Bangin’ Barbecue in your Own Backyard

Hello all and welcome to the latest installment of Andre Taylor's Tasty Tidbits!

The dog days of summer may be long gone, but it's always time for barbecue. I am going to share one of my favorite recipes with you today!

Most importantly, I'm going to unveil the recipe for my secret sauce! So spark up your grille and get ready for a great time cooking out for your family and close buddies.

Today, we're going to cook up some grilled pork loin with a homemade barbecue sauce and a quick, yummy salad. Here's what you will need:

For the sauce:

• 1 large can of tomato sauce
• 1 small can of tomato paste
• 1 cup of molasses
• ½ a cup of light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons of cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon of garlic powder
• ½ a cup of rum or bourbon

For the pork loin:

• 1 pork loin
• 6 cups of apple juice
• 1 cup of honey

For the salad:

• 1 pound of romaine lettuce
• ½ a cup of chopped walnuts
• 1 large pear
• ½ a cup of chunked bleu cheese
• ½ a cup of raspberry vinaigrette

Now that we know what we need, let's get this meal together. Follow these steps for a great meal:

Pour the tomato sauce into a medium-sized saucepan and place it on the stovetop over a very low flame. As the steam begins to come off the sauce, add the tomato paste while stirring very slowly.

Once everything is all stirred together, add the molasses and brown sugar, still stirring the contents of the pot. The contents of the pot should turn a reddish brown and at that point, add the cayenne pepper, garlic powder and rum or bourbon.

Once you have stirred all of the contents together in the pot, let it simmer over the low flame for at least 30 minutes, stirring the contents once every 10 minutes. After 30 minutes, turn the flame off and let the sauce sit until it's cool.

If the sauce has gotten your attention, let's go to grilling the pork loin:

This process takes some time but it is well worth the wait. You need to let the pork loin marinade for at least four hours.

Pour the apple juice and honey into a large bowl with a lid. Mix the two items together and then set the pork loin into the bowl with the apple juice and honey, cover with the lid and place the bowl into the refrigerator.

While the meat is marinating, place a layer of wet wood chips under your charcoal in your grill, wet the charcoal with lighter fluid and light that fire! Once the charcoal starts turning white, add a layer of wet wood chips over the coals, then put the grate onto your grille.

Place the pork loin onto the grille and let it smoke for at least four hours, turning it every 30 minutes and painting on layers of the homemade sauce.

Before you take the pork loin off the grille, cut into it to make sure it's done. If it's not done, let it cook a little longer until it's done.

While your pork loin is smoking, you can get your salad together.

Rip up your romaine lettuce into a large salad bowl.

Core, skin and dice up the large pear and dump that into the bowl as well. Add the nuts and cheese after that and then, the vinaigrette. Mix everything together and then, ring that dinner bell and watch everybody dig in!

If you try these recipes or want to share some of your own, let me know. You can shoot me a line at andre.taylor@patch.com. I'll be waiting to hear from you.

Until then, keep on burnin'!