Perfect Grilled Pork

Friday night, believe it or not, I did not make pizza.  I know!  Well, I already had frozen pizza earlier in the week, and I had a pork loin in the freezer and decided to make that on the grill.  Pork is one of my favorite meats to grill.  Because the loin doesn’t have a lot of fat on it, I cook the pork on indirect heat.   Some of you may be asking, “what the hell is indirect heat?”

That picture shows indirect heat.  Coals on one side, and nothing on the other.  I put the meat on the side opposite the coals, then finish it off over the hot coals to get some grill marks and char.  I didn’t get good grill marks though, because I didn’t realize I didn’t have the grill grate on right, and when I went to check on the pork 15 minutes in, my loin and rolled down to one side.  No worries – it still tasted delicious!  A meat thermometer is your best friend when grilling.  I cooked my pork until 160, then wrapped it in heavy duty foil for 30 minutes before serving.  It was tender, juicy and delicious.  I used Plochman’s angry mustard and Penzey’s 33rd & Galena Street seasoning.

Just rubbed that altogether and it was delicious!

Since I work on Saturday’s and Sunday’s now, Monday and Tuesday feel like the weekend for me.  Saturday I sweat my butt off at the farmers market – it was in the 90’s and the traffic was pretty slow because of the weather, even though it was a sun shiny day.  Up at the crack of dawn both days, but I do enjoy seeing the sun rise.

I packed my lunch bag both days, but on my way home from work on Saturday, all I had a taste for was a good hot dog.  My go to Chicago style hot dog only has mustard and sport peppers – best combo evah!

That pretty much spoiled my appetite for dinner, and I ended up eating cheese and crackers later.  Usually when I don’t cook, the kidults will opt for something easy – like going to Portillo’s or China House.  So I was pleasantly surprised that they got their grill pants on!  One of Jacob’s favorites is beef ribs, but I couldn’t find any at the two grocery stores I went to, so these flanken ribs, aka thin cut beef short ribs, that are cut across the bone, so that there are small ovals of bone in each rib.  Just garlic salt and fresh lime juice is all you need, and because they are so thin, they only take about 4-5 minutes per side.  I did have a bit of one, and they were delicious!

Sunday, however, was glorious.  70 degrees and we were so busy at the market in Frankfort that we sold out by 11:30 – and the market runs until 2:00 and you have to stay until the end.  We ended up cooking up frozen soups just for people to sample something.   The time did go by fast though – even though I left the house at 5:00 a.m. and didn’t get home until 4:00 p.m. yesterday.  The kidults ended up making smoothies for dinner because they weren’t that hungry, so I went to the fridge and put my leftover pants on.  I still had plenty of pork left from Friday night, so I sliced 3 ounces of that and heated up a tablespoon of Stubb’s Anytime Sriracha sauce and chopped red cabbage and put that on a low calorie 2 point bun.  Then since I had leftover baked potatoes, made 3 ounces of parsley sea salt fries on the side.  This delicious plate was only 10 smart points, and it was ready in less than 10 minutes.

Shelley, you’ll be happy to see that this snapchat collage isn’t too scary!  I put the picture of me on the left on Instagram yesterday, and when I looked at my phone, my sister had sent the same picture to me.  She and my niece had a tea with my Mom yesterday at her club, and she took that picture too – just cracks me up looking at it!

Sometimes, you just have to laugh a little.  With all the crazy shit going on in the world, the Orlando shooting.  I can’t wrap my brain around why people do the things they do.  My best friend in collage was gay, and even though it was the 80’s, his roommates bullied him really bad, which is why he basically moved into my dorm after the first few weeks of school.   He ended up committing suicide when we were 32.  He called me at work and said he was coming to Chicago and wanted to meet up.  I hadn’t seen him in a few years and was excited to see him.  He told me he would call me when he got into town and we’d go from there.  He lived in central Illinois and I waited for him to call and he never did call.   I had an old phone number for him, and his parents had moved and I had no way of getting in touch with him.  My sister and I found out a year later that on the drive up to Chicago, he stopped at a park half way, and hung himself.  By then Jenn and I had moved from our two-flat, and we were both married and his parents had no way of getting a hold of us either.  It’s just so sad.

Today I am just going to try to focus on happy things.  The beautiful weather, having lunch with my Mom, Hannah and Jacob.  And just find happiness in being alive!  Make it a great day!