Wine

Grilled Pork Roast with Port/Vidalia/Fig Sauce

Grilled Pork Roast with Port/Vidalia/Fig Sauce
Serves 4

Recipe for the sauce:
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 large Vidalia onion, sliced thinly, then quartered
1 tablespoon flour (any type)
1 cup port wine
4 figs, stems removed and halved

  1. Preheat a non-stick skillet over med-high heat.
  2. Add the coconut oil. (You can use any type of oil, but caramelized onions made with coconut oil creates a delicious flavor combination.)
  3. When the oil begins to shimmer, add the onion, and turn heat down to medium. Season the onions with a bit of black pepper. 
  4. Let the onions slowly caramelize. This will take 20-25 minutes. Don’t rush it. Cooking them fast will fry them crispy. The idea here is to make them convert their sugars into caramel and break down all the cell stucture. They will end up incredibly fragrant and soft.
  5. When the onions are fully caramelized, sprinkle the flour over them and stir to combine.
  6. Increase the heat to medium-high.
  7. Slowly pour the port into the onions, whisking constantly.
  8. When the sauce coats the back of a spoon, lay the figs in the sauce and let them get warm. 
  9. Serve over sliced pork.
Fig season is relatively short. Enjoy them while you can find them.

Nutritional data for 2 tablespoons sauce and 2 fig halves.:
Calories:        133
Fat:                3.7g
Sat fat:           3.1g
Chol:                0g
Sodium:     4.5mg
Carbs:         14.9g
Fiber:            2.1g
Protein:         0.9g

Tips for roasting a pork half loin on a grill:
When cooking a pork half loin on the grill, I like to season it with something good, like Penzey’s Bavarian Style seasoning.

I also do not place the roast directly on the grate, but I also do not use a pan. I want the heat to directly roast the meat, without it sticking to the grill. My solution is to take a handful of herbs from my garden (usually a few rosemary branches and make some basil boughs) and place those on the grill, and then the roast on top. The herbs will mostly burn (eventually) but they will infuse the meat with their gentle flavors.

You may be wondering what is sticking out of the top of the roast. That is my secret weapon for grilling food that is fully cooked, but still moist. That is a Taylor Digital Cooking Thermometer/Timer. You set the desired tempurature of doneness (145F for pork roasts), and then you can let it go. It has an alarm that sounds when the temp is reached.

When your roast hits 145F, remove it from the grill, tent it with some aluminum foil and let it rest for 5-10 minutes before cutting it.

That knife you see is a very nice knife, an 8 inch chef’s knife, that I bought at IKEA. You can get a similar knife from Amazon. The patterns in the blade is called Damascus steel, and is made be repeated heating in forge, hammering flat, folding over and then repeating if many times. There are master knifemakers who still make them in that method, each knife taking more than a day to craft. Those knives sell for $200-400 per INCH of blade! I paid less than $50 for mine, and the knife that I show you in the Amazon link is $111.00. A Damascus blade tends to keep it’s edge longer, and I just love mine.

My dream is to own one of those handmade works of kitchen cutlery art. It will happen!

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Note: the links to Amazon are an affiliate links. That means if you click on those and buy one something, I will receive a small commission. It does not change your cost at all, but it will help me continue to provide recipes and advice here and in my podcast Make Your Someday Today. 

Marsala-Poached Figs

Fresh Figs, Poached in Marsala
Serve 6

1/2 cup sweet Marsala
1 cinnamon stick
3 black peppercorns
1 tablespoon honey
6 Figs, stems removed and halved
Walnut halves for garnish

  1. Combine first four ingredients in a medium saucepan. 
  2. Bring to a boil. Cook 7 minutes or until syrupy. 
  3. Add figs. Cook another minute, or until thoroughly heated.

Nutritional data (2 fig halves and approximately 1 tablespoon sauce)
Calories:           64
Fat:                 0.2g
Sat fat:              0g
Chol:             0mg
Sodium:      1.4mg
Carbs:             13g
Fiber:             1.5g
Protein:          0.4g

Don’t forget to listen to my podcast, Make Your Someday Today! It is a motivational podcast, featuring interviews with musicians, athletes, artists, entrepreneurs and weight loss success stories from around the world. I also answer listener questions, and beginning with Episode 49, I give my “Recipe of the Week!”

