Main Dishes

New England Steamed Clams

There is probably no more iconic summer dish for me than steamers; it’s what my family made for most summer holidays, and I could never get enough of them.  And now as an adult, you can’t go wrong.  It’s easy, it’s relatively healthy (you don’t need THAT much butter) and you it’s even better if you eat it outside.  It is hard to find long neck, softshell clams in the DC neck of the woods, so we have to improvise.  But it’s STILL good even with littlenecks.  And if you happen upon a place to get long necks in DC?  Please let me know! 😉  We’ll make do in the meantime. 😉

steamers

 

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Mini Greek-Style Meat Loaves

I saw this recipe in an old Cooking Light, and thought it was worth a try…definitely glad we did.  We’ll be making it again, and actually it would be worth doing in bulk – great for lunches.  The recipe called for more beef than lamb, and I ended up doing equal parts (with very lean beef).  Next time I actually think I would do all lamb.  We made these in mini loaf tins with a cucumber-tomato salad from our garden. 🙂  The sauce actually made it!

meatloaf

 

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Herb Rubbed Pork Chops with Pesto

This was another grilled pork chop recipe (and we have yet to tire of grilled pork chops!) that we liked a lot.  Very easy for a weeknight dinner.  There were no bone-in chops at the store, but the thick boneless were actually fine.  I did do a quick brine of these before the herb rub/grilling.  The pesto was from our basil, and we grilled some of our squash as a side.  This came from Serious Eats.

pestopork

 

 

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Lemongrass Chicken with Noodles

My friend Missy recently had a big party to celebrate a decade in DC – it was an awesome time with amazing DC food!  She had a Banh Mi station with lemongrass chicken.  I used her recipe and threw it over some lightly Thai curried noodles for a pretty good dinner.  The sauce was a good base but could use some brightening up…maybe more lime or fish sauce next time.  The best part was that we used our own sugar snap peas from the garden!

 

lemongrasschicken

 

 

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Caribbean Brine Pork Chops

We’ve had so much success with brined chops that I’ve been looking through a few other brines to try them out.  This was good, but too sweet for me.  If you like sweet with a nice hint of spice, you would probably really enjoy this.  I mean, I didn’t leave anything on the plate. 😉  We had this with our squash tossed with some of our dill and chives, and some corn we picked up.  Will be corn season in Virginia soon!! 🙂

 

carribbeanbrine

 

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Flank Steak Pinwheels

This was another of the freezer meals we put together about a month ago. Shawn is out of town and this is easy and in the freezer and it’s possible we have no food at ALL in the fridge. So it worked out. I want to say that the best part was the side of the first zucchini from our garden (also grilled), but the pinwheels were pretty good! They were a little messy on the grill, but for something you can pull out of the freezer and more or less throw on the grill I’m a fan!

freezer_steak_pinwheels

 

 

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Moroccan Chicken Skewers

This is pretty much awesome, and I made it twice in one week, once for us and once for my Mom while she was visiting and our friends who came over to visit.  The original recipe has a lemon vinagrette that you can drizzle over the kabobs, but I skipped that given the dipping sauce was SO good.  Made the meal, I think.  We had this with green bean and tomato salad, and a quinoa/veggie salad.  Great summer meal!

 

moroccan_spring_chicken

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Beer-Brined Pork Chops

The more we try different recipes, the more I think pork chops are pretty much  my favorite thing on the grill.  And this was probably my favorite recipe to date.  The only thing I’d change is to add more garlic and sage to the rub next time…and it is still great as is!  Otherwise…awesome!  We served this with some grilled squash and cucumber and black eyed pea salad.

 

beer_braised_chops

 

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Grilled Pork Chops with Garlic-Lime Sauce

So this was great.  Probably we’re just enamored with any good pork chop recipes right  now, but this is seriously worth a go.  I like how adjustable it is.  I actually think the “sauce/vinagrette” would be even better over fish, so I’ll use it again for that.  We served this with steamed broccoli and tomato and black bean quinoa.

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Jon’s Grilled Cider Pork Chops

Our friend Jon is awesome at grilling, and he passed on this recipe to our pals Missy and John, so we recently got to enjoy it at their house…and immediately needed the recipe!  You just can’t go wrong with this, and it was delicious leftover as well!  Can’t wait to make it again.  We had this with some simple sautéed brussels sprouts.  Check out the recipe here on Missy’s site.

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