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Charmoula-Marinated Pork Chops with Grilled Pepper Mélange
Don’t feel bad if you don’t know what charmoula is. Neither does spell check. Per Wikipedia, charmoula or chermoula or chrmla is a marinade used in Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian cooking. It is often made of a mixture of herbs, oil, lemon juice, pickled lemons, garlic, cumin, and salt. It may also include onion, fresh coriander, ground chili peppers, black pepper, or saffron. In short, it’s delicious.
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Seize the Moment
After setting up our tent and settling in around the campfire with our friends at the Swift Reservoir in Washington, Mother Nature pulled out her palette for the evening sky. It was stunning and I knew I should grab my camera to catch the colors but I was tired and I wanted to spend time with my friends. I just figured that the sky would dance for us in the same way the next night. However, I’d been in this position before where I pushed off the moment, thinking I would get another chance but not getting it. Realizing my past mistakes, I got up and set up my gear and captured this:
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Recipe: Aunthentic Chinese BBQ Pork (Cha Siu)
My sister was hosting her first family Christmas Eve dinner after getting married. I imagine she wanted to honor the idea of family and tradition with her new husband as they invited our family and their friends over. In this same vein, I can imagine they wanted it to be a perfect event as defined by Martha Stewart. My parents became blue-collar workers once they came to the states. They had minimal English language skills and definitely did not know Martha’s definition of Christmas but they always did their best to give us what they thought we needed and wanted. As my sister’s guests, they wanted to contribute and help…
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Recipe: “Chinese Meatloaf” (better known as Fried Rice)
D likes to tell people about my Chinese Meatloaf though I try to remind him that no one else knows what that means. It’s my own personal name for fried rice because my recipe for it really just depends on what’s in the fridge and pantry. Whatever that ends up being simply gets mixed in with the staple fried rice ingredients and voilà, there’s dinner. It’s actually my core style of cooking—“meatloaf style“—that is. It can be used for stir fry, chow mein, omelets, and even spaghetti sauce. There could almost be a cookbook for it; however, that would be completely contrary to the point.
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Recipe: Sparkling Ginger Mint Limeade
It always seems like a good idea to add a mint plant to your basket when you’re at the nursery. However, its fast growing nature eventually makes that spontaneous decision seem poor. Wanting to do more than to garnish every meal, I went on a search for recipes that didn’t include mint jam and could help provide relief for the early summer heat we’d been experiencing in the Northwest. I came across a Fresh Mint and Ginger Lemonade recipe on
