Grilled Pork Tenderloin in a Spice Marinade

This weekend I woke up to go for my long run and could not believe that it was already 2 weeks away from the half marathon race day. I completed a half marathon back in May 2010 and after a month or so of rest I started to train for the Army Half Run held on September 19, 2010 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

However, with the summer being so busy I did not realize the race day was creeping up on me. I have been able to get in all my runs, hills, speed, long distances, so I should be prepared, but I do not feel I am as energetic as I was back in May. I think I have run myself down, as I usually do each summer. I always try to balance my training, with friends, family, work and all those things life throws at you (good and bad). I think I will have a good race, but by no means going to reach a personal best and am looking forward to resting afterwards and getting into some cross training over the fall months. Regardless it should be an inspirational race with so many healthy and injured troops and their families participating in the race and therefore I will just be happy to be a part of it.

You can check out my training log at my Uberfit website under Half Marathon Army Run 2010 along with my official training schedule Half Marathon Training Program.This site also offers some other fun posts on nutrition and my travels/hikes/runs.

After my long 20km run, which took a bit over 1 hour and 40min I was famished. I had lots of water and some trail mix to hold me over until dinner. Then I prepared this grilled pork tenderloin in a spice marinade with grilled mustard and rosemary baby potatoes. The pork marinade has wonderful flavours that remind me that fall is coming – allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger.

Marinade

1/2 cup coarsely chopped white onion
2 T white vinegar
1 T soy sauce
1 T olive oil
2 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped
2 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp fresh ginger, chopped
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno, finely chopped and seeded
1 pork tenderloin (1 to 1 1/2 lbs)

Mix all the ingredients together. Place the pork tenderloin in a ziplock bag or in a deep dish. Pour the marinade over the tenderloin and place in the fridge for 1-4hours.

Grease the grill and preheat the grill to med high heat. Grill the tenderloin for 15-18min until it reaches an internal temp of 155F to 160F for a nice pink middle. Turn the pork often while grilled. Remove from grill and tent for about 5-10min.

Grilled Grainy Mustard Baby Potatoes

1 lbs of baby potatoes, quartered
1 T grainy Dijon mustard
Freshly ground pepper
1 tsp dried rosemary

Boil the potatoes first for about 5min. This will allow them to cook slightly and reduce having a dry inner potato. Drain and add the ingredients, toss to mix. On a grill pan cook the potatoes using indirect heat for 45 min or until tender to the fork on the inside and slightly crisp on the outside. These can also be cooked in the oven.

Sausage Stuffed Peppers

I am ecstatic that it is a long weekend for me and for the first time in what seems like about 6 months I have nothing to run around and do. Well there are always offers to go places and do things, but after an exhausting few months and weeks I am dedicating this weekend to ME. That does not mean I will be sitting around pampering myself. It means I can finally get the things done that I have planned for so long. First will be renovating my bathroom....somehow as a first time house owner this seems fun.

Even so I will certainly leave room for some fun things like pumpkin carving, cooking, and doing whatever it is I feel like. It also means that I may get around to blogging a few more recipes and about the stages of the Alps hike that have yet to be posted over at uberfit. One recipe I have wanted to post was a recipe I made last Sunday. It seemed perfect for the rainy fall day we had. Not to mention it was great to be able to eat the very bowl the food was served in.

This dish can be rustic or elegant looking depending on how you want to dress it up. But one thing is for sure the nostril opening aroma of the baking sausage, the feeling of the fresh corn kernels as they burst in your mouth and the smooth warm goat cheese melting on your tongue will keep you eating more portions then you probably should. Not only is this dish appetizing, the bright colors of the peppers (reds, yellows, oranges) are appeasing to the eye. I love to eat these as a meal, but you could easily serve them as a side dish. As a side I’d tend to go more of the vegetarian route.

Spicy Sausage Stuffed Peppers

(Printable Version)

3 large bell peppers (red, yellow or orange), halved and seeded

2 T olive oil

2 spicy italian sausages

5 garlic cloves, miniced

1 medium onion, diced

1 cup corn kernels

2 cups cooked rice

chipotle powder

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp paprila

ground pepper

goat cheese

spicy salsa

In a large pan cook the sausages over med high heat until browned. Remove and let cool (enough to be able to touch and crumble sausage up into small pieces). Add them back to the pan with a bit of olive oil and add the garlic, onion, corn and heat.

Add the cooked rice and mix. Add the spices and adjust flavors to your liking.

Now spoon mixture into the halved peppers and pressing mixture in to get as much in as possible.

Place peppers in a baking dish with about 1" water at the bottom. Cover the dish with tin foil and place in a preheated oven at 375F. Bake for 35 to 4o min. The peppers should be tender to a fork when pierced.

Serve with goat cheese and salsa. The goat cheese will melt into the mixture adding so much flavor. You can also choose to bake it with the goat cheese and salsa already on it, however I like to add mine at the end.

Grilled Ribs with a Smokey BBQ Sauce

This long weekend was not the best weather, and I am happy I did not go camping and get stuck in the downpours. Rather I stayed home and painted my kitchen (photos to come) and on the one nice day we had worked in my garden. I had bought a few racks of ribs a while back, and in an attempt to clean out the freezer I decided to grill them for dinner last night. Previously I used a great boubon bbq sauce for these ribs.

However, as I ran out my husband and I decided we'd try and make our own to our liking. The following ingredients were mixed together and basted on the ribs. The flavor is fantastic a good balance of tang and spice with a mild smokey flavor cmoing from the ancho chili powder. I would say this bbq sauce is one worth trying.

1/2 cup ketchup
1/3 cup red wine
1 T olive oil
1 T soy sauce
1 T brown sugar
1 T apple cider vinegar
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp chipotle chili powder
1/2 tsp ancho chili powder

Also Try

Grilled Ribs in Bourbon Sauce

Korean Ribs in Orange Ginger Sauce

BBQ Chicken in Bourbon Sauce

Grilled Ribs in Bourbon Sauce

It has been just over a month since I last blogged. The month of April was incredibly busy between seeing friends, family, running and doing spring errands (like planting my herbal garden) I did not have much time for blogging. With the nice weather I have also been enjoying the deck and BBQ. This past weekend we purchased a much needed new Q. The other one was pretty unhealthy as it was rusting out. The new grill has so much more room, more BTUs, a cast iron grill. So far it grills really nicely.
On the weekend we grilled up some ribs in a tangy bourbon sauce with asparagus on the side. The ribs turned out delicious. Cook ed them on medium high heat for 12 mins (6 mins per side) and basted with bourbon sauce througout grilling. As for the asapargus usually 4 min per side or total of 6-8 min tossing around occassionally is perfect (I added olive oil & freshly ground pepper to them). Hopefully with the new BBQ and the herbs in my garden growing I will be inspired to post more regularly again.