Marinated Pork Loin and Hamburgers a la Diana

What a wonderful weekend! Some of my closest friend were in town for different reasons, but we were all able to get together this past weekend for a fabulous beach day and a couple of late night talks. Kita and her three girls were here from Colorado, Joey and her daughter for Portland, Maine and Karima from my old stomping ground, Brooklyn. There is nothing like being with your dearest friends in the world and even though we haven't seen each other in a while it felt like just yesterday we were drinking at Lucky Johnny's or covering up holes in our dorm room walls with posters left over from our butt rocker party. (Maybe I can find a picture of that to post!)

It was a great way to let off some steam too before I had to start digging into my work week this week. It went too quickly. But I did make dinner on Friday and Saturday nights and Kita was requesting I post the recipes so here we go:

On Friday, I grilled pork loin on the grill that I had marinated for several hours in a soy, dry sherry mixture that I found on the Food Network site. I think it turned out really well, but some of our younger guests thought it smelled like alcohol so maybe it would have been best to make something a little simpler for the under 21 in the group. They did eat it though so I am not sure if it tasted better than it smelled or if they were just being polite.

Here is the recipe I used:

2 pound pork loin
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup dry sherry
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil (the original calls for vegetable oil, but I liked the way the olive oil worked out)
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh thyme (the original calls for rosemary, but they didn't have any at the supermarket so I used thyme)
1 tablespoon minced onion (I thought I had the shallot the original recipe called for but it was bad, so I substituted onion and it was fine, but shallot probably would have been better.)1
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger

I patted the pork loin dry and placed it in a gallon zip lock bag. In a medium bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, sherry, honey, vinegar, oil, and juice. Add the thyme, onion, and ginger and mix well. Pour the mixture into the zip lock, covering the pork loin. Marinate for as long as possible but at least two hours.

Preheat the grill. Remove the pork loin from the bag leaving the marinade in the bag. Place them on the grill and cook for about 18 minutes (depending on the size, it could be a little more or a little less. I use a thermometer to make sure it is done properly.) When it is finished, remove from the grill and let stand for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, pour the marinade into a skillet and heat it up to a slow simmer for about 10 minutes.

Slice the pork loin, arrange on a plate and pour the heated marinade over the slices. Yum!

The following night I made hamburgers. Damien is really the best one at making them, but this is how I do it:

Hamburgers a la Diana
3 pounds organic ground beef (after the whole NY Times e. coli article, I'm all about organic ground beef)
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons steak sauce (I used Smith and Wollensky's)
1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs

Put the ground beef in a large bowl. Add the salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, steak sauce and bread crumbs to the beef. Use your hands to mix as well as you can. I don't really measure the ingredients when I do it so these are all approximate. You can use as much or as little of them depending on your taste. The goal is a moist and tasty burger.

Once it is well mixed, make about 10-12 hamburger patties. Preheat the grill to about 450 - 500 degrees. Place the patties straight on the grill and cook for 3 minutes per side for medium (but this of course depends on the thickness of the patties so you can check one to make sure it's cooked properly.)

You can add some cheese to the burgers when they are close to finished and I like to toast french style hamburger rolls from the bakery section that are much better than the usual hamburger buns you get in the bread section.

I also use ground turkey sometimes and they are just as good.

Grilled Grouper Two Ways

After another night in Marathon visiting with our friends Emmett and Lindsay, we were a little behind on things at the homefront. Plus, with Baz walking, there is new meaning to the word exhaustion. He is all over the place. It's freakin' adorable with his little Frankenstein arms stretched out before him for balance, but it requires a new degree of vigilance that my 6 month pregnant body is having trouble keeping up with.

Our new house is close to a great little tot lot that Baz really enjoys so we like to go there to let off some steam in the afternoons. And then on the way home, we frequently stop in at the supermarket to figure out what we'll do for dinner. Last night I picked up some red grouper they had in the case which is funny since Damien is working on a story about how some of these fish are actually banned from being fished. Guess Caribbean red grouper is not one of them, or if it is, hopefully not too many people are reading this from the Fishing and Wildlife Commission. Because it actually was delicious. Grouper is one of my favorites since it has a light flavor but is a meaty enough fish that you can grill it without it falling apart.

