Intro: Welcome. Welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: What’s up everybody. Happy July. Oh my gosh. We just had 4th of July and this summer is flying by. I was looking at a calendar the other day and I think by the time the end of the swim team goes by and we have one more vacation, school starts in like a week and a half. So if you’re listening to this real time, I am hanging on to summer with every muscle in my body. 

I had my alarm go off the other morning to wake up at 7:30 or whatever time, 7:30, 8 o’clock. Then I thought, you know what? I’m going to go back to sleep because in just a couple weeks, I’m going to have to get up every day anyway. So I slept in and it was wonderful. 

Today on the podcast, we’re doing something just a little bit different. Normally I go over a full recipe and we talk about how to make it, the ingredients, tips and tricks, but this time I’m going to go over one of my most popular recipes. Nope, it’s not a recipe. One of my most popular posts that’s on my website, Mom’s Dinner. It is a post for 30 plus meals that are easy to make for large groups that go on vacation together. I consider myself a pro in this area because my family and my extended family have been going on one vacation together Every summer for, I don’t know, maybe 70 years. So this vacation even predates me to when my mom was a little girl. Through all of those years, as our family has grown and we’ve added more cabins, meal planning is Crrrrroosh. I mean, you have got to get the pre meal planning together ahead of time so that you can still enjoy the dinners together and everybody’s not eating in their separate cabins. It’s actually a time to come together and be together. So, I feel like, over the past, I don’t know, I’m like 45 or 46, I forget how old I am. I feel like over the past years of my adulthood and being a part of that menu planning, I have some great tips and tricks to share with you if you are planning a large group vacation.

Group Vacation Recipe Ideas: So we’re just going to go ahead and get right into things. The very first step is that you want to plan ahead. Do not wait until you get on vacation to start planning the meals. You want to plan a couple weeks ahead so that you can make sure everything is the way you want it and everything works for all of the families involved.

You want to plan a meal for each night. What I recommend is that each family plans one night where they’re doing the main entree. So let’s say a meat dish. Then all of the additional families will plan the side dishes to complement that main entree. Going along with that, you want to plan what dinners will be had on each night. So that each family can plan their vacation around the night where they have the most work. 

Now, of course, when you’re planning on your meals, if you are planning to grill any of the nights or cook outside, you want to make sure as the vacation gets closer that you’re checking the weather so that you can make sure you’re grilling outside on a night with no rain.

The next thing you want to do is make sure, if you have never been to this vacation location, you want to make sure that they will have the supplies and tools and grills and ovens and dishes and pans that you need to make the dishes you’re planning. 

If you’re vacationing with your family, this may not be an issue, but if you’re vacationing with some new families or people that you don’t know, you want to make sure that you are double checking any food aversions, food allergies, to make sure that everybody has something to eat each night. You don’t want to plan a pasta and bread night if half of your group is gluten free, right? Or, if you do, make sure you have gluten free pasta and gluten free bread. 

The last plan ahead tip is make sure that you have enough dinners for all of the nights that you’re staying on vacation. But, the last night should be planned as a leftover night. You can even make a game out of it and every family has to see what they can make with the leftovers that they have in their room or cabin or house or wherever you’re staying. So those are all the plan ahead tips. 

Now, here is my other tip for the meals on vacation. I recommend only planning dinner. Don’t plan lunch. Don’t plan breakfast for the group. Because usually on vacation, people are sleeping in. People are doing different activities. They have different likes and desires. Some people eat breakfast. Some people don’t eat breakfast. Some people may have slept in and they’ll eat a really late breakfast and not want lunch. I recommend just planning dinner. Now, that doesn’t mean that you don’t want to make sure that you have some breakfast supplies and lunch supplies. Keep it really simple here. Breakfast supplies to consider, maybe cereal, bagels and cream cheese, packaged muffins, granola bars. Eggs and toast, frozen breakfast sandwiches are really great, or yogurt, fruit, and granola.

Some lunch supplies to consider: maybe some store bought soup or like Panera style soup, grilled cheese, turkey and ham sandwiches, chicken salad sandwiches, chips. Veggies and fruit, ramen noodles, always a favorite, peanut butter and jellies, mac and cheese, frozen chicken nuggets, things like that. 

We are talking about a large group vacation here. We’re talking a lot of people, maybe a lot of families. We talked about this in the beginning, making sure that each family or each person is responsible for one part of the meal. So maybe one family takes the main entree. Two other families take the side dish and another family takes the dessert. Or, if you’re a family that has multiple kids, give the kids some responsibilities.

Say on Tuesday, you’re responsible for getting the chips out. On Wednesday, you need to make a vegetable plate with ranch dip. Some easy things that the kids can do to be involved and still have duties so that it doesn’t all fall on the mom and dad. 

