BBQ Pork Tenderloin with potato salad and baked beans

Lately there has been a great influx of pigs jumping of cliffs, running in front of cars, and hanging themselves or other means of suicide. Due to this terrible tragedy, prices on large cuts of pork tenderloin have dramatically dropped at the grocery stores. I mean really dropped....1.50 a pound kind of dropped.

So, to do my duty as a good, sympathetic citizen, to aid the ranchers in their time of mourning over the loss of pigs to suicide, I have been regularly purchasing said cuts of meat.

What the hell do you do with a 15 pound pork tenderloin?

So there I sit (or really, stand, because sitting in front of the freezer on a stool the tall is just silly), staring at this long, tube-like thing in my freezer, wandering a) Do I have a pan big enough for this thing b) how do I season it and cook it and c) do I have a platter big enough to hold it when its done.

Well...hmmm...its still nice outside...the grill is huge so could do that...I could season it like I do ribs and such, and make potato salad (which, btw the way the roommates were beside themselves excited about...), baked beans and devilled eggs and we could have ourselves a big ol' barbecue. Hell, I may even invite my friend from across the street, because goodness knows, there is enough for half the neighborhood...(and between my house hold and hers, we do, have, literally, half the neighborhood)

Now for the pan...how am I to lay this thing out and actually get it seasoned...?

Oh yes! That's right. Granny bought me that set of baking sheets and one was ginormous...you know, the size you use when you don't want to make 47 trips to the oven to bake cookies so you use the largest pan available and squeeze the cookies as close as you dare to try to get the entire batch on one pan.

Don't act like you don't know what I mean. I know better.

So... what do we need?

Seasoning:
Brown sugar
Salt
Garlic powder
Cumin
Oregano
Coriander
Thyme
a little olive oil

Glaze: 

Bbq sauce -  ok we have to get into this discussion. Bbq sauce is like...wine. Some good, some great, some amazing, many different flavors, and some is well...just don't buy it. Like Kraft... Get a good bbq sauce. If you need to do cheap, do cheap well like KC masterpiece, or Sweet Baby Ray's. Locally made tends to be the best. My personal fave is Cookies. 

Yes those cookies too, but Cookies is one of the few that has NO corn syrup, just good old-fashioned ingredients, and boy can you taste it. Jack Stack is another fave, but its a midwest local only. Teag's is good as well as Jack Daniels. No matter what you choose, please, for the respect of the pigs who committed suicide, do not use 98 cent or less bottles of bbq sauce. That's just, well, not yummy. 

liquid smoke
garlic

Potato Salad:- The link here will give you the portions and recipe. 

Potatoes

Sweet pickles (I use 14-day pickles mom makes and sends to me)
Hard boiled eggs (funny, we are going to make those too)
Onion
Mayo ( I use either half real, half miracle whip, or use miracle whip's olive oil mayo which tastes about like half and half)
Apple cider vinegar
Sugar
Dill
Garlic

I have a weird thing for crunchies in my potato salad, therefore, no celery or peppers. Add them if you are not odd like me. It's all the better.

Beans:

I am lazy most days, and buy Bush's Beans, Homestyle 'cause they are sweet and need little doctoring.

I do have a recipe for the real deal, but in the essence of time, canned is ok here. 

To Doctor pork n beans or other canned beans...(trust me on this, no canned bean is perfect out of the can, and if you think so up to now, just try it my way and then make judgement!)

Brown Sugar
Ketchup
BBQ sauce
Onion
Sweet Peppers
Garlic
Chili Powder
Bbq sauce

Deviled Eggs:

Eggs
Mayo
Mustard
Salt
Pepper
Apple cider vinegar
Sugar

Whew! Lots of stuff, but most should have these things on hand. Let me know if I should do a mini post on what spices to keep in your cabinet or basics to keep on hand. I try to aim this blog to the not so proficient in the kitchen all the way up to the usual home cook. I am sure restauranteurs or pro's look to, but doubtful. They have their own vibe.

Let's start

Mix the dry rub ingredients together (see below for measurements)

Place loin on giant pan and drain off the liquid. Trim off any overly excess fat. You want some for tenderness.

Rub the loin down with olive oil.

