Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Plums

If you’re from the south and don’t know, that little bugger is a groundhog, who, according to New England tradition, didn’t see his shadow on Feb. 2, and announced Spring would be EARLY. Well, clearly, that hasn’t happened. I don’t know what the %!&?! was going on yesterday on my commute home from work, but suddenly I’m in a white-out and I’m shifting the Jeep into 4-wheel drive and gunning it to avoid a car spinning out in the lane next to me.

SO OVER this weather!! Well, since a 2-week beach vacation isn’t an option right now, the intention is to make home a cozy, warm, happy place to be. It’s a fire-in-the-fireplace kind of evening, and dinner will be warm, creative and delicious.

We have a 16 oz. pork tenderloin in the refrigerator, and nothing tastes better with pork than fruit. We could whip up some quick homemade applesauce, but tonight’s storm calls for something a little more inventive, to cheer us up. Ever roasted a plum?

We gave the pork tenderloin a spicy rub of 1 Tbsp each of: cayenne, garlic powder and paprika. We let it sit on the counter for about 40 minutes to come to room temp before putting in a 400º oven for 30 minutes.

Then cut 4 plums in half lengthwise, pitted them, and popped them in a baking dish and slid them into the oven with the roast.

After 30 minutes, we set the roast on the counter to rest for 10-15 minutes, covered. Spooned 1 tsp crumbled blue cheese on top of each plum, and covered the baking dish to let the blue cheese melt.

Then quick sautéed some baby spinach in 1 tsp garlic EVOO, and dinner was ready! Quick squeeze of fresh lemon juice on the spinach for a subtle tang! Heaven!

Can’t describe how amazing this was. Sweet, spicy, savory, sour and a lil’ salty (the blue cheese) all at once. This is definitely a make-again dinner, and SO easy!!

*In order to lower the sodium, (this was sort-of a splurge on blue cheese,) substitute goat cheese for the blue, reduce the amount of blue, or eliminate the cheese all together.