If you go to the website http://makeyoursomedaytoday.com/ and click on the yellow VARSITY SQUAD button, you can join the Varsity Squad of listeners, who receive advance notice and huge discounts on future events and products.

Pan Seared Chicken, Roasted with Cherry Tomatoes and Olives


Pan Seared Chicken, Roasted with Cherry Tomatoes and Olives
Serves 6

1 tablespoon olive oil
6 chicken thighs, skin-on, but excess trimmed
2-4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/4 onion, diced
1-2 pounds cherry (or grape) tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup Kalamata olives, halved
1/4 cup green olives, halved. (I used Mezzetta Garlic Stuffed Olives)
Herbs of your choice (I used Penzey’s Tuscan Sunset.)
2 ounces Marsala wine (optional)

Preheat oven to 450F.
Using a 12 inch, oven-safe skillet, preheat over medium high. Add the oil.
Season the chicken, both sides, with your spices, and salt/pepper if desired.
When the oil begins to shimmer, carefully lay the chicken in the skillet, skin-side down. Let the the skin get browned. Do not turn them, or even move them to get the best results. This will take 6-7 minutes.
While the chicken thighs sear and brown, slice the garlic, dice the onion, and halve the tomatoes and olives.
After 6-7 minutes, remove the chicken to a plate and set aside.

With all cooking juices still in the skillet, add the garlic and onion, then the tomatoes and olives.

Carefully return the chicken to skillet, skin side up.

Pour the wine into the skillet (if you are using this.)
Place skillet in oven, uncovered, for 30 minutes, or when the internal temperature of the chicken is 165F.
Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Nutritional data for one thigh and 1/6 of the tomato/olives:
Calories:          286
Fat:                 11.8g
Sat fat:              1.5g
Chol:               65mg
Sodium:     356.2mg
Carbs:             22.3g
Fiber:                2.9g
Protein:             26g

You could certainly serve this on a pasta, such as angel hair or linguini.

Don’t forget to listen to my podcast, Make Your Someday Today! It is a motivational podcast, featuring interviews with musicians, athletes, artists, entrepreneurs and weight loss success stories from around the world. I also answer listener questions, and beginning with Episode 49, I give my “Recipe of the Week!”

A Relaxing Weekend

Just a quick update. I am halfway through the first semester, and so far my students are all successful! It has been a very busy two months, but life is good.

Life is very good.

On Saturday, my wife and I went to a fantastic little place, The Bottle Room, a craft beer and wine bar. In addition to very nice food menu, they offer an astounding collection of craft beers from around the country as well as excellent imports. We both ordered warm sandwiches, but the real reason for the stop was the beverages. Tammy enjoyed a four wine sample flight, and I had sample flight of three single malt Scotches, with about 20ml poured for each.

From right to left, the Oban 14yr was the lightest. A lot of honey in the nose, with some grassy flavor with hints of citrus fruits. It was good, and I had been very curious about trying a bottle of it, but now I know that I won’t bother with it.

The Highland Park 12yr was very nice with smoke in the nose and the flavor. There was definite pear flavors and it was much less sweet than the Oban. it was good, and I would consider buying it.

The youngest of the flight, the Laphroaig 10yr was like being hit in the face with a bale of smoked peat wrapped with fresh seaweed. It had a powerful smokey flavor with a medicinal character (in the brewer-speak of a beer judge, it was “powerfully phenolic” and also a distinct saltiness. It was bold. It was really “in your face.” And I will buy that again, because that was incredible!

Sunday morning was a relaxing day. I decided to make Baked Egg with Feta and Spinach. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any feta cheese, but I did have some crumbled bleu cheese, so I subbed out the Greek feta for some American bleu.

And discovered that bleu is too pungent for this recipe. The flavor overwhelmed everything else, even only using two tablespoons (1 ounce/28g) for a batch of four eggs.

Oh, well. It was a learning experience. Not everything will always go perfectly, and that is okay. If you never try, you won’t learn and grow. As for the remaining eggs, we threw them out. In our world, if the food is not “worth the calories (or points)” then we simply won’t eat it. We eat well because we only eat food that is good enough to justify expending my food budget calories.

And the next two times we go to the Bottle Room (and we will go again) I am going to try the Scotch Top Flight (Glanmorangie 12 yr, Lavagulin 16 yr and Glenlivet 18 yr), and the Bourbon Flight (Buffalo Trace, Angel’s Envy and Booker’s.)

