Sundy Dinner (Posted on Wednesday)

As I stated last night my original plan was to do two parter on our Sunday dinner but stuff happens and now I am only going to do a one parter with the emphasis being on the star of the dinner. I will save the other stuff for a later date.

When we started our grilling season this year my goal was to cook something different every Sunday. Even though I may cooked pork ribs more than one Sunday I won't cook them the same way twice. For the first few weeks this is an easy task but as time goes on it starts to get more difficult. I am always looking for ideas (if anybody has some please send them along.) Most of my ideas come from either the Food Network or from several bbq blogs I have saved on my google reader. Sometimes I will take an idea I have seen from somewhere and adapt it to the grill and sometimes I will try to copy something I may have seen. Either way it is always fun to try and a challenge.

This weeks idea came from one of my bbq blogs I read. I didn't use the ingredients posted on the blog I used my own, but it is the same basic idea.

This weeks Sunday dinner.............Stuffed Pork Roast.


When we went to the grocery store on Saturday my intentions were to buy tuna steaks and finally try cooking them on the grill. But something happened when I walked by the meat counter there was a pork roast in there saying "Buy me!" I tried to ignore it but it kept drawing me back there and saying "Buy me." Finally I caved in and told the butcher to give me an average size one. Now I have to confess this wasn't just any normal pork roast this pork roast was already marinated in a sweet bourbon marinade from the store. Normally I wouldn't consider buying anything already marinated because I feel as though I should be doing all my own marinading, it really isn't all the hard to do. I just couldn't help myself this time I was intrigued by the name alone.

On Sunday when it came time to prepare the roast I opened it up and just stared at it. I wasn't sure what to do with it. I had the recipe for the stuffed pork roast but I wasn't sure I really wanted to try to do it. Finally after about 10 minutes I asked the wife what I should do. She said "Stuff it!" I wasn't sure she was talking about the roast or not but I figured I might as well give it a try.

That was the easy decision, the hard part was what to stuff it with. (You got to love all the preplanning that went into this meal.) I didn't have any of the items the original recipe called for so it was time to improvise. I opened up the refrigerator and started looking. Hmm, the recipe called for olive oil marinated mozzarella cheese, I see some provolone, I think that will do. What else? Oh, how about spinach? Yeah, just bought this yesterday at the Farmers Market in Elkhart Lake. Now the recipe called for three items...let's see....hmm.....no, not that...not sure what that is so let's skip that too....."Hey think we should clean this refrigerator out sometime?" (That is the hint to the wife maybe SHE should think about cleaning out the refrigerator)......oh, look at that, fresh portabella mushrooms, yeah that will do.


There you have it, the ingredients, pork roast marinated in a sweet bourbon sauce, provolone cheese, spinach, portabella mushrooms and olive oil. (Forgot the olive oil in the picture.)

Next stuff the roast. One problem, can't stuff it in its original state in the picture. Got to cut the roast in half, well almost. Slice through the roast leaving about a two inch hinge and open the roast up then slice it again in half leaving about a inch and open it up again. From here put ingredients on the flattened out roast, roll it back up and tie it up to hold it together.




"To the grill!" 350 degrees for a hour to a hour and a half until the internal temperature is 145 to 147 degrees. If pork gets beyond 147 degrees it starts to dry out fast.


The tin foil packets will be for future posts. Hey I need ideas too.

After about 1-1/2 hours this is what you are left with.


Just take a look at that masterpiece. Makes you drool doesn't it? See the provolone cheese oozing out the top and the right side. You can even see a mushroom trying to escape out the left side. I wish I could post the the smell of the roast while it was cooking, truly one of the best smelling foods I have ever grilled.

Here is the finished dinner plate.


This is a 5+ forks out of 5 fork meal. This may be the best dinner I have grilled yet, I am not sure what could be any better. If you have plans to cook this meal please do it on the grill, the oven just won't do it justice. If you do it on the grille (even if it is gas) add a chunk of apple wood to the fire it will make all the difference in the world.

Next time I will marinate the roast myself. I think the marinade the store used was bourbon and brown sugar, should be easy enough to make. Also next time I think I will ask the butcher to slice the roast open because I thought I was going to screw that part up. That's the reason I stared at it for 10 minutes trying to decide if I could slice it open the way it was suppose to be to stuff it. In the end it worked out.