Pan seared pork chops

If you have a problem with dry pork chops, try this method! Take your bone-in pork chops out and let them come up to room temperature about 30 minutes before you begin cooking. While they're resting, pat them dry and sprinkle with coarse salt and black pepper:

Preheat a pan with olive oil on medium-high heat:

Once the oil begins to smoke slightly, add the pork chops and don't move them. Cook them for 5 minutes. Flip them over and cook an additional 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and let them rest 5 - 10 minutes before serving.

If the chops are a little pink, then you've done it correctly. Don't be fooled by folks who think you need to cook chops until they're well done and like shoe leather.

Bacon wrapped pork tenderloin

If you live in the US, I hope that you had a great holiday on Thursday. I did.

We had the traditional turkey, but for fun, I also decided to make a bacon wrapped pork tenderloin. It was super easy and very delicious. The key to a great pork tenderloin is to buy one that is minimally processed. I'm only aware of one brand and one store near where I live. All of the other brands are injected with some kind of solution, or pre-marinated.

The ingredients are:

• Minimally processed pork tenderloin, any size (mine was 1.36 lbs)
• 2 tsp fennel seeds, lightly toasted
• 2 tsp course salt (I used Kosher)
• Generous pinch of black pepper
• Uncooked bacon (I used six slices of uncured pepper bacon)
• 3 garlic cloves made into a paste
• 1 tsp dried rosemary, finely chopped
• 1 tsp dried sage, finely chopped
• Pinch of crushed red pepper

Except for the bacon and tenderloin, combine all of the ingredients in a bowl. Rub the tenderloin with the mixture. Lightly cover the tenderloin with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least six hours.

Take the tenderloin out of the refrigerator one hour before you plan on cooking it. Just before putting the tenderloin in the oven, wrap it with the bacon. The bacon should slightly overlap. Put the tenderloin in a preheated 350 degree with the fat side up. I used a roasting rack.

Bake until the internal temperature reaches 145 degrees. My roast took about an hour, but my mother-in-law kept opening the oven door. Remove the roast from the oven and let it rest for 10 - 15 minutes before slicing and serving.

Right out of the oven:

I added an apple garnish before serving:

Beaver Brand Hot Dijon Mustard review

If you love mustard and horseradish, this mustard is for you. Just like horseradish, this goes straight to your nose, but unlike a good horseradish, the burning intensity in your nose gives way rather quickly to a subtle taste of white wine.

I tried this with some Nathan's beef franks and enjoyed it. I will purchase this mustard again.

Cook your bacon in the oven!

No matter how it's prepared, bacon is awesome. The smell created when it's cooking is phenomenal, but the mess it leaves behind isn't. This is why I always make my bacon in the oven. It's a simple process and doesn't create a mess at all if you follow the steps below:

• Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil, taking care to ensure there's a lip around all edges so grease doesn't spill underneath the foil
• Put your bacon on the cookie sheet

My cookie sheets aren't big enough to hold a pound of bacon, so I use two cookie sheets. To maximize space, I cut each slice of bacon in half, although that's totally up to you.

• Put your oven rack in the middle
• Put the bacon in the oven and set the oven to 400 degrees and your cooking timer to 20 minutes

My oven reaches 400 degrees after 7 minutes. Thick cut bacon takes the whole 20 minutes until it's done to my likeness. Non-thick cut bacon takes about 15 minutes. I recommend watching the bacon the first time to ensure my times jibe with your oven's performance.

• When the bacon is cooked to your likeness, remove it from the oven on to a paper towel lined plate. Cover the top of the bacon with paper towels and press down firmly to absorb grease from the top of the bacon

As mentioned previously, I use two cookie sheets. When the first sheet of bacon is done, I put the next sheet in. Because the oven is at the desired temperature already, this sheet won't take as long to cook. Non-thick cut bacon takes about 12 minutes in my oven.

• If you're not going to eat all of the bacon right away, put it in a container of some sort and put it in your freezer. You can reheat the bacon by putting it in the microwave on high until you hear it start to sizzle, about 20 seconds in my microwave

• If you're saving the bacon grease, pour it in to your bacon grease holder
• Carefully fold up the foil so no grease spills on to the cookie sheet

Congratulations, you've just created bacon goodness without any mess!