Southern Asian Pork Tenderloin Salad

Made this for dinner on Sunday, was a huge hit and oh so colourful!!!

1 or 2 pork tenderloin
Spinach
Mixed greens
Sweet potatoes
Red pepper sliced
Avocado sliced
Red onion chopped
Orange cubed
Slivered almonds
Goat cheese chunks
Cajun and BBQ rubs
Onion powder
Garlic powder
                                                                                    Japanese ginger vinaigrette (from Metro)

Put approximately 2 tbsp each of the rubs and 1tbsp each of the powder in a bowl, mix together and rub all over the pork. The pork should be totally covered in the mixture.  Add more if needed.
Turn BBQ on high and when preheated put on pork and turn down. We cooked for about thirty minutes, flipping a couple of times.

Preheat oven to 375.  I cut into 3 or 4 pieces depending on the size of the potato.  Put a dab of butter on the end I am putting down on the cookie sheet.  Cook for about 15 minutes and then flip.  Depending on size they shouldn't take more than 30 minutes.  Peel off skin and cut into cubes.

Put all the cold veges in bowls. Top with cubed pork and sweet potatoes. Add salad dressing and Voila!!!!

Yum yum yum Philly Cheese Steak with a Twist

Philly Cheese Steak Stuffed Peppers

Absolutely delicious and so easy.  There are so many recipes on google and you can add your own choices.  This is the one I used.  

http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=2229514

Rather than just green peppers I did a green and red.  Our preference was for the red, surprise it is a little sweeter.  Also I used steak rather than roast beef, cooked it to med rare and sliced very thin.  The recipe called for cheese on the bottom and top, on mine I only put it on the top, but Jim liked it on the top and bottom.   Ok one other change, I put a chipotle rub on my steak.  Lol , as I said you can change this recipe to your liking.  

Enjoy

March 24 - head home tomorrow

Flash flood warning, thunderstorms and lightning have started the day here in Charleston. May have to buy some wellie boots.

Headed out at eleven, rain just a drizzle but still really overcast.  Head over to get the ferry to Fort Sumter but the first two have been cancelled because of rough seas he tells us to come back for 2:30. 

Go over to check out the market, some beautiful galleries and crafters along with straw basket weavers.  Pop into a local deli and grab lunch to go, head down to the water to eat.  So many of the walkways are under water but we manage to find a dry swing under a gazebo where we can watch the water.  As we are sitting there we start to notice a dolphin, then another and another.  It was so beautiful a small pod of dolphin were frolicking just 100 yards off the pier.  

Back to the ferry and thankfully the boat is a go.  We wander through the museum reading how the start of the civil war started here at fort Sumter. Aftereading a ton of books about the slave trade I was surprised at how emotional I felt actually reading real life stories about it.  What a terrible Iife it was with brother fighting brother and the slaves being used in the forts to rebuild walls, etc.  

The boat trip was wonderful, blustery but dry with the dolphins following the boat.  Fort Sumter is basically a sandbar in the middle of Charleston harbour where it meets the Atlantic Ocean, in the 1800s the walls were fifty feet high, during the war it was bombarded to rubble.  The walls were rebuilt to about twenty feet.  Very interesting and a definite trip to anyone who comes to Charleston.

After the trip we thought a rum was in order so we stopped at an oyster bar called Pearlz, absolutely hopping, with great entertainment.  

A little time to put up our feet and now we are off to dinner.  

Funniest thing just happened, Jim went out for a smoke on our 2 foot wide balcony and he couldn't get the door opened, I am sitting here watching him.  It's a little scary to watch because the balcony is so narrow so I get up to help, killing myself laughing.  I can't get he door open either, I finally put a foot up on the wall and pull like crazy and thankfully the door opened.  Lol I don't think Jim was impressed with my gales of laughter. 

So much fun yesterday we had to do it again March 23

Back on the bikes for one last ride before we head up to Charleston.  This time we head down to the beach.  I can't resist - I have to play tag with the waves, totally forgetting that there are no mudflats on my bike so my white ants and right up my back are totally covered in sand and water. Lol.  Too much fun.  It's over all too soon, which is probably good for our butts.

The drive up to Charleston is heavy rain, but stops when we pull into Charleston.  Off we go for a walk through historic Charleston.  It is unbelievably beautiful, really quite different from Savannah.  Big huge porches, carriage houses behind the property, Gas lamps, wonderful doorknobs, courtyards - I could just go on and on.  Big churches everywhere.  Then we came to Battery Park, right on the Atlantic, the waves were good and rough and to make it even more magical there were a couple of weddings going on.  Charleston is like Niagara on the Lake for destination weddings. 

The city was filled with cobblestone alleyways, brick walls and beautiful courtyards.  Palm trees in amongst gigantic oaks with spanish moss overhanging everything.  It was even on the telephone poles.  Azalea's were just starting to bloom, definitely the flower you think of when you think of South Carolina.  Picture Augusta and the Master's golf course everywhere you go.  


