Who's Cooking: Allison (Salisbury, MD)

By: Unknown on 8:30 AM

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This is a new segment I'm starting on a weekly basis.  It will feature a home cook, their story and a recipe to share.  I'll also occasionally do giveaways based on these features, so be sure to check them out every Friday morning!

I met Allison shortly after my daughter was born, through a local secondhand kid’s clothing Facebook page. We also discovered that her daughters attend school where my father-in-law works and that my mother-in-law had been her labor and delivery nurse.  Of course we had to become friends with all those connections, right?  I’ve also hosted a tea tasting since she’s become a Steeped Tea consultant and order regularly to feed my newfound steeped tea addiction. 

Allison is a transplant from California, now living on the Eastern Shore of Maryland with her husband and 3 kids.  She has always enjoyed cooking, but more so since she got married and her husband does the dishes!

She started cooking young, in her junior high years when she would help start dinner for her mom.  As a cook, she hardly ever measures ingredients, except when baking, preferring to be more creative with her recipes.  Adding punches of flavor to recipes is important to her and one of her most recent creations was adding steeped Rooibos tea to whipping cream, then adding the topping to waffles.

Her five-year-old daughter has started to show a lot of interest in cooking and Allison hopes she continues to want to spend time in the kitchen.  Overall her focus when cooking is to perfect go-to recipes for basic recipes her family will love, like chocolate chip cookies, lasagna, soups and meatballs.

In 2013, Allison started working as an independent consultant with Steeped Tea.  Having always been a tea drinker, her newfound business is a perfect fit!  She loves how versatile tea is.  Besides simply steeping it in water to make hot or iced tea, you can steep it in ginger ale, Sprite, wine, alcohol, whipped cream, milk…basically anything!

Be sure to enter the giveaway below for a chance to win a bag of one of Em’s favorite flavors of tea and check out Allison’s website to learn more.

Q&A With Allison

Why do you cook at home?  I cook at home because it's financially better for my family. I also like knowing exactly what is in the food I eat and serve my family. For the most part, I'm finding I can cook just as well as most restaurants where I would take my family out to eat. I also really just enjoy cooking and enjoy the freedom I have when it comes to deciding how to make a dish. 

What is your favorite ingredient to cook with? It would have to be garlic, because I can use it in everything! I love roasting it, using it just rubbed on bread for bruschetta, chopping it up for salad dressing, marinades and even just sautéing it with vegetables. It's very versatile. 

If you could travel to any country or city in the world, just to taste their food, where would you go and why? I will have to cheat and say NY. They have so many different types of cuisine there that I could taste anything I wanted!

The recipe I’m sharing with you today is one of Allison’s family’s favorites: Apricot Glazed Pork Tenderloin.  It’s a simple recipe that’s packed full of flavor and a great addition to a weeknight menu.  Add on a side of roasted potatoes and a veggie and you’ve got a great meal! 

Apricot Glazed Pork Tenderloin

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*Note: This post was in no way sponsored by Steeped Tea, Inc.