Perfect Saturday Night

Last night in Sugar Land the weather was perfect! Slight breeze, no mosquitos, 70's..... perfect. The kids played in the courtyard after their bath while Grant and I cooked dinner together. This is one of my favorite things to do, because I love cooking... and I love spending time with Grant when it doesn't involve baseball or hunting. I had a pork tenderloin in the fridge that I had bought on sale this week and some fresh okra. I thought we might try grilling the pork, and for the okra, fried with tomatoes! It sounds weird but I was having lunch with a co-worker from Louisiana, and we started talking okra. smothered, fried, boiled....yummm! I did not have all the yummy ingredients she smothers her okra with so I tried it this way and it turned out amazing! Ava staked her claim in the remaining few bites left on the plate :)

Grilled Garlic Lime Pork:
I started with just your basic packaged pork tenderloin.

There are usually 2 in each pkg. I did a quick read on how to prep them since it is not a meat I usually cook with. Most info said to remove all fat. This was an incredibly tedious process, so I trimmed one and not the other.

(They tasted exactly the same as finished products, so I would save yourself the time) I made a quick marinade:
in a food processor combine- 8 cloves of fresh peeled garlic, juice and zest of 1 lime, 3T salt, 1/4 of a bunch of fresh parsley (b/c that's all I had... cilantro would work the same) and 5-6T of olive oil.

You can get creative if you have other flavors you want to use, I LOVE garlic and lime on the grill!
I put the marinade in a bowl with the pork and let it hang out until the grill was ready.

Grant grilled it for 15-20 minutes over direct medium heat. (not a crazy big fire)
It was sooooo GOOD! The pork held the lime and garlic flavors really well! A definete do again :)

Fried Okra and Tomatoes:
I started by cutting my okra into bite sized pieces, discarding the stem end and rinsing in a colander

(this helps the breading stay on) then I diced 10 yellow grape tomatoes in half (I think they are called sunburst tomatoes)
Make a dry batter in a large freezer bag using 1 cup cornmeal, 1/4c flour, 4T salt.
Put the cut tomatoes and wet okra chunks into the bag and shake.

Heat oil (anything but olive, it will burn on med high heat) to medium high heat. It's a seven on my cooktop. You will know the oil is ready if you drop a little corn meal in and it sizzles:) You need quite a bit of oil, because the cornmeal will absorb it.

Fry tomato and okra mixture in batches (you don't want to overfill the skillet or it takes forever) about 5-8 minutes each batch, just until the okra's crust turns golden and the tomatoes burst. Drain on a plate covered in towels and salt if needed.