Garlic-rosemary roasted pork loin
Gosh, what happened to Thursday? Oh, I remember. I spent it at four Targets and two Toys R Uses, in search of a Luke Skywalker lightsaber and a Bumblebee Autobot Transformer. Oh, and Autobot Optimus Prime — I missed the last one at the Target on South Lamar by about twenty minutes. It’s Cabbage Patch Dolls all over again — only they turn into 1974 Camaros and aren’t nearly as cuddly.
Hope your holiday seasons are gearing up smoothly, and that your shopping is going better than mine.
At any rate, the point of this post wasn’t Transformers; it was to talk turkey. Or pork loin, in this case. If you’re planning to spend some of your kitchen time making something other than gingerbread, and if you’re already tired of drumsticks, here’s one of my favorite pork loin recipes. (It also works with tenderloin, but I don’t do the slits and the cooking time is far shorter — I can’t tell you how much shorter, though, because I use a meat thermometer. And I crank the oven to 350 for tenderloins.)
Anyway, here it is. Hope you like it! (Your house WILL smell heavenly, I promise.)
GARLIC-ROSEMARY ROASTED PORK LOIN
Ingredients:
One boneless pork loin (3-4 pounds is what I usually do)
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
3-5 cloves of garlic
2-4 T fresh rosemary
Approx. 1 T coarse sea salt or Kosher salt
6-12 sprigs fresh thyme, if available
(The above are approximations: adjust to taste.)
Preheat oven to 325. Chop the herbs, then macerate them with the oil; then add the sea salt. Rub the pork loin with the mixture (for extra flavor, you can also cut 1-inch slits in the bottom of the loin, about an inch apart, and stuff them with extra mixture — you can always make more) and place it in a roasting pan, fat-side up.
Roast until meat thermometer placed in center of roast reaches 140 degrees (probably about 20 minutes per pound, but I’ve learned to use the thermometer, because without it all pork I cook is either oinking or resembles shoe leather when I take it out). Be sure to baste the loin from time to time with olive oil or drippings.
When the roast is done, allow it to sit for 10 minutes before carving; you can serve the pan juices at the table. (I love this with roasted new potatoes — you can even toss them into the pan under the pork if you like.)
Hope you like my favorite company dish (easy, smells good, foolproof). Now I’m off to see if I can track down a Bumblebee Transformer (Voyager Series, preferably) online so I don’t have to drive to Omaha to get one. 
Cheers, and I’ll be back to comment on your lovely comments — and copy off some of my fellow Cozy Chicks’ scrumptious recipes — tomorrow.
Yours truly,
Karen the Christmas Elf