Grilled Pork Chops And Pineapple

Posted on by Jordan

I started this recipe with certainty that I was trying to reproduce something I have eaten before. After looking around for a while I wasn’t having much luck finding anything close to the pineapple slices over pork chops I was thinking of.

So I just kind of improvised:

First off I marinated the pork. I tend towards using garlic and pepper as my foundation for most marinades, but wanted something different when I knew it was going to be going with pineapple. Here is what I wound up with:

  • Olive Oil
  • Cinnamon
  • Apple Cider Vinegar
  • Honey
  • Chili Powder
  • Salt
  • Water

I was happy with the end result, although it wasn’t a particularly strong flavor. While the marinade was doing it’s thing, I prepped a pineapple:

After cutting out the center of those slices, there really wasn’t much else to do except head to the grill.

Side note, as much as I like my little grill, it’s easy to see that four people is about the limit when you want a single-stage cooking experience.

I stacked them on the grill for the last minute or so:

I really think a slice of Swiss Cheese would be a good addition at this point, but again, I could not find any confirmation via an existing recipe online. I would have done it anyway, except this was already far too experimental considering we were having company… and I didn’t have any Swiss Cheese on hand.

The end result was that everyone liked them, and Heather liked them enough to say we should have them again sometime. That’s about as good as you can hope for I think.

Oh, and technically those aren’t pork chops, they are slices of a big pork loin that was on sale the other day, but I figure it isn’t too far off.

-Jordan

 

 

Des Moines Habitat, Rain

Posted on by Jordan

Saturday, Heather and I had the opportunity to help provide food to the Des Moines Habitat For Humanity build.

They are doing some sort of large scale build, i think 10 houses in 10 days maybe? At any rate, they are building a lot of houses.

We were simply helping prepare and serve lunch to the crews.

Our involvement was due to Heather’s company providing the food for the day’s meal, and then recruiting staff to come help serve it.

Lunch turned out to be about 300 pork-burgers:

What you can’t really see in the picture is the rain. As has been the trend for September, it was cold and rainy all morning. It never turned into a downpour, but standing outside of the shelter wasn’t ideal. I was more than happy to grill, in part due to the fact I hadn’t brought a coat in my rush to leave the house. Standing by the fire was nice and warm, if a little damp.

The other advantage to volunteering to grill is that I have a defined task, and don’t have to keep wondering around looking for something to do or haunting the one person who seems to know whats going on for another task.

Even on that rather large grill, cooking ~300 burgers was surprisingly time consuming.

After cooking and serving lunch, we cleaned up and headed home. I had just enough time to get a hot shower in before the Nebraska game started. ESPN was streaming video of the game, a trend that I hope continues as we haven’t had a TV for over a year now.

Our plan for Sunday involved helping our friends who have been remodeling their house, to do some painting after church. A phone call from family drastically altered that plan, early Sunday morning.

Heather’s Uncle, the same one I briefly mentioned back in April when we saw him run in the special Olympics, was in the hospital. His remaining lifespan was being estimated in hours when we got the call, and found out that the majority of the family was headed to Omaha. I am not sure if I even know what I think about that day, and I am certain that I cannot refine it into something worth putting here. It was a long, cold, sad, rainy day.

Sorry to end on such a down note, but it ends up being an accurate summary of our weekend.

-Jordan

Weekend Grilling

Posted on by Jordan

Heather has been out of town for a few days thanks to a work trip.

A few notes from the odds and ends I stayed busy with:

It is possible to cook bacon on a grill:

If you try it, be aware that your going to have to give the grilling process 100% of your attention, as there is going to be a lot of fire. Maybe have a bottle of water handy or something.

This is exciting because Heathers primary objection to bacon (well ignoring the packing-plant episode) is the fact that it makes our entire apartment smell like grease for days. I may have found a work-around. 🙂

I went to the local gun range for a little target practice. If your like me, and maybe don’t shoot as well as you would like with a pistol, you might feel self conscious with all the other shooters around you. I realized though, if you just keep shooting the same set of targets, eventually you look pretty competent. Also I think I was improving rather quickly as time went on… still nothing to brag about, but improvement.

