Recipe for Summer Super Salad Inspiration

Aloha all,
I'm starting to get caught back up from being away for so long!  Hope your summer is going well and you're enjoying some lovely fresh summer produce.  Last week, I was really in the mood for a salad of some type for dinner.  It was a hot, muggy day and my brain was just feeling lethargic-ever get like that?

Recipe for Coriander and Paprika Rubbed Pork Tenderloin

Hopefully it is getting close to grilling out weather where you are.  Don't hate me...we are fortunate to be able to grill out year round here and one of our favorites is pork tenderloin on the grill.  I'll often just pull a bunch of herbs or spices out of the fridge or cupboard, mix them up, rub the tenderloin down and then Mr. ELEB works his magic on the grill.  Such is the story for this recipe.

Recipe for Sweet and Sour Grilling Glaze

Mr. ELEB chuckles sometimes when he sees me standing in front of an open pantry or refrigerator door.  I understand why…you can almost see the steam coming out of my ears as I’m looking at what’s in front of me and concocting possibilities in my head.  He also laughs because he knows that he might get something really yummy, occasionally something yucky.  Well, he lucked out on this most recent experiment!

It was burger night-I had defrosted some ground buffalo-and I was pondering what to do in front of the open fridge door.  I didn’t a want cheeseburger so I was trying to come up with ingredients to make the burgers interesting.    I had a bottle of white wine open (imagine that), some garlic, ginger, and I spied the bottle of ponzu tucked away in the door shelf.  I figured with some brown sugar and mustard, I could probably cook up a reasonably good glaze to add a nice layer of flavor to the meat.

Voilà!  Here’s my sweet and sour grilling glaze.

Recipe for Ponzu Cardamom Marinated Grilled Tuna

Yes, cardamom.  I thought I was using ground coriander but I realized when I smelled the pungent aroma of the cardamom that I’d grabbed the wrong bottle.  Ah well, I thought I’d give it a try since I’d already dumped it in the marinade with the tuna.  Cardamom imparts a sweet and savory flavor to chicken, meat, fruit, pastries…why not tuna?

Recipe for Smoky Tomatillo Sauce

My friends make the most amazing herb sauces to go with grilled meats.  One is a cilantro flavor bomb and the other is an amazing lime and tomatillo sauce.  I need to get the recipes, but in the mean time, I came up with my own flavor bomb-if you love cumin, you’ll love this sauce.  We had it with grilled pork chops the other night and it was amazing!  The ground nuts add a pleasant twist!

Time: 5 minutes plus chilling time

Yield: 1 ½ cups

Ingredients:

• 1 can, 12 oz, whole tomatillos, drained
• ½ cup cilantro leaves
• Juice of ½ lemon or lime
• 2 tsp smoked cumin (I’m sure it would be good with regular cumin too)
• ½ cup roasted almonds
• Salt to taste

Method:

• Place all ingredients in food processor and process until well combined.
• Chill for one hour before serving.

I’m gazing at the left over sauce and coming up with all kinds of ideas to use it.  I’ll let you know my favorites!  Do you make any herb sauces?  Please share!

Printable Recipe

Corn on the Grill

Old and new worlds come together in the best ways sometimes.  This past week we have been fortunate to have some “old” friends visit from San Francisco.  Everyone has now gone home except our one friend Olivia who leaves today.  The first night when everyone started arriving, we did a sunset picnic down on the beach.  It was a rare cloudy evening, so not much in the way of sunset but the clouds provided a beautiful sky once the sun had set and was reflecting its rays from beyond the horizon.  For Olivia’s last night, our “new” friends here on Maui, Jennifer and Ryan (and their dog Chimi), hosted us at a pool side sunset barbecue.  The sunset was amazing, as was the food. 

