Honey Pecan Pork Chops

A few nights ago I made a delicious and easy meal. We're talking under 10 ingredients, very little prep, and maybe 15 minutes total in cooking time. I think this dish will definitely be a repeat in our household. I found the recipe here.
I love pork and tend to do the same old meal over and over with it. I just started grilling it a few months ago which has helped to liven up the dinner repertoire. I love this meal because I'm really interested in 10 item or less meals now. I may have to add that as a new category because we all need a go to place for great quick and easy dinners.


Ingredients:
4 pork chops- pound thin with meat tenderizer
1/2 c flour
s & p to taste
2 T butter
1/4 c honey
1/4 c chopped pecans

Directions:
Melt butter in saute pan over medium heat
Mix flour and s & p and dredge chops so they are lightly floured on both sides
Add pork to pan and cook until browned ( 5-7 minutes on each side)
Remove pork from pan and add honey and pecans to the left over drippings
You can just pour the honey sauce on the pork chops, but I returned them to the pan to caramelize them. It was just great. I highly recommend this easy dish.
As you can see I served mine with mashed yams and steamed broccoli. The mashed yams just have a little butter, milk, and salt and the broccoli is steamed in water so total number of ingredients is exactly 10. Not too shabby.

I Like Big Rumps

Until recently I've had problems preparing a tri tip roast, but I came to terms with it, and conquered it. But, dear friends, I failed to mention that I've had problems cooking all sorts of roasts. I believe it stems form a few different things. 1. I grew up in a family of well done meat eaters and meat makers. And 2. Now I have a husband that is a medium-well eater of meat. So when I prepared these dry hunks of stringy beef for them it was always okay, pleasant even, but not for me. I realized in the last year that I am (gasp) a medium to medium-rare sort of carnivore.

I had this epiphany and decided I could change my ways. Now I actually have a few good meat thermometers and I use them religiously. I don't trust myself with timing a roast anymore; time can get away from you in the kitchen.

And I'm purchasing different kinds of roasts so I can find new techniques and really get this roasting thing down. So this week I bought a rump roast. I did it because it was a huge piece of meat and it was on sale, I can't help that I'm frugal. But I figured it would make a tasty dinner as well and lunches for my home bound husband.

I used a recipe called Perfect Rump Roast from recipezaar.com. And it absolutely was a perfect roast. I marinated mine all day prior to cooking it.
Here's the marinade:
2T olive oil
2T cooking wine (red wine vinegar can work too; but any liquid is fine, diet coke, beer, etc.)
1T black pepper
1T coarse salt
1t cayenne
1t garlic powder
1t onion powder
1t paprika
1/2 t thyme
1/2 t rosemary

I cut off the layer of fat and then got out all my aggression for the day by stabbing the roast about 20 times on each side. I let it marinate all day, but I took it out of the refrigerator about 90 minutes before roasting.
I roasted it, pretty much, as recommended by the recipe author, maybe 22 minutes a pound. I posted a photo below of some of the leftovers. I think it continued to cook while we were eating, but I swear it was perfect. Try it, you'll like it.

Garlic Tri Tip

Ok, so I have to confess that I often have a problem with over cooking tri tip. It's a really lean cut so it needs to be cooked at high heat for a short time. It can't really be slow cooked, unless you're interested in a rock. And it tends to look a bit more pink than a lot of meats...and I'm not a bloody rare meat eater so I tend to over do it. I found great cooking tips here.
I always have to change things up a bit so I did a wet marinade for 90 minutes, then dried the meat and did a peppery dry rub for 30 minutes. The meat was at room temperature for 2 hours total.

My marinade consisted of everything I had in the fridge, sounds gross but it worked.

