EASY RECIPES AND STUFF

EASY BBQ Pork Tenderloin

Posted on August 16, 2012 by easyrecipesandstuffc

The first in series Jack Fields and Amber Reyes adventure novel is available at all major e-book retailers.

EASY RECIPE

I like to serve pork tenderloin because it BBQ’s well and it is low in fat. So I worked up a new marinade for a super easy recipe which gives the tenderloin a sweet and spicy taste.

Recipes serves 4

Ingredients:

1 1/4 lb. port tenderloin – fat trimmed

1/2 C orange juice

3 Tbsp. Scotty B’s Sweet Jalapeno Heat (or whatever hot sauce you prefer)

1/3 red onion – minced (reserve some for garnish)

3 Tbsp. fresh cilantro – chopped (plus a little more for garnish)

2 cloves garlic – minced

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

rice – cooked per package instructions

1/4 red bell pepper – julienne cut

1 small tomato – sliced

1/8 C American Honey Whiskey

Preparation

In a bowl mix all ingredients other than the rice, red pepper, and pork tenderloin, being careful to reserve some red onion and cilantro for garnish. Trim any excess fat from pork tenderloin and place tenderloin in a large plastic baggy. Pour marinade over the pork tenderloin, seal baggy and place in refrigerator for an hour or more.

Prepare rice according to package instructions.

Place the pork on BBQ grill and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, turning occasionally, Brush left over marinade from the bag to coat the pork the first time or two you turn it over to create a nice sear (But do not apply any marinade after that as it had the raw pork in it) . Discard any left over marinade. When the internal temperature is 155 degrees the meat is cooked. Remove the pork tenderloin from the grill and let is set up for a few minutes.

Plate the rice, add red bell pepper, garnish, and then slice the pork tenderloin into nice rounds and plate.

That’s all there is to it. Enjoy your easy recipe meal!

AND STUFF

Being a beach dweller I don’t have a backyard. Well that’s not exactly right. My backyard is a strip of dirt 4 feet by 10 inches next to a portion of the driveway. So, it does not have the potential to provide large amounts of fresh vegetables. I tried terrace farming one year to increase my field to two even narrower rows without any appreciable gain in yield. Last year I added pots for extra tomato plants. Now I was cooken. The tomato yield soared to maybe 3 tomatoes a week. And they were so good and fresh.

Onward and upward. This season I planted heirloom tomatoes. I have watered and waited and waited and watered. So far I have enjoyed maybe 3 fresh heirloom tomatoes. I’m getting a tad frustrated. Heirloom tomatoes are what maybe $4 a pound at the market? I bought three plants in the spring, watered and waited, and waited and watered. And here it is mid August and like I said my yield was maybe 3 nice tomatoes. So with the price of the plants and soil being maybe $28.00 and my 3 tomatoes weighing maybe 1 and 1/2 pounds my cost is about $18.60 a pound. I think my plants will yield a couple more tomatoes so I can probably get my cost down to $15.00 a pound.

I am teachable.

Next year I’m planting flowers and buying my tomatoes at farmers market. In so doing I will save money, enjoy beautiful flowers, and have time to read a book instead of caring for 5 or 6 heirloom tomatoes all summer.

Good Eating and Table Talk,

Roger

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RED HOT CHICKEN STRIP NANN PIZZA

Posted on August 7, 2012 by easyrecipesandstuffc

EASY RECIPE

Sue was picking up sandwiches for the beach, and when she got home she told me how the shop had chicken strips in buffalo wings style sauce. So, while at the beach my mind began to think how I could create a super easy meal from that idea. And then it came to me, Red Hot Chicken Strip Naan Pizza. If you like spicy buffalo wings you will love the following easy recipe.

Recipe Serves 2

Ingredients:

6 oz package fully cooked Chicken Breast Strips

1/8 C Red Hot Wings Sauce (more if you like)

1 C Mozzarella Cheese

1/2 C Roasted Red Pepper & Artichokes Tapenade (Trader Joe’s)

1/2 small Red Onion – sliced into thin circles

1/4 C Fresh Basil- chopped

2 Mushrooms – sliced

2 Nann or flat breads

1 Tbsp olive oil

Preparation:

Marinade the chicken strips in the Red Hot Wings Sauce for half or so in the refrigerator.

Use the oil to coat an oven sheet.

Place the 2 Nann breads on the oiled oven sheet .

Spread tapenade onto each Naan (as you would with pizza sauce).

Add mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, red onions, and red hot chicken strips.

Place in 450 degree for 8 to 10 minutes.

Plate, add basil as garnish, and serve with a salad.

And in just about no time you have a fantastic gourmet pizza dinner for two!

