I could have written this - except that I don't have kids :-)

It took me a long time to be comfortable with taking meat out of the oven or off of the grill before it was cooked to death! I always thought it would be bloody rare. The key is JUST DO IT. Take if off and cover with foil and let it rest for 5-10 minutes. You won't kill anybody, honest. I haven't yet!

I just made this the other night and its a fabulous recipe! Your guests will love it - but try it out on one little tenderloin just for your immediate family to check it out and see that it will work out okay!

(What I did was sear it in a pan on all sides (maybe 5 minutes total) then finish it in a 450 oven for 15 minutes. It came out great!

Canarybird's Pork Tenderloin With Bourbon Sauce

INGREDIENTS:
* 1/4 cup Kentucky Bourbon
* 1/4 cup light soy sauce
* 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
* 2 large cloves garlic, chopped
* 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
* 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, or 1 teaspoon finely minced fresh ginger
* 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
* 1/4 cup vegetable oil
* dash hot sauce
* 2 pork tenderloins, about 1 1/2 to 2 pounds

PREPARATION:
In blender or food processor, combine bourbon, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, mustard, ginger, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, and oil; pulse until smooth. Place tenderloin and marinade in a food storage bag; refrigerator for 4 hours or overnight.

Cook 4 inches from a hot charcoal fire for 15 to 25 minutes or until the pork has reached 165 internally and is no longer pink in the center. Baste occasionally while cooking. Slice in 1/2-inch thick slices to serve.
Serves 6.
Source: Diana Rattray,Your Guide to Southern U.S. Cuisine.
Type of Prep : Broil, Grill
Cuisine : Southern, U.S. Regional
My Notes: I did only one tenderloin for the two of us, cutting it in half. We don't get light soy sauce here so I used the regular. Also we don't have a grill so I cooked it in a low casserole dish on the top rack of my toaster oven, 30 minutes at 200C (about 400F), turning once and basting twice. I had only one hour time to marinate but the flavour was perfect !
SharonCb

Woodie2, I reeally appreciate your comments and recipe. First off, I haven't served pork in probably 15 years so it will be a stretch for me to feel comfortable doing that. I'll try. A couple questions: is each loin 1 1/2-2 lbs or is that the total weight for both together. Also, I don't have a grill (but really should get one and would if I knew what to get). Have you done it in the oven? The total time is only 30 minutes at 400F. Good grief, that sounds like so little time, but I will try to JUST DO IT! Thanks so much. Any more recipes??? Aren't I greedy?

Buy a good quality instant read thermometer....then you will know when your meat is just done and not cooked to death.
Pay attention! Think! Follow directions.....and stick that thermometer into the meat and believe what it says!!
LOL! You CAN do it....but dithering and saying "I am so scared"won't get you anywhere....just DO it.
Linda C

Ktee, get a good meat thermometer & just remember the meat will continue to cook a bit after removing from the oven. I personally like pork well done & not pink. The food police won't come to your house & arrest you if you goof up occasionally & don't believe anyone who says they never have.

Get all your ingredients out ahead of time & lined up & just carefully follow the recipe. You've raised kids who haven't starved so I doubt you're a terrible cook.

Hi Ktee... RELAX! ;0) That's the first instruction. Beyond that, you admit that you enjoy reading cookbooks, so..... here's a somewhat different approach. It has less to do with what you're gonna cook (since you get to make the choice), and more with the basics of cooking, and/or baking. Yes, I'm a guy, and I love to cook, and will attempt to try something new on a first try basis with guests. Again, the key is really just basic stuff. Follow the receipe, but.....eveything should be at room temp (unless otherwise specified) That means that the meat can be left out for awhile (an hour or so) Beef is easy, but of course, chicken is a somewhat different cut, as is pork, or lamb. As long as the beef is a solid cut (not ground), it WILL NOT POISON anyone. Get it fresh from the butcher, and bring it home on the same day that you will cook. No need to refrig it. Get all the ingrediants together, in separate bowls, etc, and just follow the receipe. Really, you can't go wrong. As Woodie2 had suggested, just try it out once, as a dry run. You're worrying way too much. RELAX, remember ? ;)

1) relax
2) preheat the oven
3) measure out all ingrediants into separate containers
4) throw them all together as the receipe suggests
5) if you need a meat thermometer, than get one, and use it
6) stick it in the oven
7) watch the time, and pull it out when the prescribed temp has been reached
8) judge your success by the smiles on your family, and if it's a bit dry/over cooked, than cut back the time by...oh, say 10 mins, and write it down in the cook book (as your oven may not be accurate **)

** in fact, that's a good idea to check. Get (2) oven thermometers, and find out if your oven is accurate or not. Some ovens can be adjusted by the owner, and some can't. If not, than you may have to spend an afternoon writing down the actual temp vs the indicated temp, and than....keep that as a record for future use
10) Have fun... as it really is

As far as the thermometer goes, I have a really nice one that goes into the meat and attaches to a thin wire that goes to a digital read out that sits on the counter. Other than wondering if it is really correct, I wonder if I am putting it in the thickest part of the meat. How do I know where the thickest part is?

