Greek-Seasoned Grilled Pork Chops Recipe with Lemon and Oregano

Greek Seasoned Grilled Pork Chops with Lemon and Oregano, served with Spicy Mexican Slaw!

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites, and I first made these Greek-Seasoned Grilled Pork Chops in 2009, when my old house was in the middle of house renovations, the grill was in the neighbor's garage, and I was anxious to grill.  Fast forward nearly four years and I'm living in a new house with a natural gas grill on the deck, and I still love this recipe!  When my grill was packed away I cooked these on a stove-top grill pan, which is a great option if you don't have an outside grill.)

All year I wait for grilling season, so I'm trying to be patient about the fact that it's June and my grill is still packed away in the neighbor's garage, where it's been for quite a while! I guess not having a grill is making me think about things I'd like to be grilling, and the thought of grilled pork chops with a marinade similar to Souvlaki popped into my head last week. Luckily I have a stove-top grill pan, as well as a George Foreman grill, and I've now tried this recipe using both of those. If you like Souvlaki but want an easier version, you'll love these pork chops.

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Recipe for Leftover Chicken Asian Chopped Salad

Next time you have leftover chicken, try this easy chopped salad with Asian flavors!

(Updated with new photos and step-by-step instructions, May 2013.) It's no secret that I'm a fan of those rotisserie chickens that jump into your basket at Costco, so I'm always coming up with ideas for using the leftover chicken, and this type of Leftover Chicken Asian Chopped Salad is something I'll often make when there's leftover chicken in the fridge. You can vary the ingredients depending on what you have, but for this version that I first posted in 2006, I used romaine lettuce, sliced mini-peppers, sliced sugar snap peas, chopped cilantro, cashews, and black sesame seeds. All those tasty ingredients get stirred together with a slightly sweet Asian dressing, for a delightful salad made from leftovers. This reminds me of the kind of Asian chopped salad you might get in a restaurant; hope you enjoy!

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Slow Cooker Browns-in-the-Crockpot Spicy Ground Beef for Tacos, Burritos, or Taco Salad

Ground Beef goes in the slow cooker with spices and hot sauce, and a few hours later you have perfectly browned and seasoned ground beef for tacos, burritos, or taco salad!

Maybe everyone but me knows about the idea of cooking ground beef in the slow cooker without pre-browning the meat, but when I saw this idea popping up on various blogs, I was intrigued.  I don't use a lot of ground beef, but I do love Taco Salad, and the idea of having Spicy Ground Beef for Tacos, Burritos, or Taco Salad in the freezer was enough to get me to try this method.  I love the ground beef tacos you get at a Mexican restaurant, where the meat is highly seasoned and very finely broken apart, so that's what I was going for.  I was fully prepared to try this several times to perfect the recipe, but my first try was a winner!  I did use a very generous amount of Cholula Hot Sauce to season the meat, so if you're making this for kids (or adults who don't like much heat) you probably want to use the smaller amount listed in the recipe.

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Barely Blanched Broccoli and Cauliflower Salad with Red Bell Pepper, Radishes, Red Onion, and Cashews

Barely Blanched Broccoli and Cauliflower Salad with Red Bell Pepper, Radishes Red Onion, and Cashews would be a great meatless contribution for a summer pot-luck.

Memorial Day means the unofficial beginning of summer in the U.S., or as I like to think of it, the beginning of Salad Season!  I love those warm summer days when a big plate of salad seems like the perfect lunch, and I'm always looking for ideas for my next salad creation.  This Barely Blanched Broccoli and Cauliflower Salad with Red Bell Pepper, Radishes Red Onion, and Cashews was inspired by a salad I bookmarked years ago on a blog that's no longer posting.  I changed it quite a bit from the original salad and it took me a couple of tries to get it right, but I love all these ingredients and this final version of the salad is definitely a keeper.

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A Container Garden on the Deck and Herbs in the Kitchen Window (2013 Garden Update #1)

Tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, and basil are growing on the deck!   Here's the very first tomato planted.

If you've been reading this blog for any time at all, you probably know that I'm passionate about gardening!  I've been sharing Garden Updates every year since 2006, and the garden at the old house got better every year.  And then just when I had the garden of my dreams, I moved!  I do love my new house, but there's an abundance of deer, squirrels, and rabbits running around on the hill, so while I build a real garden and figure out how to keep the critters out of it, I'm growing things in containers on the deck and in the kitchen window this year.  

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Grilled Flat Iron Steak Recipe with Chimichurri Sauce

Grilled Flatiron Steak with Chimichurri Sauce is nice for a special meal cooked on the grill.

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites, and this Grilled Flat Iron Steak with Chimichurri Sauce is something that would be great for the holiday weekend.  Flat Iron Steak is a bit more expensive now than when I first posted about it in 2007, but it's still a pretty good buy compared to most steak that's suitable for grilling.  Enjoy!)

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10 Favorite Pasta Salads to Make for Summer Parties

I love pasta salads of every kind, but here are ten of my favorites, perfect to take to a summer potluck.

I'm old enough to be able to remember when pasta salad burst onto the U.S. culinary scene, and sadly I've come across some pretty flavorless pasta salads since then.  Maybe it's all those lackluster pasta salads I've seen that make me determined to create pasta salads that are truly memorable, and every one of these 10 Favorite Pasta Salads are loaded with flavorful ingredients.  I also like to use less pasta in proportion to the other ingredients, which can make pasta salad into a lower-glycemic dish.  The last few years I've been a fan of whole wheat pasta, but some of my salads use Dreamfields Low-Carb Pasta.  You can use either of those in these recipes (or just use regular white-flour pasta if you prefer.)  There's a big holiday weekend coming up and any of these pasta salads would be well received at a pot-luck or as a barbecue side dish.  Enjoy!

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