I thought I had a third point for this list but it seems to have escaped me… Hope your having a good weekend! 🙂

-Jordan

Three Weeks Down!

Posted on by Jordan

Today marks the end of three weeks in the Goals In Motion ‘Challenge’.

That leaves six to go, and I am counting 🙂

The interesting thing is that I rather enjoy the workouts, I just don’t like getting up that early, or what getting up that early does to my evenings. In case I haven’t mentioned it, we get up at 4:20 in order to make the 5:15 workout.

Beyond the changes to our sleep schedule, our eating changes have been more significant than expected. Heather and I did another challenge a while back that included an eating program, although it was self moderated. With the current program we have an assigned coach / mentor. She has been incredibly helpful! We already had the basic principals from before, but she has really helped us fine-tune it. One of the tools we have been using is a website called “The Daily Plate,” that provides a nice nutritional tracking tool.  To be honest, the site is clunky and less than user friendly, but it’s free and gives us and our coaches access to the information we want.

Because of our nutritional goals, I have been really looking for new things to cook. I tried a few noteworthy things over the past few weeks.

First up was “Stickless Shish-Kabab“only I cut back the oil in the marinade, and made it with chicken.

I discovered a number of things that were somewhat exciting in the process. First up is the fact that our oven, although lacking the traditional gas oven broiler pan, has broiler settings to ether turn the top or bottom heating element on constantly. This gave me a lot more control when broiling than I have ever had with an oven before. The option to just turn on the bottom element will come in to play once pizza is back on the menu. The second thing I discovered is that the stores have yellow squash in stock, and that Heather and I both rather like them grilled. We have grilled them a few times already, after ‘discovering’ them in this recipe.

The second thing I tried was “Whole Wheat Pasta with Asparagus.” I don’t really think I set out to modify this recipe, I just didn’t quite have the right stuff on hand. I don’t know if the kind of sausage called for was what I used, but it was really hard to skin, so I just chopped it up and did slices instead. Beyond that change I think it was basically what the recipe called for. The results were really good, and I think I may have converted Heather to liking Asparagus.

The final new item we tried was a notable strikeout. After our success with grilled squash, we were eager to try to expand our arsenal of grilling options, so we thought eggplant might be a good thing to try. Normally I would have avoided eggplant, but i figured we were on such a role with new things that it might be really good. (pictured here, hot off the grill)

It wasn’t terrible… but it wasn’t great ether. I know there are recipes that dress eggplant up a lot more, and I think we may need to look into those. Heather mentioned having really liked eggplant in Spain, but that it was breaded, fried, and drizzled with honey. Hopefully we won’t have to go to those lengths, but as it stands now eggplant isn’t on our veggie good-list.

-Jordan

A Pefect Circle…

Posted on by Jordan

…Of buck passing.

I have been vaguely aware of the dumb rules surrounding grilling at apartments in Omaha for a while now, but I finally realized how dumb they are a few days ago. The rules have been the same at every apartment I have lived in, and known of in Omaha.

  • The apartment notes on grills says “We do not allow charcoal grills, but you are free to use propane grills on your balcony”
  • The Omaha fire code allows for charcoal grills near apartment buildings, and propane grills, but your not allowed to have or to store the 20lb propane bottles within 50 feet of the apartment.

What hit me is that its such a perfect dodging of being the final authority. Both the OFD and the apartments neatly avoid banning people from grilling / having grills in apartments, but combined there is no way your actually allowed to have a grill.

There is one detail I left out, is that the little lantern sized propane bottles are ok by every one’s standards, so the little ultra-portable grill we have is fine.

Every spring, you start hearing rumors of Omaha Fire Marshal inspections handing out fines to people with grills, but always from a friend of a friend. I don’t know of anyone who has actually had to pay a fine.

-Jordan