Grilled Pork Chops with Blackberry Balsamic Sauce

Happy Tuesday pals!  Do me a favor, go get your grocery list and a pen/pencil/writing utensil of sort.  Go ahead, I'll wait.....(insert Jeopardy music here)....still waiting....ok got them?  Great!  Now put these ingredients on it ASAP.  This fabulously light and summer friendly pork chop recipe is so delish it must be made right away!

This is adapted from my FAVORITE of the moment cookbook Endless Summer by Katie Lee.  All of the recipes we've tried in it so far have been really yummy, utilize fresh summer ingredients and aren't too fussy or advanced. Not to brag but this cookbook author and co-host of The Kitchen is a Miami grad, making her superior to other Food Network folks (sorry GZ!).  Because she's one of the many awesome Miami alumni doing big things she came back to campus this spring for the Women in Leadership Symposium and signed this fabulous little cookbook for me :)  Like I said, not bragging, just saying.  Anyways, back to the pork chops.      

Grilled Pork Chops with Blackberry Balsamic Sauce

 Ingredients:
- 4 bone in pork chops, I used center cut about a half inch thick each (about 1 2/3 lbs. total)
- 1 qt. blackberries
- 1 c. balsamic vinegar
- 1 Tbsp. chili powder
- 1 1/2 tsp. ground coriander
- 1 tsp.  ground cumin
- 1 tsp. dry mustard

Instructions:
- Reduce balsamic by half in a nonreactive saucepan over high heat.  Should take 7ish minutes once you get it up to a full boil.
- Carefully add the blackberries, occasionally give them a gentle stir until they are just softened, 2ish minutes.
- Use a slotted spoon to transfer the berries to a separate bowl. 
- Continue to boil the balsamic until it has reduced to about 1/3 cup, about 3ish minutes.
- Carefully pour any juice that has accumulated in the bottom of the berry bowl back in to the pan, let simmer for another 30 seconds or so.
- Season with salt and pepper then pour over the berries in the bowl, you may want a spatula to scrape out every last bit of sauce.  Set sauce aside.

Yumm-o!

- Heat your grill (or grill pan) to medium (keep in mind pork is typically a low and slow kind of meat).
- In a small bowl mix together chili powder, coriander, cumin and mustard. 
- Season pork chops with salt, pepper and the spice mixture.  Give it a little rub so the spices really stick to it!
- Place chops on the grill and cover.  Cook for 2 and a half minutes (if your chops are thicker you'll need more time on each side).
-Flip the chops, cover grill and cook for another 2 and a half minutes. 
- Flip, cover and cook for a minute and a half.
- Flip, cover and cook for another minute and a half.
- Remove chops from the grill, tent with foil and let stand for 4 to 5 minutes.

Grilling credit: my husband

- Serve chops with blackberry balsamic sauce drizzled over top.
- Enjoy!

These pork chops are super flavorful with the spice rub on them but then the blackberry balsamic sauce really makes them sing.  So even if you didn't write the ingredients down and plan to make them tomorrow I hope you put them on your "to make" list soon!

Next up, it's time for some summer cocktails, stay tuned!

Cheers!
Steph

Cheezit Pork Chops

Another week begins!  This weekend was full of wedding excitement as some of my bridesmaids, my mom and I went bridesmaid dress shopping!  We had a really great day and I'm so excited that these are the girls that will be next to me on Chris and I's big day!  Chris traveled to Pittsburgh to see friends while we did our girl thing.

I wrapped up the weekend with Emily at the FUN. concert on Sunday night.  They played to a sold out show of 10,000 people (don't quote me on the EXACT number but I feel like I heard 10,000 earlier in the week)!  Although we didn't love the line for beer (we waited over an HOUR) it was a great show and it was kind of cool being part of such a big crowd!  Em and I really tried our hand at being "hip" with neon, prints and headbands.  Although it was fun (haha get it, fun at the FUN concert?!) we think we'll stick to our prep status from now on!

Hipsters for the night!

Ok so remember that Kenny Chesney tailgate I blogged about?  Abundance of food, friends and fun, yep that one!  As part of that abundance of snacks we managed to not even touch the two boxes of Cheezits I had bought (I had a coupon and couldn't resist).  Normally I'd say "no biggie we'll use them eventually" BUT we already had an opened Family Sized box at home.  What can I say?  We love our Cheezits!  ANYWAYS, I decided I needed to do something with these tasty snack bits other than use them as snacks, enter Cheezit Pork Chops.

Hello Cheezit abundance!

I found two different recipes on Pinterest for Cheezit coated meats, one for chicken and one for pork so I decided to take the aspects of each recipe that I liked and go from there (aka I just used them for inspiration while I did my own thing).  Given that the chops are coated in Cheezits I thought lightening the wet coating (one recipe said sour cream, the other said ranch dressing) using greek yogurt instead would be better, health wise.  

Cheezit Pork Chops

(makes two chops)

 Ingredients:

- 2 boneless pork chops

- 3/4 c. crushed Cheezit crackers (I used half white cheddar and half reduced fat)

- 2 to 3 Tbsp. plain Greek yogurt

- 1 Tbsp. melted butter

- salt and pepper

Instructions:

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

- Crush Cheezits in a sealed plastic bag with a rolling pin or the palms of your hands, set aside.

- Coat chops with Greek yogurt.

- Sprinkle salt and pepper on each side.

- Roll the yogurt coated chops in the Cheezits until well coated.

- Place in a greased baking dish.

- Drizzle melted butter over the top.

- Place in oven for 40 minutes or until chops are cooked through.

- Let cool for about 5 minutes then serve.

These turned out tasty and tangy!  Chris LOVED them.  He gave them a please make again (and again and again) rating (woohooo that's off the charts!)!  He prefers that I don't change anything and is convinced that since I made my own tweaks that I'll forget it all (hence why I had to draft up my blog right after or else I really would have forgotten).

I think I'll leave the butter out next time in hopes of keeping the crackers more crispy, plus I don't think it was really worth the added calories.  The yogurt keeps the pork very moist and juicy with a great tang.  The only downside to this dish is that it takes 40 minutes to bake, not exactly ideal but still easy enough for a weeknight.  I'd also like to try this recipe with chicken just for kicks!

I tried all kinds of new recipes last week so stay tuned!  Stay cool during this heat wave, 90 plus degrees each day, yikes!  If only I could trade work time for pool time!

Cheers!

Steph