Soy Lime Pork Tenderloin

Easy easy meal. I followed this recipe and let our pork tenderloin marinate overnight. The marinade was just a matter of dumping a bunch of ingredients in a ziploc with the tenderloin. Done!

The rest of the meal was kid friendly. Our little boy has been under the weather and barely eating enough to keep a bird alive so I was pretty confident he'd eat his beloved macaroni shells and "little trees".

Anyway, back to the pork... It was extremely tender and delicious. I don't know if a lot of the flavors made it through the grilling but the blackened crust held on to a lot of the flavors and every so often a bite would be packed with lime or salty flavor. We agreed that we would make this again, with no changes.

Jim reported that the grilling was a breeze. 24 minutes total, turning the tenderloin a quarter turn every 6 minutes.

I did think about boiling the marinade left in the ziploc for a sauce. It's worth a try!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Soy Lime Pork Tenderloin.

Asian Marinated Flank Steak

Excuse my half eaten plate! I forgot to take a picture and I knew this was a recipe that I wanted to blog about.

This marinade combines a bunch of ingredients that we love, and it's very easy. It is so nice to mix up the marinade, throw it in a ziploc with the flank steak, and then grill it the next day. I love my grill pan :)




Quick mashed red potatoes (potatoes, butter, half and half, a bit of cream cheese) and steamed asparagus with lemon.


Really, it looked more appetizing when it was freshly dished out!







Click here for the stolen recipe for Asian Marinated Flank Steak.

Buttermilk Broccoli and Carrot Slaw & Grilled Pork Chops with Rhubarb Honey Sauce

I cleaned out my refrigerator today and it felt good. I actually know what's in there! So I started to look for recipes that would make use of what I had. I bought bone-in pork chops yesterday that were on sale (buy one, get one free), but I had no idea how to make them. I used my trusty Google Reader to do a search for "pork chops" within my favorite cooking blogs. Sure enough, one of my blogger friends had recently grilled pork chops and the word "rhubarb" popped out at me! I was thrilled. We have so much rhubarb and to find a way to use it in something that is not baked or with lots of sugar- SCORE!

So I set to work on making the citrus mint brine that the recipe suggested. I didn't have orange pineapple juice but I did have orange juice and some pineapple tidbit cups. So I used 4 ounces orange juice and an entire pineapple cup with the juices and fruit. I figured the fruit would add a little extra something something. And lucky me that I had just frozen my fresh mint! It was only $1 for the entire bunch but I hated to waste it. I read one one of my other blogs about how to freeze herbs, and so I was trying it out. I didn't know it would only freeze for a day before I'd use it though.

So as the pork chops sat in the refrigerator, doing their thing, I made this coleslaw. I really just found a recipe for the basic idea of coleslaw. I had a head of broccoli that was beginning to wilt so it was perfect for a slaw. I really really loved this buttermilk dressing! (And wow, I actually had buttermilk in the fridge!) The little bit of cider vinegar was awesome. Who knew that coleslaw dressing is just buttermilk, mayo, apple cider vinegar, and salt and pepper?

Other refrigerator/pantry items that I used: chopped red onion, baby carrots (shredded), sliced almonds.



So I didn't really follow the recipe exactly. Smitten Kitchen didn't use carrots. She also added dried cranberries but I didn't have those.

Back to the chops- I made the rhubarb sauce ahead of time. It was easy enough but it took longer than I thought. It didn't demand constant attention, but I needed to stir it every 4-5 minutes for a total of like 20 minutes I think. I liked the sauce but I think I would take it easy on the cinnamon and allspice if there is a next time.

The porkchops cooking on my grill pan-



Dinner!


Jim and I liked the porkchops but we really liked the slaw. We had second helpings of it!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Broccoli Slaw.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Pork Chops with Rhubarb Honey Sauce.

Tequila Lime Chicken & Grilled Corn Salad

If you know me, you know my love of tequila. It's a new love. I love tequila and tonics especially. Haha. But when I saw this recipe from the wonderful Pioneer Woman, I knew that I had to try it. I actually printed the recipe out at work and I think one of my co-workers saw it at the printer (or maybe she saw the update on PW's blog) but she told me that she was trying the recipe too. So my friend made the chicken before me and she told me that it was fabulous.

I knew it would have to be good after bathing in a marinade of tequila, lime juice, garlic, and cilantro!

My husband was kind enough to make the grilled corn salad during the day. I LOVE this salad. I had three helpings and didn't feel guilty because it's full of yummy vegetables. Grilled corn, zucchini, bell pepper, red onion, jalapeno... mmmmmmmmmm. I've made this often but I decided that we're going to make this again and again and again this summer- all of the vegetables are farmer's market staples.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Tequila Lime Chicken.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Grilled Corn Salad.

So the verdict is that the chicken was very good. The tequila was very prominent which is a good thing :) I made this recipe this week because I was planning on making this for a dinner party next week. I like it but I decided that it wouldn't taste right in the way that I had planned- cut into strips on a salad of greens, avocado, tortilla strips, pico de gallo, etc. Oh well. We have a great way to use up my tequila so I don't just drink it all!