INGREDIENTS:
2 1/4lb tri tip roast
1/2 c diet cola
1/2 c beer (I used IPA, but that's just what we had)
2T olive oil
2T worchestershire sauce
2T barbecue sauce
1t salt
1t pepper
1t garlic powder
1t onion powder
a bit of HP Sauce
a bit of horseradish


Toss in a zipper bag and let it sit at room temp 90 minutes
Drain marinade and thoroughly dry meat with paper towels
Rub meat with dry rub and let sit for 30 minutes

Dry Rub:

4 garlic cloves, chopped fine
1/2t salt
1t pepper
1t paprika
1/2t chili powder
1/4t cayenne

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 550 for 5 minutes
Cook at 550 for 5 minutes and reduce heat to 450 (the high heat seals in the juices)
Cook at 450 for 15 minutes and start checking temperature.
Make sure the internal temperature is between 115 and 130 (I wouldn't go beyond 130 because overcooking kills the meat, I know, I've done it enough)
Don't cut into the meat, it will look pinker than you want and you'll lose the moisture
Let the roast sit for at least 10 minutes to help complete the cooking without losing the juices
Cut in thin strips along the grain to serve.

I pretty much followed the directions on the site I listed, except for the high heat at the beginning which really get's a nice glaze on the meat. Holy cow, so good. My husband was seriously stoked on the tri tip. And we had plenty leftover for sandwiches! Enjoy!

Beef Stew...with Coffee

I decided to make a stew last night because I had some meat and veggies that needed to be used. I thought about adding some stout for a flavor kick, but didn't want to add the extra calories to the stew. My friend and chef, James Lockwood, recommended I try adding some coffee. We didn't discuss specific amounts so I used what I had left over from the morning, about 1/2 of a cup. It was brilliant. It gave a really nice brown flavor without the alcohol taste the stout would have produced. I imagine I will never make a beef stew sans coffee again.

INGREDIENTS:
1lb beef stew meat
1 onion chopped
4 cups cut vegetables (celery, carrots, green beans, peas, corn, parsnips, turnips, potatoes, etc.)
2 T olive oil
1/4 c flour
1/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper
1 clove garlic, chopped

1 bay leaf
1 t dried thyme or rosemary
2 1/2 c beef broth
1/2 c brewed coffee

DIRECTIONS:

Heat olive oil in medium pot or dutch oven on medium heat
Put flour and spices except for bay leaf in a plastic zipper bag and add beef, shake to coat
Place beef in pot and brown on all sides
Reduce heat to low and add onion, cooking till golden
Add water, coffee and bay leaf
Cover and simmer for 2 hours
Remove bay leaf and add all vegetables
Cover and simmer 1 hour longer
Serve with any yummy bread

Raspberry Chipotle Pork Tenderloin....and cauliflower rice

My husband loves pork tenderloin so that's what I made for our Valentine's Day meal. I don't go out on V Day because I'd rather just spend it alone with my husband than other people and their issues. So I was reading my friends' cooking log and she recommended a raspberry chipotle sauce that is available at Costco. I found a similar sauce at Cost Plus. I will post the name when I get home. I was looking to add some flair to our meal and it was the perfect addition, a little sweet, a little spicey.
It was also really easy.

INGREDIENTS:
1lb pork tenderloin
1/2 c raspberry chipotle sauce, plus extra for serving
1 medium brown onion chopped
2 medium sweet potatoes, cubed
2 T olive oil
Cooking spray

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 450
Spray a 9x13 glass dish with cooking spray
Heat a non stick pan on medium with 1T olive oil
Place chopped onion, sweet potatoes, 1T olive oil and 1/4 c raspberry sauce in zipper plastic bag and shake to coat
Place potato mix in glass dish and place in oven
Brown tenderloin in pan for 3 minutes on each side
Transfer tenderloin into glass dish with potatoes and rub tenderloin with remaining 1/4 cup of raspberry sauce
Bake 30-40 minutes or until temperature registers around 155
Let pork rest for 3-5 minutes
Cut tenderloin in 1/2 inch slices on an angle and drizzle sauce over it
I also served this with cauliflower rice. I just added a little salt, pepper, butter and peas to my "rice" to make it more like a pilaf.