The "experiment" below worked out pretty well. In fact, it was delicious. The whole tedious and dreadful preparation amounted to going to the grocery store and getting:
- One 26 oz. can of cream of mushroom condensed soup
- About 1-1 1/2 lb. of "B" sized red potatoes, or sub another type if you like
- One white onion, about baseball sized
- One pork loin fillet, about 1 1/2 lb.
- Seasonings as you like
- One 15oz can of corn
Wash the potatoes and cut into about 1" chunks. Don't worry about being exact. Chop the onion. Put the cream of mushroom soup into the crock pot and add about a third of the can of water. Sprinkle in the seasonings you like, in this case I used basil and garlic salt, then add the onion and potatoes and mix well. Unwrap the pork loin and work it into the mixture so it is resting on the bottom of the crock pot. Throw a bay leaf on top and cover and cook on low for 10 to 12 hours. Leave it alone while it cooks. Leave. it. alone.
Oh, I forgot the corn? Nope, that's just for a side dish. Substitute any other veggie you want.
When cooking a pork tenderloin on the grill you end up with a nice and firm, and easily sliced piece of meat. What you will get here will fall apart with a butter knife. My suggestion for serving is to carefully take the meat out with tongs, it may break up a little, and place it in the center of a rectangular casserole dish. Use a slotted spoon to remove the potatoes from the crock pot and place them around the meat. All that's left in the crock pot now is gravy and you can ladle that into a gravy dish. A spoon is all you need to serve as the meat pretty much just falls apart.
Put out your side dishes and away you go.
Total prep time: 15 minutes. Cost? Well that depends. The most expensive part is the meat. A Hormel pork loin will usually run about ten bucks, but occasionally there are "buy one get one free" deals and my Mom pounces on those like a cat on a mouse for us to split. I may look for them more often in the future.
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