Might I Suggest....Grilling

 My Mom was recently blessed with a new house.  We had been living in a small turn-of-the-century house, that needed MUCH love and care that we just could not give.  So after a little over decade and a lot of growing up, we were able to move out.   Mom now lives in a beautiful clean home that she can really relax in and I feel good about her living in.  

Along with the new house, came other "little luxuries" that we were not able to get in the old house.  Other then having floors, my favorite has been having...a grill.  I love grilled food.  It is the best way to cook food.  Don't you think?   Though I have never been able to grill anything myself.

Grilling is slightly intimidating to me.  I don't know if it's the fire or the grill itself but for whatever reason I was hesitant to make anything by myself on the grill.  So after thinking on it I decided to start simple...hot dogs.  They are cheap, delicious when grilled, and most importantly, already cooked.  I didn't have to worry about ruined or under-cooked food while I was learning my way around the grill.  After trying out the grill the first time, I realized it was not and hard as I had made it out in my mind. So I decided to step it up and try hamburgers.  I figured this was slightly harder yet still safe choice since hamburgers are pretty hard to mess up any way.  The hamburgers turned out slightly over-cooked but none the less I really feeling confident about grilling and decided to step it up again.  This time I went for real meat.  My meat of choice:  Pork Chops.  Mainly because that is what we had in the fridge.

For this new endeavor I wanted to try a new flavor but still keep it simple just in case it did not go well.  I went to the Food Network and searched for a marinade and stumbled upon Sunny Anderson's (love her) Easy Grilled Pork Chops.  

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 8 (1/2-inch) bone-in pork chops (about 3 ounces each)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Begin by making the marinade. In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, oil, vinegar, cumin and red pepper flakes.
Sprinkle both sides of the pork chops with salt and pepper and place in a re-sealable plastic bag with the marinade. Let rest on the counter for 1 hour.
Heat a grill or grill pan over medium heat. Remove the pork chops from the bag and lightly sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place on the grill and cook until the pork chop releases from the grill, about 4 minutes. Flip and cook on the other side for another 3 minutes.

The marinade it sweet, spicy, and smoky.   Can't go wrong with cumin.

Make and leave.  Real Easy.

I pretty much followed this recipe to the T.

-

The only thing I had to tweak was the cook time since Anderon did not give a grill temperature.

These smelled so good on the grill. 

And then they were done....I hoped at least.  I resisted the urge to cut them open to make sure they were done.  That is a big "no-no" with meat because all that work you took in keeping the juices in is spoiled when you cut that meat before it is ready.  Don't cut the meat!  Be confident that you know what you are doing.

In the end, I had a beautiful plate that at least smelled good.

I would like to point out those awesome grill marks.

Served with a sweet potato

Now I know the suspense is killing you.   So I will just say these pork chops were delicious.

So grilling, like many things, was not as hard as I thought it would be.  For those of you who don't grill or are afraid to try...TRY IT!  It is so easy to get started, just start small with safe foods.  My next grilling adventure will be chicken.  I'll let you know how it goes.  (Though my next post may be about protecting yourself against salmonella.  haha)

Thank you God for the house the food and ALL Your MANY blessings!

Happy Grilling!