We’re talking about vacation here. Let’s not make everything homemade. Let’s not make our own bread. Let’s not make our own salsa. Let’s talk about keeping your meals semi-homemade. To me, that means making sure that 50% of the meal is something homemade, economical, and 50% of the meal could be purchased ahead of time or maybe even brought from home, made ahead of time.

Some things to think about when you’re thinking about semi-homemade are maybe meat from your favorite barbecue restaurant, dessert from a wonderful bakery, bagged salad can even make it semi homemade. Some side dishes from your grocery store deli, maybe salsa from your favorite Mexican restaurant. Rotisserie chickens are one of my favorite things ever, ever, ever. They’re so versatile and so inexpensive from Costco. Frozen meatballs, that’s another great semi homemade because you can boil the pasta, warm up the sauce, make a really good salad, make some garlic bread, but then you have the frozen meatballs. Again, Costco is a great place to buy your frozen meatballs. 

At the beginning of this episode, we talked about planning a dinner for every night, except the last night. You want to make sure that you plan one leftover night, and I think the last night is always the best night to do a leftover night, because you can clean out the fridge, especially if you flew to vacation. Chances are you are not taking all of the food home with you.

Do a leftover night. Maybe you have leftover veggies from a veggie tray. Cauliflower, broccoli and carrots roast up perfectly and make a wonderful side dish. Maybe you had planned to do a lot of scrambled eggs, but you have a lot left. Make some deviled eggs or make some egg salad. The last night is a great night to make sure that you’re using up all of the food. You can even do a cooking contest and say, everybody brings a dish with your leftovers and then we’ll vote on who has the best leftover makeover. 

Another great way to think about making your meals really, really easy is doing some make ahead meals. Some things that are great, especially if you’re driving to vacation. Some great things to think about that you can carry to vacation in a cooler are soups that can be frozen and then thawed later or large cuts of meat like brisket, pork butt, chuck roast that can be cooked ahead of time and maybe shredded and served as barbecue pork or shredded Italian sandwiches, something like that.

So, let’s talk about a few make ahead meals. Within the make ahead meal category, I have about 12 different menus that include everything you need, including, we’ll just go over one here, an instant pot Italian beef sandwich night. So, if you did something like this, you could even cook that beef ahead of time. You want to make sure you have some crusty rolls. Provolone cheese slices, extra pepperoncinis, a pasta salad with veggies, french fries doctored up with maybe some parmesan cheese and garlic powder, and then a fresh fruit salad. That’s the menu that I have fully written out here on my website, MomsDinner.net. You can come over here and look at all of these different menus. I’ve got a taco night, an Italian meatball night, barbecue beef night, spaghetti and meat sauce night, chili, chicken noodle soup, and a beef ragu with pasta night. 

Now, the next category on this post are super easy dinners. So maybe you have a really busy day where you guys are out doing activities or you’ve been out on a boat all day and you just don’t want to come home and make something super complicated. So some of the meals that I have planned out on here are fish stick tacos. Yes, that’s taking fish sticks and making tacos with it. Sloppy Joe’s, beef enchilada casserole. It’s a super easy version of enchiladas made in a casserole style. A chili dog bar. So making the really quick chili for chili dogs and then putting out maybe some chips, baked beans, store bought macaroni salad, maybe some potato salad and making a really easy dinner that way. A taco bar is also a really great idea. Meatball subs. We talked about those frozen meatballs. This is a great way to use frozen meatballs or baked Cajun salmon. Salmon cooks really fast in the oven. 

Now let’s say you’re on vacation and you have some grills to use and it’s really nice out. You want to get out that grill. Here are some wonderful dinner ideas for your grill night. Hamburgers, pork burgers. Grilled chicken sandwiches, grilled steak tacos. When I say those, those are just the main entrees. I also include all of the side dishes to think about serving with each one of those items. 

Now maybe you have a cold night. Maybe you traveled up north in the summer, or maybe you are traveling for a ski vacation and it’s nice and cold. Here are some wonderful soup dishes to serve for a large group on vacation. An Instant Pot Beef and Barley soup. A Classic Chili, Corn Chowder, an Instant Pot Creamy Potato Soup that is sure good. Or a Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup night.

Again, I’ve got all the side dishes written out here that you can come and check out. There will be a link in the show notes of this episode so that you can check out the full menus. 

If you are traveling in your car, bringing your instant pot is a great idea. to keep dinner nights super simple. So I have a lot of different instant pot menu ideas. Then at the very end of the post, I go over some really easy desserts that you can serve for a crowd, as well as cocktails for a group. So if you guys like to have a few cocktails, there’s some great easy cocktails that you can make for more than two people. 