AND STUFF

I almost never go in the water. Yet, I am a huge water sport fan. I’m not a big swimmer. But, I can swim good enough for the boat to swing around and get me if somehow I were to fall overboard. Yet, I can unaided plow through miles of water in a day. My water just has to be frozen. Or more to the point snow!

So, there I was last Sunday at the beach with She Who must Be Obeyed tanning. Sue is reading and I am thinking. After a time I announce that this winter my goal is to ski 12 days at Mammoth. I started to explain the various weekend trip potentials, when slowly Sue raised her head, stared at me, and said something to the affect I must crazy thinking of skiing while at the beach on a beautiful summer day.

Maybe, but in my defense my youngest just ended week one of football conditioning so my mind has moved on into the fall already. And, with all that water crashing onto the beach is it any wonder I would start thinking of my water sport.

Last season Mother Nature was not kind. There was snow to be sure, but nothing like we are used to at Mammoth. The season was saved by 2 or 3 storms and an army of young men and women moving snow blower canons from point to point. Without those wonderful people working in artificial blizzards there would been little joy on the slopes. I confess my son and I didn’t go up as much as we could have. But at least we got in 5 or so days . I was told that thousands of seasons passes were not even activated on the mountain last winter. Each to there own I guess, but for me skiing wonderfully groomed man made snow is better than not skiing. Lots better.

So, here it is August, and I’m searching the Internet for an open ski shop that can help me fit my boots. I gotta be ready when the first dump arrives in Mammoth!

Good Eating and Table Talk,

Roger

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Bacon, Arugula, Tomato, Avocado, on Grilled Ciabatta

Posted on July 31, 2012 by easyrecipesandstuffc

The And Stuff story that follows the recipe is an uncompensated article about Sideways The Play.

EASY RECIPES

How about a summertime grilled twist on the classic BLT? My easy recipe will make a great dinner for 4 or so on a warm summer night.

Ingredients:

8 slices of butcher style bacon

1 lb ciabatta role

1 tomato – sliced into rounds

1 avocado

1/2 white onion – sliced into rounds

1 zucchini – sliced thinly lengthwise

8 slices of gruyere cheese

1/4 C mayonnaise

1 Tbsp Scotty’s Sweet Jalapeno Heat

Olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

In a large fry pan cook the bacon. Place cooked bacon on paper towel to soak up fat, and cover with foil to keep warm.

Drizzle a little olive oil and salt and pepper on onion and zucchini slices and BBQ until nicely browned.

Slice tomatoes into thin rounds.

Peel and thinly slice avocado.

Slice cheese

Mix the mayo and jalapeno sauce in small bowl.

Cut the ciabatta in half lengthwise, brush with olive oil and BBQ to light golden brown

Drizzle olive oil on onions and zucchini and then BBQ until soft and browned.

Cut the ciabatta into 4, apply mayo jalapeno spread, zucchini, bacon, onions, tomatoes, cheese, and arugula.

Serve dish with a nice side such as Chinese coleslaw.

Now all yu have to do is sit back and enjoy your super easy great take on the BLT.

AND STUFF

Last month I began following the author of Sideways, Rex Pickett, on twitter. I quickly learned that he had turned his book into a play. The play was being performed at The Ruskin Group Theatre in Santa Monica, California. And get this, each night they were offering complimentary wine tasting prior to the show. As a fan of the book, movie, and the Santa Ynez wine region how could I go wrong with that deal? Unfortunately, vacations and family events kept She Who Must Be Obeyed and me from attending during the play’s run.

A week or two ago I read a tweet announcing the play had been extended, and better yet we had a couple open Saturdays! The first Saturday of choice was sold out, so I quickly took down Saturday the 28^th.

We started the evening with an early diner at Il Forno, one of my business lunch favorites. The friendly service and wonderful meal were the perfect kick off for our evening. Then it was off to the Ruskin Group Theater.

We hadn’t been to the Ruskin before, so finding it tucked amongst buildings next to the Santa Monica airport was an adventure. Didn’t take long until we found the theater intermixed with a number of airport hanger/warehouse kind of structures. As I parked the car it occurred to me how un-LA the area was, because the parking was ….. free!

With the car safely parked we started the brutally long, maybe 20 foot, walk from our car to the ticket box. After showing our tickets we were handed stem labels for wine glasses. We entered the small lobby area, took a wine glass from a table, affixed our stem label, and got in line for our first taste. Get this, as we got closer it dawned on me that when Rex Pickett tweets he’s pouring wines, it’s not a figurative tweet. Across the table and behind a forest of wine bottles stood the award winning writer talking about each wine and pouring tastes for all attendees. Don’t know about you, but for me it’s not everyday I get to shoot the breeze over wine with an award wining author. Very cool indeed.

