Make Stuffed Iowa Pork Loin With Us!
We got a new grill and have been trying out all kinds of new recipes and brushing up old favorites around here!
Let me tell you, Pit Boss is the ultimate grill, and we are in love!
We got the Sportsman 1230 Wood Pellet Gas Grill combo. This beauty can smoke, bake, braise, roast, grill, barbecue, char-grill and sear, all in one machine!
So, on to one of our favorite family recipes!
Stuffed Iowa Pork Loin
Ingredients
Vegetables
• 2 tablespoons olive oil (extra virgin)
• 1 small onion (or half of a large onion – chopped in small pieces)
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 4 garlic cloves (crushed)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 6 mushrooms (baby portobello – chopped small)
• 2 cups baby spinach (chopped medium/small)
Pork and layering the filling
• 3.25 pounds pork loin (blot dry with paper towels)
• 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
• 1/2 cup crumbled bacon or bits
• 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/4 large apple (chopped small)
• Meat seasoning or rub (we use Rufus Teague)
Instructions
• As you cook the onion, use that time to chop the other vegetables to save time.
• Heat a large sauté pan on medium heat, add olive oil, then add chopped onion and sauté for 7 minutes or until translucent. Stirring occasionally.
• Add salt, pepper, crushed garlic, stir and cook for 1 minute.
• Add mushrooms, stir and cook for 2 minutes.
• Add chopped spinach, stir and cook for 1 minute or until the spinach wilts. Set aside.
• Preheat smoker to 250 degrees.
• Butterfly the meat
• Spread the mustard evenly on the pork.
• Sprinkle on the shredded cheese, bacon and apple chunks.
• Spread on the vegetable mixture.
• Refold pork and sprinkle with grill seasoning or rub.
• Place the pork on the grill, add the meat thermometer, and smoke for roughly 3 hours or until inside temp reaches 145 degrees.
Viola!
We love ours with grilled sweat potato wedges!
Let me know what you think of the recipe!
And if you have any questions on the grill, ask away!
XO,
Jess
Fire Pit Finished
I picked up a few bricks yesterday and we finally got to work on finishing the fire pit. Yes, we are short by exactly one brick (not a bad guess!), but that will be taken care of next weekend. The bottom two layers which we laid a while back were now settled in mud and ash since we have been using the unfinished pit. After much digging and playing the mud we finally had them all arranged and neatly packed in. We cleaned out the bottom and laid a few rocks. What a difference! And, grass is poking up where we put grass seed already! We were so excited! Maybe there will already be some green out there in time for the party! I’m hoping it is strong enough be then so we don’t crush it all!
Yes, one quite obvious brick is missing! 😉
And here is the new chairs and table that we picked up over the weekend. They will be getting a special paint treatment…soon!
At first I was disappointed to not have found two of these style chairs that match, but we now think it will be fun to do them indifferent colors and embrace the uniqueness! (Plus, I couldn’t beat the price we found these for!)
Overall, it was a very productive and fun weekend. And, our softball team won our first game!
Our Backyard
Our yard is a mess. The landlord kept it full of leaves, twigs, branches, logs, compost piles and even garbage. We are tearing all of this up. Slowly but surely we are cleaning up the mess we inherited, and making a pretty, and useful yard. So, over the weekend we plugged away at the daunting yard. We have, of course, started by picking up and disposing of his garbage and old broken items. The other items such as old pots, tools , and yard items were collected and stored neatly away in the already packed shed. Here was where the real fun began. We had already started to rake and remove the massive amounts of leaves from the back yard, but so much more remained.
This weekend is when we started working on a fire pit. This way, once this chore is finished, we can move onto the chore of burning the branches and debris that remain. Tony dug a very nice, large, circular hole, and we started with placing the first ring of bricks. We then layered the bottom with rock (the landlord also had much random rock to be picked up from the middle of the yard!). The pit is unfinished, but looking gorgeous already! Here are some pictures:
Here is some of the mess left in our yard.
Here is a bit more of the mess. We are removing all of the compost, which is those lumps, and the twiggy looking trees are going to be moved from the clump he planted them in.
Here's the start of the fire pit. This project is going to be a fun one for the summer!
Make Mine Eclectic 