The Main Event

For the main course, I served pork tenderloin with jezebel sauce, dirty mashed potatoes, and creamy Parmesan spinach. The pork tenderloin, jezebel sauce, and dirty mashed potatoes are my recipes, and the creamy Parmesan spinach is Rachael Rays'. The pork is moist and it almost melts in your mouth. Serve it as an entree or as Hors d'Oeuvres (small biscuit, pork, jezebel sauce, and if you want sauted onions.)

Marinated Pork Tenderloin
1/4 C soy sauce
1/4 C dry sherry
1 C red wine
1 Tbl dry mustard
3 Tbl olive oil
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp sesame oil
1 garlic clove, finely chopped or 1 Tbl garlic powder
2 lbs pork tenderloin
1/2 C apple cider vinegar

Combine first 8 ingredients in a shallow dish or heavy duty ziplock. Add tenderloin. Chill for 8 hours or overnight.

Remove tenderloin from marinade; reserving marinade. On the stovetop, combine marinade and vinegar. Heat to a boil. Keep an eye on this or it will boil over. Reduce heat to low and let simmer.

Grill tenderloin until fully cooked. While cooking, baste the tenderloin several times with heated marinade and vinegar.

Let meat stand 5 minutes before cutting so the juices can redistribute. Slice meat on an angle and serve with jezebel sauce.

Jezebel Sauce
1 C apple jelly
1 C orange marmalade
1 (6oz) jar prepared yellow mustard
1 (5 oz) jar prepared horseradish
1/4 tsp black pepper

With an electric mixer, beat apple jelly and orange marmalade in a mixing bowl at med speed. Add remaining ingredients; beat at med speed until blended.

Yields 3 cups*
*I half this recipe when I make it, unless I'm preparing 3 or 4 tenderloins. Also you can vary the horseradish to your tasting. If you like things that have a good kick, go heavy on the horsey. If not, go light on the horsey.

Dirty Mashed Potatoes
6-7 med red potatoes, cubed and skins on
1 stick butter
6 oz cream cheese
1/2 - 1 C heavy cream or milk (depending on how rich you want them)
fresh chives, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot over high heat, bring the potatoes and water to a boil. Boil until "fork" tender. Don't over boil. You want them to soft but not mushy. While the potatoes are cooking, put the butter and cream cheese in a mixing bowl to allow for them to soften. When the potatoes are done cooking, drain of the water and add the potatoes to the mixing bowl. With an electric mixer, begin mixing the potatoes on low to med speed. Once the potatoes begin to "mash", turn the mixer up to med speed and begin to stream in the cream. These potatoes are supposed to be thick and lumpy, so don't over beat them. At the very end, add in chives, salt and pepper.

Creamy Parmesan Spinach
3 boxes frozen spinach, defrosted
2 (3-ounce) bricks cream cheese
1/2 small white onion, finely chopped*
2/3 cup grated Parmesan, 2 rounded handfuls
1 teaspoon coarse black pepper
(1/2 tsp nutmeg)**

Place spinach in microwave to defrost. Place boxes on a dish to defrost the spinach because it will leak. While spinach defrosts, place cream cheese and onions in a medium sauce pot over low heat. While cream cheese is melting and spinach is defrosting, continue forward with meal prep then return to spinach. When the cream cheese melts, add Parmesan and black pepper to the cheese. Drain spinach in clean kitchen towel, wringing it out until dry. Stir spinach into sauce, season with a pinch of salt, to taste, if necessary and let the spinach sit over lowest heat possible 10 minutes, stirring occasionally

*I grated the onion instead of chopping. I didn't want my guests to have super onion-y breath.
**I added nutmeg to take a little bit of edge off the spinach.