Keltin, let me start by thanking you for starting this thread. It was really fun, and I hope we do it regularly. Makes you put your thinking cap on, that's for sure!
Here's my Franken-Pantry meal that necessitated creating my own butter. Jerry is a good sport about all of this, but I KNEW he would never eat mashed potatoes without butter, or plain steamed broccoli...
I took two small pork tenderloins, sliced them cross-wise, then browned them really well in oil. Salt and lots of pepper. Set them aside. Added diced onions, five cloves of garlic and some quartered mushrooms to the skillet. More salt and pepper. Deglazed the pan with...water. I only had one bottle of red wine in the house, and it was a really good Chilean merlot that I am saving for company. Put the whole caboodle in the crockpot for about five hours on low. Served with mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli - both of which were enhanced with
home-made sweet cream butter (Thank you, Luvs and Peeps!).
A pretty good meal, actually. It would have been better with some additional seasonings, and if the gravy/sauce could have been thicker, but I didn't have any instant mashed potatoes, and the sauce actually tasted very good. Jerry gave it an "8". We waited a decent interval and then had some oatmeal pecan cranberry cookies I made this morning. Here are some pics: