BBQ Pork Tenderloin

Wow. This was delicious. And you will want more than you think. The four of us went through 2 whole tenderloins. It was ridiculous.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup soy sauce
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 Tablespoon Cumin
• 2 pork tenderloins

Directions:

1. Mix together soy sauce, garlic, and brown sugar
2. Place tenderloins into a ziploc bag along with marinade ingredients for 45 minutes (we let it marinade for 1.5 hours).
3. Get grill to medium high heat
4. Place tenderloins on grill, directly over heat, cover grill
5. Turn meat every 5 minutes or so, until all sides have nice grill marks and the meat starts to firm up. Cut in the middle of the tenderloin to check for doneness. If you think the pork is on the edge of being done/raw, take pork off grill and let it sit uncut for 5-10 minutes. The pork will continue to cook without getting dried out
6. Slice, and mailman to finish

A four-way mailman sesh for the ages. Be jealous. Be very jealous.

 Happy cooking mailmanning!

Asparagus Bruschetta

This is the perfect light dinner/appetizer for a hangover recovery. Natalie and I were both feeling drained yesterday, so we made this quickly to get us over the hump.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb asparagus
• 1.5-2 large tomatoes, sliced
• Olive Oil
• Basalmic Vinegar
• Parmesan Cheese
• Salt
• Pepper
• Basil (julienne or dried both work fine)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400º F
2. Place asparagus on a baking sheet dowse with olive oil, salt, pepper, and Parmesan
3. Place asparagus in oven for 10 minutes
4. Once asparagus is done, mix tomatoes, asparagus, basil, olive oil, balsamic vinegar (OO:BV should be 1:1)
5. Season with salt and freshly cracked black pepper
6. Serve over toasted bread and fresh mozzerella, triscuits, or by itself as a salad

If salad tasted more like this, I'd eat it every day

Happy cooking mailmanning!

Chicken Tikka Masala

Did everyone decide to stop cooking or something? Let's keep it rolling.

Ok so for today, I made a delicious concoction using one of those pre-made sauce packages. You can buy these in any grocery store in the ethnic food aisle (or if you're a baller, you can make your own). However, these sauces can be improved tremendously with a few little additions to make them really delicious. As such, they are highly customizable. I'll list the ingredients that I used, but using your favorite ingredients is what will really make this dish come together. Also this can be easily made vegetarian and still is delicious.

Ingredients:

• 1 Tikka Masala sauce package
• 1-1.5 lbs chicken
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 1/2 jalapeño, diced
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 1 cup baby spinach leaves
• 1 can (14.5 oz) garbanzo beans/chick peas
• 1 bay leaf
• Curry powder (cumin with a little paprika is a good substitute for curry powder, or garam masala if you have it), salt, pepper, hot sauce to taste

Directions

1. In a cast iron skillet (aka best invention ever), sauté onions until tender in a liberal amount of olive oil
2. Once onions are tender, sear chicken on both sides for ~3-5 minutes per side, depending on the temperature of your skillet
3. While chicken is cooking, add diced jalapeños to the skillet
4. After both sides have been seared, add sauce, 1/2 cup water, tomatoes, chick peas, spinach, bay leaf, simmer for 20 minutes
5. While simmering, use tongs (or utensil of choice) to shred chicken
6. Add curry powder, salt, pepper to taste
7. Serve over Basmati rice
8. Enjoy, gorge, repeat as necessary

The key to this dish is having lots of different textures. The spinach, chick peas, and chicken totally make this an adventure in your mouth.

Even with a cold, the Chicken Tikka Masala was flavorful enough to taste, and cleared up my sinuses nicely. A really great meal.

Happy cooking mailmanning!

BBQ Asparagus

The asparagus came in early this year, so Natalie and I have been cooking lots of it. This little masterpiece was modified from the oven to fit the ol' Weber and came out delicious.

Ingredients

• 1 lb Nice, thick asparagus
• Olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 1/4 teaspoon Pepper
• Parmesan Cheese

Directions:

• Light coals, allow to get nice and hot
• Make a foil tray and place asparagus (ends chopped off) into tray
• Liberally drizzle with olive oil (use lots of it!)
• Season with salt, pepper, and Parmesan cheese
• Place on grill, but not directly over heat, give some space
• Cover grill, cook for 10-15 minutes until thickest asparagus are tender
• Serve, gorge, repeat as necessary

We ate this so fast this was the only picture I was able to take of it :)

Happy cooking mailmanning!

Buffalo Chicken Burgers

So this is a new recipe that I just tried last night and it turned out pretty delicious!  It was also really quick and easy, so a good weeknight meal.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup grated onion
• 1/2 cup grated carrots
• 2-3 cloves garlic, grated (or chopped if you have that pre-chopped kind)
• 1 lb. ground chicken (or ground turkey would work)
• 1/3 cup bread crumbs (seasoned or unseasoned, or panko if you want)
• 1/4 cup Frank's Hot Sauce + extra for topping
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup blue cheese (if desired -- Joe doesn't like it so I left it out in a few)
• 4 buns / rolls
• Toppings: chopped carrot / celery / onion, ranch or blue cheese, extra Frank's

Instructions:
1. Grate your veggies if needed
2. In a bowl, mix grated veggies/garlic, chicken, bread crumbs, spices, and blue cheese until well combined
3. Cook on a hot griddle or grill ~6 minutes per side (will totally depend on the grill or stove you use, but that's about what mine was) -- make sure they are cooked through until all the way white
4. Put on bun, top with assorted toppings (see ideas above), mailman!

Delish!  I added a bit of blue cheese dressing and some carrots / onions...