Kate's Eats

It has been stupid hot here in the greater Austin area.
I am talking an average of 102-110 everyday.
Needless to say this inspires me to participate in an average of three activities:
lay on the cold floor in front of a fan
crawl into the deep freezer
complain constantly

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the heat but this is just insane.
Even the pool is luke warm and we can't run the sprinkler due to the water restrictions.
My neighbors corn is dead and my tomatoes won't flower any longer.
Oliver and I are going to try and fry an egg on the side walk tonight after the concrete has soaked up all that heat.
He and D are so stinking fair that if I let them outside they look like white snowballs dripping with sweat.
We alone keep Coppertone in business.

So the point of that rant was to point out that no way in hell (haha I made a funny) am I going to turn on the oven.
Even frying bacon turns the kitchen into an inferno.

Dinners lately have been pasta salads, sammies, and grilling.
Secondly, I've been on vacation (of sorts) for the past nearly two weeks so the freezer and fridge are fairly empty.
I ran to the store after getting home for the mom essentials (read: milk, juice, eggs, diapers, bread...ok and a bottle of chilled white).
While there I noticed boneless pork chops on a serious "need to use now" sale.
Then I remembered that I have McCormick Peaches from Indiana that needed used.
After some mysterious brain thingies going on I thought I'd make a spicy peach marinade for the chops, green beans from the freezer, and mashed potatoes from the garden.

All cane be done without turning on the oven!
brilliant!

Now, yesterday was my first day back to work after a week and a half. True to Murphy's Law it was complete insanity.
But it was so wonderful to be back among like minded people and back doing work that I am passionate about.
Yesterday also marked the first day with the new nanny.
Surprisingly, I wasn't nervous at all and my stress level was next to nill.

She comes to our house with her precious little daughter. Little O and Little K had a BLAST. When I arrived home they insisted that I sit in the rocker in the playroom while they cooked me dinner. Little K made me "wash" my hands" and Little O wanted to wear her "shoes on".
I am so happy I could cry.

After they packed up and headed out I did a little work from home and started dinner.
I made this marinade up so roll with me...

I gathered together:
EVOO
Red Wine Vinegar
Worcestershire
Soy Sauce
Dijon
2 cloves garlic
1 serrano pepper
1 c. peaches

In the food processor I combined:

Peaches
1T soy sauce
1T EVOO
1T Red Wine Vinegar
1t. Dijon
1t. Worcestershire
Garlic
Cayenne

Pull a "scary-scary" and then take some pics of the Monster being concerned at the whirl of the food processor.

The finished marinade/glaze wasn't all that pretty looking (the peaches were oxidizing) but it tasted yummy.
I wish I had added some ginger but I'll remember that next time.

I didn't s&p the glaze because I heavily s&p'd the pork.

And on a side note, what is with this terrible lighting??
Hmmm!

After talking to a client on the phone, picking up 100 lbs of legos, refolding the laundry in the basket that Little O decided would serve well as a chair, and hanging up the first three outfits that I tried on that morning which had found a home on the closet floor, I pounded out the boneless pork chops to about 1/4 inch.
Look how nice and pink and non-fatty they are!
Thank you Mr. Butcher Man!

Dunk those chops into the peach marinade and let sit at room temp (or in the fridge if you're a nervous nelly) for about 30 minutes.
In that time I decided I needed to cuddle.
The Monster had other ideas and I ended up icing and bandaging a toe.
I gave up that futile effort in order to work on the napkin rings for the wedding.
I am taking paint strips (stolen from certain well known home improvement stores) and wrapping them around the napkin and silverware.
I think they look cool.

After about 30 minutes of super gluing my own fingers to the paint strip napkin rings I decided it was time to pull the mashed potatoes and green beans out of the fridge and saute up the pork chops.
Now, I ALWAYS under cook my pork because it continues to cook after you remove it from the heat. While I don't much care for pork at all, I really despise serving overcooked pork. That's just wrong. So, I only seared the pork as in literally 1 minute on each side (remember they were super thin).

Here is the finished dinner.
Not sure what the heck I fiddled with on my camera to make the picture so dark.
But it worked out nicely.
Especially since I am notorious for making really bad pork chops.

My Monster doesn't eat. For as thick and flipping heavy as he is you'd think he never stopped eating but nope...the kids almost never eats.
This is the face I got when I offered him mashed potatoes...

You don't even want to see the looks of disgust at pork and green beans.