Oh, I don't mind making a mistake in the kitchen; I just don't wanna kill someone :-)

Lindac, exactly. I just need to DO IT.

Ginger and mecoguy, it makes sense to measure out all the ingredients before hand. I have these cute, teeny glass dishes for that very purpose. There is a name for that...les classe....I forget what the term is, but think it is some French word.

ACtually all your words of encouragement are helpful. My family just kinda shakes their head. Most of them say I'm a good cook cause I can make some good food. But I wanna make good meat that is tender and juicy. I saw this beef tenderloin on this thread somewhere. It looked so easy and was only in the oven was 15 minutes or so at ~500 degrees. Then it rests on the counter. Oh, that would be great if I could do that. But I can't imagine having the confidence that it would be cooked enough. I have an electric smoker but only used it once. It sounds like a nice idea.I know, I know. I could definitely be analyzed for this.

All the advice given thus far is really good. All needed now is good *Planning Ahead*, a good kitchen timer, a good meat chart that gives you temperature and timming needed per pound. Know when you want the food ready to put on the dinning room table. Time your vegetables so they won't be overcooked. (Here's where your timer is put to use...nothing worse than overcooked, mushy vegies!)

Sit down with paper and pen to map out exactly when you are going to do what and when with each item of food. I find that planning ahead and charting it all on paper is a big help. Tack that mapped out plan onto the fridge (or some convenient spot in the kitchen where you can glance at it as you go along). Do as much prepping, as you can, ahead of time...like chopping and crisping the salad greens in ice water.

Practice Makes Perfect!! If things are not exactly perfect, I'm sure that the only one who will be aware is you! And even so..... friends and family members are understanding and will be appreciative of all the trouble you are going to for them. Grasp your courage with both hands....and "have-at-it"!!! You'll never know what you can do if you don't give it a try.

Planning ahead, mapping out, and writing down a course proceedure has always been a helpful method for me. In holiday dinners my DH always helps out in keeping the pots and pans washed and ready for action. Maybe you also have a family member who can "give a hand".

My mother-in-law was in the hospital so I invited my father-in-law for a nice roasted leg of lamb. I had my menu pre-planned like Lisbet suggests. Table was set the day before.

Take the lamb roast from the oven and it is barely done! The oven had broken down. We fired up the BBQ (covered type) and put the roast in. My father-in-law was a man who did not like to wait for his meal.

Pulled out the roast as soon as possible and woe, it was pink. My husband said serve it.

Mother-in-law never forgave me for serving her husband the best leg of lamb he'd ever eaten!! And we never ate lamb well done again.

If microwave ovens had been around then, I may never have discovered the delectable, delicious, medium leg o' lamb.

ktee, let me start by reiterating what others have said: RELAX!! You ain't gonna poison anyone. It just doesn't happen in the real world; not even with chicken.

Let's put this in perspective. If, as you say, you watch all those cooking shows, then you know that seared tuna is the really in dish. Nothing spoils as quickly as fish. Yet, those chefs and home cooks are preparing a dish that is, essentially, cooked on the outside and all but raw on the inside. None of their guests have died from it yet.

Next: Those high-temperature/fast cooking recipes you see are, indeed, safe. It's the high temps that are doing it. Keep in mind that most baking/roasting is done at 350 degrees. So if something takes two hours at that temp, and you kick it up to 500, you can see how much quicker things will cook.

There are some dangers with this technique, so you may not want to experiment on your own. But you should have no problems following proven recipes.

Whether foods are cooked rare or well done is a matter of personal taste, not food safety. To be sure, most meats do taste better on the rare side rather than the well done side. But, again, so what? If you prefer well done, or feel more comfortable with it, then cook that way.

Now, on the matter of using your remote thermometer, once more, relax and stop obsessing. It really doesn't matter all that much. Just eyeball the cut and wherever it looks thickest is, in practical terms, the thickest part. If it's slightly not really the thickest it won't matter in the least.

The real trick is to disbelieve the recommended temperature charts. All cooked meat needs to rest at room temperature, so that the juices are reabsorbed into the cells. Otherwise, when you cut it, the juices just run all over.

While resting, the meat continues to cook, at first. So, if you cook it to the recommended temperature, it will gain 5-15 degrees while resting.

