Monday, May 28

New Site! I'm the master of my own domain!!

Hey - I'm not sure if I'm going about this right, but I'm really excited to announce that I finally have a new site with my own domain!  Check it out the NEW Red Deer Foodie and set your bookmarks, and follow me on Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook to catch all of my updates and recipes!  Any hints on how long I need to keep the old one up?  And any tips for WordPress - please let me know too - I'm learning!!

Saturday, May 26

Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Corn on the Cob

You know it's almost summer when all of the cooking magazines have lines like "Let's Grill!" or "Get Your Grill On" and pictures of hamburgers and anything charred grace the covers.  I freaking love grilling! 

I picked up the June issue of Food Network Magazine and basically want to make every single page but I obviously have to settle down and cook one thing at a time! Today I started with the Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Corn on the Cob, as featured on page 148.  So simple and delicious!  I cooked my corn in foil, with butter and salt rather than directly on the grill, as I like it to kind of steam/poach in the melted butter...   I changed the sauce a little bit by adding sriracha rather than the red pepper flakes they called for and was really happy at how it turned out - this would also be a great rub/sauce for chicken too!  Enjoy!


Ingredients:
1 large pork tenderloin
4 ears of corn, remove the leaves and silk

Spice Rub:
1 tbsp paprika
2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp packed light brown sugar
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp Keen's Mustard Powder (not sure if available in the States, but this stuff is the bomb!)
1/2 tsp onion powder (I crused about a tbsp of onion flakes in my mortar)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1-2 tsp olive oil to coat the tenderloin with


Sauce:
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
3 tbsp packed brown sugar
2 tbsp ketchup
1/2 tsp sriracha sauce

Secret Sauce

Method:
At least 3 hours before you want to bbq, prepare the spice rub.  Spread out a big piece of Saran Wrap and lightly oil the tenderloin.  Work the spice rub into the tenderloin with your fingers and wrap it up tightly in the plastic - then throw in the fridge for 3-6 hours.


You can reserve extra spice rub as long as you didn't touch it
with your ditry pork hands!
Thirty minutes before you're wanting to cook, remove the tenderloin from the fridge and let come to room temp.  Preheat your bbq to medium high.  Chuck the tenderloin on the bbq and grill for about 20 minutes, turning occasionally - be patient and let grill marks appear yo!

After one turn... foiled corn in the background...
Now it's time to make the sauce - combine all of the ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat - make sure the sugar is dissolved.  Remove from heat and set aside till you're ready to serve!!

Back to the bbq: when the internal temp gets to about 140-145, remove from the bbq and let rest for about 15 minutes.  Slice, drizzle with the sauce and serve!!  With more of the spicy sauce if you're inclined!  And the buttery yummy corn!  Oh and I also had some potatoes ;)

 
So looking forward to a summer of grilling goodness!!

Tuesday, May 22

Sneaky Chocolate Brownie Muffins II

Hope everyone had a great long weekend!!  We were on the road most of the weekend, but today I had an entire day to relax and have some "me" time.  I dropped the boys off at Heritage Ranch, they went for a monster bike trip and I did a quick 4km run through the trails.  I went shopping for the week and then came home and did some experimenting with an old recipe for Chocolate Surprise Muffins.  This is my famous recipe that includes spinach as the main ingredient!  I fooled around with the fats and flours and here's my latest rendition of these muffins!  I'm just starting to cook with coconut flour and wanted to see what it would bake like - just as good as whole wheat flour in my opinion and smells really yummy!!



Sneaky Chocolate Brownie Muffins II
Ingredients:
3/4 cup white flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 cup oatmeal, pulsed thru the food processor
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups packed baby spinach leaves
1 whole apple, quartered
1 ripe banana
2/3 cup coconut oil (in it's solid form, then melt in microwave and it will equal 2/3cup + 1 tbsp liquid coconut oil)
1/2 cup skim milk
1 cup agave syrup
2 extra large eggs
seeds scraped from 1/2 vanilla bean

Method:
Preheat oven to 350degrees and coat mini muffin tins with non-stick cooking spray.  Set aside.  In a large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients, including the ground oats.  Don't bother rinsing out the food processor at this point!


Now combine all of the rest of the other ingredients in the food processor and pulse till liquid.  If your kids are super picky, you may want to really go nuts and pulse completely, otherwise they may object to the tiny green flecks once baked!!  Nick didn't notice... YET.... it's funny when kids pick up on these things though!


Anyways, add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and give it a good stir.  Spoon little plops into your mini muffin tins and shove in the oven for 15-18 minutes... today 17 minutes seemed to be my magic number! 


Remove from oven and let cool slightly before removing from tins - they're done and unless the kids were helping you in the kitchen, it's unlikely that they will figure out the secret ingredients!!  This batch makes 5 dozen little moist muffins.  They freeze really well and are a pop into lunch bags quite nicely!!  Only thing I DON'T know: is coconut considered dangerous on the nut-allergy listing??  If anyone knows, please leave me a little message!