We had such a nice afternoon and happily everything turned out really good.  Except I almost burned the bread!  The directions said to cook for 35 minutes and here’s how it looked at 25!

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I am not going to post this recipe – it still needs tweaking!

My side dishes:

Asian Cucumber Salad

  • 2 cups thin sliced cucumbers
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp. sesame oil

Combine all ingredients and refrigerate for one hour.

I also made a pasta salad, but I never have a recipe for it – just eye ball it!  After I boil my pasta, I reserve the starchy water and blanch my veggies in that.  This one also had pearl mozzarella balls and chunks of salami – yum!  I also use Paul Newman’s Light balsamic for the dressing.

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I had two separate marinades – one for the pork and one for the chicken.

Greek Marinade

  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
  • 2 teaspoon red wine vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
  • 2 teaspoons oregano
  • 2 teaspoons minced fresh garlic
  • fresh ground black pepper

Mix all ingredients and marinate thick cut pork chops overnight.

Honey Jalapeno Marinade

  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 3 tablespoons light soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon sesame oil
  • 2 jalapenos, seeded and chopped (I wish I would have kept the seeds in – it could have been spicier!)
  • 1/4 teaspoon crushed red peper

Combine marinade with chicken breasts overnight.

I decided to make a mango salsa to go with the chicken – it turned out really good!

  • 1 ripe mango, peeled and diced
  • 1 small cucumber, peeled and diced
  • 3 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
  • 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
  • 1 jicama, peeled and diced
  • salt and pepper to taste

I let this marinate overnight too.  I left the jalapeno out of it thinking the chicken was going to be spicy, but it wasn’t!

I also grilled corn on the cob – I love the flavor that the corn gets when it grills outside the husk!

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After three hours in the refrigerator, I flipped them out on my cutting board.  Since I was making smores, I made them the same size as my graham crackers.

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Then it was time to assemble – my SIL and nephews girlfriend chose dark chocolate with sea salt, Hannah had milk chocolate, and my nephew had toffee chocolate.

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Then I wrapped up each one and put the name on the outside before putting them on the grill.

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Let me just say these were a bit messy!

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But everyone loved them! 

Off to finish cleaning the kitchen – hope everyone had a great weekend! 😀