I was craving cajun spiced grouper but of course I get home and Damien is like, "Can we not have cajun fish tonight?" Um, fine, but that was my whole point of getting grouper and I was pretty excited about it. He acts like we have cajun fish every other night or something. So, I marinated his piece in a mixture of butter, olive oil, garlic, white wine, salt and pepper. Once Baz was in his crib sleeping soundly -- oh, how glorious after running after him all day -- we fired up the Weber and Damien cooked the mismatched pieces of grouper.

I served it with some steamed broccoli that I seasoned with butter, salt, pepper and some garlic powder. And I also used a frozen bag of brown rice. Not sure if you are aware of this, and I am sure there is some reason this is not as healthy as making browned rice from scratch and I'll probably die because of some unknown preservative in it, but Birds Eye makes cooking up some brown rice so easy. You just put the bag in the microwave for 4 minutes and it comes out perfectly cooked and fluffy unlike the big glob of mushiness I usually get after 45 minutes.

So, check it out -- and please leave me in the dark if there is some reason I am poisoning my family with BPA infused rice or something. Okay?

**Oh, and while I was in Marathon I cooked up a batch of Picadillo for the gang. Some of the guests, including our dear friend Betsy who was also there, asked for the recipe so here is the link from when I blogged about it.

Bratwurst and Kielbasa with Sauerkraut

Today I would be too embarrassed to elaborate too thoroughly on what I made for dinner. I was very busy with a video and getting things organized after being away for a couple of days, okay. Let's just leave it at the baked ham with pineapple I often make and have once blogged about on this site and try not to linger too long on the frozen sweet potatoes I had in my freezer from Thanksgiving and the frozen peas and carrots I usually reserve for a quick Bazzy vegetable. Not a proud culinary moment in the Oliva Cave house. But it was actually pretty tasty. And I did originally make those sweet potatoes. Or was that my mom's Thanksgiving contribution? I don't know. It was too long ago.

And this past weekend was not much better with the exception of the steak and shrimp kebabs we had at our friends Emmett and Lindsay's on Sunday night at their Marathon vacation house. Thank you, Emmett for braving the storm and sticking it out on the BBQ.

But on Saturday, after a beautiful day at the beach -- the first of this season -- Damien and I had a craving for sausage. With our new grill, we have been excited to grill just about anything, but on Saturday night we decided to go with our craving and enjoy some bratwurst and kielbasa.

We grilled them up, added a little bit of sauerkraut and some dijon mustard and voila! A delicious simple meal. We didn't even have room for the potato salad and cole slaw we bought as sides. The only thing I was missing was the ice cold beer Damien was able to enjoy. I didn't really miss alcohol during my last pregnancy, but this time is different. Man, I really would have liked that beer.

I'm hoping to make some progress on my videos this week so I can get back to creating some more memorable meals. But, I can't really complain considering that it feels so great to work. I think it's even been good for Baz. In fact, he started walking. Maybe a little distance from his mom has given him that sense of independence and confidence to take that big step. Go Baz!

Rotini with Spicy Italian Salami

This is week is the first week that I have worked "outside the home" in a long time. I have a corporate client -- yay! -- and I had to video tape a users conference and produce some testimonial videos for their web site. It feels so great to be working a little bit and this kind of job is perfect. While it is serious and professional, it is not incredibly high stress like the Times jobs tend to be sometimes. And really, at the end of the day, it is just nice to go out and talk to people about things other than babies, even if it's about a programming software I know very little about.

Don't get me wrong, I could talk about babies -- my baby -- all day long, everyday. But, sometimes when I work, I am reminded that there is still another side to me and even though it is work, it's rejuvenating. It awakens a side of my brain that doesn't get quite as much exercise these days.

So thank you to Questionmark for a good shoot week and for inspiring me to get back to things like this blog and new recipes.

