Rosemary pork loin and Cannoli

After a very long week of studying and quite arguably the hardest exam I have ever taken in my life, I decided it would be nice to cook a delicious relaxing dinner for Travis and I on Friday evening. I decided to go with a rosemary pork loin, my uncle (Uncle Merlot) and aunt Jan make this when Christmas is at their house and it is always a big hit. I had decided it would be a good idea to try to make a rub or a paste to coat the pork loin before I cooked it. I took some fresh rosemary, extra virgin olive oil, chopped garlic, fresh cracked pepper, basil leaves, and some flour and blended it together in a blender to create a paste. I then rubbed the mixture all over the pork loin, mainly the fat side and the lateral sides. I set my oven to 350 and let it cook for about an hour and 15 minutes. I had never cooked a pork loin before, so I was hoping it could come out good. Well my hopes had come true - this meat was perfectly cooked, it was dripping with juice when I sliced it up and was so tender you could cut it with a butter knife. The rosemary had seeped into the meat and created a wonderful burst of flavor with each bite. I paired the loin with garlic mashed potatoes and honey glazed carrots along with gravy ( I actually used turkey gravy, couldn't find pork in the store). I boiled red skinned potatoes and blended them with chopped garlic, cracked pepper, some milk, and half and half using an electric mixer. Once they were blended I added a little bit of olive oil for an extra smooth flavor. The potatoes were fantastic and worked nicely with the pork. How can you not love taking a nice hunk of pork covered in gravy and dipping it in your mashed potatoes? That's what I call the perfect bite.


Next was dessert. I love love love cannolis, they are tied for my favorite italian dessert (the other number one being panna cotta - which I should make a blog entry soon). I will admit, these cannolis I made are something that would go well on Semi-homemade with Sandra Lee on the Food Network because I purchased the shells at the grocery store. I would like to make my own, I have yet to get the necessary cylinders from my mother, I will soon! Anywho I added my own touch to the shells by dipping each end in melted chocolate. While the chocolate dried, I mixed whole-milk ricotta (If you are eating a cannoli, go all the way and use whole-milk ricotta, who cares about calories at this point) with powdered sugar. Again, I do not measure, I add maybe 3/4 of a cup at first and see how it tastes, if I think more is needed I add more. You can also add vanilla extract to the mixture as well. It is also best to let the ricotta sit in a cheesecloth overnight so that the moisture is drawn out and you don't end up with runny filling. So once I had the mixture all ready, I put it into a ziploc bag that I had cut a corner off of the bottom (in order to imitate a piping bag). Then I squeezed the filling into both ends of each shell and put chocolate chips on each end. I dusted each cannoli with powdered sugar when done. They were great and very easy to make!