Rosemary Garlic Grilled Pork Chops

It surprised me how much we enjoyed this recipe. I've only made pork chops one other time before and we didn't like them. But, my in-laws do these grilled, barbecue pork chops that I really love so I thought I'd give them another try. As you can see from my post topics, chicken gets a lot of attention around here. We'd actually had 2 chicken meals the week before this and I was determined to go a week without it. The pork chops I found were boneless and not super thick - really nothing special. The combination of the brown sugar, rosemary and cumin in the marinade really made them special though. I found this recipe on The Kitchn though I modified it a little bit. If you don't have a grill, I bet you could do these under your broiler too. You'd just preheat your broiler for about 5 minutes, then broil the chops on an upper rack for 5 minutes on each side. Enjoy!

Grilled Asparagus

I saw these beautiful, pencil-thin asparagus at the grocery the other day and couldn't pass them up. I've heard some tv chefs say that the thick asparagus is the best but I've always preferred the skinny ones. You just have to be careful not to overcook them. This method for grilling on top of foil worked well for me. Try out some different seasonings and spices too. And, if you have any leftover, warm it in the oven with some parmesan cheese on top, all topped with a fried or poached egg. This recipe is my own.

Parmesan Chicken Nuggets

I made these for a friend who just had a baby and also has a toddler at home. All kids like chicken nuggets, right? Well, my friend actually called me after they ate dinner to tell me how much they (including their toddler) enjoyed this. I was so flattered and happy I could help out. I was also happy I made a double batch of these so we could enjoy them too - they are quite tasty. This recipe is really similar to the Italian Chicken Fingers I posted recently so I made the same tomato dipping sauce to go with these too. The recipe comes from Simply Recipes.

Green Salad with Classic Vinaigrette

This is another one of those recipes I make so often that I don't use a recipe anymore. The dressing recipe is from Julia Child's Kitchen Wisdom and can be adapted in many different ways. It only takes a couple of minutes to make your own salad dressing and the result is so much better than anything you can get out of a bottle. As for the salad, add any vegetables or other toppings as you choose. This just happens to be my favorite combination.

Barbecue Chicken Pizza on the Grill

Here's a leftover idea and a method for making pizza on the grill. As I mentioned before, we love pizza but summer is not the time to be cranking up your oven as high as it will go and preheating a pizza stone. It took us a few tries cooking it on the grill but I think we've really got it down now. Many recipes have you put the dough right on the grill but this one is a little simpler I think. It also gives you as much time as you need to make sure your cheese is melted and brown and your toppings crispy. Let's call this recipe a collaboration since Chris definitely helped perfect it.

Barbecue Chicken

Barbecue chicken can be really good if it's cooked properly and I think I found a way to do just that. This method of cooking bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts on the grill can also be adapted to many other preparations so you may see a repeat appearance on the blog before summer is over. The cooking time is a bit long but the prep is short and it's a really low maintenance recipe. I got this one from Use Real Butter and I think it's a winner. I did make the sauce in the recipe but I cheated and used some I had leftover and frozen so I don't have any pics of that. I highly recommend the sauce if you have time. Otherwise, Cattleman's is my favorite bottled sauce. As for the rub, I had pre-made that too. I use the one from Joy of Cooking but the one in the recipe is probably just as good if not better than that. The chicken breasts I used were huge so we had plenty of leftovers. To freeze, I pulled the chicken off the bone, shredding it and stored in a ziploc.

Egg Salad

I think egg salad is one of those things people either love or hate. I remember my Mom making egg salad sandwiches on white bread with the crusts cut off when I was little and have loved it ever since. Like my pimiento cheese, I don't use a ton of mayo in this - just enough to bind it together. This recipe is also my own.

Chicken Tikka Masala

This meal was so good and really simple to make. We don't get to eat Indian food a lot but we love it every time we do. We both love spice, especially the different kind of heat you get with Indian food. Chris was actually surprised that the heat in the dish came from a serrano pepper, which is the same pepper I use in salsa and other Mexican food. We decided that the cooling Indian ingredients (yogurt, ginger, coriander) really balance it out so it's not the same "burn your tongue" kind of spice. Don't get me wrong, this is really spicy the way I made it. If you're not spice-lovers like us, you can just leave out the serrano pepper. This recipe comes from the Pioneer Woman and she credits Pastor Ryan, who must know a thing or two about cooking. I'd suggest making a point to try this one out and don't be intimidated by the ingredients - you can find them all at your regular grocery store.

Thin Crust Quick Pizzas

This is a great last-minute meal that I make at least a couple of times a month. I also like to do all-veggie versions of these for lunch. Now, I got a lot of skeptical comments when I was talking about this recipe with some friends the other day and believe me, I was skeptical too but if you like your pizza with super thin, crisp crust, you've got to give it a try. You truly can't tell it's a tortilla - it crisps up perfectly. As you can see, I use whole wheat ones too with great success. This recipe comes from Simply Recipes and you can use the same technique to make many different kinds of pizzas. A great option for appetizers too since you can make in advance and serve at room temp.

Onion Rings and Fried Okra

Happy 4th of July! In honor of this holiday, I thought I'd post a recipe to go along with some of the grilled fare you may be enjoying today. I try to cook relatively healthy most of the time but this is an exception - it's a holiday after all. I picked up some fresh 1015 onions at the farmers market on Saturday morning and the okra in the grocery store was too perfect to pass up. I usually do fried okra with frozen okra so you could use that too. Just be sure to thaw it out completely before you soak in the buttermilk. This recipe is one of my own and you could easily adapt and just make the onion rings or the okra. We had an abundance of leftovers.