As for today's recipe, well, I wish I could say I loved this one, but it was just okay. I'm going to share it anyway because I think others might like it more and I think with a few adjustments, it would be better. I got if from a cookbook my sister gave me for Christmas. It's a Curtis Stone cookbook, the hot Aussie who I have often seen flirting with Kathie Lee and Hoda on the Today show. It's very simple and can be made in about 20 minutes. He uses Rigatoni. I used a whole wheat rotini which could have been one of the reasons I didn't think it was so great.

Anyway, here is the recipe, straight from the source - The "Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone - Recipes to Put You in My Favorite Mood" cookbook.

Rigatoni with Spicy Italian Salami, Baby Tomatoes, Olives and Capers
20 cherry tomatoes (I used grape tomatoes and they were the best part)
2 teaspoons plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
8 ounces spicy salami, such as Sopressata Vicentina, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced (I crushed them, of course)
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives
1/4 cup extra fine capers
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (which I thought I had, but didn't so it was not included in my recipe)
8 to 10 ounces rigatoni pasta

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. On a baking sheet, drizzle the tomatoes with 2 teaspoons of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast them in the oven for about 8 minutes or until the skins start to split. Remove them from the oven and let them cool a bit.

Boil a large pot of salted water for the pasta.

While it's coming to a boil, heat up the tablespoon of olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add the salami and cook for 30 seconds on both sides, until light golden in color. Remove from the pan and reserve.

Return the pan to the heat and add the garlic. Saute for a minute and then add the tomatoes and saute for 3 more minutes. Add the wine and simmer for 3 minutes or until the wine has reduced by half. Add the olives and capers and toss gently. Bring the mixture to a simmer and add the salami and parsley.

Meanwhile cook the pasta in the boiling water until al dente. Drain the pasta and then add it to the sauce.

We served it immediately and sprinkled freshly grated parmasean cheese on top. Again, it was fine, but not great. I think next time I will add a little bit of butter at the end. I just felt the sauce was too light and the ingredients didn't really come together the way I had hoped. But, because of that "lightness" I think people who are a little more health conscious might appreciate that. I'm almost 6 months pregnant -- I need richness. Plus, it gave me heartburn.

And I know, I have to try and remember to take pictures. I'm just getting back into the swing of things here....

I'm Back!

After a long hiatus -- sorry about that -- I'm am back at it. I've missed writing on this blog, coming up with new recipes and keeping in touch with all of you who read and comment on it. But, it has been a hectic time and, well, there has been something else on my mind that I wasn't quite ready to talk about in public. Turns out I'm pregnant again -- like 5 and a half months pregnant -- and I just wasn't really read to divulge the info. And with my pregnancy causing a craving that had me eating eggplant parmesean four times I week, I was having a hard time figuring out how to explain that or what to write without coming clean. Not to mention that it is not really any fun to read a blog by someone who is not being totally honest. I mean, what's the point really.

So, there it is. I'm pregnant. And it's a GIRL! I know I am not really supposed to express a preference -- after all, I really do just want a healthy baby, yada yada yada. But, I did sort of want a girl to balance out the Oliva Cave household. I mean, a boy would be great too. A little buddy for Baz. A house full of boys and boy stuff. Stuff I already have. But, a little girl will be so much fun, too.

It's sort of hard switching gears though. I've figured out how to be a mom to a boy. Will it be different with a girl? Should it be different with a girl? It's not just about buying stuff for her -- and no she will not only wear pink stuff. But, will she be as tough as Baz? As loud? As active? Will we do the same things?

Anyway, I'm excited and relieved to get it off my chest. And now I am no longer craving just eggplant parmesean so I'll start making some good food again. In fact, we've already started.

We recently moved to a great new house in Surfside, FL where we have a backyard and, therefore, a grill!! It is heaven. We use the thing at least 3 or 4 times a week and everything really does seem to taste better when grilled -- especially steak! Plus the new house has a gas stove and oven which has made huge difference in the quality of my cooking. It's amazing. Those Miami Beach apartment might have nice-looking kitchens, but I don't think they ever expected people to actually cook in them.

So, I'll have new recipes shortly. Tonight I am not sure what I am making yet. I am going to go to the store to buy some groceries later in the day and I thought I'd see if there is some fish that I can sprinkle some cajun spices on and grill. We shall see.

In the meantime, it's nice to be back.