Like I said, I will link this full post in the show notes for you. So the full post has full menus, not just the main entree. It has full menus and all of the tips and tricks plus more in the actual post. So I will link that for you. You can click through, you can pin it, read the whole thing, print it out, save it for later, share with your family, whatever you’d like to do. 

Outro: So until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your vacation time super easy and super amazing. See ya.

Double Dip: All right. Now it is time for the double dip. Thank you for sticking around, guys. I know this was a little bit of a different episode, but next week we are coming right back into going over recipes and dinner ideas. So next week, if you stick around and listen next week, we are making a Chipotle Chicken Burger, Grilled Chipotle Chicken Burger for dinner.

So let me go over all of the ingredients that you need to cook along with me next week. All right, this Chipotle Chicken Burger, it not only has ingredients for the actual burger that you grill, there’s also ingredients for an Adobo Aioli, which is basically just a flavored mayonnaise. 

So, for the burger, you need flat leaf parsley, one can of chilies in adobo sauce. Garlic cloves, onion powder, kosher powder, black pepper, two tablespoons of milk, two tablespoons of mayonnaise, one slice of white or wheat sandwich bread. One pound of ground chicken, then four to five slices of pepper jack cheese, and nonstick cooking spray.

Of course you’ll need buns and your favorite burger toppings like lettuce, tomato, and red onion. For the Adobo Aioli, you need mayo, sugar. You’ll need that can of chipotle chilies in adobo sauce, you’ll just need one for both the burger and the sauce. Garlic and juice of a lime. 

So I hope you guys will join me then and make that Chipotle Chicken Burger with me for dinner next week on Thursday. So until then, I hope you guys have a wonderful week ahead.

Intro: Welcome, welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Wenrich. 

Susie Weinrich: All right, we are going to start this one with a little disclaimer. I’m probably going to struggle to say this word 400 times through this episode, so I almost feel like I should find another name for these.

We’re making Gochujang Meatballs today at Let’s Make dinner. I’m going to have to pause before I say it every time. We’re going to practice. Gochujang, gochujang, gochujang. You know what? I’m awful. I may even be saying it wrong. I just know that I love this sauce so much. It’s a tangy, chili pepper, slightly sweet and sticky sauce. It is so delicious. You’ve probably seen things with gochujang sauce. Oh, I said it was really good right there, gochujang. Gochujang sauce at restaurants and maybe you’ve seen some of the chili paste, the gochujang chili paste in the stores. For this recipe, we’re actually going to use a gochujang barbecue sauce. You can find it at a few different stores, but the one that we really love and that we know you can find is they have a Good and Gather gochujang barbecue sauce at Target. So I don’t know if it is actually  Good and Gather or is it Market Pantry? You know, they swapped those two names, so I’m not sure which one it is, but you can find it at Target and it is super duper delicious. 

So in this recipe, we’re actually gonna make a pork slash beef meatball, an Asian flavored meatball. Then we’re going to finish it with this gochujang sauce. You can actually serve this with a little fried rice on the side. You could do just a white rice or brown rice, some roasted broccoli, or, I have a wonderful recipe for an Asian style slaw that has crispy ramen noodles in it. Woo. So good.

Tips and Tricks: Just a couple recipe tips and tricks before we get into making the full recipe. Number one, you need ground pork for this recipe. Make sure that you’re buying ground pork and not ground sausage. Ground pork will just be, it will look like ground beef, but it’ll be pink and that’s what you need. It will also be super inexpensive. 

You also need ground beef for making a combo of beef and pork always for meatballs. I recommend using a little bit leaner beef so that your meatballs don’t turn really greasy. So an 85% lean or a 90% lean is perfect here. 

Another ingredient you need is fresh ginger, and I’ve talked about this before. There’s a product in your freezer section of your grocery store that’s frozen, minced, or grated ginger, which is so much easier to use than buying a ginger knob and then peeling it and grading it and mincing it. They’re literally just cubes of frozen ginger. Each cube, I believe, is one teaspoon. This recipe calls for three teaspoons of fresh ginger. So you just need three of those little cubes, pop ’em out and they’re ready to use. Super duper easy. 

All right. But the main thing that we talked about in the beginning of this episode, we’re going to talk about it again. When you go to the store, there’s probably going to be a few different options for a gochujang sauce. You want to make sure that you’re buying a gochujang sauce and not the concentrated paste. The concentrated paste is just the gochujang chili paste. Then you would need to make that into a sauce, which is not included in this recipe. It has an already made sauce on it. Like I said before, I love the one that they have at Target. It’s either Market Pantry or Good and Gather. It’s a gochujang barbecue sauce. Right in the post you’ll actually see a picture of it. So if you want to see what that looks like, you can click through to the post. There’ll be a link in the show notes for you and you can check it out. 

