Chocolate Cream Pie

Yeah, dinner was an amazing grilled pork tenderloin which I should write about. But we are doing dessert first tonight. It was that good!

I had a small portion of pate brise in the freezer. I blind baked the crust and then I did something I have never done before. I made chocolate pudding from scratch. I am so sorry for all the times I used the mix. This was so damn easy and honestly so damn good. I found the recipe on the Cooking Light site. I made 1/2 the recipe because heaven forbids I have leftover pudding, rookie mistake. This was such a treat. I made sure I did not over eat at dinner so I could have the pie. Really good planning. Here is the link for the pie filling. Please never use those little boxes of pudding mix again.

Now about Grilled Pork Tenderloin. It was so tender and flavorful. I put the tenderloin in a brine of 2 tbsp sugar and 2 tbsp salt with water for about an hour. I rinsed and dried it. I made a Rosemary Orange glaze from FineCooking.com. On the FineCooking site, they gave directions for grilling the tenderloin. 7-6-5. 7 minutes on the first side. 6 minutes on the second side. And 5 minutes with the grill off and the cover down. Not bad! But I would change it to 8-7-6. Just scared of raw pork! Long story....

Almost forgot the Green Bean Salad. My Mom's recipe. Olive oil, red wine vinegar, oregano, salt and pepper. Simple and delicious.

Vacation Day Nine - Grilled Pork Tenderloin and Running Out of Days!

Egads! This blissful week is almost over. I love my job but I so enjoyed not doing my job for a week. It has been relaxing. Mid afternoon I could curl up on the couch with a book! Amazing! Well, there is still tomorrow.

Tonight we had Grilled Pork Tenderloin and our House Potato Salad. I was reading on Fine Cooking how to grill the perfect pork tenderloin. I followed their procedure with excellent results.

I put the tenderloin in a brine of 1/4 cup salt and a 1/4 cup sugar, and 2 cups of water for 45 minutes. I rinsed the meat and blotted it dry. I had made a glaze of 2 tbsp. blood orange juice and 2 tsp. fresh minced rosemary mixed with 1tsp of brown sugar. The glaze was heated to and reduced to 1/2. That was brushed over the dried tenderloin. Crushed black pepper was sprinkled over the meat before it went on the grill.

It was grilled for 7 minutes and then turned and grilled for 6 minutes. The heat was turned off and the meat sat on the covered grill for 5 minutes. After removing the meat from the grill it rested for 5 minutes. We think it could have come off the grill in less than 5 minutes.

The result was a super tender and flavorful pork tenderloin.