Let's say that a particular cut needs to reach 160 degrees. If you cook it to that point, it will, while resting, go to at least 170---making it more well done t

don't know what happened, there. Half my post disappeard.

What I was saying was that it would make it more well done than you wanted.

So the thing to do is cook it to 145, let it rest, and slice it. If it's too rare for your taste, pop it back in the oven for a bit. And next time cook it to 150 before resting.

As to which is the thickest part, just eyeball the cut. It won't matter in the least if you're slightly off, and some other section is actually thickest. You're just trying to determine the internal temperature.

This is really a lot easier with your thermometer. In the old days, chefs learned to tell how well a steak was cooked merely by touching it with their thumb. You can imagine how much training and experience it took to reach that point. Now you just pop in your probe and wait for it to register 145, and you know the steak is medium-rare.

All good advice , especially the RELAX part. You cannot kill a person by serving them meat that is undercooked. The meat has to be spoiled first and that you would know! Besides which if it's undercooked you'll just cook it some more!

Buy good quality meats and develop a relationship with your butcher. Ask his advice on the cut you should buy. It is very important, especially with beef or pork that you buy the right cut for the method of cooking but don't try and learn it all first. Go to the butcher and ask him to recommend a good cut of beef for a roast...and go for it!

If you are uncomfortable with the probe thermometer buy an instant read and use it to double check the probe. A few degrees in either direction will not matter.

Is there a cooking school in your area, maybe some basic lessons would help your confidence, all it is is a matter of confidence. Start small, take a deep breath and jump!

Don't just relax -- go WAY past that! Don't settle for not worrying that you will screw it up; make up your mind that your food is GREAT and your family and guests are incredibly lucky to get some. If you have to redefine "great" to get there, well, so what?

On a trip to New Orleans in 1987, we went to the "New Orleans School of Cooking" (or something like that). It's really more like a show (and a meal) than a school -- you watch and eat for 3 hours; you don't cook. The chef was really fun. I don't remember the recipes we "learned," but I will never forget the great advice he gave -- it changed my life:

YOU ARE NEVER WRONG IN YOUR KITCHEN.
If you make a mistake, just change the name of the recipe and serve it with a smile. No one will know! E.g. -- if I burn the potatoes, they are Hickory Flavored or Extra Crunchy. Everyone will love it. (Variation: whether or not it came out well -- in fact, especially if it doesn't -- tell everyone, "This is my favorite recipe, and it came out particularly well tonight!") Buy yourself a trophy and put it in your kitchen.

Now, maybe he only meant this as a joke, but I swear to you it really works. I can prove it. When my kids were little, we had an Australian au pair who loved to bake -- in large, large batches -- but absolutely couldn't make anything come out edible (she wouldn't measure ingredients). I used to have to stuff cookies down the disposal when she wasn't looking. For my birthday, she baked a chocolate cake, vaguely consulting a Disney World cookbook. It was like a chocolate cinderblock. I had to use a huge knife and jump down on it to cut a slice; no joke. She was mortified, but by then she had developed a sense of humor about her baking. I took it to my office and put it out on the credenza with a little card saying "Authentic Australian Outback Cake." 20 minutes later, the whole thing had vanished (heaven knows how they cut it), and there were post-its all around saying, "Terrific -- thanks for sharing!" and "Will you share the recipe?" and even "What recipe? She got that from a bakery!" I swear to you that this is a true story. The following years brought us new au pairs and accordingly brought my colleagues such treats as "Pain de Toulouse" (weapons grade) and "Danish tart brownies" (just plain weird). Worked every time -- people thought these renamed disasters were gourmet treats and polished them off with delight.

If you aren't baking, there is little you can do "wrong" anyway. Like if you misread the recipe and put in too much parsley or not enough lemon -- so what? As Julia Child herself said, "What could happen?" It will just taste a little different, and maybe even better. If not, then you can fool with it until you fix it. My 20-year-old son is starting to be interested in cooking and it is reminding me of how little confidence we all have until one day it dawns on us that we can put in or leave out ingredients, or change shapes and sizes and presentations, and on and on -- it's YOUR kitchen, after all. Like when he asks exactly how big the peppers should be diced or something; I tell him, "well, how big do YOU like to eat them? Cook gets to decide!"

Now, I'm not saying not to read cookbooks and try recipes. But that can be exhausting and too time-consuming on a daily basis. I think she knows how to follow a recipe, she just needs to be more confident when it's time to improvise. ktee, get in there and have FUN! You say the pantry and fridge are jammed -- look at that stuff with fresh eyes and think outside of the box (sorry for the mixed metaphor). Try slapping some things together almost at random. What low risk: if the results are icky, you try something else (add lemon? sugar?) or just pitch them out -- it's not going to explode -- but if they are great, you're a genius. Either way, you clean out the clutter.