Recipe & Gadget of the Week: Crock Pot Pork Tenderloin & the Garlic Zoom

I am going to try to post one of my favorite recipes each week, along with a favorite kitchen product! This week I'm sharing a recipe that I am making tonight for dinner, a super easy and delicious pork tenderloin in the crock pot. Crock pots are a busy mommy's best friend. There's nothing like dumping some ingredients in a pot, turning a knob, completely ignoring it all day, and having a delicious meal come supper time! This one is also great because it only cooks 4 hours. So, if you have a hectic morning like I do, and can't get it started until the kids are in their afternoon nap or strapped into high chairs eating lunch, it works like a charm and only takes minutes to prepare. This recipe is from AllRecipes.com, my favorite recipe site!

Recipe: Easy Crock Pot Tenderloin

Ingredients:
1 (2 lb) pork tenderloin
1 (1 oz) envelope dry onion soup mix
1 C water
3/4 C red wine
3 Tbsp minced garlic (see this week's kitchen gadget below!)
3 Tbsp soy sauce
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions: Place pork tenderloin in slow cooker with the contents of the soup packet. Pour water, wine, and soy sauce over the top. Carefully spread garlic over the pork, leaving as much on top during cooking as possible. Sprinkle with pepper, cover, and cook on low. 4 hours later, serve with cooking liquid on the side as au jus to your incredibly impressed family! (I find if I let it go 5-6 hours instead, it comes out extra tender!)

Here's a shot of mine, roasting away as I type!


Kitchen Gadget: Garlic Zoom Garlic Chopper by Chef'n

A couple years ago my husband got a gift certificate for a cool kitchen store and among other things, picked out this garlic chopper by Chef'n. The main problem that it solves is keeping the tiny garlic clove and it's even tinier chopped pieces in a confined area with the blades for fast, efficient cutting. If you've ever tried to chop up a little garlic clove into teeny tiny pieces with a big knife on a big cutting board, you know what I mean...you have to constantly scrape the bits back into a pile and off of the knife blade to cut them efficiently. With this chopper you simply drop the clove into the top door (below), close it, then roll the wheels back and fourth on the countertop to spin the razor sharp blades through the clove.


Then open up the large door to easily clean the blades and housing.


I have found only 2 downsides, both of which are still far outweighed by it's efficient cutting:
1) The wheels don't really grip my formica countertop so I roll it against the palm of my hand or cutting board instead.
2) It's a little tricky to get all the little garlic bits out of the thing and into your dish. I use the flat end of my Tupperware orange peeler and that works great to scrape it all out. (So there's a bonus kitchen gadget with a dual purpose...I never peel an orange without it!)

Another tip of mine would be to rinse this out immediately after you do the chopping and get your garlic out of it, because once it dries on, it's pretty tough to clean.


Mmm....I can smell that garlic, chopped to perfection in seconds, roasting on top of my tenderloin right now! :-) Dinner...check!