With your fingers, take take a handful of the spice rub and rub it into the meat, pushing down gently. Rub it all over front, back, sides and ends. Cover and toss in the frig for a couple of hours to get happy.

Cut and boil your potatoes. Boil your eggs, peel, and devil them. They are better when they have set and mellowed for about 30 minutes or so. While everything is boiling cut the necessary amounts of onion, pickles etc into your bowl for the taters and for the beans too, in another bowl.

Eggs: Let cool so you can handle them. Room temp is good. Cool by dousing in ice water (which also makes for an easy peel, and stops the cooking which causes the yolks to turn that funny color on the outside). Cut in half and gently squeeze out yolks into a bowl. Squish them to crumbles with the back of a fork or a pastry blender. Add, for every dozen eggs, 2 Tbs mayo, 2 teas mustard, a pinch of salt and pepper, and a teaspoon each of vinegar and sugar. Mix together and taste. You want it to have a zip but slightly sweet and slightly savory.

Dump taters into bowl and throw in frig to get cool.

Go...do laundry. Or whatever.

In a couple of hours, start the grill. Get it all happy.

Happy=gray and ashy but red coals. For non coal users, shame, shame, shame. Not the same. But nevertheless, use your temp gauge thingy on the grill. Wait till its about 450.

Drag out your loin and olive oil. 

Spray, brush or otherwise lube up the grill. Caution: spraying with mister will cause flammage, and where it is pretty and cool to look at, just be careful k?

Lay loin on the cooler part of the grill, not directly over the coals. We will do that later. Right now we want to cook it, not burn it. Close the grill lid.

Go back inside and mix up the bbq sauce with some liquid smoke and garlic. If you are using the cheap stuff like we discussed not to, add a couple tablespoons of brown sugar, a pinch of cumin and coriander too.

After about mmmm...8-10 mins, go flip your loin and glaze the cooked side with bbq sauce.

Go assemble the rest of the potato salad. Get the beans to heating. Saute the onions, garlic (yes real garlic) and peppers in a little olive oil. When onions are translucent, add the mix to the beans then (for large cans or 2 cans of pork n beans) add 2 Tbs brown sugar, 1/4 c bbq sauce, 2 Tbs ketchup, 2 teaspoons of chili powder. For the ketchup, I just give the bottle a hefty squirt. Trying to get it out of a measuring spoon is...fun.

Go flip the loin again and coat the other side. (about 8-10 mins)

At this point the loin should be cooked through. Sear it directly over the coals on both sides for a minute then take off grill and let it set for 5 or 6 mins to let the juice inside stay inside. If you cut it straight off the heat, all those yummy juices will come spilling out and we want yummy juices.

Mix the sauce up for the tater salad. Its always best fresh. Pour over and mix gently! Potatoes break easy and we don't want squished potato salad. That is another recipe :-)

Slice the tenderloin into thick slices. 

Take your hard work to the table and enjoy!

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Recipes

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Pork Tenderloin:
10-15lb Pork Tenderloin
Olive oil

Seasoning - 2 T brown sugar
1t each garlic, cumin, coriander, thyme, pepper and oregano
1 T salt

Glaze - 1 bottle of barbecue sauce
1/2 t liquid smoke
1 t garlic

Mix seasoning ingredients together. Drain liquid from pork loin and trim of excess fat leaving a thin layer. Place on large pan and rub with olive oil. Massage spice mix into loin flesh by gently pushing and rubbing. Cover all sides. Wrap and set aside for a minimum of 2 hours.

Heat grill to 450 or until coals are gray and ashy. Brush olive oil on grill and place loin over indirect heat. Cook 8-10 mins on each side, depending on size of loin.

Mix Barbecue sauce with garlic and liquid smoke. Glaze loin after each turn.
When cooked through, place over direct heat to sear for 1 minute. Remove from grill and let rest for 5-6 mins. Slice.


Potato Salad - click link above.

Deviled Eggs:
12 eggs
2 T Mayo
2 t mustard
1 t apple cider vinegar
1 t sugar
pinch of salt and pepper

After eggs have cooled, halve and squeeze out yolk. With the back of a fork or a pastry blender, crumble the egg yolks. Add rest of ingredients and mix. Stuff eggs. Garnish with paprika, chives, dill or parsley. 

