is a very easy recipe, but I do have two suggestions. Make sure that you have a meat thermometer so that you don't over cook the meat. The only way you know for sure that it has reached 140 degrees is with a thermometer. Because the meat will be covered in a glaze, you won't be able to see if the juices are running clear. My second suggestion is to resist the temptation to poke the meat with a fork or slice it open to see if it is done. This allows the juices to run out and leaves you with dry meat!

I would suggest that you start by mixing both the rub and glaze, separately, then set the glaze aside. I take the tenderloins out of their bag and wash them off and then pat them with paper towels to get off most of the moisture. This keeps the splatters down when you are searing it in the hot oil. Now you are ready to start. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

First you sprinkle the rub along the tops of both tenderloins, rubbing the spice in and around on the sides. Turn tenderloins to the other side and sprinkle remaining spice on both, rubbing in and along the sides, making sure that the tenderloins are completely covered with the rub.

Heat the olive oil in the pan of your choice. I use my dutch oven with the high sides so my stove top doesn't get completely splattered! I added my tenderloins to the pan one at a time, turning until all sides were seared. Now they are ready to be placed in your baking dish.

Spread half of the glaze over the top then turn it over with a fork and add remaining glaze over top of second side. Now it is ready to go into the oven for approximately 25 minutes. 

Make sure that you use a meat thermometer and pull it out when the temperature reaches 140 degrees. Cover and let stand for about 10 minutes. The meat will continue to cook and the temperature will rise to about 155-160 degrees. Try to resist the temptation to over cook your pork and this makes the meat tough and dry. That is also true for most meat.

My hubby is the meat slicer at our house and he always slices the tenderloin at an angle, cutting through the meat grain, for extra tenderness. I now add around a tablespoon or less of water to the glaze in the bottom of the pan and drizzle this over the sliced meat for some added flavor.

As you can see, there is nothing complicated about this recipe. It is easy enough to make as a casual evening meal, but it also dresses up well for company. The bonus is that you can have this meat on the table in less than an hour.

As you can see, we had a very casual meal. Sorry, I know that the "I can't believe it's not butter" spray doesn't look very appetizing on the peas, and the light Tillamook sour cream doesn't help the picture at all. Nothing fancy! That's the way real life is most days!

Enjoy!

Grant's Favorite Brownies and 2 Minute Quicky Fudge

We really enjoy it when family and friends come to visit, especially our family's that live in Oregon, like sisters and brothers and nieces and nephews, cousins and everyone else. It gives me a chance to bake and make things that I don't usually have around the house, specifically sweets and chocolate. That way I can get the enjoyment of baking, smelling and tasting, but then it's gone!

A few summers ago, my sister Lori was visiting with her two youngest kids. We spent most of the afternoon in the pool and everyone was really hungry by dinner time. After dinner, I tried out a new brownie recipe. The recipe looked really good and I had been waiting for someone to make it for. I baked these brownies and everyone loved them and I thought they were pretty good, but really, have you ever had a really bad tasting brownie? I don't think I have ever eaten a brownie that I didn't like.

At the end of the evening, my nephew, Grant, who was about 6 or 7 years old at that time, came up to me and said, "Auntie Connie, can I please have that recipe for the brownies? I really like those and I want to make them when I get home!" I laughed out loud, I though that was so cute! He really wanted the recipe to give to his mom so that she would make them for him. He is definitely the youngest person that has ever asked me for one of my recipes.  After that sweet experience, I renamed them Grant's Brownies, and they have become my go-to brownie recipe.

This ones for you, Grant!

 

One more chocolate recipe, for now anyway! This recipe is exactly what it says, 2 Minute Quicky Fudge. A chocolate maker at a food show gave it to me many years ago.

Enjoy!

Strawberry Freezer Jam

When we were growing up, going to our Grandma Letha's house on Saturday morning was a highlight of the week. She usually baked homemade bread with butter and lots of homemade jam. With all of her many grandkids, I'm guessing that there wasn't much left over by the time we all went home. When our kids were young, going to their Grandma's house for Sunday dinner was always anticipated, especially her wonderful homemade rolls and strawberry freezer jam! All the grandkids could hardly wait for the rolls and jam to be passed around the table. They were even seen licking the jam off and then putting more on the same roll! You really couldn't tell which they liked the most, the rolls or the jam! I think it was a tie! 

In thinking about that, I realized that it has been several years since I made my last batch of freezer jam and now with my two little grandson's, it's about time that I start making it again. Some traditions are worth passing on and this is one of them. One of the reasons that I stopped making the freezer jam was because of the many cups of sugar it required. I had heard somewhere that Sure-Jell now had a "no sugar needed" product, so I decided to check it out. I mainly wanted to make sure that it didn't have artificial sweeteners because we stay far away from any products that contain them. 

After I bought the product and took it home and read it, you actually use less sugar or you can use Splenda for no sugar. In very fine print it says "For less or no sugar needed recipes made with at least 25% less sugar than regular pectin recipes." That's what happens when I go to the store without my reading glasses and can't read the fine print. Once I got over the fact that it did in fact need sugar, I am happy to settle for using "less" sugar than before.

And, in case you have always thought that it is really hard to make freezer jam, I'm going to show you just how easy it is! So here we go!

This is the Sure-Jell product that I used and I used the directions for the low sugar freezer jam.

 

First you wash and chop up the strawberries, and then you mash them with a hand potato masher. Next you measure out 4 cups of strawberries with juice and set it aside.

 

Next, you mix the 3 cups of sugar and the Sure-Jell together with one cup of water. You bring it to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly, and boil for one minute. You add the strawberries and continue stirring constantly for one minute, or until everything is completely mixed.

For the final step, you pour the hot mixture into your prepared containers. Now you let them sit at room temperature for 24 hours. At this point they will be set and you can put them into the freezer for up to one year.

