Manning the Grill

I managed to get dinner on the table without a visit from the fire department. That's two days in a row that I have stayed out of trouble. The intial plan was to make the most amazing pork chops on the face of the planet. Let's just say, I made pork chops. I've mastered picture-perfect grill marks, but that's about it. As for the recipe, for those of you who have watched me cook, you know I'm not a measurement fanatic but I wrote the recipe as a rough estimate.

Mustard Marinated Pork Chops

4 boneless pork chops
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
1/4 cup honey
2 tablepoons soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon dried ground ginger (in the spice aisle)
2 tablespoons white wine
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

I marinated them for half an hour in a ziploc bag before I grilled. I doubt that marinating for longer would have made a difference. I heated the grill at high heat to a temp of 350 before starting. Place the chops on the grill at the 10 o'clock position. Drizzle with some marinate. Cook for 3 minutes.

Rotate the chops 90 degrees to the 2 o'clock position, add more marinade, cook 3 more minutes, then flip and repeat. Here's the way I remember it: throw, turn, flip, turn, pull. You only touch the pork a total of 5 times. Put down the tongs and step away from the grill while you wait. Admittedly I found myself staring at the strawberry plant wondering how long it's gonna take for the chipmunk I yelled at yesterday morning to come back-kinda like wishing water would boil.

At this point, I pulled the chops off the grill and put them on a plate and tented them with tin foil. I didn't make anything more fun than Lipton's Cheddar Broccoli rice to put on the side. Life lesson of the week: sometimes you can't do it alone. A little prepackaged help never hurt anyone, right?

Hope the grilling tips help at least. Gonna do some work on the marinade to actually make it to amazing. One step at a time.