So let’s recap: great dinner; found the theater; free parking; complimentary wine tasting poured by Rex Pickett. So far so good! And then it was time to be seated. Sue and I followed people through a short narrow hallway which led into a very small theater. By my rough count there were maybe 60 seats. Obviously in such a small venue every seat is great. Basically we were sitting on the stage.

The play started with Miles (John Colella) alone center stage or more to the point, center floor maybe 8 feet away from us. In such an intimate theater there is no need for microphones. Miles was quickly joined by Jack (Jonathan Bray) and we were off on the bachelor party weekend through wine country. It didn’t take too long for the boys to meet up with Maya (Julia McIlvaine) and Terra (Cloe Kromwell) and the book came to life via superb actors performing literally feet away from us. It was like having Rex bring the play to our living room!

For me, everything worked. I even got a kick out of the ice cold looks Libby (Kristelle Monterrosa) would give her fellow “stage crew” while moving set pieces for scene changes.

All to soon Sue and I were driving home, talking about our great evening and how much fun we had with Sideways The Play. Check it out at http://ruskingrouptheatre.com/

Good Eating and Table Talk,

Roger

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Lettuce Wrap Meets Marco Polo

Posted on July 17, 2012 by easyrecipesandstuffc

EASY RECIPE

So I was thinking about what my recipe might be this week. I looked through a number of cook books and nothing popped out at me. Finally I saw a picture of a Chinese lettuce wrap and a recipe idea came to me. I had a pound of Whole Foods Italian chicken sausage in the refrigerator, and figured what the heck, lets make a lettuce wrap with sausage. What could go wrong? Nothing! The recipe is easy to make and looks and tastes great!

Recipe serves 4.

Ingredients:

1 lb. Whole Foods hot Italian chicken sausage (or whatever you like)

1 head of iceberg lettuce

3 green onions – side cut into 1/2 inch pieces

4 or 5 water chestnuts – diced

2 cloves garlic – minced

1 Tbsp. pine nuts – chopped

1/2 red bell pepper – thinly sliced and short

2 Tbsp Szechuan sauce

1 Tbsp Hoison sauce

1 1/2 Cups of fine rice

1 Tbsp canola oil ( for wok because Whole Food sausage was very lean)

salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Slice all the vegetables, except the lettuce and red pepper, as described

above.

Prepare rice according to instructions on bag. When rice is 10 minutes from being ready, wash 8 nicely shaped lettuce leaves. Plate one or two lettuce leaves on each plate. Thinly slice the bell red pepper.

Preheat the wok on high heat, add oil, and brown the sausage (casing removed) in the wok taking care to break the sausage into small pieces while it browns. Add the Szechuan and Hoison sauce.

When sausage is browned add the chopped vegetables and stir on high for another 2 minutes.

Spoon rice onto each lettuce leaf, add fried sausage/vegetables, and top with a little red bell pepper.

And that’s all there is to it, you just made a killer easy dinner for family or friends.

AND STUFF

It’s been a tough new age week. First thing that happened was my business domain went down. Blink. Gone. So, I started racking my brains to figure out why. I have very little in the way of tech brain power. So it wan’t long before I called in my IT guy. The server was fine, but there was a gap in the domain link. He suggested maybe it was a problem with the host.

I started racking my brain again. This time there was a spark of awareness. I recalled the notice from an unknown company that wanted money or my site could go done. I had figured it was someone phishing and called my IT people who advised me that my domain name was paid for another year. Well my glee at thwarting the person phishing was short lived and replaced by despair when everything went dark. I called the old host and was advised that the new host was so and so. I called them and sure enough it was the unknown name that had demanded money. Turns out they had been taken over by another company and didn’t send out notice of the name change to the existing customers. The nice person at billing apologised for any inconvenience. And the domain went back up.

All is now well, case closed.

The second problem occurred when our home tv/phone/wireless bundle cost increase hugely. I started interviewing the other providers. And found the best deal with a cable company. I know what your thinking; wait for it.

Anyway, I spent a lovely afternoon with the installer, and at the end of the day all but one tv worked. He thought all the channels on the kitchen tv would pop on shortly – no worries.

Three days later there had been no new channels popping up. So I called for service. Two days later I spent a lovely afternoon and early evening (missing a dinner party in the process) with the repair guy. He decided to tweak the cable here and there. And then he went through 4 cable boxes at the kitchen tv, because for some reason none would provide the full range of channels. At the end of the adventure no new channels were added on the kitchen tv, but he was confident they would pop up in no time.

They didn’t, and as an added value after now, all the tv’s in the house pixelate, and the wireless is as slow as dial up.

So, I called service for more help. Good news they would be right over in 5 days to increase the signal.

Hopefully this is just a little glitch in what will be a long and wonderful business relationship. But for now, I am haunted by the phrase, “you get what you pay for.”

Good Eating and Table Talk,

Roger