Asian pork tenderloin

My bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

As this song plays in my head, I think of all the last minute minutiae before crossing the Alps with my husband and kids. The car looks like we will be away a month but it really will only be a few days. 

Presents for the family.

Check

Daughter's homework (have we really reached that stage?)

Check

Passports and other papers.

Check

Goodies from Italy.

Check

Son's brand new jacket that doesn't fit anymore for nephew.

Check

Camera.

Check

Diapers.

Check

Elmo.

Check

Snacks for trip.

Check

Ok, looks like we have the essentials.

  

In case you are wondering, those are purple carrots

Not only do I get to see my sister and her family, I am also visiting my grandmother, whom I haven't seen in three years, and I will finally be introducing one of her latest great grandchildren to her! It will be nice to see them together. I am sentimental about that kind of thing. Watching this 91-year old lady with beautiful eyes and my son and thinking that we are all here because of her.

And then we will visit the beautiful Christmas market with endless arrays of candles, decoration, wooden figurines for Cribs, chocolate covered strawberries, candied apples and  chocolate galore. We will stuff our bellies with sausages, pretzels, gluhwein and marzipan.

While I am away, I am leaving you with this recipe. The meat is tender, the sauce thick and full of flavor. It is delicious with rice and quick to make. I made it for my mother in law, a wonderful cook, and she loved it so I can guarantee it is a winner.

I read several variations for this recipe on the Internet and ended up playing around a bit with ingredients, using some I had handy and leaving out things I didn't have.

Pork, pork and more pork: fennel rubbed-pork tenderloin with fig sauce & pork chops a la Vera

Today I am posting what I had originally planned to post about yesterday, before being sidetracked by chocolate and butter and the way those brownies just melt in your mouth...I wish I had just one teeny one left to nibble on right now...oops, there I go again...sorry.

Rewind. 

Today's post is about meat, more precisely pork tenderloin.

Rewind again.

Remember the Sunday family lunch I wrote about the other day? Well, I knew exactly what I didn't want to make as a main course: no roasts, too obvious (mother-in-law territory). No chicken, made that last time my mother-in-law stayed with us. No foreign recipes (for those of you who didn't read that post, it is not that we don't like foreign food. I just always end up making it for F's family in the effort to prepare something different). No fish (we all just spent a lovely vacation on the island of Elba and had tons of fish). It had to be tasty, simple, yet not obvious. It needed a special touch. Wait... September = figs. Figs = prosciutto. Prosciutto = pork! That's it!