A villain for grillin'

The mailman motto has nothing on me...I grill in ANY kind of weather (and we've had them ALL this Spring) and LOVE it! Grilling is a form of cooking that is personally captivating; the flames, the marinades or dry rubs, the smoky flavor, the sounds and aroma of sizzling, crackling foods...my troubles melt away with every waft of smoke and turn of the tongs. Especially if there is a nice glass of red nearby!

The cold and soggy Spring in Sequim hasn't even fazed me! It was grilled pork chops last night for the Ulins, actually blade steaks to be exact, bone in. Some cracks of on my sea salt grinder and freshly ground pepper on each side of the steaks and thrusted onto the pre-heated propane grill for 5-6 minutes each side (these blade steaks were thicker than my usual Sunny Farm's steaks)!

Onto the side dishes...Having just been to Nash's store earlier today, I picked up some of their famous "sweet" carrots, garlic, ginger and yams. My thought was that if the yams were cut the same size as the carrots, it would be infinitely more interesting side dish than plain old sauteed carrots, and it was! My heavy bottomed saute pan softened the half onion thinly sliced, the four ginger slices and the peeled and larger than matchstick sliced yam for 5 minutes in Canola oil before adding the 3 toes sliced garlic and four peeled and larger than matchstick sliced Nash's carrots. 

Before serving, I brushed the pork with Kobe steak sauce (an Asian style steak sauce available in most groceries-also an excellent marinade) for the last few minutes on the grill and let the delectable steaks rest for 10 minutes. Resting relaxes meat after the stress of being cooked and redistributes the juices throughout.  I also removed the sliced ginger from the veggies as it's imparted it's flavor into the dish and is alarmingly pungent to some most in sliced form.

There were leftover black-eyed peas with smoked ham hock from lunch and I warmed those to accompany the "BBQ" feel of my meal. Both husband and young son (and son's dinner guest) enjoyed the veggie combination of yams and carrots. The country style smoked ham in the black eyed peas gave some earthy, creamy depth to the sweet veggies and the tang of the Kobe steak sauced grilled pork chops.

 As the family feasted on their dinner, the grillin' villain felt victorious and eagerly anticipates her next caped crusade...perhaps a grilled pizza or grilled polenta with herbs and onions. Tune in next time grill fans!