Quick and Easy BBQ Rubbed Skirt Steak

It's funny sometimes how we end up where we do.  Like this skirt steak.  I stumbled across an online discussion about cooking skirt steak.  The original poster (OP) was frustrated because the skirt steak had turned out very tough.  She/he got alot of feedback about marinating methods, cooking time, cutting across the grain, and the general consensus was that it is an amazing cut of meat and the OP must have overcooked it, apparently THE cardinal sin when it comes to skirt steak.

So I'm at Whole Foods later in the day and see a couple of beautiful pieces of skirt steak just calling my name.  Had I not read the discussion, I probably would have walked right by but the conviction of those touting how amazing this cut is prompted me to say "what the heck, I'll give it a try".   I'm very happy I did.

Barbecue "Surprise" Bison Burgers

Happy Memorial Day



Memorial Day.  Decoration Day as it used to be called years ago.  One day a year where we honor and remember those who have died in the military service.  Too often, it is a day of shopping, barbeques, visits to the lake or beach with barely a moment's thought for our brave service men, women, and animals who have given their life to protect our country and our beliefs.  I'm as guilty as the next person, but this year I made sure that I did honor those who have served with my own quiet moment. 


Perhaps it was the young bloggers I met in Atlanta, both married to military men.  Or maybe it was seeing all the stranded military personnel in Dallas (weather closed the airport down) last week as we travelled home.  Not sure why, but this year I felt especially nostalgic and thankful for those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.   I encourage you take a minute today to reflect on the true meaning of Memorial Day as you enjoy your shopping, cook outs, visits with family, or whatever you have on your plate for today.  I hope there are some yummy things to eat on that plate too!

Here is a recipe for another "inside out" burger that we enjoyed over the long weekend.

A couple of weeks ago I made inside out turkey cheeseburgers that were really good.  So I thought I'd try something similar but this time I wanted to try the
KC Masterpiece Southern Style Barbecue Sauce that was sent to me as part of the Foodbuzz Featured Publisher Tastemaker program.  It's one of their new flavors. 

What to tuck inside the burgers with the sauce?  I decide to saute some red onion and mushrooms and cook down the sauce to make it thick enough to work inside the burgers.  Voilà!  Worked like a charm!

Recipe for Inside Out Turkey Cheeseburgers



It was burger night and I had ground turkey breast defrosted.  I rotate between turkey breast, bison, and Maui Cattle Company beef for our burgers.  It was one of those afternoons where the dinner hour was rapidly approaching; I had already had a glass of wine, and had zero inspiration for dinner.  Luckily for me, Mr. ELEB eats anything I put in front of him and with a smile and usually a compliment for the chef.   Luckily for both of us, these turned out really yummy, so we both were happy at the end of the day!  I mean, look at that gooey cheese, would you?

Method for Grilled Asparagus

It’s great to support local farmers and how easy is it when they provide us with produce like this beautiful asparagus?  This was grown here on Maui and was so fresh tasting.  I hope you are starting to see some great spring veggies showing up in your markets.

Recipe for Greek Salad Bison Burgers



Beautiful Grill Work Courtesy of Mr. ELEB!



Earlier this week, I shared the story of how the Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken recipe came about.  Today's recipe resulted from my plan to make bison burgers and Greek salad for dinner.  However, I overheard a couple of acquaintances discussing lamb burgers made with olives and feta, how good they were etc, etc.  Mr. ELEB really likes Greek Salad and so do I.  What’s not to like?  Fresh veggies, good fat, tangy flavors…    I started thinking; why not just put the whole Greek salad in/on the burger?  So, that’s just what I did!

Recipe for Garam Masala Grilled Chicken



Here is another recipe following my interest in cooking more with Indian spices.  This is a super easy, quick marinade that tenderizes and flavors the chicken in a wonderful way.  A quick turn on the grill and you have a delicious Indian flavored main course. 

Recipe for Easy Marinated Pork Tenderloin

Aloha everyone,
Here's another recipe (if you can call it that) where I used some of the product that the nice folks at Newman's Own sent me as part of the Foodbuzz Featured Publisher's program.  This time I used the Family Recipe Italian Salad Dressing as a marinade for pork tenderloin. 

