Pork Chop Salad

First, I want to just ask a question.
Why... WHY?!?... when it's too hot to be in the kitchen cooking over the stove, do I voluntarily go outside to cook over an open bed of hot coals? It's madness, I tell you.


Anyway, I found a new food blog and was inspired by this the other day and wanted to try it out for myself and Hotness.
It's a 'pork chop salad' and looking at the pictures he had on his sight, I couldn't imagine it not tasting good.


Here, compare his salad with my finished result:

Looks good, huh?


I made a few changes (what cook doesn't?), but nothing so drastic as to change the overall product.
Go read his recipe. No really, I'll wait. Go ahead.

Now, what I did differently was this:
Instead of iceberg lettuce, I used mixed greens (including spinach).
I swapped the cucumber for a zucchini squash.
I added 'shoestring' carrots
and for fun, I added Nasturtium petals.
Then I used only the balsamic vinegar and Parmesan cheese (no olive oil) for dressing.


I would have to say that I would prefer this over a grilled chicken salad any day. It was that good.

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In the meantime, while I was slaving over hot coals making the porkchops, Hotness took our cat out for a walk in the yard.

It's a very rare treat for her to be out (she's STRICTLY an indoor cat) so trying to get a good picture of her was difficult, as she was too busy inspecting everything.



I was told not to embarrass the cat by posting these.
I think she doesn't get enough exposure on here, so I was just trying to give her some. *wink wink*

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And in totally un-related news:
Hotness and I do not watch 'regular' TV.
Oh sure, we have a television. But we don't get cable or satellite or anything like that.
Whenever we watch anything, it's because it's on DVD.


So when we watch a TV program, it's because we either borrowed it or I picked it up on a whim 'cause I'd heard good things about it.
The other option is when our neighbor "Tivo's" a program and we watch it later at his place.


Due to that last option, both Hotness and I are now totally hooked on "The Big Bang Theory".
He recorded one of the shows, because he thought we'd get a kick out of it.
Oh, how right he was! We loved it!
So he recorded another, and so on.


I just recently ended up buying the first season on DVD and I'm looking at getting season two soon.


Yeah, we're probably behind-the-times on finding out about it, but we're glad we finally did.
I can honestly say I haven't laughed out loud while watching a TV show as much as I have with this one. It's a total hoot!