Caribbean Jerk Pork
And Cranberry Walnut Cake with Lemon Icing
by Jane Collinge Mack

My friends ask me all the time, “How do you come up with these recipes?” I have a lot of family recipes I grew up with that I use, but realistically, I make what I find on sale in the supermarket. This week, pork was on sale; so, I thought I’d make a pork roast. My husband loves pork, but I don’t always do well cooking pork. Either it tastes like shoe leather, or it falls apart in pieces; neither is an appetizing meal. Then, I saw this bottle of marinade in my pantry called Lawry’s Caribbean Jerk, and I thought, if the pork roast doesn’t turn out right this time, I can blame it on the marinade company! 

I could not believe how fabulous it tasted. My kids “wolfed” it down without
any complaining, and before anyone could go back for seconds, my husband
whisked away the leftovers and placed them into a container for his next day lunch.

Caribbean Jerk Pork

1 2-pound pork roast
1 16 oz can of pineapple chunks with juice
1 16 oz jar of Lawry’s Caribbean Jerk marinade
3 large carrots cut in large pieces
1 bag frozen Brussel sprouts
½ cup rum
Bake 300 degrees for 4 hours, covered.

• Place the pork roast (my was partially frozen) in a roasting pan.
• Add ½ of the jar of the Lawry’s Caribbean Jerk marinade, along with a ½ cup of rum.
• Cover and bake for 1 hour. 
• Next, add the pineapples and juice, along with the other half jar of marinade. 
• Bake another two hours.
• Lastly, added the carrots and Brussel spouts and bake for just 45 minutes, until vegetables are tender. 

It makes quite a bit of tasty gravy, and we served it with rice, but you could use pasta, or even mashed potatoes.

Cranberry Walnut Cake with Lemon Icing

We had a pre-thanksgiving dinner: turkey, stuffing, string bean casserole, cranberry sauce and guests. Just about all the food was gone, except for the cranberry sauce. We served the cranberry sauce with the chunks of cranberries, but everyone preferred the regular puree cranberry sauce instead. Being formerly a single mom for almost 10 years, I learned not to waste food; so, I wrapped it up and placed it in the refrigerator in a prominent place, wondering if there would be any takers for a midnight snack, but days later, it was still there.

So, I thought I’d use it in a cake. My kids said, “Yuk, ewww!  I’m not eating the cake if you put those cranberries in it.”  However, when the cake came out of the oven and was cooling, it was a totally different story. In a matter of seconds, 1/3 of the cake was gone, from family members who supposedly only wanted one very small piece.

1 can cranberry sauce, 10 to 13 oz
1 cup of walnuts, whole or chopped
1 cup of sour cream
1 cup of milk
3 cups of flour
1 cup of sugar
4 eggs
3 tsp of baking powder
1 stick of butter
1 tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice

• Mix together eggs, sugar and butter, sour cream.
• Add cranberry sauce. 
• Add milk.
• Add flour, spices and baking powder. 
• Place in a greased bundt pan and bake in oven
  at 325 for about 50 minutes or until a tester/knife comes out clean.

Lemon Icing

My daughter said, “Mom, No vanilla icing! Its tastes gross. Make Lemon.” Well, I wasn’t sure how the lemon flavor would go with the cranberry walnut cake, but those cranberries had already sat in my refrigerator for days, so I had to at least try the lemon icing.

1 egg yolk (yes an egg yolk)
½ stick of butter
2 tsp of lemon flavoring
1 ½ cups 10x sugar

• Mix the egg yolk, and butter. a
• Then dd the lemon flavoring. You’ll immediately see a change in the mixture. It will be smooth and creamy. 
• Slowly add the 10x sugar until you get a consistency of icing that you want. Don’t worry about the egg yolk. The lemon and sugar “cures” it.  Besides, the cake is that good, it will be gone by the end of the day.

Jane Collinge Mack has been a Pitman resident for the past 15 years and is the owner of Jane Mack Consulting Inc.




Jane is a regular writer for The Women of Gloucester County online magazine and is our Executive Homemaker columnist. From gourmet cooking to troubleshooting old mainframe systems, she will share great ideas and fun tips with us.

Jane is also the mother of three daughters and is married to Rick, a pretty handy guy himself.