Recipe for Asian Marinated Pork

Here’s one of our favorite marinade recipes adapted from “The Weber Big Book of Grilling” (Chronicle Books, 2001, p. 181).  It is versatile, tasty and easy-how could you go wrong?  My intent was to cook pork tenderloin but, as sometimes happens here on Maui, “the shipment didn’t come in”, and so I subbed boneless pork chops which worked fine.  I just sliced them up for serving (and forgot to take a photo of them coming off the grill!).

I have marinated for a few short hours or overnight, both with good results.  The longer the meat marinates the more tender and flavorful.

Makes 6 servings, each approximately 302 calories, 12.4 grams fat, 0 grams carbs, 3.5 grams fiber, 44 grams protein, 7 WW Points+

Recipe for Dirty Martini Steak Kebabs

This concept behind this recipe sounded fun and tasty-using martini ingredients (vermouth, olives, onions) as a marinade and accompaniment for beef.  It was good, but nothing to write home about and not a recipe I’d repeat.  The meat was very tender as I marinated it overnight. But the flavor from the marinade was pretty basic.

I followed the recipe as written except for adding some green bell pepper to the skewers for some added veggie.  The recipe didn’t include instructions for soaking the skewers.  If you are using wooden skewers, be sure to soak them for several hours in plain water to prevent them from burning on the grill.  I didn’t make the salad included in the original recipe.  Instead I served my mushroom rice. 

We had company for dinner and we all ate our skewers so don’t get me wrong, there was nothing bad about it.  But, meh, just an okay meal.



Each serving Calories:418, Fat:24g, Carbohydrates:19g, Fiber:3g, Protein:28g

Original Recipe

Recipe for Santa Maria Tri-Tip Roast

We recently went to a barbeque and had a delicious tri-tip roast off the grill.  I asked my friend for the recipe and was told it was “Santa Maria”.  Almost everyone else seemed familiar with this but it was new to me.  I got my friend's recipe and also looked on the web and sure enough, tons of recipes.  I guess Santa Maria California is known for tri-tip, go figure!

I tripled my friend’s recipe and used Italian seasoning where hers called for dried parsley.  I also used smoked paprika instead of plain because I love the smoky taste.   The result was quite good although for some reason, much more peppery than hers.  Everyone I served it to at a sunset picnic liked it but next time I’ll dial the pepper back just a tad.  Although, the next day I made a gyro with some of the leftovers and cucumber raita sauce.   The cool cucumber sauce toned down the pepper perfectly!

If you aren't grilling this time of year where you are, I would give this a try in the oven or even maybe the crockpot.  The texture would be different in the crockpot, and you'd might need a bit of moisture for cooking but the flavors are worth the try-let me know how it turns out.

Recipe for Grilled Asian Peanut Pork Tenderloin

I promised you some more marinade/grill recipes so I hope you’ll enjoy this Grilled Asian Peanut Pork Tenderloin recipe.  The first time I had peanut sauce that I really remember was at a little Asian bistro in the Marina District of San Francisco.  I could have drunk it, it was that good!   Not too long after, I went to a cooking class conducted by James Beard nominated writer Hugh Carpenter of Napa, California.  He is the inspiration behind many of my marinades and wok recipes (which I haven’t shared with you.  Yet.)

Tasty Tenderloin of Pork with Naan and Tangy Sauce

Recently, I made a version of Alton Brown’s Pork Wellington, a fairly easy and very tasty meal.  Our normal way to eat pork tenderloin however, is grilled with various marinades and/or rubs.  This is the first time I’ve actually written the recipe down, I usually wing it!  You can marinade for an hour or all day.  For a new twist, I served the pork on grilled store bought naan with a tangy sauce (I’m looking for a recipe to make naan at home). 

I hope you’ll try this!  I’ll be sharing more marinades and grilling ideas with you soon.  Would love to hear your favorites for the grill.