Mom's Famous Potato Salad

This is Mom. Mom and Granny have taught my sister and I well when it comes to cooking. 

Remember those home-ec cooking classes you had to take in middle school? Ya, my sis and I rocked those classes. And we of course owe it all to the 2 amazing women that raised us. Granny has forgone cooking unless it is her famous pumpkin and pecan pies at xmas and on occasion cookies and cake. 

Sometimes biscuits. 

Mom still forges on, always coming up with new alterations to recipes she has tried. This one, however, is an original.

SHHHHHH. Family secret here.

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

GO take the computer into the closet to view this most secret recipe k? Cause once you try it and if the restaurants see it, they will forgo that nasty stor bought crap and go to this. AND then it won't be a SECRET anymore. 

Wait what?

Everyone can see the internet?

Seriously?

No, for real?

Well Shit. Fine. You can leave the closet then. 

So for this yummy-ness, you will need potatoes. 

DOH!

Any type will do. I am cheap today so it's good all russets for me.

Oh! Eggs! You need to start a pan of water and eggs to boilin' 'cause eggs are yummy in potato salad. I use about 2-3 per 5 mid-size potatoes. See above for my idea of mid-size.

Wash all the dirt off of your taters. If you are against skin, then by all means peel. As I said, I'm lazy. That and skin has all the nutrients, so it gets left on.

Chop potatoes into chunks. 

If you are confused about how to get them more or less the same size, I'll post a how-to later. New page and all with how-to basic stuff for those new to cooking. Even size is important so the cook evenly and you don't have half mashed half chunks. 

EWWWWWW.

Drop your chunks into water. 

In a pot. 

'Cause you have to cook them. 

Let them boil until just barely fork tender. This means you use a fork and stick it into the potato. If it goes in easily, fork tender. Get it? 

Good.

While they are getting boily, chop some onion into bits. You can also add green pepper and celery chopped into bits if'n you want. I dislike crunchy stuff in my potato salad so I refrain. 

Also, if you have some sweet pickles, chop those up too. I happened to have some of mom's famous 14-day pickles made the old-fashioned way in a big ceramic crock. So I chunked those up and mmmmmm. They are like candied pickles. So yummy.

If you have only sweet relish, that's fine too. A couple of tablespoons should be enough.

Dump all of the above into a bowl and set aside until the taters and eggs are ready.

Now for the sauce. The all important, bring it all together ingredient in every salad. And my specialty. 

Sauces. Sauces are my specialty.

Grab out the mayo, apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt/pepper and if'n you like, some dill. 

For the 5 said mid-sized potatoes and other stuff, you will want about 1c of sauce. 

This is the hard part, because I don't actually measure any of the sauce ingredients, I just dump in what looks right, so, by all means, adjust for your taste. 

Mayo type will alter taste too. I use Miracle Whip's Olive Oil Mayo. It is slightly tangy but not like regular Miracle Whip and is creamy like real mayo.

SOOOOO.... For my mayo...and for real mayo too...

1/2 c mayo

3 T apple cider vinegar

2t sugar

pinch of salt and pepper

pinch of dill.

That's it. Whisk or mix with fork until smooth. Taste. Make sure that it is a good balance of acid and sweet and salt. In other words, your taste buds should sing and you should want to continue eating the sauce by spoonfuls. Yes, it is THAT important.

If you are using regular Miracle Whip, reduce amount of sugar to 1t or add a little sour cream (1 or 2 Tbs) to the mix to make it the right flavors. 

By now your eggs and taters should be done. Drain and rinse taters in cold water. I let them sit with the sprayer on them while I play with the eggs. Drain and cool off eggs with cold water. If you add ice to the water, it shocks them and they peel super easy. 

Chop eggs into bowl.

Add potatoes. 

DO NOT MIX YET!

This is important. The potatoes are in that delicate, if-you-screw-with-them-too-much-they-will-fall-apart stage. We want to mess with them only once, with exception of taste testing... 

repeatedly.

Dump sauce on top, and with a giant spoon, gently mix by bringing the bottom yumminess to the top in an up-and-over motion. Do this on all sides of the bowl until it is mixed evenly-ish. It will never be perfect, but will be darn close. 

And TADA! Potato salad. 

Be warned. It is addicting. You can't get enough. 