Okay? Otherwise, everything is pretty much straightforward for this recipe. So let’s go ahead and make your gochujang meatballs. I want to give myself a little pat on the back. I am saying gochujang very, very well. 

All right, so you’re going to start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees. Then you’re gonna line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil and spray it really generously with non-stick spray. Set that aside. 

Now we’re going to make the actual meatball mixture. So in a really large bowl, we’re going to start by making that panade. If you’ve been here a while, you know anytime we make a ground meat recipe, we’re going to add a panade to keep it really juicy and tender. So you’re going to add one egg, one tablespoon of soy sauce, two tablespoons of water, a quarter cup of very thinly sliced green onions, and two large garlic cloves that have been minced. Three teaspoons of minced fresh ginger, a quarter teaspoon of red pepper flakes, a quarter teaspoon of kosher salt, and two thirds cup of plain breadcrumbs. Now give that a really good whisk so that the egg is all broken down and that the breadcrumbs are all mixed into that liquid. Once that is all combined and the breadcrumbs are starting to absorb some of that liquid, you’re going to add in three quarters pound of ground pork and three quarters pound of ground beef. Then either with clean hands or with a fork, you’re just gonna lightly mix that together until everything is combined. Then you’re going to form golf ball sized meatballs. For this, I do like to use a medium sized cookie scoop so that they all come out the same size and that they all cook evenly. You’ll have probably about 20 meatballs here. 

So place the meatballs on your prepared baking sheet. Then I like to give the tops of the meatballs a really generous spray with that non-stick cooking spray. That just helps the meatballs brown evenly from top to bottom. So you’re going to bake your meatballs for about 20 minutes, and I do like to flip the meatballs about halfway through the cooking time, so you get that nice browning on both sides.

While those meatballs are cooking, I recommend taking a large skillet, popping it over low heat, and pouring that gochujang sauce into the skillet and just let it warm through. Then when the meatballs are done baking, you can transfer them to that gochujang sauce. Give them a really good stir so they coat and they get all sticky and saucy, and just let them simmer and warm together for about five minutes. 

That’s it. That’s your full recipe. Your gochujang meatballs are ready. Now, as I said before, I love to serve these over rice or fried rice. Top it off with maybe some sesame seeds or some green onions, maybe even some cilantro. Then either roasted broccoli or that Asian slaw that I talked about would be delicious on the side.

So that does it for this full recipe. I hope you enjoyed this and I hope you make it for dinner. Now, if you make this for dinner and you are like, that was five stars, I absolutely loved it. I would love to have you go onto the recipe and actually click down to the rating section, give it five stars, and let me know what you loved about this recipe.

Outro: So until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya.

Double Dip: All right, so now it’s time for your double dip. Thank you so much for sticking around. Next week we’re doing something a little bit different here on the podcast. I’m actually going to go over one of the larger posts that I have on my site that is excellent for summertime. It’s a whole entire post talking about feeding a large group on vacation.

So if you have a bunch of families that get together and go on vacation, or if you have a large family reunion or any time that you have a large group of people that you’re trying to feed over multiple days, I have an entire post that goes over how to do that easily. Even like, 30 plus menus that you can use to feed a large group on vacation.

So I hope you’ll listen to that next week and maybe even go check out the post, especially if you have a vacation coming up. But then, next week, we’re going to go over how to make buttermilk cornbread and honey butter, which is a perfect side dish for any summer barbecue. So until then, I hope you guys have a wonderful and beautiful summer week ahead of you. We’ll see you then.

Susie Weinrich: Hey. Hey everybody. Okay, we’re starting this one just a little bit differently today because if you’re listening to this in real time, you know that it’s just about the 4th of July. I decided to take just a little bit of time off to spend some time with my family in the sun and by the pool and to relax.

So we are going to republish the 4th of July episode from last year where we went over a whole bunch of different 4th of July menus. So I hope you enjoy this and get some yummy dinner ideas that you can make for the 4th of July and beyond honestly. These are great dinner recipes for any night of the week, so enjoy this episode and we will be back next week with a brand new episode for I believe Gochujang Meatballs. I’ll see you then.

4th of July Menu: So let's get started on this menu. I'm going to go over the entire menu now, and then I'm going to talk about each individual item and give you some tips for that item, and also ways that you can make it ahead to make your 4th of July a little bit smoother.

So we're starting with just a classic hamburger, potato salad, some type of corn. I have two different recipes to share with you. A broccoli bacon salad. A veggie pasta salad, fresh watermelon, and of course some chips. Then for dessert, we're talking either a blueberry crumble or a no-bake chocolate pot de creme.

