Grilled Pork Chop and Green Bean, Tomato, and Grilled Bread Salad

Tonight we’re eating grilled pork chops marinated with pureed chipotles and lemon juice. Accompanying the chops is a salad of blanched green beans, roma tomatoes, grilled rosemary and olive oil bread, crispy bacon, bleu cheese, curly parsley, and a lemon vinegarette served in a red pepper half.

T: We’ve been grilling a lot lately.

A: we have, but no body would know that since we’ve been slacking. It’s been ages since we’ve blogged. Memorial day to be precise. I think we owe everyone a big apology! Sorry guys! we won’t let it happen again!

T: heheh, although I wouldn’t take our word for it if I were you.

A: seriously. I’m committed to getting back into the swing of things. Between moving, me working over-nights, and your family being in town for the past week, it’s been easy to put the blog on the back burner, you know?

T: yeah, totally. Is our kitchen OK for cooking in or does it make you not want to cook?

A: it’s okay. It helps that we have a grill, that’s really been an inspiration to me lately. As long as I don’t want to do too much in the oven things should be fine. Our oven is the size of a microwave. Seriously. And the burners don’t work all that well, but you know, you make do with what you have.

T: in what way do the burners not work well?

A: well, earlier today, when i went to make a lunch of boiled dumplings, I turned the burner on high and waited for the pot to boil…ten minutes later… nothing. It just wouldn’t heat up. So i used a different burner. That kind of sucks, but hey! there are three other burners.

T: that’s wack, yo. you can’t be an iron chef with a piece of crap range. That thing is almost twice as old as we are! Not cool. Hmmm… what would Rachel Ray do in this situation?

A: don’t make me bitch slap you son. you know we don’t mention that monstrosity of a cook on this here website! just joking… (for all of you people who love her) but seriously, don’t mention her again, cool? I think we should figure out how to get a new oven/range.

T: Yeah, we need a new one, and it needs to be free. After all, we are renting this place- we don’t own it… but since it still works, I don’t know if we can just ask for a new one.

A: i know, dude. we’re going to have to sit on this for a while. So…what’d you think of dinner tonight?

T: I thought it was killer. The pork was really good. It was cooked perfectly- it was tender, juicy. It had a nice spice to it. What I liked about the salad was that it was served in a red bell pepper… no, what I liked about the salad was the bleu cheese. But it was cool that it was served in a bell pepper.

A: Thanks! I need to give a shout out to Adam and the Wife from the Men in Aprons podcast and blog. All of his blogging and podcasting about grilling has really gotten me “fired up” lately! If you guys enjoy our blog, you will probably enjoy their’s. Their podcasts are pretty much them doing the same thing we do… only you don’t have to be literate to get the info. Woo Hoo… down with literacy! 😛

T: Hahah, judging by our website you don’t even have to be literate to make a blog. 😛

A: we’s us some college edumicated blogers! wees cans read damn it!

T: I know our mama’s so proud.

A: well surely! that’s what you get when you go to college in lousy-ana!

T: yeah, plus we didn’t just go for a few years! we went for the better part of a decade! we got us tons of ejucation.

A: it’s true guys, we really did go the part-time route through lsu. it took me damn close to a decade to get out! but finally!

T: the first 5 years of college are great. It’s the last 5 years that suck. Glad to be finished!! … ok, back to the food. What do you rate tonight’s meal?

A: I really enjoyed tonights meal. Like you said, the pork was perfectly cooked, juicy and tender. It was also super smoky tasting with the combination of using a chipotle (smoked jalapenos) rub and cooking over hickory briquettes. I particularly enjoyed the bread salad. I thought all the veggies went together well and the tanginess of the lemon vinegarette balanced out the strong flavors of the bleu cheese. I give this meal a 4.666/5. I thought it was wickedly good! 🙂

T: are you the devil? Don’t think I haven’t noticed that you have an affinity for using .666 in your ratings! I’m going to keep an eye on you. … don’t look at me like that… you’re scaring me. Ok, well, I give the meal a 4.5/5. I don’t think you could have done much better with the pork chops. They were stellar. It was all quite good. And, silly me, I didn’t even realize that chipotle was smoked jalapenos. I’m sure i’ve been told that at some point in time, but I was thinking they were a type of pepper in and of themselves. Crazy.

A: yup! and quite tasty. I love them. Tomorrow we’re going to go mexican i think! Tyler just brought home a bag of masa dough for me to make corn tortillas! i’m excited.

T: should be interesting. I know you’ve never made corn tortillas before. While I’m thinking of it, I’d like to shout out to Vince Caseriego. I think that’s how you spell your last name! Vince and I were inseperable in kindergarten and first grade, and I haven’t seen him in… like almost 20 years! He just left a comment on the blog, though. How cool is that?

A: really cool! you might be suprised vince, but i’ve heard lots of stories about you guys from way back in the day.

T: Just blows my mind to hear from such an old friend on this blog. I’m stoked.

A: food blogging… bringing friends together all the time… (sorry i haven’t written you heather.)

T: I don’t know why we haven’t heard from Cindy Lauper lately. She was my girlfriend when I was 5.

A: that bitch! she needs to get with it.

T: don’t call her a bitch! she’s a good person. We just had our differences.

A: heheheheh 🙂 there’s always tomorrow…

Kwaherini mabibi na mabwana!