Everywhere you looked were beautiful gas lights.  Street lights, door lights, over garages, on gateways.  And they never seemed to turn off.  Just loved them, they added even more character to a town that was just bursting with it.

Dang my battery on my camera ran out.  Back to the hotel for a wee nap before we went off to Il Mercator for dinner.  A beautiful restaurant with great food, gnocchi for me and carbonara for Jim and to top it off they had a great little jazz band.

Tried something new today - Friday, March 22

Whoops, laughter and smiles greeted our first bike ride in too many years.  Almost died right out of the parking lot.  Forgot rule number 1 - don't turn the wheel when you look over your shoulder, when I saw the car I then over corrected and ended up on the grass lol.  Jim was blissfully unaware of this as he meandered down the bike path.  Hilton Head has bike and walking paths everywhere, you can literally ride from one end of the island to the other.  

It was a little cool, so being the smart cookie I am, I put on one golf glove and one winter glove I just happened to have in my golf bag.  We rode through the communities of Turnberry, Inverness and Leamington.  The communities all have beautiful rivers and golf courses surrounding them.  

After about thirty minutes, you guessed it, our butts were killing us.  But we kept going.  We ended up out there for about an hour and a half with lots of wiggling to keep our bums circulating. Lol

A quick trip back up to our rooms and we headed off to Indigo Run to play the Great Bear - a Jack Nicklaus clubcorp course.  Once again we were paired up with a nice man named Steve, who knew the course and kept us away from the hazards.

Back to the hotel, looking forward to a nice bath and find out the lock on our door has failed. Security is working on it.  My red wine is also locked in the room.

First day of spring in Savannah, Georgia

Savannah, Georgia. 

As blustery as the ocean was yesterday, it was calm as glass today.  The sun was shining but it was quite cool today.  Today the winds were gusting from the island out to the ocean. By the time we got back to the hotel, kids were in the pool and people were lying in the sun with their suits on.  The pool and terraces are in a nice little warm pocket, but stand up and goosebumps appear :)

The house was amazing, amazing doesn't seem like a big enough word to describe some of these houses

You could walk for miles and miles, or bike or run or .....

Seemed like a good day to head down to Savannah, Georgia.  Fifty minutes later after a nice drive through the countryside and over a gigantic bridge we arrived in Savannah.  At the bottom of the bridge is the visitors centre and tons of people trying to sell their bus tours.  In the centre we met a lovely lady who gave us a map, explained the highlights and told us to go for a nice walk.  Which is exactly what we did.  The city just oozes history, from their 24 squares with stately houses surrounding them, to the Spanish moss hanging from trees that are 100's of years old to their cobblestone streets down by the water.  Savannah is still a very busy port city.  They have done a great job of keeping the old warehouses intact by turning then into restaurants, pubs and art galleries.  It is amazing to think that this was one of the major slave ports of the world.  We had lunch at Vic's Fine Dining, a beautiful restaurant in one of the harbour warehouses, while we were walking into it a large black man was singing Amazing Grace in an amazing voice - goosebumps.   Next stop was the Paula Deen gift shop.  Hey y'all, how y'all doing was everywhere, on napkins, bags, aprons, etc.  Just past Paula's place was a candy store where you could watch them make fresh pralines and toffee. Yes we bought a couple, delish

Savannah was built around 24 squares.  Each one named after a famous person in the history of  Savannah

A wonderful little restaurant right on the waterfront

The trees and the moss were amazing

Back at the hotel after another full day, a little rum and coke and possibly a walk up to get a pizza. 

Windy and blustery

Wednesday, March 20

Just love being able to pop (creak) out of bed, have a quick cup of tea and off to the beach. Today was very blustery with big waves and the sand swirling around your feet. We decided to let the wind push us which it did a good job of.  We started noticing the people walking the other way were bending over into the wind and holding their hats with both hands.  Being the smart cookies that we are we decided to take one of the pathways up to the road.  After a kilometre we realized we were actually walking in a resort and it had a large barbed wire fence stopping us from getting to the road we wanted lol. So back we went, head down and into the wind we plowed. Good thing is it made us walk a couple of extra kilometres. Lol. 

Off to the outlet mall, picked up a couple of golf shirts and golf shoes and off we went to play Port Royal - Robbers Row.  A beautiful course and even better we were basically the only ones on it. Nothing nicer than taking a shot and saying "I can do better" , drop another ball and try again and again and again. Lol

Dinner tonight was at Frankie Bones, a steak and seafood place that some locals recommended.  Experienced my first happy hour and have to say they make a great lemondrop martini.  Jim had a petit surf and turf, while I had a filet with whipped sweet potatoes and a spinach salad. 

Back to the hotel for a nightcap in the lobby and some rest for our weary bones.