All right, starting with those classic burgers, you're of course going to need whatever grilling situation you have set up. Get that already a couple of days ahead. Make sure you have charcoal, make sure you have propane, or whatever you need for your grill. For the burgers, you can absolutely make these a day ahead.

You're going to make that burger patty mixture, form your patties, pop them onto a sheet pan, get them in the fridge, and let them just sit in there overnight. They'll be good to go as soon as you have your grill already. Of course, you want to make sure that you have all of the toppings ready for your burgers. What I recommend is just getting a big platter or again, a sheet pan, laying out all of the toppings, covering it with plastic wrap, and putting it in the fridge. Here are the toppings that I recommend. Just a romaine or a green leaf, lettuce, pickles, or onions. Now slice your onions and then give them a nice little rinse under cool water. What that does, is it removes the enzyme that makes your onion flavor stick with you forever. Three hours later, you're still tasting the onion. Once you rinse that enzyme away, you can still taste the onion, and it's still delicious on your hamburger, but it's not going to overpower the entire dish. Then you'll also want to slice up some tomatoes. I actually recommend doing that the day of, because tomatoes should not be stored in the fridge. When they're stored in the fridge, they actually break down and they lose flavor. So I recommend waiting to do your tomatoes and then right before you serve them, season them with some kosher salt, black pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. It makes all the difference on your burger, promise. Then just make sure you have ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise, and you're good to go for your burgers.

Next, let's talk about potato salad. Potato salad is better done the day before anyway. When potato salad has a little bit of time to sit in the fridge, the flavors kind of meld together and it's so much better. It's just like chili. So I have a recipe for Instant Pot Potato Salad or just a Classic Potato Salad, and I will link both of those in the show notes for you.

I said that I had two different corn options for you. You can of course do just your classic corn on the cob. You can boil it just in salted water for around eight minutes. Or you can make your corn on the cob in your instant pot. So if you are a pothead, get out that instant pot and cook it up in there. I have a great recipe, a complete how-to-make corn on the cob in your instant pot that I will link in the show notes for you. 

Now if you have that fresh corn, but you maybe don't want to serve corn on the cob, I also have a killer recipe for homemade creamed corn. You can absolutely make that a day ahead. If you're going to serve corn in the cab. I would do that the day of. But if you're going to do the homemade creamed corn, make it up on the second or the third and just reheat it on the stovetop on the 4th of July. 

This next recipe is actually a family favorite. It's the broccoli bacon salad. If you haven't had this one, it's like a raw broccoli salad that has bacon, onions, sunflower seeds, and raisins, and then it has this creamy kind of tangy mayonnaise-based dressing that you put on it and it's delicious. You can absolutely make most of the components ahead of time for the salad. Chop up your broccoli. Measure out your raisins. Measure out your sunflower seeds, chop up the onions, get all that ready, pop that in the fridge, and then make up the dressing in a little mason jar and pop that in the refrigerator, separate from the salad. Then just like an hour before you serve, mix it all together and you're good to go. 

With your veggie pasta salad, it is like potato salad, where it's actually better if you can make it a day ahead because it kind of marinates everything. So I would completely make the veggie pasta salad a day or two ahead and let that sit in the fridge.

Of course, there's watermelon and chips. Those are easy. Good to go the day of. For dessert, I have two different options for you. If you're more of a berry type of person, you can go with a blueberry crumble. What I would do with that, is serve your blueberry crumble, sprinkle a couple of fresh raspberries on top, and then add a little bit of vanilla ice cream so you have your red, white, and blue for the 4th of July.

Now, if you're more of a chocolate person, I would recommend doing these no-bake chocolate pot de creme. It is delicious. No baking is required. Basically, everything is made in your food processor or blender, and then it goes in the fridge and it's a chocolate custard. It's silky chocolate mousse. It's delicious. Again, I would recommend topping it with maybe some fresh blueberries, fresh raspberries, and a little bit of whipped cream so you have your red, white, and blue for the 4th of July. 

I hope all of these tips and recipes help you have an amazing 4th of July and celebrate our beautiful country. I will place links to all the printable recipes right in the show notes so you can make them for the 4th of July and plan out exactly how and when you are going to make all the recipes.

If you are loving these episodes of Let's Make Dinner, I would love to have you subscribe or follow on your preferred podcast player. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let's Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier.

Intro: Welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: Happy Thursday everybody. I’m so glad you joined me to make a little bit of dinner or to get a new dinner idea. I love that too. I know I put out a poll the other week to see why you guys are tuning in and what you like about this show. A lot of people said that they like this show to get new dinner ideas. So I’m glad you’re joining me and I hope that you find this dinner recipe delicious. 