And it may not ever make it to the dinner table.

Mine was half gone within about an hour of making it and setting in the fridge. 

Damn gnomes. 

Download Recipe Card Here

Traditional Egyptian Breakfast - Foule, hard-boiled eggs, pita and veggies.

One of the few good things that came out of my mom's marriage to my step-father was the introduction to a whole new realm of food. He is native to Cairo and as such, she learned to make some of the more traditional meals.

Let me tell you, what they serve in Mediterranean restaurants is not what they eat everyday!

This is my daughter's favorite breakfast. I think a lot of that has to do with the hard-boiled eggs. She has her mommies obsession with hard-boiled eggs. 

Obsession. We can eat a dozen by ourselves in a sitting kind of obsession.

Yes. We go through a lot of eggs.

"When I was a lad I hat 4 dozen eggs every morning to help me get large, now that I'm grown I eat 5 dozen eggs and I'm roughly the size of a baaaarrrgggge!"

Channeling my inner Gaston.

A traditional breakfast on Sundays for us was his favorite meal. Foule (a type of bean), warm hard-boiled eggs with butter, crispy pita, tomato, onion and cucumber, feta cheese and kalmata olives. 

Generally you'd put it all together to make a sandwich more or less.

I don't get that technical. I bit of this a bite of that. It tastes the same going down.

And savoring the eggs with butter. MMMMMM.

Ok. So ingredients here are hard to find. My mom sends the beans to me because I have had a hard time finding a good Mediterranean grocer in Portland. 

You need a can of Foule Medames beans, or fava beans

Drain and rinse.

Start with the spices. This is the reason I have cumin and coriander seeds. For this specific recipe. 

Use Mortar and Pestle to squish seeds.

If you don't know how, look here.

Pour seeds in a saucepan with a little olive oil. 

Why? So many questions!

The heat and oil release the natural oils of the spice and make it yummy.

Chop some garlic too...maybe 4 to 5 cloves. If you don't have fresh, then powdered is fine. 

Meanwhile, start the eggs. 

When the whole house smells like cumin and garlic, add 1 whole onion, chopped into bits and half a bell pepper, chopped into bits.

Saute until happy.

Add beans and a can of diced tomatoes or chop 3-4 romas into bits. 

Cook until tomatoes are cooked through. 

Get out your potato squisher. 

You know the one. Yes the one that is rusty and deformed and probably belonged to your great great aunt betty. 

Squish the beans with the fancy squisher.

They will be chunky, no worries, just do what you can.

While the beans finish cooking, slice a tomato, onion and cucumber.

Drag out the feta cheese and olives. These 2 things can be purchased at your local grocery store. I get the olives at Costco because the are really yummy as a snack and are great for adding to other dishes. Pizza and pasta especially. I could go on and on about the fabulous kalmata olives.

Throw the pita bread into the oven. If you can find fresh versus a bug name, its amazingly better. If not, regular ones are fine.

Drain and peel the eggs. Cool them off with cold water but you'll want them warm.

Trust me on this ok? 

Just try it my way.

Warm hard-boiled eggs with butter are...very very very yummy.

Open mind and all that.

Ok good. See? Yummy right?

Everything is done. Assemble on plate and eat. 

Sunday Breakfast - French Toast with Apple Compote

Sunday's are my day. Well, ok not ENTIRELY mine, I do have to share with my monkeys.

My Monkeys.

Anywho, so sundays are my day to clean the house and do other mommy stuff.

This morning, I happened to have some used bread left over from spaghetti night, so I decided french toast would be a good use for it before it became dry enough for bird food.

Of course, if you have french toast, then you have to have apple goo to put on top. Its required. No really. It is. If you don't have any apples to make your french toast happy then I suppose fresh berries are a good substitute.

But then you have to add whipped cream.

Sigh. Whipped Cream.

*shakes head*

Ok, back on track.

Today's breakfast's name...French Toast with Apple Compote, Tori's famous Macaroni and Cheese Eggs, Bacon and sausage.

The Bacon and sausage, if you so desire it, should be in the pan first. It takes the longest. If you are not vegetarian, you can use the greasy pan of their cookin's for your eggs for some extra yumminess.

