A Little Black Dress in Grandma's Apron

My grandma is my homemaking hero. She always had something to put on the table at a moment's notice, she canned like crazy, she made the most wonderful candies and desserts, she kept an immaculate house, raised six kids, and could get any stain out of any fabric, even when there wasn't a washing machine in sight. She hasn't cooked as much since Grandpa died, and she isn't the cleaning whirlwind that she once was (although her home is always neat), but I still remember and admire a lot of her ways of doing things. The problem is that I have no idea how to do most of them myself.

But every now and then, I stumble upon something that helps me do things like Grandma. I recently organized my "recipes I want to try" file and came across some torn out magazine pages (from 2002! Yikes!) with a recipe for pork tenderloin, used in three meals. Thanks to our new Costco obsession, we can get pork tenderloin - usually a very pricey meat - for a great price. So I did. And I used it for three meals, spaced throughout the week. That's the part that made me feel like grandma - not just leftovers, but entirely new meals until everything is used up. No waste, no boredom.

The recipe came from Real Simple magazine, where they billed pork tenderloin as "the little black dress of the kitchen," and you can actually find it online by clicking here. I highly recommend it! The tenderloin itself is lovely (and super easy!) for Sunday dinner, the pork sandwiches have a great Asian flavor, and the spring lentil soup is true soul food. The best is that there is a minimum of hands-on time or cooking, there aren't any exotic ingredients, my kids ate and enjoyed each dish, the meals are nutritious, and one meat purchase was spread across multiple meals - a money saver. Be sure to make the suggested sides, too - they're simple and tasty, perfect complements to the main dish, and they take advantage of spring availability.

This set of recipes is definitely making it's way into my newly organized "keepers" book, and every time I use it, I'm going to feel one step closer to being like Grandma.