​Pork is like chicken, a blank slate waiting for you to turn it into a delicious meal. In “Southern Living Magazine,” I found  a recipe for Pork Tenderloin with Apples. While I have an assortment of pork and apple recipes, this one seemed interesting with a fennel and apple combination. For the recipe you’ll need kosher salt , freshly ground black pepper, ground fennel, one pound pork tenderloin, butter, 2 Honeycrisp apples, a shallot, apple cider, orange zest and fresh thyme.
 
Place a 12-inch cast iron frying pan in the oven and preheat to 450 degrees. Next, combine the pepper and ground fennel in a bowl. Dust all sides of the pork with the mixture and let it rest while the oven heats up. Slice the apples and shallots. 

​I recently went through my ”Southern Living Magazines” from the fall and clipped several pages of recipes. One that caught my eye from the December issue was an article entitled, “Suppertime - Crowd Pleasers.” The assorted recipes were geared to serving a small crowd. Beef Stew Pot Pie looked delicious from its picture. It’s served up in individual casserole dishes. However, as I’m just feeding two people, I cut the recipe in half and tried it in a cast iron skillet (The recipe gives directions for this option.)
 
For the recipe you’ll need a package (17.3 ounces) frozen puff pastry sheets, 2 pounds top sirloin steak that’s 1-1/2-inch-thick cut into 1/2-inch pieces, black pepper, kosher salt, unsalted butter, all-purpose flour, tomato paste, fresh garlic cloves, beef broth, Worcestershire sauce, fresh thyme leaves, 2 (10 ounce) frozen mixed vegetables (green beans, peas, corn and carrots), 2 cups frozen cubed hash brown potatoes and 1 large beaten egg.