ginger ginger ginger

Will the first meeting of Spam and Anchovies cooking club please come to order?

As the hostess for our first meal I chose the recipes and they all had a common ingredient.  Ginger!  Now, you don't always have to have a common ingredient for the dishes to complement each other perfectly but our menu was fabulous!  With Anne stuck at home on a liquid diet, there were just 4 of us but since I have a small table and kitchen it just meant we had a little more elbow room.  We still missed you, Anne!



Since we prepared the meal together and everyone contributed ingredients I set up little "stations" around the kitchen to keep us organized.
First up- Roasted Fall Vegetables (this was so good I made it again the next night!)

The main dish- Ginger Glazed Pork Tenderloin





For Dessert- Gingerbread with Compote-




We also made Orange Tea Cooler, which I recommend for ANY  Holiday meal.  So good!


Unfortunately, I broke the tea bags when I was getting them out of the pitcher so we had to be creative and strain the tea through some knee highs!

It worked!

We really enjoyed making the meal together and then, of course, eating the meal together.




Now time for the recipes!
Roasted Fall Vegetables:
4 med. sweet potatoes cut into 1/2" cubes
1 red bell pepper cut into 1/2" pieces
1 sweet onion chopped into 1/2" pieces
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. pepper
Spray pan with cooking spray.  Combine spices and coat vegetable evening.  Bake at 450 for 30-35 minutes

Ginger Glazed Pork Tenderloin:
2 1lb pork strips
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup apricot preserves
3 cloves garlic -minced
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp fresh ginger grated
Place pork in foil lined roasting pan.  Sprinkle with salt.  Combine rest of ingredients and coat pork evenly.  Bake at 425 for 30 minutes or until thermometer reads 155. Cover let stand until thermometer reads 160. Garnish with green onion

Gingerbread with Compote
1 pkg. Gingerbread cake mix (prepared, cooled and cut into squares)
20 oz. pineapple tidbits- drained
2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmet
Combine ingredients in saucepan.  Bring to a boil.Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.  Cool slightly and serve on gingerbread.  Top with whipped topping.

Orange Tea Cooler
2 family size or 5 regular size tea bags
1 3/4 cup sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
2 whole cloves
1 qt. boiling water
2 1/2 cups orange juice
2 cups water
1 1/3 cup cranberry juice cocktail -chilled
Combine first 4 ingredients. Stir in boiling water and let steep for 5 minutes covered.  Discard spices and tea bags then add remaining ingredients.  Chill and serve.
(I have made this a couple times since cooking club since I love it and it is also really good mixed with sprite or vernors.  Makes it taste like punch!

We rounded out the meal with rice and french bread.  Each recipe is simple yet packed with great flavor!  Hope you try some of them out.  Let me know what you think.
ps- I made the roasted veggies the night after cooking club but used less onion and left out the pepper completely.  Still delicious and the picky kiddos even ate it!