Question for everyone: Of the various liquors I mentioned, which have you tried, and which is your favorite? Let me know below.

Coq Au Vin

Coq Au Vin
Serves 8 (average 6 ounce portion by weight)

Meals like this are great for cool days, or when you need to feed many people on a budget. It is fast, simple (with a few easy steps) and is a healthy choice. On my podcast, Make Your Someday Today, a common topic regarding health and weight loss is finding meals that taste incredible and are still easy to fit into a calorie budget. This recipe works!

Special equipment: Pressure Cooker

1 chicken (4-5 pounds), cut into 10 pieces (remove the wings from the breast, Cut the breasts in half, separate the drumsticks from the thighs.)
Flour, for dusting the chicken pieces
1 tablespoons cooking oil (canola or olive)
3 strips of bacon, minced
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, mashed and minced
2 ribs celery, diced
1 large (3″) potato, peeled and diced
6 ounces baby carrots, cut in half lengthwise
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup dry red wine
4 ounces fresh mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
Salt and pepper as needed

  1. Dust the chicken parts with flour. 
  2. In the pressure cooker, add canola oil and heat the oil until very hot and brown the chicken pieces. 
  3. Remove the chicken to a warm platter. 
  4. Add to the pressure cooker the bacon, onion, garlic, carrot, celery and potatoe, and saute until the onion is wilted. 
  5. Carefully whisk in the 1 tablespoon of flour, then gradually add the wine and stir until thickened and smooth. 
  6. Add the thyme, parsley, bay leaf, salt and pepper, then return the chicken to the pressure cooker.
  7. Lock the lid in place and bring to pressure, then lower heat and cook for 8 minutes under pressure. 
  8. Allow pressure to drop by the naturally and remove the lid. 
  9. Add the mushrooms and simmer, uncovered, 3 minutes.  Discard the bay leaf.

Nutritional data (for 6 ounces of chicken, average of white and dark):
Calories:     434
Fat:           25.8g
Sat fat:        7.4g
Chol:         137mg
Sodium:     285mg
Carbs:       14.5g
Fiber:          2.1g
Protein:     31.7g

Optional: if you want this creamy, stir in 1/2 cup (5 ounces by weight) plain Greek Yogurt when you add the mushrooms and heat through.

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My podcast, Make Your Someday Today is a twice-weekly show, where we talk to successful people in all walks of life and around the world on Monday, and then on Thursday, I take a specific message from the previous guest and give my “Trevitorial”, where I help you apply that message to your life. The entire purpose of the show is to help all of us overcome our challenges and fears and become the person we want to be, the person we deserve to be. I hope you give it a listen! 

Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup

Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup
Serve 4
2 ounces (dry) mushroom blend. I used a blend of porcini, shiitake, oyster and black mushrooms.
8 ounces fresh white button mushrooms, sliced
1/2 Vidalia onions, diced
2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
3 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
1/2 cup white wine
Salt and pepper to taste

  1. Rehydrate mushrooms with one quart boiling water. Let set for 30 minutes or more.
  2. In a 2-3 quart non-stick sauce pan, preheat over medium-high heat. Add 1 teaspoon oil.
  3. Place onions in pan. Cook until beginning to get translucent.
  4. Add garlic. Cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat.
  5. In the same pan, add remaining oil.
  6. Add white button mushrooms.  Cook until they are beginning to get soft.
  7. Drain rehydrated mushrooms. SAVE THE JUICE! Squeeze the mushrooms to get them as dry as possible. Add to button mushrooms.
  8. Cook mushrooms until they are about half their volume (10 minutes).
  9. Return onions to mushrooms.
  10. Measure and add mushroom water to pan. (There should be about 2 cups)
  11. Add wine.  Season with salt and pepper.
  12. Bring to a boil.
  13. While the broth returns to a boil, make the roux.
  14. When the broth boils, stir in the roux. Simmer until the desired thickness.

Roux:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 cup skim milk

  1. Melt butter in a small sauce pan. Remove from heat.
  2. Stir in flour to make a paste.
  3. Add Greek yogurt, stir until well mixed.
  4. Add milk. Stir until smooth. Return to heat over low-medium, just to get it warm.

Nutritional data:
Calories:         253
Fat:               14.4g   
Sat fat:               7g
Chol:               28mg
Sodium:           46mg
Carbs:           18.5g
Fiber:              2.8g
Protein:         10.1g