Roasted Pork Loin with Green Beans and Roasted Redskins

This is a recipe which was supposed to be prepared in the oven, but it was a nice day, so.....Make a marinade by mixing 4T olive oil, 4 cloves minced garlic, 1T thyme, 1T oregano, 2t aleppo pepper, and 1t salt.  We put it all in a plastic bag and put in a pork loin roast of about 4 lbs.  Rub the roast well from time to time and allow to marinate for 3-4 hrs.  We cooked it on the Weber to an internal temperature of 140F.  

The beans are coated with olive oil and salted and peppered to taste.  They go in the grilling basket for about 10 min. when the roast is resting.

The redskins are prepared in a similar fashion except they require 20-30 min.

Mediterranean Chicken Salad - Adapted from Silver Palliate

This is a nice easy summer salad using left-over chicken.  Dice 2C cooked chicken.  Mix it in a bowl with diced tomatoes, blanched green beans, kalamata olives and boiled redskin potatoes.  You could add hard cooked eggs if you wished.  The dressing is simply 1/3C extra virgin olive oil and 2T chopped fresh oregano.  Serve with a crusty bread and a dry white wine.

Red Beans and Rice with Collard Greens

Here's another of those simple southern meals that we love.  In this case its the royal "we".  Start by sorting 1 lb of dry red beans to remove any stones or dirt.  Cook them in 6C water,along with a whole onion, a carrot and a rib of celery either in a slow cooker or on the stove if you are short of time.  The cooking time will very but is a minimum of 3 hrs.  The herbs are up to you but we added 4 garlic cloves, 1T dry thyme and a bay leaf.  Meat is also optional but in this case we added a 1/4 lb slab of salt pork.  When the beans are done, remove the lean meat from the salt pork and add it back to the beans.  Remove the vegetables and discard.

Prepare some rice according to package directions.  The greens, in this case collard greens, were chopped and steamed with 1/4C vinegar.  Serve the meal with Tabasco on the side and corn bread if you wish.

Mussels with Pasta

This may sound complicated but it is really quick and easy.  The mussels can be cooked in less time than the pasta.  We like to put the mussels in cold running water with come cornmeal to "flush" them of any grit they may contain.  Drain and sort them, discarding any that are open.  Cook your favorite pasta according to package directions.  In a large pan, saute 1/2 med. onion and 4 cloves minced garlic in 2T butter.  When the onions are soft, add the mussels and 1/2 C dry white wine.  Cover the pan and allow to simmer for 5 min (all the the mussels should now be open).  Remove the mussels and put the drained pasta into the wine sauce and return to the boil.  Allow the pasta to finish cooking the the mussel/wine liquid.  Serve the mussels and pasta with crusty bread,  a nice green salad and the wine you used for cooking.

You could turn this into a red sauce by substituting  tomatoes, tomato paste or 1/2C of your favorite red pasta sauce for the white wine. 

Marinated Pork Chops with Spicy Szechuan Noodles - Adapted from Cindy Z

Here are the Costco pork chops again.  This time we made an marinade by mixing 1/4C soy sauce, 2T fish sauce, 2T oyster sauce, 2T garlic chili paste and 3 cloves minced garlic.  Mix well and place in a plastic bag with the chops (chicken would work as well).  We grilled them on the Weber to an internal temperature of 140 F.

For the noodles, cook 1 lb. of your favorite noodles; we used Lomein.  Mix together in a bowl 3T sesame oil, 1/4C soy sauce, 3T rice vinegar, hot chili oil to taste, 1 bunch thinly sliced green onions, 1/2 of a peeled, sliced and quartered English cucumber, 1T chopped fresh ginger, and 4 cloves minced garlic.  If you want more heat, you can add red pepper flakes.  Toss with the noodles and garnish with chopped fresh cilantro.  We chilled the noodles while the chops were grilling.  A very nice meal with a spicy edge.  We enjoyed a chilled dry white wine with the meal.