Pork tenderloin, stuffed baked potatoes and wilted spinach.

Yay we are home! It doesn't matter how nice a time you had away, you are always happy to be home! We got in late but still managed to grocery shop on the way home and then I set to making a meal for us both. I had spent the entire flight glued to The Food Network so was full of inspiration and meal plans for many days to come! We don't have cable tv at home so you can imagine what a treat it was for me to watch all these chefs. Jamie Oliver stuffing home grown zucchini/courgette flowers with spicy/herby ricotta and deep frying them, 'Ricardo' making a caramelised pear trifle, the Chef at Home making spinach and walnut pesto  pasta, and the Barefoot Contessa making chilled cucumber soup, lobster salad and Eaton Mess! All while nibbling on my free in flight biscuit and gulping water to fend of in flight dehydration! The torture of it all! Anyway, rant/rave aside, first dinner back home was yum.

I cooked the potatoes in the microwave first to speed things up and started the oven heating up. I seasoned the pork with salt and pepper and then seared it in a pan. I actually cooked it quite a bit at this stage, maybe 5minutes a side to get it going nicely. When the potatoes were soft I transferred them to the oven to crisp up and I put the pork in with them on a foil lined tray. It was a small tenderloin and probably only took about 20minutes at 400 degrees. In the meantime I boiled the kettle and wilted the spinach in a colander with boiling water. I almost always cook spinach like this, pouring boiling water over it just gets it wilted enough but doesn't turn it to mush, and you can toss it around with tongs to evenly wilt it. 

I made a cream cheese stuffing for the potatoes, with some freshly chopped parsley, lemon zest and juice, cheddar, truffle salt and pepper. When the potatoes were ready I halved them length ways, loosened the filling and then added the stuffing with a little more cheese on top. When it was heated through and the cheese was melted they were ready. 

The gravy was a packet of Clubhouse pork gravy which I made in the pan that I had used to sear the tenderloin, scraping up any bits that I could. I added quite a bit of pepper to it for some heat. 

I am now of to download the hundreds of photographs from the trip so that I can get to updating some previous entries and making new ones from when we were away. Feel like there is lots to share!