Crunch Time in the Kitchen: Finishing up the Big Dishes For Christmas

Hello everybody and welcome to another installment of the holiday edition of Andre Taylor's Tasty Tidbits!

If you're watching the clocks like I am, you know that it's Christmas Day, which means that big dinner you slaved over all week is ready to hit the table. If you're still thinking of a couple more dishes to make, check these out.

Today, I'm sharing my recipes for baked macaroni and cheese, sweet potato soufflé and a stuffed pork loin!

Let's get started! You'll need:

5 large sweet potatoes

1-½ cups of light brown sugar

2 tablespoons of vanilla flavoring

1 stick of butter

1 tablespoon of cinnamon

1 cup of mini marshmallows

In a large pot on the stovetop, boil the sweet potatoes in their skin for 25 minutes. Once they are done boiling, put them in a strainer, let them cool for 10 minutes then split the skins of the potatoes and empty the potatoes into a large bowl.

Add the sugar, butter, vanilla flavoring and cinnamon to the potatoes then use a mixer to blend them all together.

After you have mixed everything using the mixer, add the marshmallows and mix them in using a mixing spoon.

Pour the mixture into an aluminum pan and bake in the oven for 25 minutes at 325 degrees, let cool and serve it on the plate.

You can put it right next to my three-cheese macaroni and cheese! Here's what you need:

2 boxes of pasta (use your favorite kind)

2 tablespoons of sea salt

½ pound of sharp cheddar cheese

½ pound of havarti cheese

1 box of cream cheese

First things first, boil the pasta in water and the sea salt, and after the pasta is done, drain in a strainer. Don't forget to rinse the pasta in cool water while it's in the strainer.

Now that the pasta is strained, dump it into a large mixing bowl and add the shredded or cubed cheese. Mix everything together with a large spoon then pour the pasta and cheese into a large baking pan.

Bake in the oven at 325 degrees for 35 minutes and once that heavenly smell lures you back into the kitchen, it's ready to be served!

And now, it's time for the big one… the stuffed pork loin! Here are all the fixins' you will need:

1 9-pound pork loin (flattened out)

½ cup of light brown sugar

1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

2 teaspoons of onion powder

3 tablespoons of season salt

(For the stuffing)

1 cup of brown wild rice

2 ½ cups of cranberry juice

½ cup of dried cranberries

½ stick of butter

In a pot, start the cranberry juice boiling on the stovetop with the butter. Once the juice begins to boil, add the brown rice then turn the flame down so that the rice and juice simmer. Let the rice simmer for 45-50 minutes. Once the rice is done, let it sit, off the burner, for 10 minutes to cool.

Once the rice has cooled, add the dried cranberries and mix them together.

Now that the stuffing is done, let's get ready to stuff the pork loin.

You want to make sure you rinse the loin in salt water before you do anything with it.  Now that you've rinsed the meat, take a sharp knife and make an incision down the center of the meat where you will stuff the meat.

In a Ziploc bag, mix the brown sugar, cayenne pepper, onion powder and season salt. This mixture is your dry rub for the pork. Rub it onto the top of the pork while it's in a roaster pan.

Once you have coated the top portion of the loin, stuff the incision with the rice stuffing.

Pour two cups of water into the roaster pan and then cover it with aluminum foil. Bake the loin in the over for three hours and thirty minutes at 375 degrees.

Make sure the meat is done and then, slice it up and serve it up. I'm sure your family will be hungry by now.

If you try any of these recipes, let me know how they turned out for you, or if you want to share one of your special dishes with me, send it onto andre.taylor@patch.com.

Until then people, have a safe and happy holiday season and remember, keep on burnin'!