Weddings, PhDs, and Life. Oh My!

We have been oh so busy these past few weeks in the Little Kitchen.  We travelled to BC for Brother in law's wedding, came home for Dr. Sister's convocation to see her claim that beloved PhD, then had Brother in law and his wife come here for more wedding celebrations.... All that mixed in with everyday life means we have been on the go.  Here's the run down:

First things first: I am happy to announce that Sheila Syms is the lucky winner of the VH prize pack! Congrats!

Second: We had a blast in BC and even had some time to do some sightseeing, including the Capilano Suspension bridge!!

Third:  I managed to use another tasty sauce from my VH pack to make some Korean BBQ chicken wings.....very tasty!

(wash and pat dry some wings, coat them with sauce, place in a 350 degree oven until crispy. Just make sure to give the wings a toss half way through and even pour some more sauce on them.)

Fourth: I had fun making cupcakes to help celebrate the wedding.

Fifth:  The Boy gets to go to WE Day Tuesday. I am excited for him also, one of the girls he went to Africa with gets to speak!

Sixth:  We already have some snow here and I am not too happy about that.  I think this means some comfort food and warm pjs every night.

Seventh:  As happy as I am for all the joyous occasions as of late, I am looking forward to some down time and cooking time!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Excite Your Dinner and Enter The Contest: Mango Curry Roast Pork

Today I finally got a chance to use the first of my VH sauces to excite my dinner. You may have read my last post which talks about the goodies I received in the mail that contained some neat prizes and the jars of VH sauces to try. I am to use them to 'Excite My Dinner' and tell the world what I think about them. They even gave me a fancy disclosure statement to post that goes a little something like this:

"Disclosure - I am participating in the VH Excite Your Dinner 

blog tour by enCompass Media on behalf of Con Agra Foods. I 

received compensation as a thank you for participating and for 

sharing my honest opinion."

What did I make for dinner you ask? I used the mango curry to coat a pork loin roast before slipping it into the oven to roast. It was an easy peasy way to add some new flavour to Sunday supper. Here's what I did:

Thickly slice half an onion and line the roasting pan. This will give a flavourful platform for the roast to sit on.

Using a large bowl to contain the roast, put a couple of heaping spoonfuls of VH Mango Curry onto the roast.

Get your hands messy and rub that sauce all over. Make sure every part of the roast is coated.

Place the roast on top of the sliced onions and add at least half a cup of 

water to the bottom of the pan. This will keep things from burning to the bottom

of the pan. This is a good time to insert a thermometer to help judge the 

doneness of the roast.

 

Part way through roasting, take the foil off and spoon some more Mango curry sauce over the roast. 

Continue roasting until cooked through.

 Allow the roast to rest for 15 minutes before slicing. I served the roast 

with steamed veggies and it made a very tasty dinner. The Boy, of course, 

made a sandwich with his Mango Curry roast pork and he thoroughly 

enjoyed it. VH's Mango Curry sauce is a sweet curry sauce with a faint mango

 taste to it.  It is quite nice because the curry is not overpowering. It is a well 

balanced sauce that combined very nicely with the pork loin. This is saying a lot 

because we are not generally a curry loving family. This was a bit of a surprise 

that  everyone enjoyed it.

There are a few things I do find a bit unsettling about this VH sauce. One of 

them is the salt content.(This is a big reason why I don't usually use premade 

sauces). A 1/2 cup of sauce has 680mg of Sodium in it. Now I know that

realistically, especially using it on a roast, I am not eating a full 1/2 cup of sauce

 but if I were serving extra sauce over rice this would concern me even more. If that were

 the case, I would also be concerned about the 230 calories per 1/2 cup. This is my

second concern. There are people out there who will eat more than that amount

 in a sitting. Once again, I return the realistic side. I'm not using these sauces 

everyday so once in a while, why not. I can see using this VH Mango Curry sauce with

chicken and veggies in a crock pot for a quick winter stew to serve over rice or

 even on some chicken wings.

My next sauce to try is the Korean BBQ! Any suggestions?

Please remember to enter the giveaway below for your chance to win a $25 VH 

prize pack!! It is just as easy peasy as this roast pork was. Go to theVH Facebook

page or the VH website, check our their sauces, leave a comment here telling

me what sauce you would like to try.  Do it. Contest ends Oct 26, 2012 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Until next time, stay warm and eat well. 

VH Excite Your Dinner Blog Tour and a Giveaway!!

Have I told  you what a lucky lady I am? I am fortunate enough to participate in the VH Excite your dinner Blog Tour hosted by Kathryn at Mommy Kat and Kids.  Today I received by wonderful prize package with some neat items, including a couple bottles of VH sauces to use and blog about.  I will have to wait until I am back from a family wedding to cook (Unless I feel adventurous and want to cook in the kitchenette our hotel room will have....). I do have some ideas rolling around in my head and have even given the Boy creative license to come up with ideas.

My bounty of goodies!!

As part of the VH Excite your dinner blog tour, I get to host a give away!! (EEEEE!) Please pay a visit to the VH Website or the VH Facebook page and choose a favourite recipe or sauce that you would like to try.

In the meantime, I will work at cooking up some deliciousness with my sauces from the prize pack and get back to you guys soon.  Enjoy checking out all the choices VH offers.


a Rafflecopter giveaway