GCC: Fruit Stuffed Pork Loin

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This past weekend I had every intention of doing this dish, except that I spend it running around doing errands and Saturday dinner turned into pizza.

Instead I decided, I would do it for Sunday’s dinner.

Sunday came and went and back in the refrigerator everything went. But, I made a mental vow that I was going to do this for our Monday night dinner no matter what.

I had doubts that this was going to work out for a quick meal, but once more, I realized that there is always a way.  And in less than 1 hour, I had it on the table for us to dig in.

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HCB: Apple Caramel Charlotte

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Disclaimer: this post is long and there is a bit of a rant.  Just as long as making this cake was and reading about it.

A few months ago, I was emailing with Jenn from Knitty Baker and we were discussing those cakes that were still left to do in our HCB list and this one in particular came about in conversation.  We both were totally dreading it.

With 7 pages of instructions and 7 different steps, we knew it was going to take A LOT of resilience and baking savvy to do this one.  Jenn was hoping that Marie would give us this one on a long weekend so we would have more time to plan for it.  I was hoping that Marie would have a total Opps-y moment and would forget about this one.

We totally jinx ourselves.  Because not even a week after this whole discussion took place - there is was in the baking list, and NOT on a long weekend.

This cake, even from the start was a total Prima Donna, and not in a good way.  Did you know that the word “diva” means evil in some parts of the world?
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TWD: Oatmeal Breakfast Bread

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I just cannot seem to get away from baking with fruit this month.  After baking chocolate all weekend long, I’m back into fruit land once more, compliments of Natalie from Oven Love who gave us the Oatmeal Breakfast Bread as our Tuesday with Dorie week’s choice.

Oatmeal is not fruit, you may say… well yeah, but don’t let the name fool you.  It has oats and a combination of spices and any dried fruit of your choice. And technically, I’m on the fence if calling it “Bread” would be appropriate, since it did not involve using yeast or kneading or even a rolling pin!

But at the end it did not matter, Tom was once more in high heaven, because not only did it have fruit, but OATS!

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