That looks WONDERFUL! I had no doubts about you cooking - I can see it now!!!!

Great looking meal!

I'm going to a potluck luncheon, tomorrow, and we are having a host for the event.

I have him a chef hat as a host gift :o)

Looks Yummy. I think you must be a keeper.

Now if only I could train my husband to do that.

That looks great.! Thanks for the idea. You're a good "player in the kitchen".

Oh, There are a couple things I forgot to tell you guys.

I used the pork loin roast because that is what I had on hand, but it also works well with boneless pork chops. You can also pound a chicken breast out thin, then stuff that with stuffing in the same manner. Although for the chicken I don't add raisins to the stuffing. Just mix a quick batch of stove top and that will work fine for either pork or chicken, and if you want to try another variation, whip up a batch of Rice-a-roni or one of my favorites, Rice-a-roni "long grain & wild rice" and use that for the stuffing.

These things freeze very well so when I make them I make up 8 or 10 servings. We each have one for dinner and the rest go in the freezer for those night when neither of us really feel like cooking. We can go to the freezer and select chicken with stuffing, chicken cordon bleu, stuffed pork loin with raisins stuffing, stuffed pork with plain stuffing, stuffed pork with rice, etc. We also place leftover veggies in individual portions in bags in the freezer. The beauty is we can each select a different entree & veggies, (I have even made twice baked potatoes and froze them), pop them in the nuke and in 5 minutes dinner is ready, and it is our own home cooking so I know what went into it.....LOL.

Having said all of that, let me say a bit about meat tenderizing hammers. No doubt many of you have those little light weight aluminum jobs that will wear your arm out before you finish the first chop, and they are a PITA to keep clean. (Jan had one of those but I tossed it in the recycle bag).

I found a fabulous professional type at Walmart for about $15. It is solid stainless steel and weighs about 14 or 15 ounces so the hammer does all the work and its easy to clean, including dishwasher safe. It has a smooth face on one side, which is perfect for pork & chicken and a serrated face on the other side for tougher cuts of beef. I generally do not endorse products, but in this instance I am going to make an exception. In my humble opinion this is one of the best tenderizing hammers you can get....

When pounding chicken or pork out thin put the meat down on your cutting board and cover it with a layer of saran wrap, then start in the middle and work outwards. With practice you can stretch the meat to about twice its diameter while pounding it thin.

OH YES..and here are a couple more tips.
1. After you place the meat in a baking dish, pour some broth in the dish to keep it moist while baking.

I have salt free "Soup Base" in chicken, pork, beef & ham flavor. It is like boulon but it does not have that salty taste, and if I need a quick gravy I can boil a couple cups of water, add a couple tablespoons of the soup base, then mix about 2 TBs of corn starch in cold water and slowly pour that in while heating until I get the desired thickness.

When the meat is pounded out thin like that it cooks extremely fast. Put it in a 350degF oven for about 25 to 30 minutes, then check it, it will probably already be done.

Your pictures are so good I can almost taste it. I love your raisin sauce. You're very creative! Wish I could be more daring, but I have to have a recipe to get some idea of what I'm doing.

Happy Birthday, Jan. You are a lucky girl!

She's a lucky Lady. Good Job!
Happy Birthday Jan.

I don't eat meat, so can't comment on the pork, although it looks pretty good. But had to comment that my mom had that set of dishes when I was growing up! Ah, thanks for the memories.

Wow, I wish my husband would cook. He does make pretty good pancakes from scratch so he could cook if he wanted to. He doesn't and neither do I. I manage to cook a few meals a week. LOL

Looks delicious!

Here's a good tip too Lazypup and anyone else.

The cereal box liners are perfect for pounding meat! They are heavy, and would only get thrown out anyway.

You can come mess around in my kitchen anytime!

Hey pup, what kind of base do you use and where do you get it? I've been looking around for something as an alternative to bouillon and the like. There's a product called "Better Than Bouillon" but it's still pretty heavy in the sodium department.

I'm far from a health nut, but seems like common sense to avoid some of the things when you can do it easily.

I like your comment in the third paragraph after the second picture,
"Hers it is, folks ..."

o j

Cynic;

I honestly don't know who makes the soup base I use. A few years ago I worked alone on nights & weekends as an Operating Engineer & Maintenance tech in a large 250room motel convention center and my primary duties were to operate 3 boilers that were 12' in diameter and 20' long, each burning 60gal of oil per hour and two 250ton air conditioning chillers, the air handlers & cooling towers and four 8,000gal water heaters and all the pumps & filters for an olympic size swimming pool, 6 huge walk in freezers and refrigerators and in winter plowing the snow on a 21 acre parking lot not to menion about 50 miles of pipe and pumps and such to make it all work and in my spare time I was supposed to do routine maintenance throughout the hotel, however on nights & weekends the rooms were generally all occupied so I concentrated my maintenance activities between repairing vacuum cleaners for the housekeeper and maintaining the kitchen equipment.

As you might imagine, when I began routinely working on the kitchen equipment I soon became very close friends with the 12 graduate chefs they had on staff. One day I watched a chef prepare 5 gal of chicken gravy for a banquet in less than 15 minutes so I picked his brain a bit. Not only did he teach me how to make broth or gravy with the soup base, he gave me a 1 lb container that was about 1/4full to take home and try for myself. The first time I used it I was hooked, so when that supply ran out I went back to the chef and asked him where to buy it? He said sometimes you can find it in a high end grocery or meat market, but as a rule chefs order it from their wholesale grocery suppliers, so ever since then, when I need it I talk to a chef or the owner of a small Mom & Pop type restaraunt and ask them if they can order me a pound.

Out of curiosity I ran a quick search for "Salt Free Soup Base" and I found a number of websites where you can order it, but be real careful here. They make "Soup Base", which is like regular boullion and has a high salt content, but they also make "Low sodium" & "Salt Free" soup base. Just be sure you know which your ordering.

You may feel a bit of sticker shock when you see the price, but don't let that scare you. A one pound can is in a wide mouth plastic container with a screw top about 3" in diameter and 4" high and they will typically sell for about $10, which seems a bit pricey until you realize that a one pound can will make 5gal of broth or gravy.

I would strongly advise you to call a local restaraunt supply house or talk to a local restaraunt cook and see if they can order you a can. Not only will you save on shipping costs you can actually talk to someone to find out how salty it is before you order.

Out of curiosity I ran a quick search on Yahoo and found a long list of sites that stock it.

The one that caught my eye is - http://www.soupbase.com/

If you go to the soupbase.com website you will see a long list of soup bases and gravy bases down the left side. Under salf free soup base I found "Minor's" salt free chicken soup base, which is a product I have used and liked it very much.

Sounds and looks delicious.

Thank you Lazypup. I made this last night and it was delicious!! Only had a pork loin, so I cut it in half the long way and pounded it flat. Cut each long piece into 4 pieces (8 altogether) then laid 4 pieces in the glass baking dish, topped each with the raisen stuffing, then laid the other 4 pieces on top and mushed them down a little. It did take a long time to thicken the juice, but worth the wait (maybe because I used Martinellis sparkling cider, instead of apple juice) This recipe is definitely a keeper :-)