This week’s meal was inspired by our recent apple picking trip.

Candy Apple Pork.

do you love candy apples and want a way to fit them into your dinner??

So yummy if you have a little sweet tooth. And the house just fills up with a nutty buttery smell as it cooks.

And before we start Tom and I would like to remind you to cook your meat all the way and this dish does contain nuts

(apples, carmel, and apple cider all came from County Line Orchard but I am sure you can find it at the local grocer)

Ingredients

2 lbs of Pork Tenderloin

2 large apples (we used gala)

apple cider (enough to marinade pork)

salt

pepper

2 sticks of butter

3 tablespoons carmel

1/2 cup of brown sugar

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

Directions

Marinate pork tenderloin in apple cider for at least two hours.

Preheat over to 400 degrees

Melt one stick of butter and coat pork

salt and pepper all sides of pork

roll pork in pecans until it is covered

cook pork for 60 minutes at 400 degrees or until cooked (porks internal temp should be 170 degrees to be done)

when 15 minutes is left for pork

slice apples

melt stick of butter and brown sugar in a large sauce pan, add apples. cook until soft

cut pork into thin slices. move to serving plate. put apples in between slices of pork. pour juice from apples onto pork

take a spoon and drizzle carmel on top of pork and apples

*we recommend taking a bite of pork with the apple *

we also made Simple Garlic Asparugus

cut ends off

cover with a tablespoon of fresh minced garlic and olive oil

cook 400 degrees for 25 minutes

Off course after a dinner like that, we HAD to make our own carmel apples.

Ava requested m&ms

Tom and I are self proclaimed foodies. We love going out to eat and trying new recipes, and we have feel we have become pretty tough critics.

A little food history about us before I roll out this new section of my blog. (I was kind of waiting to do this when the new site launched, but it can’t wait any longer)

I come from an Italian family that could rock a pasta dish that will blow your socks off. My family used to own DiCristina Italian foods in Mount Greenwood. My mom had an amazing cookbook made after my grandma passed of all of our family recipes.Ruby was a wonderful cook and always up to try something new. My family taught me to try everything once. I still have reservations about some foods, but I am pretty open to new things. I can not cook a pancake or grilled cheese for the life of me, but I can rock a pasta dish or Italian dressing.

Tom comes from a Polish family that cooks everything from scratch. There is always something wonderful and homemade at his parents house. Tom himself loves to cook, and is pretty darn good at it. He cooks for the guys at the fire house, and has been cooking at our house since we got married. Last year he was chosen out of hundreds of applicants for Regis and Kelly’s Firehouse cook off, to be in the top three guys for his Secret Soda Rib recipe. He did not win, but his video was shown on the show!

I always try to find recipes and Tom over rides me. I seem to always go for difficult recipes with too “fancy” of ingredients…per Tom. When we first got married he would stand over me and just watch. Then it proceeded to him “helping”. Before I new it he was adding his own ingredients, and then pulling recipes for him to tweak.

At this point Tom is cooking completely from scratch. The past few months I have been thinking of blogging all of his awesome recipes. And after dinner tonight, I realized he made the perfect meal to start with. He cooks by taste, kind of how some people can play the piano by ear.

Tom is drawn to easy and hearty meals. Every day we start asking each other “what’s for dinner”. We are not meal planners so it is always something last minute unless Tom is inspired. Today I was thinking of just throwing together a slow cooker meal, but Tom had a different idea.

Here is The Fireman’s first dish. It was inspired by the Chicken Carmine at our favorite restaurant Gattos in New Lenox (we love it there because we can bring the kids, and the portions are so big we split meals and the garbage salad)

This is a perfect meal for those chilly fall nights.

Chicken MAN hattan

Ingredients

1/2 cup of vermouth cooking wine

2 – 4 large chicken breast ( we did two big ones)

1 pack of savory herbs stuffing mix

4 1/2 mini sweet vine sweet peppers red and orange

1 zucchini

4 large slices of swiss cheese

2  10 3/4 oz. cans cream of chicken mushroom soup

1 tablespoon of minced garlic

1 stick of salted butter

1 container of vine grape tomatoes

Steps

preheat oven to 350 degrees

grease large glass pan with butter

lay chicken breasts in pan

season chicken with salt and pepper

cut zucchini tomatoes, and peppers into halves, apply onto chicken and around pan

cover the chicken breasts with swiss cheese

in a bowl mix wine, soup, melted stick of butter, and garlic

pour over chicken and vegetibles

cover everything with stuffing mix

cook for 60 minutes

YUM! You will swear this recipe is straight from your favorite restaurant!

My mom always said the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Now she may have won my dad that way, but I think it was the other way around with Tom and I. Let me know what you guys think! We would love to hear your feedback