Anyone who hasn’t lived in North Alabama could not believe how crazy our late winter weather can be. One day a couple of weeks ago the afternoon temperatures were in the high 50’s. We woke up the next morning to 5 to 8 inches of snow, depending on your exact location.

A week later we hit the 70’s in the afternoon, and the next morning awoke to an inch of ice and freezing sleet. Go Figure!
The best thing I can say about this crazy weather is that being practically house bound creates the perfect opportunity for cooking things like a big pot of slowly cooked Brunswick Stew.  I like to serve this hearty soup with a pan of my Iron Skillet Cornbread for a warm and filling meal.

I think the weather got to my brain when I decided to make a Stuffed Pork Tenderloin. The recipe is written for two tenderloins.  I merrily prepared the whole recipe of filling, but only one tenderloin was to be stuffed, so we had over-stuffed pork tenderloin. Being over-stuffed made it hard to work with, but it was tasty anyway, and a little extra spinach never hurt anyone.  Easy Potato and Cheese Pierogies went well as a side dish. As the name tells you, these really are easy to do. Instead of a time consuming roll and cut pierogie dough, this recipe is made with store bought egg roll wrappers. They were a nice change from basic mashed potatoes.
Often when I prepare pork loin or tenderloin I trim off the irregular pieces and use them for stir fry. I intended to do so with this pork tenderloin, but since I had so much stuffing, that didn’t happen.  Although I didn’t have any trimmings, Pork Fried Rice still sounded good to me, so I just substituted a boneless chicken breast. I think the protein in any stir fry is interchangeable.

The Asian trend continued with a dinner of Pepper Steak. I prepped extra rice and veggies when I was doing the fried rice and used a small sale-bought strip steak for the beef. I may have just gotten lucky that night, but all the textures were perfect. The beef was tender and the vegetables were neither too crisp nor mushy. I love it when that happens!
Be thankful for what life gives you.