Grilled Mustard-Glazed Pork Loin

This is my new favorite marinade ever!!  It is a recipe from America's Test Kitchen, so you know it's gotta be awesome because they test it so many times.  Two surefire ways to dress up a pork roast are to give it a flavorful, deeply caramelized crust on the grill and serve it with a savory-sweet mustard glaze. This Grilled Mustard-Glazed Pork Loin recipe has the [ best of both worlds ]. Leaving the boneless pork loin roast untrimmed added moisture and flavor—and scoring the fat kept it from tasting too fatty. For the mustard glaze, apple jelly was a perfect complement to the spicy crunch of grainy mustard, and both married well with the other glaze ingredients—brown sugar, garlic, and fresh thyme. To fully infuse the Grilled Mustard-Glazed Pork Loin with mustard flavor, the glaze is applied before, during, and after grilling.  This is incredibly delicious thinly sliced on a sandwich the next day, with some thinly sliced apple and a little spread of apple butter. I can't wait to use this marinade for chicken, too!

Serves 6 to 8

Dijon and yellow mustards also work well in the glaze, but make certain to use apple jelly (which is translucent), not apple butter (which is opaque). Look for a pork roast with about 1/4 inch of fat on top and tie the roast at 1-inch intervals to ensure an even shape. Keep a squirt bottle of water on hand during browning to quell any flare-ups.

Ingredients:

• • 1/2cup grainy mustard
  • 6tablespoons apple jelly
  • 2tablespoons dark brown sugar (light is fine too)
  • 2tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1garlic clove, minced
  • 2teaspoons minced fresh thyme leaves
  • 1/2teaspoon salt
  • 3/4teaspoon pepper
  • 1boneless pork loin roast (2 1/2 to 3 pounds), fat on top scored lightly and tied (see note)

• 1. Open bottom vent on grill. Light large chimney starter filled with charcoal briquettes (about 100 coals) and burn until covered with fine gray ash. Pour coals evenly over one half of grill. Set cooking grate in place, cover, open lid vent completely, and let grill heat for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk mustard, jelly, sugar, oil, garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper in medium bowl. Reserve one-third of mustard mixture for serving. Coat meat completely with half of remaining mustard mixture.
• 2. Scrape and oil cooking grate. Grill pork directly over coals until well browned all over, 12 to 15 minutes. Place pork fat-side up on cooler side of grill and brush with about one-third of remaining mustard mixture. Cover, open lid vents completely, and cook, brushing with mustard mixture every 10 minutes, until meat registers 140 degrees, 25 to 40 minutes.
• 3. Transfer pork to cutting board, tent with foil, and let rest 15 minutes (temperature should rise to 150 degrees). Pour accumulated juices into reserved mustard mixture and whisk to combine. Cut roast into 1/4-inch slices, transfer to platter, and spoon mustard mixture over top.  Serve.

Microwave Nutella Muffin

Happy National Chocolate Cake Day!!!

I know there are many of you out there who have sudden chocolate cravings.  Yeah...that's me pretty much every hour(;  But sometimes they're not just chocolate cravings, they're Nutella cravings.  Even though I eat it by the spoonful, straight from the jar all the time, I wanted to have something a little more creative...but I was too lazy to make something that would have to bake for a while.  Then I remembered I saved a recipe from the blog of Go Bake Yourself called "Less Than Two Minute Nutella Muffin" (here).  So I decided to whip it up.  I didn't think it would taste very good...I mean really, a two minute muffin made in the microwave?  This recipe doesn't even have butter!  How could it possibly taste good?  But when I opened the microwave door after just 30 seconds, the first thing I saw was that it got HUGE!!!  I seriously freaked out when I saw it.  I don't understand how batter could blow up so much and bake into a perfectly fat muffin in just 30 seconds.  But it did.  And then I tasted it...and I was even more shocked, because it tasted sooo incredible!  It was a perfectly cooked, fluffy, cakey, chocolate muffin with an even layer of nutella through the middle.  The nutella made the muffin taste so fudgey and delicious!  It didn't really satisfy my chocolate-nutella craving though...all it did was make me want another one(:

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbs + 1 tsp milk
• 1/2 tbs cocoa powder
• 1 tbs dark brown sugar
• 1 heaping tbs Nutella

Instructions:

1. Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl except for Nutella
2. Line a small, glass, microwaveable bowl with a muffin/cupcake liner (if you don’t have a liner, it's okay - it will spread sideways like a cookie!)
3. Place half the batter into the liner
4. Place the tablespoon of Nutella in the center of the batter (this is where you can also add in some crushed nuts, chocolate chips, marshmallows, etc.)
5. Pour over the second half of the batter, making sure Nutella (and add-ins) is completely covered.
6. Microwave for approximately 30 seconds on high (or until a knife inserted comes out clean...not including the nutella).
7. Let cool for at least 3 minutes, and serve.