recipe reviews: roasted sweet potatoes with smoked paprika and simple asian & latin holiday pork loin

another weekend, another round of meal prep. this will probably be the last meal prep i do before thanksgiving, which kinda freaked me out even though i've been prepping for thanksgiving for at least a week if not longer, lol.

i saw that sweet potatoes were going to be on sale, so i went looking for ideas. this recipe (a log-in may be required) for roasted sweet potatoes with smoked paprika looked promising. if you follow me on twitter, then you may have seen my post on friday night when i realized that i'd added a 1/2 tablespoon of salt instead of the 1/2 teaspoon called for in the recipe. oops. christin shared this article about adding acid to oversalted food, so i added a 1/2 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar at the end. oh, and i'm pretty sure i used 3 garlic cloves instead of 2. not sorry. the final product wasn't as salty as i feared it would be.

the pork loin recipe comes from a marshall field's...i mean macy's culinary council event i attended last year? a couple years ago? i can't remember. at any rate, chef bill kim had a recipe for a "simple asian and latin holiday pork loin" that i was thinking about trying for thanksgiving until i decided on something else. jewel had boneless pork loins on sale, so i figured why not try it now? i can't find the recipe online anywhere, so here it is:

ingredients

• 2 tablespoons sweet paprika
• 2 tablespoons dried oregano
• 2 tablespoons dark chili powder
• 2 tablespoons madras curry powder
• 1/4 cup kosher salt
• 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
• 15 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 3 lbs. boneless pork loin

directions

1. place the pork loin in a large, shallow dish. pour 1 cup of the marinade over and turn to coat evenly. cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours but if you have time, let it marinate overnight.
2. remove the shallow dish with pork from the refrigerator for 20 minutes or until room temperature.
3. preheat the oven at 375℉ and cook 45 minutes to an hour or until the internal temperature of the pork loin is 145℉.
4. transfer the pork loin to a cutting board and let rest for 20 minutes. cut the pork loin against the grain into thin slices and arrange it on a serving platter.

i had 2 pork loins that totaled about 4 pounds, so i adjusted the marinade and used 3 tablespoons each of paprika, oregano, and curry powder. i didn't realize i was running low on chili powder so i only used 2 tablespoons of that since that's what i had left. kept the salt as is and used a 1/3 cup each of vinegar and olive oil. the garlic cloves i had were on the larger side so i only used 16 cloves instead of the 15. (is there anyone out there who doesn't add more garlic to a recipe?)

i marinated the pork for about 12 hours and cooked it for an hour last night. it probably could've come out a few minutes early but i was watching hockey and that's what had happened. the flavors are great, though, and that's what's important here. i wonder if i could use garlic powder instead of fresh garlic and make this in a crockpot. 

recipe review: fried rice with zucchini, tomatoes, and parmesan

me, making my grocery list: "ooh, zucchini's on sale! i wonder what i can make with it?"

i was already on my laptop, so i checked my folder of recipes (not to be confused with the binders of hard copy recipes on my bookshelf) and found this fried rice recipe. i skipped the red pepper flakes, used 4 garlic cloves instead of 3, used a 1/4 teaspoon of dried thyme instead of fresh, and 3 bowls of microwavable brown rice that i just added to the skillet. skipped the parsley and scrambled 2 eggs because i am not a fan of fried eggs.

i like this a lot and will probably make it again, possibly with the addition of cooked chicken or shrimp depending on how i'm feeling.

recipe review: skillet-roasted chicken and veggies

i'm no longer within walking distance of one of my preferred spice shops, but thanks to the magic of the interwebz, i can stock up on spices without needing to make a special trip to lincoln square. one of the spice kits i added to my most recent order was for this skillet-roasted chicken & veggies. i bought the veggies and made it as part of my meal prep this weekend.

i think i used 7-8 garlic cloves total - half in the marinade for the chicken and the other half for the veggies. i had 4 bone-in chicken thighs so that's what i used in place of the 2 chicken leg quarters. i roasted everything for 45 minutes and, once i pulled the skillet out of the oven, realized that i should've put the skillet on the lower oven rack and not the upper one because the chicken was blackened and the veggies were way darker than depicted in the recipe. the chicken was a little dry, but i'm sure that's because i left it in the oven for longer than the recipe indicated. the veggies were tender and the sauce is delicious, so i'd probably make this again and adjust the cooking time accordingly.