Today we are making a Grilled Barbecue Pork Tenderloin If you’re listening to this in real-time. It is summertime. It’s the perfect time to get that grill out. You can crack open a beer and make this delicious, I’m telling you, so incredibly delicious Grilled Barbecue Pork Tenderloin. The last time I made this, we had a ton left over in the fridge and I ate it all week, with the homemade barbecue sauce, just dipping it. I would eat it cold right out of the fridge. Let me tell you this too, what I love about this pork tenderloin is you can actually reheat it in the microwave, you know, reheat slices and it doesn’t overcook. I found that even the tail end of the pork tenderloin can sometimes get overcooked, just even on the grill, I would reheat that in the microwave and it still was super tender.

So you’re going to love this. I think that it’s a great substitute for grilled steak because you still have a ton of flavor and it’s super tender, but it’s not as expensive. So this is a super economical cut of meat that you can pop on the grill and have for dinner. 

Tips and Tricks: So let’s get into a couple of tips and tricks for this recipe. First of all, let’s talk about pork tenderloin in general. You want to make sure that you’re buying pork tenderloin and not pork loin. I have been duped at the grocery store and I was so pissed off. So I went to Trader Joe’s and I was going to make pork tenderloin for dinner, and what they had in the package was small, like a pork tenderloin and it was called a pork tender. I’m pretty sure that’s what it was called. I got it home and as soon as I opened the package and I cooked that thing, I was like, this is a pork loin, and it was so dry. Pork tenderloin will always be called pork tenderloin. So make sure that you’re buying the right thing. Pork loin is not the same thing. Generally, pork loin is going to be much bigger around and look more like a roast than a long skinny pork tenderloin. So just be aware that they put weird names on pork loin at the grocery store. I feel like to make you think that you’re buying pork tenderloin. I don’t know if they’re really trying to dupe us, but that’s what I feel like. So just make sure that the package says, pork tenderloin. A lot of times your pork tenderloin will actually come in packages of two because they are quite small. So, a lot of times they’ll put two in a package just to give you more in there. I don’t know. I don’t know why they do it. 

The other thing about pork tenderloin is that they usually have a thicker end and then a tail end. The end part kind of tapers off into a really skinny end. There are two ways you can avoid that overcooking. The first one is to actually double it over onto the pork tenderloin and tie it up so that it’s equal thickness from end to end. 

That’s one option. What I usually do, is I don’t take the time to tie it up. I will usually position my pork tenderloin on the grill so that the thicker end is closer to the direct heat and that little tail end is further away so that it’s not cooking as quickly as that thicker end. Also, with this recipe, I have a homemade barbecue sauce recipe that you can make. It’s super easy to make and really you just need to have butter, onion, ketchup, and Worcestershire sauce. Brown sugar, and then a bunch of spices from your spice cabinet. So if you have those things, I highly recommend trying to make your own barbecue sauce. But if you’re like, yeah, I’m not doing that, just grab the barbecue sauce that you love at the grocery store or your favorite barbecue restaurant. I live here in Kansas City and we have some excellent barbecue restaurants that sell their sauce.

BBQ Pork Tenderloin Recipe: All right, so the rest of the tips and tricks that I have, I’m going to kind of go over in the recipe as we walk through making this grilled pork tenderloin. So let’s get right into it. So this recipe has two layers of barbecue flavor. We’re going to do a wet rub to marinate the pork tenderloin, and then we’re going to baste it with barbecue sauce.

Let’s start with that wet barbecue rub. So in a small bowl, you’re going to mix together two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, two tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce, two teaspoons of coarse ground black pepper, and two teaspoons of chili powder. Two teaspoons of garlic powder, one teaspoon of onion powder, and two teaspoons of kosher salt. One teaspoon of ground cumin and half a teaspoon of smoked paprika. Give that a really good stir, and that is your wet rub. So then, here is a great tip. You’re going to end up wrapping these pork tenderloins in plastic wrap. So what I recommend is laying out big sheets, two big sheets of plastic wrap on your countertop. Now take your two pork tenderloins and place one on each one of those plastic wrap sheets. Now is the time that you can slather those pork tenderloins with that wet rub and you’re not making a mess anywhere. You’re going to then wrap those pork tenderloins up right in that plastic wrap, and all the mess is contained right in that plastic wrap.

Now what you want to do is you can either pop those into a Ziploc bag or you can pop them into just a rimmed baking pan and pop them in the fridge. You’re going to marinate these for anywhere from four hours to 48 hours. So basically, if you’re short on time, do those four hours. If you want to work ahead, do it in two days. But a great time to aim for is about that 24-hour mark. So if you can do it the day before and have it ready for the next day for dinner, that’s perfect. 

