Pork, Salad, and Cake!

For dinner the other night I made a pork tenderloin. I was inspired by a recipe for pork with an orange marmalade glaze. I more or less followed the recipe with approximately 1/3C soy sauce, 1/3C honey, 1/3C orange marmalade, hot pepper flakes, and black pepper. I let this simmer for about 10 minutes on the stove, let it cool to room temperature, and then let the pork sit in about 1/2 the mixture for about 30 minutes in the fridge. The recipe calls for at least an hour marinade, but I didn't have time. I cooked the tenderloin, covered with foil, at 350 for about 30-35 minutes. After about 20 minutes, I flipped it over once and spooned on the rest of the sauce. I took it out of the oven when it reached nearly 160 degrees, figuring it would keep cooking for a few minutes.On the side I had a green salad made with a fresh head of green lettuce from our farm share. I added green pepper, red onions, and some sliced carrots. I made a quick salsa buttermilk salad dressing. I got the idea from a local restaurant that serves a salsa buttermilk dressing on their taco salad that I absolutely love. I haven't quite matched what they create, but I have gotten close with a combination of salsa, buttermilk, and sour cream. Sometimes I also add some lime juice and chopped cilantro. For the salsa, I usually use the jar of salsa we always have in our fridge: Herdez medium (sometimes hot) salsa.And last, but definitely not least(!), I made cake.

We have a black raspberry bush in our backyard that reached its peak this week. Last year we had enough from that bush and one at my husband's shop to make a pie for 4th of July. Obviously, the weather was better last year if they were ripe a week earlier. Unfortunately, the bush at the shop was cut down so I relied on our bush and one down the street next to the bus stop.

I didn't have enough berries for a pie so I made a cake. I used the recipe for a blueberry cake from smitten kitchen. Instead of blueberries, I used black raspberries. The recipe calls for 1C of blueberries and you mix 1/2 in the batter and sprinkle 1/2 on top before cooking. I used about 1 1/2C black raspberries with 1/2 in the batter and 1/2 on top. This worked out well because the black raspberries don't expand like blueberries do so having more berries was necessary. The recipe calls for whole milk or buttermilk.

I used buttermilk (we had it around from the coleslaw and salsa buttermilk dressing) and I am so glad I did because it added a lovely tang. This is a delicious cake: moist, perfectly sweet, and rich. I am sure this cake would work well with a number of different berry combinations!