Roasted Lemon Pork with Cinnamon Sweet Potatoes

Here is the recipe for my Plurk buddies; it is from the American Heart Association’s “Meals in Minutes” cookbook, page 212.

Serves 4: 3 oz. meat & 1/2 sweet potato per serving

Prep Time: 10 min.; Cook Time: 55 min.; Stand Time: 5 min.

Ingredients:

Vegetable oil spray, 1-lb. pork tenderloin, 1 med. lemon cut in half, 1/4 cup finely snipped fresh parsley, 1-1/2 tsp. bottled minced roasted or plain garlic or 3 med. cloves minced, 1/2 to 1 tsp salt-free lemon pepper, 1/4 tsp. salt, 2 large sweet potatoes halved lengthwise, 2 tsp. margarine softened, 1-1/2 tsp. dark or light brown sugar, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray broiler pan with vegetable oil spray. Put pork in pan, tucking any thin ends under to cook evenly. Squeeze lemon over pork, then sprinkle with parsley, garlic, lemon pepper, and salt. Press seasonings onto pork. Wrap each potato half individually in aluminum foil and place around pork. Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until internal temperature registers 155 degrees F to 160 degrees F on a meat thermometer. (Meat should have a hint of pink. It will cook for a few minutes after you remove it from the oven.) Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine remaining ingredients. Stir until smooth; set aside. When pork is done, remove it from pan and let stand for 5 minutes. (Continue baking potatoes.) Slice pork and put on platter. Put unwrapped potatoes around pork, and top with margarine mixture.

Nutrition Information Per Serving:

Calories: 298; Protein: 26 g; Carbs: 34g; Cholesterol: 66 mg; Total Fat: 7g (Saturated: 2 g; Polyunsaturated: 1 g; Monounsaturated: 3 g); Fiber: 4 g; Sodium: 233 mg

More About Plurk

I’m still plurking along and having more fun there than any other social network I’ve tried. I’m also learning a lot from the people who do blogging, web pages, web hosting, etc. every day for their “real” jobs. There are several live web casts that happen during the week that anyone can join to learn about SEO, Google, WordPress themes, and many other topics that come up in discussion. It’s also another way to interact with the people you follow on plurk. One of the web casts is called PlurkCast, hosted by Eric Odom every Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. Pacific/4:00 p.m. Central/5:00 p.m. Eastern; and they are having a contest. Check out the contest rules and information at: Plurkable .

Hope to see everyone there!

Plurking the Day Away

So I signed up for the new social media site, plurk (www.plurk.com). It only took about 5 minutes before I was totally hooked. It was easy to find and make friends because of the threaded conversations. If you follow one person, you will see their plurks on your timeline; but you can also see all the comments from their friends. It doesn’t take long to figure out who is putting out interesting plurks so you can follow them. When there are a lot of people on and updating, the timeline gets a little crazy; but you can see only the updates, the new comments or your own plurks.

If you want to try it out, follow this link.

Online World

I stay online way too much. I belong to 28 groups on Flickr.com, have a Twitter, Pownce, Plurk, del.icio.us and FriendFeed account, and at least 3 email accounts that I keep up with; and that’s not counting the many websites and old email addresses that I’ve forgotten about or just don’t have time to keep up with.

I get caught up in the online world sometimes and find that I spend more time talking about what I want to do in the “real” world instead of just doing it. I love to go out and take photographs of the beautiful island that I live on and I am a member of the local book club and love to just sit and read; but I find that I shortchange myself on what I want to do sometimes by spending so much time in my virtual world. How do you balance the two? How do you keep up with the fascinating stuff that is happening in the tech world and keep time to slow down and just read a good book? I’m working on it – some days are better than others on balance. I would love to hear other’s thoughts and ideas.

Changing Jobs

I’ve been in my current job for about 1-1/2 years, on call 24/7 with only 1 break for a death in the family. I’m tired of having a phone at the end of my arm and not being able to be out of touch for more than 20 minutes. But I’m worried about the economy and the rising level of unemployment. What if I change jobs then get laid off? Living in Hawaii, both my husband and I have to work. If tourism slows down drastically, the smaller businesses will feel the pinch sooner than the large resorts, but everyone will be fighting for their livelihood. I’m keeping my options open. I want to stay here on the Big Island and would love to start my own business. I’m working on the side now building websites, helping friends with their computer problems, helping set up small networks and that is what I would like to do full time. Right now, I don’t think there is enough of a base to support that business. So, I’ll drift along and see what opportunity presents itself next. Just have to watch for it constantly.

Mars Landing

The recent landing on Mars had the same feeling of expectation to me as the Moon landing. I was glued to the screen waiting to see if Phoenix landed safely. We haven’t been doing a lot of space exploration lately; or if we have, there is not a lot of “hype” around it. I would rather hear about our astronauts visiting the International Space Station (is it still in orbit?) than what some celebrity said or did. Why does the news cover the stupid stuff (or fluff) and not the really important stuff? Are we a society that only wants to be entertained and not educated?

Memorial Day

When did Memorial Day, a day when we should be remembering our fallen soldiers, become a retail day where sales abound? How did we go from services held at Arlington and other graveyards for the people who have given their lives defending our country to shopping at Macy’s for new sheets and pillowcases? Are we that insensitive? Are we that willing to turn a blind eye to what is happening to our young people in wars fought half a world away? How many will have to die until we wake up, or is it too late already?

New Camera

So I broke down and bought a new camera. I got the new Nikon Coolpix P80 with the 18x zoom. I’ve been taking lots of pictures and having a lot of fun with the zoom and macro features. I’m slowly learning about all the different settings that can be changed in each mode. My poor Olympus has been totally replaced. I should give it to the local Salvation Army, but I’m not sure that I’m ready to do that yet. Maybe in a couple of weeks/months/years… What do you think? Do you get rid of your old cameras when they are replaced by new ones, or do you hold onto them for sentimental reasons?

Snorkeling In Hawaii

I love to snorkel, especially here in Hawaii. Everywhere I go, there is beautiful coral and so many different kinds of fish. I really need to get a waterproof housing for my digital camera! I’ve been using those inexpensive throw-away cameras which don’t take the greatest pictures. Any suggestions on housings for an Olympus D-550 Zoom camera would be appreciated. I know it is an older digital camera (only 3 megapixels), but I love this camera and since it works fine, I don’t want to buy a new one. Is there a camera in your life that you just can’t live without or that you have hung onto because it just fits with you?