Day 133 - Roast Pork Tenderloin with Sage and Onion Dressing

I'm at a loss for words.
Hmmm...
Sometimes it may be best not to say anything at all.
Why force it?  Then it'd be fake.
And I want to talk about really important or funny things or maybe even about stuff that doesn't matter much.
But tonight, I guess I have writer's block.
So...(silence)
Silence is good, too, right?  It's good to have some silent times with people you love.  We don't always have to be talking just to talk.
Enjoy the silence.  Be with your thoughts.
Oh, and here's a hug.

Tonight's dinner came from The New Doubleday Cookbook, pp. 239, 518; authors. Jean Anderson and Elaine Hanna; publisher, Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.; ISBN 0-385-19577-X.

Roast Pork Tenderloin with Sage and Onion Dressing - four servings

1 1/3 lb. pork tenderloin
2 pieces bacon
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper

Sage and Onion Dressing
¼ cup water
1 medium onion, chopped
¼ cup butter, melted
2 slices potato bread, crusts removed and cut into small cubes
3 slices whole wheat bread, crusts removed and cut into small cubes
    (these 5 slices combined to make 3 cups of soft bread crumbs)
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon sage

Preheat oven to 325ºF.
Simmer onions and water, covered for 20 minutes.  Off heat, mix in remaining ingredients.
Split the tenderloin lengthwise, not quite all the way through so that you can spread it open like a book.
Spread the dressing along the entire length of the meat.

Tie in several places with twine to hold in stuffing.

Spread garlic, salt and pepper along the outsides of the tenderloin.
Arrange bacon strips on top.
Place tenderloin on a rack in a shallow roasting pan.
**The recipe says to place in the oven for 1 hour until a thermometer registers 170ºF.  Remove bacon for last 20 minutes of roasting so meat will brown.  Transfer tenderloin to a hot platter, sprinkle with salt, and let "rest" 15 minutes.  To serve, cut into slices ¼"-½" thick.**
This is what I did:
      Baked at 325ºF for 40 minutes.
      Removed bacon from the top of the tenderloin and placed it on the side of the baking sheet so that it could finish cooking and so that the pork could "brown".  (That didn't happen and when I put in the meat thermometer, it was considerably under 170ºF. and I knew it wouldn't be finished in 20 minutes.  UGH!!!
     SO, I raised the temp. to 350ºF. and baked it for 20 minutes.  (Thermometer still not registering 170ºF, but closer.)
     Raised oven temp. to 375º for 10 minutes and took bacon out about 4 minutes into it because it started to burn.  So I baked it for a total of 70 minutes at three different temperatures.
The picture is with the bacon on top, but when I started cutting it, the bacon was flying in10 different directions, so I decided to crumble it, sprinkle it over the tenderloin, and serve it that way.

Do you just want to scream at me?
Go ahead.  I want to scream to because I really don't know what temperature you should cook this at.   UGH!!
This always happens with any pork loin that I make - it never cooks in the amount of time at the temperature it's "supposed to".  It could be my oven with a combination of the altitude (we're at 3000 feet here) or it could be that I'm just not supposed to cook pork loins anymore.
The cookbook said to roast it at 325ºF. for 1 hour until a meat thermometer inserted reads 170ºF.  I recommend doing as it says and then adjust accordingly.

It was really good though.
I give a rating every day of what I bake and it is based on a scale of 1-4 with 4 being the best.  This roast pork tenderloin with sage and onion dressing earned 3½ rolling pins.  It was delicious!  The whole family loved it and my husband said I could make it whenever I wanted.  Our younger daughter quickly said, "not tomorrow night, though."  She likes variety.
The stuffing/dressing was delicious and added a nice flavor to the pork and the taste of the bacon with each bite was really delicious.  Besides, who doesn't like bacon?
Happy bacon...haha, I mean baking!