Quick, Quick, Quick

Don't you just love those meals that taste wonderful but are really quick?  Me too!!!  Tonight was a bridge night for Connie so I knew he had to be out the door by 6:30.  We got home about 5:30.  The big decision then was whether to spend 40 minutes cooking or start some pork specials thawing and do something really quick with them so we could go walk the yard and enjoy all the flowers.  Our yard has a veritable profusion of flowers.  The astilbe is going crazy, there are still some peonies and roses, the bachelor's buttons have naturalized beautifully and there are a ton of other goodies.  Plus, we wanted to see how the herb garden is doing.  Needless to say, walking the yard won.  Out the back door we went.  First to the bed outside the screened porch.  Hosta and ferns.  The hosta's in back are what we call the Claffey hostas.  They're from a friend whose last name is Claffey.  They bloom much later than the others and have the most incredible fragrance.  The ones in front are variegated.  Green and white and green and yellow.  Then, there are a couple of blue ones in there along with some lilies of the valley and epimedium.  There are about five kinds of ferns.  On to the bed along the fence.  More hosta, some astilbe, lamium, holly bushes.  Then to the garden.  Asparagus, strawberries, golden raspberries, sunflowers, peas, spinach, arugula, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers...  And, that's only about a quarter of the yard.  Now, you know why we love to walk it.  There's always something new!  We dilly-dallied over the tomatillos in the front.  How many of the volunteers should we keep?  Finally, at 6:00 we wandered in the house.  15 minutes to cook.  Hopefully, this new recipe was as quick as it sounded!  It was and was it ever good.  This will be a regular!  In fact, Connie never is a fan of meat slabs.  We typically  butterfly our pork specials and share one.  Tonight, I made two thinking there'd be leftovers for lunch tomorrow.  He actually ate both of his halves...  So, lunch tomorrow will be half a pork special and whatever veggies I decide to throw on some lettuce...

Hickory Bourbon Pork
2 pork specials, butterflied
1/4 c dark brown sugar
1 t kosher salt
1 t thyme
1/2 t onion powder
1/8 t cayenne
1/4 c shagbark hickory syrup (you can substitute maple syrup but use the real thing)
2 T bourbon
1 T Guldens mustard (or other spicy mustard)

Mix the brown sugar, salt, thyme and onion powder and rub it onto the pork specials.  Get the grill really hot.  Combine the syrup, bourbon and mustard.  Put the specials on the grill and drizzle with the sauce. 

Drizzle again when you flip them over.  Then, flip them a 2nd time to caramelize the last of the sauce.