Grilled Pork Chops with Cappellini

We had been on a long ride, so when we returned home we grilled up some pork chops and served those with some cappellini pasta (angel hair pasta). We used the gas grill, since it was late and we were both pretty hungry.  I preheated the grill with 3 burners on high and 2 on low.  I prepared the chops with some kosher salt and a generous amount of fresh ground pepper.  I also had a tbs of unsalted butter reserved to brush on the chops while they grilled.  I placed the chops on the high heated side of grill and grilled each side for about 5 minutes.  I only turned them once for 5 minutes per side.  After that I moved them to the low side of grill and brushed butter on one side. It took the chops about 20 minutes to grill total until they reached a temp of 145.  In between turns I buttered the chops.  After those finished I let them rest for about 5 minutes.  While my chops rested I had my salted water going for my pasta.  While chops were grilling Will minced 4 cloves of garlic and made a chiffonade of about 1/4 C of fresh basil leaves.  The cappellini only takes about 4 minutes to cook.  We reserved a C of the pasta water and drained the pasta, placed it back in the pot with 1 tbs of butter 2 tbs of EVOO the garlic, basil and fresh ground pepper.  We also added some of the pasta water to keep it loose.  We served the pasta with some grated Parmesan cheese, crushed red pepper along with our grilled pork chops.  Bon Appetito!

Grilled Pork Chops With Pesto & Pasta with Veggies

When you have the charcoal grill going it's such a shame to waste the heat. So the other nite after I grilled the steaks, I just couldn't waste the hot coals, so I grilled up some pork chops, potatoes, smallwoods and corn. Tonight we had the pork chops topped with a dollop of fresh pesto with farfalle pasta and sauted veggies. I started by chopping up some garlic, zucchini, yellow squash, green pepper and sweet onion and sliced some mushrooms and sauted them in EVOO until the shrooms were a golden brown. While my veggies cooked, I made some pesto from basil in my garden. My recipe is simple- I roast about 1/3 C pine nuts in a 375 degree oven until they are light golden brown. This takes between 7-10 minutes. I take 3 cloves garlic, 3 C of basil packed in the measuring cup, and I blend in the food processor. I then add the pine nuts and drizzle 1/4-1/3 C EVOO into the processor as its still blending. I don't add salt because the cheese supplies plently. You are looking for a smooth creamy texture. I remove the mixture and place in a medium bowl and I fold in 1/4 C of freshly grated Parmigiana Reggiano. You want the cheese to be finely grated. That's it!  I drained the cooked pasta and added it to the pan with he veggies along with  1/4 C chopped basil and mixed it in.  I served the pasta with the grated Parmigiana Reggiano and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes. Check it out-yummy and very easy!!

Dirty P's Garlic-Ginger Chicken Thighs & Sesame Noodles

Tonight I made 2 dishes from the Food Network.  The chicken thighs are a Guy Fieri recipe, which is very easy.   The thighs grilled up with a crispy outside and were very moist and juicy inside.  The flavor had a nice mellow, slightly sweet and salty taste.  Really yummy and very easy, the hardest part is that you need to marinate them, and I chose to marinate them overnight.   I recommend this recipe and I will definitely make it again.  Since the thighs had an asian flair, I decided to serve them with a Rachael Ray Sesame Noodle Recipe.  I chose to use linguini pasta and I doubled the recipe, since it calls for 1 serving.  I really like this dish.  It was SOoooo easy and really yummy.  It too had a mellow flavor, not over the top peanut buttery or sesami-ish.  I will definitely make this one again, it really only takes about 8 minutes to make it.  I would suggest that you try them both together or alone.  BTW, hubby is recovering well from the fall,  he has a broken rib and he's very sore and bruised, but TG he will be OK.  Anyway, give these dishes a try they are Very Good Eats!

Laura's Lean w/ Creamed Spinach and Rotini

It has been awhile since my last post, but I revisted many of my previous dishes, so nothing to post. I'm glad to be back and this is what I've got.  I subscribe to Laura's Lean Newsletters and today she had some spring recipes, so I thought I would give one a try. It probably would've been worse, but I dressed it up a bit. Before I share my additions, here is her recipe: 1 med onion finely diced, 1 lb of LL 92/8 ground beef, 1 pkg of thawed creamed spinach, 2 eggs lightly beaten, 1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese. You will need to brown your beef with the onion. When beef is no longer pink, stir in the spinach, then stir in the eggs. Serve immediately over pasta and sprinkle with the cheese. Although very quick and simple, my thoughts were bland-a-rama. I kicked it up a notch by adding 6 cloves of minced garlic, kosher salt to my liking, and fresh ground pepper to the beef/onion while cooking, then followed remaining steps, and my last step was to add crushed red pepper. I served it over Rotini Pasta, but you could use whatever you have in the pantry. Healthy yes, but needs help. Try it and let me know what you did differently.

Rigatoni & Mighty Meat Sauce

Uh oh! I'm doing it again. We've had red meat everyday since last Wednesday. I know what you're thinking, but it's so yummy. Tomorrow won't be much different since I'm going to do something w/ Chorizo, yes it's pork, but Chorizo is NOT the other white meat. The good news is that the meat has been organic.

Tonight I took Marios Basic Tomato Sauce, I love Mario Batali, his dishes are just amazing, because of their simplicity. Anyway,  I had made a huge batch of the sauce last weekend.  You should definitely try this sauce it's so simple and soooo good, but be sure to use the San Marzano whole tomatoes if you do it.  Anyway, to my sauce I added 1lb of sweet Italian sausage and 1/2 lb of ground beef that I had browned and drained off the excess fat.  I simmered the meat sauce for about 30 minutes to really mesh the flavors and I served it over Rigatoni and grated fresh parmigiano reggiano over the top.  Doesn't that look yummy? As Mario would say, "Buon Appetito".

Spaghetti w/ Meatballs in Chef Mario's Basic Tomato Sauce

Simmering in the basic tomato sauce.

Not sure why, but yesterday I was craving spaghetti w/ meatballs, so I picked up some stuff at the market. I made Chef Batali's basic tomato sauce- that's found in an earlier post. The meatballs are from  All Recipes  

Finished product with grated romano cheese

and they are really good.  The meatballs turned out really moist and very flavorful, but next time I will add more garlic and parsley.  After I browned the meatballs I simmered them and cooked them through in the basic tomato sauce for a 30 minutes.  FYI, the recipe made 20 large meatballs, so you could definitely cut it in half or freeze some of the meatballs like  I did.  You should try the meatball and the basic tomato sauce recipes, very yummy.  I will definitely make the meatballs again.  Buen Appetito.