Cranberry-Pear Salad

One of the many lessons I learned from our CSA experiment is that I do not play around enough with our side dishes. Actually, I tend to ignore the sides most of the time and throw together the easiest, least hands-on dish and call it a meal.

For someone who claims to love food so much, it's really quite embarrassing.

I'm trying to change my ways though!  You might be noticing on my meal plans lately that I'm trying to not list my usual "steamed veg" or "tossed salad" quite so much.  I want to get more specific.  Have more fun.  Live a little!

Like this salad: something that's super-duper simple, seriously easy to put together, and packs way more of a flavor punch than boring ol' steamed green beans.

Cranberry-Pear Salad
Recipe from Food Network Magazine
Prep time: 5-7 minutes

3 tbsp cranberry sauce [Please, please, pretty please use a good-quality or homemade sauce!!]
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp orange juice
1 tsp honey
1 tsp Dijon mustard
5 oz lettuce*
2 medium pears, thinly sliced
1/2 cups diced cheddar
Salt to taste

*I have nothing against romaine or even iceberg lettuces, but I am seriously falling in love with this lettuce. Have you seen it in the store?  It's awesome!! It's just a bit fancier, has more flavor, and you get get a TON in these little four-packs. And while it's not pre-washed, it's nothing a quick soak in a sink full of cold water can't fix.

1.  In the bottom of your serving dish, whisk together the cranberry sauce, EVOO, orange juice, honey, and mustard.

Don't we all have these ingredients lying around our pantries or fridges?

2.  Layer the lettuce, sliced pear, and cheddar cheese over the dressing.  If you are serving immediately, toss to coat. If you are serving this later, only put the lettuce in the bowl, cover and refrigerate until just before meal time.  Then add the pears and cheese and toss to coat. I promise you, the greens touching the dressing will not wilt.

FYI, this is only about half of that lettuce 4-pack.  Yeah, LOTS.

How can you go wrong with crisp slices of pear and big chunks of cheddar?

One of the reasons I stay away from "fancier" side dishes is I tend to think they require a lot of work and focus and attention.  Then I quickly become overwhelmed with trying to split my precious time in between the Star (the main dish) and the Supporting Players (the sides).

Boy how stupid have I been?!  This salad not only tastes fantastic, but it really requires so little from me.  A quick measure and whisk of the dressing ingredients, and then tossing in the rest of it into the salad bowl. Done. And I even have a Get Ahead option by assembling this but waiting to coat it all in dressing. How fabulously easy is that?!?

Cranberry Pork Tenderloin

One of my all-time favorite food pairs is pork and fruit.  I don't know why exactly but I think there are so many fruits out there that complement pork beautifully!  Apples, pineapples, cherries... I particularly love cranberries with pork.  Must be a family thing.  My brother came up with a cranberry pork chop recipe that is insanely good.  And now that I've said that I'll have to make it again soon so I can share it with you.

But anyway, it's my brother's recipe that gave me the inspiration for this one.  Now, he uses cranberry juice for his sauce, which is great but I very rarely buy juice.  (I know, I'm weird.)  I do try to keep cranberry sauce around though.... and this dish was born:

Cranberry Pork Tenderloin
Recipe inspired by my brother

One 1lb pork tenderloin
1/2 cup whole berry cranberry sauce*
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

*If it's feasible for you, because I know we're all busy, I'd strongly recommend using some homemade cranberry sauce.  Maybe you stashed some in the freezer after Thanksgiving?  No?  Oh.  Well, if you don't have any leftovers hiding in the back corner of your deep freezer, consider grating a little fresh ginger and orange zest into the canned kind to jazz it up. Just a thought...

1.  Preheat oven to 375.  Spray a baking dish with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

2.  Combine the cranberry sauce and mustard and season to taste with salt and pepper.

3.  Lay the pork in the greased baking dish and pour the cranberry mixture over it, making sure the whole tenderloin is coated.  Bake for 25-30 minutes.  LET REST 10-15 MINUTES before slicing.

It doesn't take a mountain of ingredients to make a tasty, flavorful dish.  Sometimes things taste even better because of the simplicity!  I love dishes like this.  Easy.  Throw it in the oven.  Bake some potatoes, steam some veggies and I've got dinner done with very little hands-on time put into it.  I think I spent less than 10 minutes getting everything together.  Gotta love that on a busy night!