All right, so say your 24 hours have gone by and now it’s time to grill these pork tenderloins. So what you want to do is remove them from the fridge and we’re going to let them sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes before we get them on the grill. This is actually called tempering, and you’re just letting the meat rest at room temperature to warm up. I don’t mean warm-up like we’re going to start growing bacteria. I mean, you’re just going to take that chill off so that when you do put it on the grill, it’s going to cook more evenly. 

So set those out to come to room temp and then you’re going to set your grill up for direct high-heat cooking and indirect-heat cooking. So if you have a charcoal grill, which is what I grill on, I set all of those charcoals up, the hot charcoal, on one side of the grill, that’s the direct side. We’re actually not going to use that side. We’re only going to cook on the indirect side. 

Also, while my grill is heating up, what I like to do is make that barbecue sauce. So if you are also going to make the barbecue sauce, let me run over that really quick. It’s so, so simple. In a medium-sized saucepan, you’re going to melt four tablespoons of butter. Then you’re going to add a quarter cup of very finely diced onion, and I like to use either a white or a yellow onion here. You’re going to saute that until it’s pretty translucent and soft. Then you’re going to add in one minced garlic clove, three-quarters cup of ketchup, a quarter cup of brown sugar, and three teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce. Then we’re going to add some spices. So one teaspoon of chili powder, half a teaspoon of smoked paprika, and a quarter teaspoon of black pepper. A couple of dashes of Tabasco or Frank’s Red Hot, and then a pinch of kosher salt. You’re just going to stir that all together. Let it simmer for five minutes tops, and remove it from the heat. That’s it. Your barbecue sauce is ready and you are going to want to dunk all of the pork tenderloin right into that.

Now, what I recommend when you’re using either your homemade barbecue sauce or store-bought barbecue sauce, is to pour out one cup of sauce and divide it in half. So when you grill the pork tenderloin, you’re going to take half a cup out to the grill and then you’re going to reserve half a cup for serving. This prevents any cross-contamination with raw pork and barbecue sauce. 

Now that you’ve got all the bits and parts ready and, and the grills all fired up, let’s go over grilling your pork tenderloin. So, as I said before, we’re actually going to grill your pork tenderloin over indirect heat. What I recommend is laying the two pork tenderloins over indirect heat with the thicker end towards the direct heat. So that’s going to cook a little bit faster. We’re going to cover the grill and cook it for about 12 minutes. Then you’re going to open up the grill, flip over the pork tenderloins, and this is where you’re going to baste the cooked side with barbecue sauce. Really generously slather that barbecue sauce onto the pork tenderloins.

So after you flip it over, you’re going to continue to cook for another about 12 to 13 minutes on your covered grill until it reaches about 140 to 145 internal temperature. Now let me tell you about grilling pork tenderloins. We want to use this cooking time. This is about 12 minutes per side as a guide only. You want to actually grill your pork tenderloin to temperature, not time. So that 140 to 1 45 is that sweet spot where your pork tenderloins are cooked to about a medium, and they’re still super tender and juicy and delicious. 

So once your pork tenderloin is at the right temp, you’re going to remove them from the grill and baste that other side with the barbecue sauce. Bring that grilled barbecue pork tenderloin inside, and you’re going to let it rest for about five to 10 minutes before you cut it. You just want the pork tenderloin to relax and stay nice and tender and redistribute all the juices. Then what I recommend is cutting the pork tenderloin into about one-and-a-half-inch slices for serving. Serve the extra barbecue sauce on the side for everybody to dip into. Really, really good. 

Here are our very, very favorite side dishes. I have a Cast Iron Skillet Crispy Oven Potatoes and Roasted Broccoli that makes such a delicious dinner. 

Outro: So that does it for this full recipe today, on this Thursday. I hope you enjoyed the entire thing, and until next week, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya.

Double Dip: All right, now it’s time for your double dip. But this week I don’t really have a huge double dip for you. Next week we are again if you’re listening to this in real-time, we’re getting very close to the 4th of July, so I’m going to take a little bit of time off and I’m going to republish my 4th of July menu podcast episode that I did last year. You can look for that one next week and plan out your 4th of July menu. Actually, there are some delicious recipes that I talk about on there that you can make any night of the week. See you all in a couple of weeks. Have a wonderful 4th of July.

Intro: Hey. Hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich.

Susie Weinrich: Hi. Happy Thursday everybody. We are back again for another wonderful dinner recipe that I hope you will try. This summer we are making a roasted cherry tomato pasta that is perfect for all of those delicious summer tomatoes.

Tips and Tricks: Okay, just a couple of tips and tricks for this recipe today. The first one is you’re going to use pasta and you’re going to need to boil water and cook your pasta. Best tip, kitchen tip. Please, please, please always salt your pasta water. You want your pasta water to actually taste like seawater. So if you’ve tasted the ocean a little bit, it should taste pretty salty before you put your pasta in. That is your one chance to actually flavor the pasta. So it will absorb some of that salty water and be super delicious. 