You can keep the freezer jam in the refrigerator for 3 weeks.

 

 We're keeping this one in the refrigerator!

My Laundry Experiment

As I saw my box of Cheer Laundry Detergent getting lower and lower, I decided it was time to make my own laundry soap. I did not want to spend the $17.00+ on another box of Cheer which is filled with lots of unnecessary fillers! I just couldn't buy a new box without at least trying to make my own. After I had seen the ingredients and instructions on how to make it on-line, I was ready to give it a try.

I did have some reservations. I didn't know if I would like it, would our clothes smell funny, would I feel like the clothes were clean enough, using just 1 tablespoon, etc. I'm so happy to say that I made it, I tried it and I love it!! Especially the $17.00 I just saved!

I don't think it could be any easier to make. In fact, I will show you just how easy it is. You need the following three ingredients: 

Fels-Naptha Soap Bar - Available at Ace Hardware

  

Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda -Available at Ace Hardware

20 Mule Team Borax - Available at Ace Hardware

 

The first thing I did was grate the Fels-Naptha with a regular hand grater. This is what it looked like.

Next, I put it in the food processor until the pieces were much smaller. In hind sight, I should have used the pulse setting. My food processor started getting fairly warm after about a minute, so I stopped because the soap particles were starting to melt onto the warm blade. If I had used the pulse feature I don't think that would have happened.

 Now I mixed this with the other two products and it ended up looking like this.

I didn't like the way the yellow soap seemed to want to rise to the top so I decided it needed to be processed again. After about 30 to 40 seconds, I liked the texture.

I was very happy with the look of the finished product and the smell is nice and fresh. Best of all, I washed a load of laundry and the laundry had a nice fresh scent, very faint, not overpowering. I'm really happy that I decided to give it a try.

Here are the instructions: 

Powdered Laundry Soap
1 Fels-Naptha Soap Bar
1 cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
1/2 cup 20 Mule Team Borax

Grate soap or break into pieces and process in a food processor until powdered. Mix all ingredients together. For light load, use 1 Tablespoon. For heavy or heavily soiled load, use 2 Tablespoons. Yield: 3 cups of detergent (Approximately 40 loads)

I bought the Fels-Naptha bar and the Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda at Ace Hardware. I had the 20 Mule Team Borax and I previously bought it at Winco, but they also have it Ace Hardware. If you don't have Ace Hardware, I'm guessing any true Hardware Store will carry these products. Lowe's and Home Depot don't carry them. I had previously found these products on-line, so I knew that I could order on-line if I couldn't find them at a local store.

The cost for 40 loads:
Fels-Naptha  $1.29
Arm & Hammer: $0.53
Borax: $0.19

Total: $ 2.01 for 40 loads of laundry!

Make it, try it, you'll love it!

When I run out of my liquid Cheer, I will be making this same detergent in liquid form. I will let you know how that turns out as well. I also have everything I need to make liquid hand soap, so I will get back to you on that.

Many thanks to Heidi of Tried-and-True Cooking with Heidi for posting this on her great blog!

Strawberry Shortcake and More!

I don't think I have ever met a person that didn't like strawberries. I'm sure that many people don't, but our family definitely likes strawberries and every other berry available. I always have to laugh when I see Wiley sneak into his mom's refrigerator and nab a strawberry or two and stuff them in his mouth. That boy has strawberry and blueberry radar! He can smell them a mile away! His brother Ivan is a big berry fan too. Yesterday I spent some time with Ivan and the first thing he ate off of his lunch plate was the big juicy blackberries! After he had eaten those, it was hard to convince him to eat anything else.

I am really happy that I re-found these berry recipes and especially the recipe for the shortcake. I made this for years, using juicy strawberries from Oregon and Washington. In my opinion, this is a no-fail recipe because it came out perfect every time I made it. 

The following recipes are also from the June 1999 issue of Red book magazine. You can substitute the strawberries in these recipes for any berry, cherry or fresh peaches. They are require very few ingredients and are very easy to make. These recipes have always turned out very good!

Enjoy!

Blog Surfing

Cooking Dunkin Style has a recipe for Chicken Enchiladas Verde. We have been going though a green phase at our house, looking for anything that looks good, has lower fat, and has Verde in it's name.

Eating, Inc. posted this recipe for Braised Spinach that looks really good. I have a big bag of spinach I'm ready to use.

Fake Ginger has a nice looking recipe for Broccoli Salad  sounds good for a spring lunch. I know that Easter is a year away, but I want to remember this interesting Romanian Easter Cake for next year.

Looking for a new way to serve potatoes? Check out Potato Pave on Home Cooking. It will take a little extra work but it really has a wow factor to it, which is what always catches my eye.

Living in the Kitchen with Puppies has a yummy Ruby Red Salad and it is made from all fresh, raw ingredients. Sounds perfect for a warm sunny day.

These Fruit Perishky from Mennonite Girls Can Cook really caught my eye. They look like they would be a good "bake and freeze" dessert. I like to be prepared for unexpected or expected guests!

At Christy's Kitchen Creations, I found a recipe for Easy Cinnamon Bread.  Even though it does use yeast, it sounds and looks delicious.

Low Fat Yogurt and Cucumber Dip at Once upon a Chef looks like a good recipe to have on hand for a casual pool party.

If you like getting good deals on miscellaneous things using coupons, you should check out Hip 2 Save. I was really impressed with most of the coupons posted there. There are at least 5-6 posted for every day of the week.

The following site is called The Big Storm Picture. I check it out fairly often. Ryan McGinnis chases tornadoes with a team that shoot footage for The Weather Channel's Vortex 2. I am not a fan of storms, especially tornadoes, but his shots are truly amazing!