Grilled Pork Tenderloin and Fried Green Beans

So tonight's supper was pretty quick and easy. Also really really tasty. I used a three ingredient recipe from my Real Simple magazine. The recipe is as follows.


Easy Grilled Pork Tenderloin

1 pound pork tenderloin
Paula Dean's House Blend (Salt, Pepper, Garlic powder)
1/2 cup Worcestershire Sauce
2 Tbsp. Brown Sugar


Mix Worcestershire sauce with brown sugar.
Season tenderloin with spice blend.
Grill pork on Medium-High heat until it reaches 150 degrees. (about 20 minutes)
Last five minutes of grilling slather on the sauce mix.
Let stand at least five minutes.


This recipe was quick and simple, but not the most flavorful. Could have used another dimension to it, but overall not bad.

Fried Green Beans (serves 2)
1/2 pound fresh green beans, trimmed
1/2 cup flour
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp Cayenne pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 cup beer
Sunflower Oil (for frying)

Heat oil in pan. Mix flour, chili powder, cayenne, salt and pepper together in small bowl. Add beer and mix. In batches, dredge green beans in beer mixture. Fry battered Green beans for about 3 minutes a piece. Put on paper-towel lined baking sheet to drain.

Chili dipping sauce
2 Tbsp. mayo
1 Tbsp. sweet chili sauce
1 tsp. Siracha sauce

Mix three ingredients together. Salt to taste

These green beans are definitely addicting. Could have eaten a lot more. I think I will use the beer batter to fry more food (I'm thinking pickles!).

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Filling:
1 quart strawberries, stemmed and quartered
4 stalks rhubarb, cut into 1/2-inch lengths
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 orange, zested and juiced
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Topping:
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 sticks butter, cold, cut into pea-sized pieces
1 teaspoon vanila extract
Pinch salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine all of the filling ingredients in a large bowl and stir to be sure everything is well combined. Spoon the filling into 8 x 8 baking dish.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, oats and brown sugar using your hands. Add the butter, vanilla and salt and mix the ingredients until the mixture starts to come together and look crumbly. Crumble the topping over the filling. Bake in the preheated oven until the filling is hot and bubbly all the way through and the topping looks crispy and light brown, about 30 to 35 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream

Shrimp Avocado and Mango lettuce wrap

Bon Appetit (August 2010) was my inspiration for this meal. I changed it up a bit though. Here is what I came up with!


Shimp, Avocado and Mango Lettuce Wrap with a Sweet Chili-Ginger Vinaigrette
1/2 cup Asian Sweet Chili sauce
2 tablesppons seasoned rice vinegar
1 teaspoon Gourmet Garden Ginger puree (find it in the produce isle)
1/2 pound cooked shrimp with tails off - diced into 1/3 in. pieces.
1 large mango, peeled, pitted and diced into 1/3 in. pieces
1 avocado, halved, pitted, peeled, diced into 1/3. pieces
1 large head lettuce, leaves seperated


Whisk first three ingredients in small bowl, season with salt. Place diced shrimp, mango and avocado in medium bowl, toss with two tablespoons vinaigrette. Refrigerate for 5 minutes to allow flavors to incorporate together. Place shrimp mixture in a piece of lettuce and top with vinaigrette.

Why I love food

Because this is a food blog I'll excuse you from my life story. Instead I'll simply tell you about how food has shaped my life.

My first memories of food come from my great grandmother. She is my inspiration in life. If I can be half the cook, baker and woman that she was, I know I will live a fulfilled life. I can remember spending the days with her baking bread. I will forever attribute the smell of bread dough to her. At lunch she would make me spaghetti and cheese. Many times I have tried to recreate that infamous meal, and it's never turned out the same. I know it's only spaghetti and Velveeta cheese, but it just doesn't taste right. I realize now it's probably the memories I love so much, and I can never recreate those.

Growing up I was surrounded by strong women who knew how to cook. I can remember making individual pumpkin pies with my mom and grandma, sitting on the counter with flour all over. Helping mom cook supper and taking the can of mushrooms that was supposed to go in the meal and eating them all.

I can remember my best friend and I experimenting with food constantly. Being bored during the summer we would see what food was in the house and just start combining. Some of the food turned out, most didn't but that didn't matter. It was the fun we had and learning what combinations worked and what didn't.

In high school and early college, I think I forgot about my passion for cooking. I still appreciated good food, but I wasn't the budding cook in the kitchen anymore. Don't get my wrong, Food Network was still my favorite thing to watch, but I wasn't recreating anything I watched Bobby Flay or Rachael Ray make. The cook in me didn't reappear until I was out of the dorms and was able to cook on my own again. I started small, with recipes my mom had taught me. I soon began printing off recipes from the Internet and teaching my boyfriend (now husband) how to cook.

Vance didn't appreciate food like I did. He grew up in a small town with small town eating habits. He was definitely a meat and potatoes type of guy. Once we began dating I wanted him to try foods he either said he didn't like or had never had. It took awhile but he did. I would try recipes out on him and he loved almost everything I put in front of him (well except onions, I'm still working on that one).

Now he's in the kitchen right next to me. Our kitchen might be small, but there's a lot of good food coming out of it. From Mexican (my favorite) to Italian to Burgers, we cook it all. I get so much satisfaction from putting a meal on the table that I have created, tasting it and falling in love once again.

Every once in a while I make a meal that I know my great grandma would really be proud of. Even though she's gone, I still try to make her proud. I just wish I could make bread the way she did!