The other ingredient is your extra virgin olive oil. You want to make sure that you’re using extra virgin olive oil because that’s the one that has a lot of flavor. Regular olive oil is basically flavorless, so use that extra virgin olive oil and it imparts such a nice flavor to the pasta. It’s a huge part of the sauce for this pasta.

The last ingredient that I want to talk about is the garlic cloves. So it calls for four garlic cloves. What I recommend here, not mincing, chopping, or pressing your garlic, I recommend very thinly slicing the garlic. It makes such a delicious garlic flavor in this dish, and then you get little pockets of garlic.

Those are all of the tips and tricks that I have for this recipe. Everything else is pretty much straightforward and it’s a very, very simple recipe. 

Cherry Tomato Pasta Recipe: So let’s go ahead and get into making your roasted cherry tomato pasta, that’s perfect for all of your summer tomatoes. You’re going to start by cooking one pound of either spaghetti or spaghetti, which is basically just angel hair pasta. So start with that in salted water, as we said. Once that’s cooked, go ahead and drain that and you can just save that for the sauce. 

Now for the sauce, in a large skillet over medium-low heat, you’re going to add about half a cup of really good extra virgin olive oil. Let that warm up, and then you’re going to add about one and a half to two pounds of cherry or grape tomatoes. You don’t have to cut them here, just pop them in whole.

The one thing I will tell you is that as these cherry tomatoes start to warm up, they may pop and burst, so it’s great to have a lid nearby so that you can pop it on once they start popping. You’ll let those warm in the pan just stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes. What I recommend here is for the last five minutes, take a wooden spoon and just lightly press on those tomatoes and they’ll start to release their juice into the oil and it makes this delicious sauce.

Also, for the last five minutes, you want to add four thinly sliced garlic cloves and let that simmer for the last five minutes. You’re going to go ahead and take that off the heat and stir in one and a half teaspoons of kosher salt, two teaspoons of balsamic vinegar, and one teaspoon of sugar. Give that a really good stir, and then you can add the pasta to that sauce and just give it a really nice toss. You can add in a little bit of fresh torn basil, maybe some fresh grated Parmesan cheese, toss that up and then put it into a large bowl for serving. 

Now, this is an optional part, but it’s very delicious. In that now empty pan, you can add one tablespoon of butter and half a cup of Panko breadcrumbs and just brown them over, I don’t know, low heat, low to medium heat until they’re golden and they smell like toast. Then when you serve this Roasted Cherry Tomato Pasta, you can top it with a little bit of the toasted breadcrumbs and fresh grated Parmesan cheese, and a little more basil and it is so good. My mouth is watering. It is a wonderful summer dish. This also makes a great side dish. So if you’re having chicken Parmesan, Pork Milanese, or even Chicken Spadini, this would be an excellent side dish for any of those. I will link all of those recipes for you right in the show notes. But like I said, it also makes a wonderful dinner. You could add a little Caesar salad on the side, maybe some garlic bread. 

All right, so that does it for this full recipe. As I said before, I will link all of the recipes in the show notes so that you have access to the recipes and can make them for dinner when you’re ready. 

Outro: So until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes your dinnertime a little easier. See ya.

Double Dip: All right guys. Now it’s time for your double dip. I’m so glad you stuck around and you can hear what we’re making next week. If you want to make dinner with me next Thursday, we are making Grilled Barbecue Pork Tenderloin, and this is a knockout recipe. You are absolutely going to love it. 

Here’s what I’ll tell you though. You do want to marinate this ahead of time. I like to do it for about 24 hours, but you can marinate this pork tenderloin anywhere from four hours to 48 hours. So get it ready when you can, and then you can grill it up on Thursday. 

So, here are the ingredients you need to make your Grilled Barbecue Pork Tenderloin. Two pork tenderloins, extra virgin olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, and black pepper. Then a few spices from your spice cabinet. You’ll need chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, kosher salt, ground cumin, and smoked paprika. Now, of course, you can use your favorite barbecue sauce that you love, that you buy at the grocery store. But if you want to try your hand at making barbecue sauce yourself, you can absolutely do that. I have a link to the recipe for homemade barbecue sauce that I will put in the show notes as well. For that, you’re going to need butter, onion, garlic, ketchup, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, chili powder, and smoked paprika. Black pepper, kosher salt, and then maybe some hot sauce if you want to add that little high note and maybe a little bit of heat.

So I hope you’ll join me then and make dinner, especially because it’s summer. If you’re listening to this real-time, it’s summer. It’s summer, and you can get that grill out and grill up some delicious pork tenderloin. So until then, I hope you guys have a wonderful week ahead.