23

Apr

Matt’s Incredible Tenderloin

Before I met my husband, pork was not a food I’d had much of, with the exception to the wonderful food that is crispy bacon. His home had some gourmet dinners and always homemade deliciousness. One of his family’s favorites is pork tenderloin. He makes a marinade his dad used to make, but Matt loves to mix it up and start new creations. (The great thing for me…I’m his taste tester, and–unlike in my cooking–he is 100% successful in making tasty creations.)

 Here is a dinner he made this week…yum! I haven’t been eating much meat, but this was too tasty to pass up. We bought this Mucho Mango Dipping Sauce from Dilorio Farm in Houston. I thought it would be fun to drizzle it over the pork for added flavor. Turns out…the pork was too tasty to add a sauce to it! Matt’s rub, marinade, and sauce brushed on during the grilling process was one of the best I’ve ever tasted! Seriously, it would have been a travesty to add extra sauce to such a good thing. But I did drizzle the sauce over the green beans with Italian sweet peppers. It was fruity with an instant taste of apricots and mango. And I didn’t expect the crushed red pepper throughout…it had some heat!

Matt was sweet enough to remember the ingredients that he put in his rub and then in the sauce for the pork tenderloin.

Spiced Rub for Pork Tenderloin
By: Matt

ground black pepper
garlic powder
dried rosemary
dried basil
sea salt
*Rub each ingredient thoroughly on tenderloin, adding layer by layer. Roll in saran wrap and put in fridge for a few hours.  

Matt’s Amazing Sauce (for Pork Tenderloin)
1/2 cup Stubb’s mesquite pecan bbq sauce (or a sweet/nutty bbq sauce)
1/2 cup regular bbq sauce (Sweet Baby Ray’s)
1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
1/3 cup red wine
2 TB olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon 
1 t. fresh grated ginger
1 1/2 t. spicy brown mustard
1 clove crushed garlic
Shaving (1 t.) fresh parmesan
Dash of each: rosemary, basil, black pepper, cayenne pepper, cinnamon
Combine all ingredients and brush onto tenderloin before, during and after grilling. *Very flexible, make it to your taste!* Truly, this was so tasty and well worth the time and care that went into the meal. 





So there you have it…a meat and potatoes kind of meal. But it’s a lean meat with fresh flavors and ridiculously mouth-watering tastes. I even tasted one bite of the pork with an unexpected taste at the end…ginger! Thanks, Matt!

~Laurel~

15 years ago Short URL 2 Comments

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06

Aug

More spinach & a Stir fry

Hellooo! I felt like a homemade quesadilla for lunch the other day, so I went at it. You know how I’ve been on a spinach kick lately, and it was natural to throw in Popeye’s favorite tasty treat. I didn’t want any meat in it (I just don’t crave it anymore…weird), but we had some tasty muenster that went perfectly. It’s healthy and cheesy and super tasty…why not? Oh, and it’s such a QUICK LUNCH, you can eat at home or pack and take on the go!
Cheesy Spinach Quesas

1 cup of hot cooked spinach, drained and patted dry (w/paper towels)
2 slices muenster (lacey or reg. swiss work, too)
garlic salt
2 T flax seed (optional, but gives a little crunch)
2 tortillas, any size
1 T margarine

Heat a pan and “butter” one side of each tortilla with margarine. Put both, margarine-side down in pan to toast. Add spinach, cheese, and garlic salt (not too much) to one tortilla, topping it all with the other tortilla. Let grill for a few minutes, then flip. Once cheese is gooey and a bit crispy on the edges, it is ready. Tastiness…….

We also made a stirfry. After a recent trip to WholeFoods in Austin (one of my favorite stores on the planet…and the closest one is 1 1/2 hrs away!! Gasp! Where do we live, Timbuktu???), we picked up this tasty-looking Thai Peanut Ginger sauce. The bottle screamed STIR FRY!! (silently) So Matt & I decided that was what we needed to do. I’ve never been able to make the perfect peanut sauce to go with spring rolls, et cetera, but this was pretty darn close.

The thing I love about stir fry’s is that they’re never perfect, always messy, and don’t need a lot of organization. (That is me in a nutshell, so it’s a perfect meal!!) Here’s how it went:

1) I basically gathered as many veggies together as possible:

Baby carrots
Green beans (snap beans, as my g/ma called them)
Green bell pepper
Red bell pepper
Tomato (seeded)
Mini new potatoes (so tiny!)
Brocolli
Mushrooms

2) Matt wanted some meat, so we added some lean pork

3) We coated the veggies and pork in the peanut ginger sauce (I used the sauce we bought, adding more peanut butter, spicy spices, and some lime juice to top it off.).

4) Wow, it was so tasty, healthy, and made good leftovers! The key was to put the lid on the wok/saute pan to keep the moisture in the veggies AND to not overcook the veggies. I’m very bad about overcooking veggies, until they turn limp. But keeping a little crunch in them made them tastier and full of life! Try this at homes…it’s too easy!

5)We added brown & purple jasmine rice to the dish…whole grains and pretty rice. (It’s hiding in this picture.) Any rice will work, but you know I’ll recommend a grain rice or pasta, not sugary white varieties.


~Laurel~

16 years ago Short URL

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