BBQ Pork Loin with the fixings & Ginger Chocolate Pie

This meal came together far better than I anticipated – Pork Loin with BBQ sauce, Olive oil, garlic, chives & Romano mashed potatoes, succotash and another amazing dessert creation from my Heart.

We bought the Red Raspberry Pepper Jelly at a craft fair in the spring and I’ve been wanted to use it – melted the pepper jelly with our favorite store-bought BBQ sauce (next time I will make homemade BBQ sauce instead so I can control more of the ingredients to blend with the pepper jelly)

Pork Loin was on sale so I bought a huge piece but was able to take two smaller pieces for our freezer, cut some loin “chops” for the kids for two meals in their freezer, and still have more than enough for dinner for five.  I used Roast Pork Loin with Garlic & Rosemary as my roasting guide and it worked perfectly – definitely how I will do it in the future, and I might actually try the whole recipe sometime.  Started with the loin, fat side down, sprinkled with Montreal Steak Seasoning, roasted at 400-degrees for 30-minutes and then Flipped the loin over (so fat-side up) and coated in the BBQ glaze.

These mashed potatoes were amazing – everyone loved them: Olive oil, garlic, chives, and Romano Cheese Mashed Potatoes (unfortunately this food blogger does not have her recipes set up as individual links but this is the link to her blog and the whole recipe is in her list of recipes: Goddess of Scrumptiousness) Basically, boil potatoes (I used golden potatoes) with peeled garlic cloves and, once the potatoes are tender, drain and mash together – add 1/4c extra virgin olive oil and 1/2c evaporated milk (so No butter) and continue to mash / mix – Then add 1/3c grated Romano Cheese (can use Parmesan for substitute) .. ok.. I used a heck of a lot more than 1/3c but I also had more potatoes than the original recipe called for and we knew we wanted this very cheese.. so closer to 1-cup of grated Romano .. and mix – then folded in 2Tbsp chopped fresh chives (next time More chives) and fresh ground pepper.  These potatoes are right up there with the smashed potatoes we have for Thanksgiving (those have bacon!).. absolutely Delicious!

Finished roasting the loin, 25-30 minutes, internal temperature of 155-degrees. Let the loin rest for 15 minutes before slicing.

Plated: The pork loin was tender and juicy and the Romano mashed potatoes didn’t need any additional gravy or anything, and succotash seemed like an appropriate vegetable.

My Heart’s dessert: crushed ginger snaps combine with melted butter for the base

Melted chocolate frosting combined with a little Amaretto on top of the base.

Once the chocolate base had cooled, heavy cream whipped with low fat chocolate yogurt on top, garnished with a drizzle of more melted chocolate and then chilled in the fridge – WOW!