7-24: Cran-Glazed Pork Tenderloin

7-24: Cran-Glazed Pork Tenderloin

Simply Delicious contains the best recipes for pork tenderloin. I particularly enjoy this preparation, 7-24: Cran-Glazed Pork Tenderloin, which uses cranberry sauce–my favorite part of the Thanksgiving (or Christmas) meal. 🍒

Pork and wine taste great when combined together. Instead of marinating the pork as in 7-18: Pork Tenderloin in Wine Sauce, the cranberry sauce and wine are put in the pan to create a sauce to coat the pork tenderloin in flavor. 🍷


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6-46: Chicken Breasts Veronique

6-46: Chicken Breasts Veronique

Simply Delicious is introducing me to so many new culinary terms. 6-46: Chicken Breasts Veronique was a new one for me. 🍇 The definition of “Veronique” is explained below:

Chicken and grapes isn’t the most obvious combination, not in 🇺🇸 American-style cuisine anyway. This dish is definitely influenced by 🇫🇷  French cuisine. I’ve eaten chicken and grapes before in Middle-Eastern styled recipes as well.


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1-17: Tuna-Stuffed Tomatoes

1-17: Tuna-Stuffed Tomatoes

1-17: Tuna-Stuffed Tomatoes wouldn’t be my first suggestion as an appetizer for a party, but for a light lunch for myself, I thought it would be a good idea to attempt this recipe. Jamie was not interested in tomatoes or tuna at the time, so more for me!

I really liked these tomatoes, I would eat them again if I didn’t have to do the preparation work.


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4-3: French Potato Gratin

4-3: French Potato Gratin

4-3: French Potato Gratin is a great side dish for a dinner. It was easy to make and it only takes one pan to cook this recipe.

Jamie made notes on this recipe that I completely ignored. I used the mandoline to cut the potatoes and I used 9 medium/small potatoes.

Editor’s note: I did indeed make notes on this, from when I made this for a fancy dinner for my family during Spring Break of 2009. I stand by my recommendation of using the food processor, but you do you, boo. 


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1-10: Seafood Cocktail Louisiana

1-10: Seafood Cocktail Louisiana

I’m counting 1-10: Seafood Cocktail Louisiana as the fourth dish I made of this year’s 7-recipe Thanksgiving cooking marathon (TGV 2016) , but its components actually spanned a few days (and a few cooks). This was one of three appetizers I made for my Thanksgiving dinner–the others being a crudité & hummus platter and 1-5: Pigs in a Blanket.

My mom was always big on the idea of “shrimp cocktail” as being necessary for Thanksgiving dinner appetizers (it was always part of her family’s holiday dinner when she was growing up), so in order to honor that idea, I chose this recipe.

As I mentioned above, I’m counting this as the fourth dish I made–it spanned Wed. 11/23 and Thu. 11/24 as different components had varying levels of make-in-advance-ability. My sous chef made the dressing and prepped shrimp the first night, while I assembled the dish itself right before serving the next day.


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15-49: Chocolate Pudding Deluxe

15-49: Chocolate Pudding Deluxe

The other of two desserts that I made for this year’s Thanksgiving (TGV 2016) was 15-49: Chocolate Pudding Deluxe (the first was 16-52: Apple Nut Saucepan Torte). With my family, it’s REQUIRED that there be a chocolate dessert option when having a big dinner, so I decided to give this one a whirl–I thought it’d be a nice contrast of flavors and textures when compared to the other options (the aforementioned torte and a pumpkin pie my mom made). 🍫

This was the third dish I made, continuing the Wednesday 11/23 portion of my holiday cooking marathon. Since the pudding needed to chill, I thought letting it rest in the fridge overnight would give it the best chance of holding together when served the next day. 🍮

Other dishes I made on this night (Wed. 11/23): the dressing for 1-10: Seafood Louisiana Cocktail, cranberry sauce, 16-52: Apple Nut Saucepan Torte, and a roasted garlic & herb butter to serve with 17-5: Hot Seedy Rolls.


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8-31: Roast Beef

8-31: Roast Beef

This recipe is the best kind of recipe from Simply Delicious, an easy one. I’m not the most confident at preparing roast beef in this manner, however, the method shown in 8-31: Roast Beef is easy and can be applied to other cuts of meat such as lamb. 🍖

Simple is the best way to describe baking a roast beef in the oven.

Editor’s note: I’ve made this one before–it was part of my fancy dinner party I had in my first apartment after college. You know, before I had to surrender it to the roaches. 😯 I’ve continued to use it as a basic roast beef recipe, although now I like to do a beef broth/mixed-herb/red wine marinade before roasting. 


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6-20: Rosemary Chicken

6-20: Rosemary Chicken

6-20: Rosemary Chicken is another “Easy” level recipe, my favorite kind of recipe from Simply Delicious. This isn’t my usual method to prepare chicken, but it is fun to try something new every once in a while.  😜

The editors of Simply Delicious are sometimes off on their estimate of cooking time. 45 minutes isn’t nearly long enough to bake a chicken at the temperature they recommend on this card. I found this out the hard way. 🍗


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4-18: French Vegetable Casserole

4-18: French Vegetable Casserole

Everything I needed to learn about making 4-18: French Vegetable Casserole was told to me by Remy the animated rat, star of Ratatouille. I know…the editors of Simply Delicious call this dish “French Vegetable Casserole” to make the name more palatable for Middle America. 🇫🇷

The card mentions that the dish is referred to as “ratatouille” in its area of origin.

Editor’s note: I did the underlining you see above when I realized this recipe was “ratatouille”I’ve made this recipe before, a year or two prior to embarking on this project. I even watched Ratatouille on my laptop while I made it. 🐀


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11-3: Indian Scampi

11-3: Indian Scampi

Jamie made me a dish when we first started dating that she called “Shrimp Something“. This recipe, 11-3: Indian Scampi is a dish that is pretty similar to “Shrimp Something” so I really enjoyed it. 👍

Shrimp has to be one of my favorite crustaceans to eat. 🍤


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