If you are, or have a vegy person in your house, throw the bacon on a baking sheet line in foil and throw in oven. This allows it t all cook evenly at once, and doesn't risk contaminating the other food with grease splatters (and keeps cleanup of stove easier too)

I generally cook them at abou 300 or they will be done before everything else.

You could totally do the sausage this way too, but i use turkey sausage so it doesn't splatter.

Pour yourself a cup of coffee. Nectar of the gods...an all day sunday thing.

Ok, the apple compote takes the next longest to do.

You will need:

2 apples, cut into chunks (remember chunks are bigger than bits)

2 Tbs butter

squirt of maple syrup

2-3 Tbs brown sugar

dash of cinnamon

splash of vanilla

Melt butter into skillet, you'll want non-stick, trust me.

Saute' apples for a few minutes. Add rest of ingredients and get all melty. Turn heat to med-low. Let do its happy melty thing while you move one. Don't forget to stir every now and then.

Next prep the bread by cutting in 3/4 to 1" thick slices.

Then mix together

2 eggs

2 c milk

2 tsp vanilla

1/2c sugar

dash of cinnamon, and nutmeg if you want.

Whip up eggs first then add the other stuff, stir until it feel like sugar is mixed well in. You will have to mix off and on (between soaking slices) to keep sugar in place.

Damn sugar. Never stays where you want it to.

Get your pan all nice and warm. Cast iron is good for this. LOVE cast iron.

Stir the apples. You forgot.

Get a stick of butter out and schmear all over the bottom of the cast iron. If it is well seasoned, then you only need to do this once. If you are using nonstick (ugh) then every batch will need re-greasing.

Ok, so there are 2 ways to cook the french toast. There is the speedy, I am starvingm the kids are whining, way and the I have to do the dishes and clean the kitchen while cooking way.

Way #1. Soak bread in goo for a few seconds on each side. Oooh look BUBBLES!

Throw them in pan as is, and move on.

Way #2 Soak them in goo until all the bubbles are gone mostly.

*Sniff* No more bubbles.

Lay them in foil lined pan and let them sit for about 10 mins, then throw in over for another 8-10 mins on 325. (Or 300 is ok if your doing the bacon, although, if you are using way #2 to make toast, you will want to put bacon in after the toast is out 'cause it'll be done before toast and that mean cold bacon. Yuk.)

Ok. Take it out and NOW put it in greasy, buttery pan to fry it up.

Stir the apples. You forgot again.

What does this do you ask? It makes the insides stay soft and gets a crisp on the outside but makes sure everything is cooked through. If you do the pan way, you usually dry it out and overcook to get it cooked all the way through and you lose the creaminess of the innards.

Creamy innards=good and yummy. Got it? Ok.

Moving on.

Hang on, getting walloped by a pillow wielded by the perpetual toddler puppy.

.

.

.

.

Ok back.

Tori's Mac n Cheese Eggs

So whilst the toast is getting toasty, crack some eggs into a bowl and whisk.

Yes a fork works if you don't have a whisk, but seriously, get a whisk. It has multiple, non-egg uses.

Assume 2 eggs for each person unless they are 11 year old growing boys, then about 6 :-)

For our family of 5 (1 normal kid, 1 eat everything boy, myself and 1 overgrown eat everything boy and my sis- both who don't partake in eggs very often) we go through about 10.

Add a little salt and pepper to taste. Yes, before you cook them. Add some more after too. This is called LAYERS of flavor.

Very Important. Remember that.

Cook eggs in your yummy baconey (is that a word?) grease or a little olive oil.

Flip the french toast. Get out the plastic squishy cheese (velveeta or its generic)

Yes this is required as well. Real cheddar cheese does not work correctly for tori's mac n cheese eggs.

Cut 3-4 slices into chunks. The smaller the chunks, the faster it'll get all melty and happy.

When eggs are to correct doneness, add cheese and turn heat to low. If you don't you'll have a lot of clean up to do with burnt on cheese. YUK!

By this time everything should be getting done-ish

Assemble. Apples should be all happy, bacon and sausage done, french toast waiting, eggs just done.

(If you need to make large quantities of french toast, cover with wax paper and put in micro-nuker without turning on to keep warm. A towel over top of top of wax paper helps too.)

Ok your done. Yummy Sunday morning breakfast.