Pulling Together a Dinner with Hubby's Help!

Doesn't this look Yummy!!

Hubby was in the mood to Grill, I was in the mood to Experiment, so he worked on the main & I came up with two new sides (follow links to recipes for sides)…

What's for Dinner?
  Grilled Pork Tenderloin
  Balsamic Basil Green Beans
  Orzo with Garlic Parmesan Tomatoes

Here's what Jeff did with our little (just over a pound) tenderloin:

First, he marinated it in Stubs Pork Marinade - his favorite marinade for this cut of meat, in the fridge for an hour.

He heated our grill to Medium-High, and cooked the tenderloin for about 20 minutes, turning it only a couple times… let it rest for a few minutes & then sliced it up…

The combination of Jeff's Tenderloin & my 2 new sides worked out really well… Yum, Yum!!

Orzo with Garlic Parmesan Tomatoes

I wanted a side that was a "starch", but was in the mood for something new, so here's another experiment I did this week…

I love playing with Orzo, its pasta & can be treated like either Pasta or Rice in its use, which makes it a wonderful ingredient… I'd also recently purchased quite a bit of Grape/Cherry tomatoes (on sale of course) & was looking for something to do with them…  I typically keep a good quality Parmesan around, and of course I keep Garlic on hand… so I started to play!!

I decided I wanted to roast the Tomatoes, so I set the oven to 450F & made a tray out of foil (easy cleanup & so things don't stick) and put it on a cookie sheet for easy transfer in/out of the oven…

Then I halved my little Tomatoes & put them in my tray, putting a little minced Garlic on each, and grinding a little Sea Salt on them…

I grated some Parmesan on top (I should have grated then placed, lots of waste, but this was an experiment & I learned something…).  As soon as the oven was up to temp I baked these for 10 minutes & Wow it made the house smell wonderful!!

Meanwhile I cooked the Orzo until it was a nice texture, drained, added a teaspoon of good Olive Oil & sprinkled in some spicing (I used Sunny Paris) that would go well with the tomatoes…

Then I added my baked tomatoes to the pot & mixed them in… I love the way the colors work…

Here's the final product on the plate… and yes, it was a very yummy success!!

Balsamic Basil Green Beans

I had some Green Beans & Red Onions from the Farmer's Market, and some fresh Basil from my garden, so I decided to "play" and come up with something new…

I keep a good quality Balsamic Vinegar out on my kitchen counter, and I guessed that it would work well in combination with these other ingredients… so here's what I did:

I sprayed a non-stick skillet with Olive Oil, ground in a little Sea Salt (I have a salt grinder - see my Toys tab or the first picture in this post), put in some cleaned up green beans & chopped up red onion…

I sautéd these until the onion was translucent & the green beans slightly colored… then I turned the heat to low, added the chopped Basil & just enough water to cover the bottom of the skillet, put a lid on the skillet & let things steam (I checked a couple times & added a bit more water when needed) until the beans were cooked slightly-firm…

Then I removed the lid, drizzled with just a bit of Balsamic (its very flavorful, a little goes a long way), and turned up the heat to caramelize the Balsamic onto the beans (just a minute or two)…

They ended up being a very yummy side dish for our dinner… an experiment gone right!!

Variations on a Theme...

I'm an amateur musician, have played the piano since I was a child, and enjoy some of Beethoven's Variations On A Theme pieces where he takes someone else's melody & plays with it several different ways…


In many ways my cooking is like that, sometimes what I come up with comes out of thin air, sometimes its a variation on something I or someone else has already done… this is a variation of something experimental that I came up with a couple weeks ago, my Strawberry Yogurt Coffee Cake.


I'm not going to re-write the recipe here (that's just too tedious) so follow the link… but here's what happens when you substitute Blueberries (yes, you need to cut them up) for Strawberries… Yum!!

Jeff prefers this to the Strawberry version, I prefer the Strawberry… so depending on your berry preference you'll like one better than the other… we both agree they're both very tasty!!

Mock Borsht

I came up with this recipe because I had some wonderful yummy Borscht while on a Mission Trip in Ukraine this May.  Saying you're making Borscht is kinda like saying you're making Soup, in more ways than one... it basically is a soup, and there are as many Borscht recipes as there are cooks (or maybe more recipes than cooks)… anyhoo… I decided to try my hand at it, and in true good-cook fashion simply used what I already had on hand (why run to the store if you don't need to)… So while most Borscht recipes I looked at had cabbage & potatoes this one doesn't, I simply didn't have them on hand… I think my sister-cooks in Ukraine would have done the same thing...

Celery Flakes, available at Penzeys

I had celery, but didn't want to bother to chop it up fine, so I used Celery Flakes instead…

Messy but effective - grating root vegetables...

My grater got a workout… ok, in truth I got a workout with my grater… sheesh!!  The only caution I would give is this: be careful with the Beets, they can stain… nice pretty bright pink… no, I didn't stain anything (this time)…


Ingredients (this time):
  4 cups Water
  2 tsp Better than Bouillon Beef
  2 tsp Better than Bouillon Mushroom
(instead of the 3 ingredients above you could use 4 cups of broth…)
  1 Tbl Celery Flakes (or 1 stalk Celery chopped up fine)
  1/8 tsp Ground Cloves
  1-2 Tbl Red Wine Vinegar (don't go more than 2 Tbl)
  2 cloves Garlic, crushed/pressed
  Salt & Pepper (to taste)
  2/3 medium Red Onion, diced
  2 1/2 cups grated fresh Beets
  1 cup grated fresh Parsnip
  1 cup grated fresh Carrot
  1 cup grated fresh Turnip
  1 cup grated fresh Sweet Potato (peel before grating)
  1 cup diced Tomato
  2 Aidells Chicken & Apple Sausage, chopped up
  4 Tbl Fat Free Sour Cream
  1-2 Tbl Fresh Chopped Dill


Throw all but the last 2 ingredients in the Crock Pot on Low in the Morning…

And by Evening… it's Borscht!!  Or at the very least its Borscht-like :)

Serve hot or refrigerate it to be served another day (Borscht is eaten both hot & cold), just before serving garnish with Fat Free Sour Cream & Fresh Chopped Dill.

This is leftovers, heated up for lunch a couple days later… Yum!

More about Borscht… what seems to make it Borscht is the predominance of Root Vegetables, which are more available in the colder months (can be stored for longer periods of time), chopped or grated finely… Beets aren't necessary (I've had non-beet Borscht)… in the recipes I've seen they all seem to have the Red Wine Vinegar, and that adds a particular flavor… and when in Ukraine it was always served with Sour Cream and fresh chopped Dill…


That said have fun, play with the vegetables, play with the meat (I may try Lamb Sausages next time)… and enjoy!!


Want to make it Vegetarian?  Try adding some of my Sausage Spice & omitting the meat…