Faith-filled Friday: Patience and grilling

Hello Crushers!

Yes, I'm still here. The baby has not decided to pick her birthday yet, so we have reached full term at 40 weeks!

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. - Galatians 5:22-23

We are very fortunate that our baby has made it to full term and we "shouldn't expect" any major developmental problems that preemie babies would have. Other than the gestational diabetes, I have been very blessed to have a relatively uneventful pregnancy. We've been so, so blessed!

Last night, Steve caught me talking to her. I was doing nursery rhymes to see how many I remember. I started joking that I hope she gets Steve's memory for songs and his singing voice. But I hope she gets my skin, arms, hair and ability to remember names. And our love of food and cooking and nature. And Steve's ears. And my grandpa's memory for places. And Steve's grandma's craftiness. And our moms' patience. And so many qualities that I don't even know if you can pass on to another person! 

While we wait for her arrival, Steve is planning on grilling out tonight thanks to the beautiful weather we're having! It's in the 60's today! We can sit out on our back patio and grill up some pork chops, asparagus and maybe even try some hassleback potatoes on the grill. I'll let you know how they turn out!

If you don't hear from me for a little while, it'll be because Baby Girl has finally decided to show up. Otherwise, I'll work on that patience part and catch you on Monday for a Virtual Running Date! Have a great weekend everyone!

Roasty-toasty potatoes and pork chops (Wildtree stuff)

Good morning, Crushers!

Have you ever had one of those mornings where you know it's going to take a little more make up than usual to feel and look awake? Yeah, it's one of those mornings.

Source

I should be all rested and relaxed after last night's delicious dinner. Not going to lie, I kind of winged it, and it worked out. WIN!

Last week, Steve bought a big package of boneless pork chops. Before popping the whole package in the freezer, I divided them in two freezer bags and added some Wildtree goodies. One bag has four pork chops and a 1/4 cup of Wildtree Wicked Good Slow Cooker sauce in the freezer, and the other had four pork chops, 2 Tbsp Wildtree Natural Grapeseed Oil and about 1.5 Tbsp lemon and rosemary blend.

While I was waiting for Steve to get home from a meeting last night, I drizzled four small chopped potatoes in olive oil and some more of the Wildtree seasoning and then added beets because they sounded all good and fall-ish. Mix those veggies up and spread them out on a baking sheet. Then I popped them in the oven for about 30 minutes at 400 degrees F, or until Steve got home. It was about 30 minutes...

Tip: When baking beets, I suggest lining your baking pan with some aluminum foil. Beet juice can really stain things (as I found on on a white towel recently and you can see on the potatoes below), so why make more of a mess than you have to? Clean up is easy too, since all you have to do is toss the aluminum foil!

Anyway, I put the pork chops in a frying pan with no extra oil or anything, and let them sizzle way for 4 minutes on each side. Then I turned it on low to keep it warm until Steve got home.

Here are the pork chops half way through.
The long sprigs of rosemary are from our garden. Time to flip!

We ate a late dinner of pork chops, roasted veggies and applesauce for our sweet. It was so good!

Had to eat all this good stuff before I could get the applesauce out. Yum!

Hope this meal brightens up your morning! It's really cloudy here in Milwaukee. Maybe I'll go put another swipe of mascara on!

The Leftover Question

Hi Crushers!

Wisconsin, like many states in the central part of the country, got snow dumped all over the place. It's not as bad as the East Coast's storms, but it was enough to give lots of happy children (and teachers) snow days! One such teacher is my husband, Steve, who woke up early this morning to shovel and dig out my car. With the help of a neighbor, they pushed my car out of our cul de sac on to the cross street that was plowed! Thankfully, I made it into work on time for an early conference call.

I just wish I had time to finish those pancakes I was going to make him for a thank you for shoveling! No worries though, since he's the pancake master. I just got him started.

Anyway, yesterday afternoon I remembered that I hadn't taken anything out of the freezer for dinner, so it was time to get creative. We had delicious pork chops on Monday night, so my first thought was to transform those into a new dish. A few weeks ago, my friend Susan asked me to address the question of what to do with leftovers. Since we rarely have them, I was a bit stumped.

Monday's dinner: Garlic Skillet Pork Chops with broccoli and couscous
What will you be?

After doing a mental search of our cupboards and fridge, I hit the Internet for inspiration. Where do I go first? Over to the Food Network where many of my kitchen crushes have recipes, of course!

Thanks to Emeril Lagasse and his guest Sam Choy, the answer to the leftover question was Sweet and Sour Pineapple Pork. I thought I could use the garlicky (yes, that's a word) cooked pork and reheat it with the sweet and sour sauce without frying it to save a few calories. Serve with some rice and steam some peapods and BAM! You've got an Emeril-approved dinner!

Unfortunately, due to a long drive home in the snow and getting to book club, I did not get a chance to make this before Steve just heated up the leftovers and ate it with some seasoned potatoes. Maybe next time?