Fourth of July Weekend

Happy Tuesday everyone! I hope you had a great Fourth of July weekend because I know I did.

Saturday was a busy day with lots of cooking.  We were having some guests over to our house, so I made a yummy lunch.  I made Greek Pasta Salad and I followed a recipe from my Healthy Living cookbook to make Brazilian Pork, which was pork chops with beans.

Greek Pasta Salad

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups dried pasta (I used Rotini Garden to make it a little prettier)
• 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 seedless cucumber, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1 bell pepper, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1 cup canned cannellini beans, drained
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 2 ounces feta cheese, cubed
• 1/4 cup pitted Kalamata olives, halved
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon mustard
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Cook pasta according to package directions. Do not overcook pasta because it will fall apart in the salad. Drain and rinse under cold water, transfer to paper towels to absorb excess water.

Combine tomatoes, cucumber, pepper, beans, onion, feta and olives in a large bowl.  Add pasta and mix together.

In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, lemon juice, garlic, honey, mustard, oregano, salt and pepped.  Pour over pasta and vegetables and toss well.  Season with additional salt and pepper if needed.

Brazilian Pork

Ingredients

• 4 boneless pork chops, 3/4 inch thick
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed with garlic press
• 1 15 ounce can black beans
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• cilantro to garnish

Directions 

Mix cumin, coriander, thyme, and salt and rub spice mixture onto pork chops.

Heat a non-stick skillets over medium heat until very hot.  Add pork chops and cook 4 minutes on each side or until still slightly pink on the inside.  Transfer pork to platter and cover with foil to keep warm.

In the same skillet, heat oil over medium heat.  Add onion and cook, stirring frequently until golden.  Add garlic and cook, stirring for about one minute.  Stir in beans, broth, lemon juice, salt and pepper and heat through.

To serve, spoon bean mixture over porn and garnish with cilantro. I served everything over rice.

I also made the best brownies to come out of a box.  I bought the brownie mix at William Sonoma, so it was a bit pricey, but so completely worth it.

They were the fudgiest brownies I’ve ever had. Soo good!

After we had lunch, Tommy came to pick me up so I could help his mom get everything ready for the BBQ we were having on Sunday.  I was in charge of desserts, as usual, so I made Strawberry Cheesecake and Oatmeal Craisin cookies.  We also marinated the chicken that we used for shish kebabs.

Before I got to baking, we were sitting out in the yard when I saw this little guy. Tommy had just finished cutting the grass and was using the leaf blower to get all the clippings off the cement and I pretty much saved this guy’s life, because he would have been blown away to froggy heaven.

We started Sunday off with a trip to the outlets.  J. Crew was having sale where most things were 40-50% off.  We also found out that if you’re a student, J. Crew gives you an extra 15% off, so I ended up getting shirts for like $4.  Tommy got polos for work and they ended up being only $13.  I love J. Crew and this student discount thing may make me visit them a little more often.

On our way home from the outlets, we stopped at the fireworks store and since I was an out of state resident, I was able to purchase some real fireworks, not the little sparkly ones they sell at Walmart. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to set off many because Munchkin was not liking em.

We did some grilling on the new grill that Tommy bought his dad for father’s day.

We had shish kebabs, steak, burgers and hot dogs.  We also made s’mores over the grill because the thunderstorms flooded the fire pit.  After we were sufficiently stuffed, we headed over to Camelback to watch the fireworks.  We got there right in time to see the start of the show, but Munchkin got scared and we had to watch the end of the show from the car.  But thanks to Munchkin, we were able to avoid the traffic that followed the show to get down the mountain.

We left pretty early to get home yesterday because sitting in traffic didn’t sound appealing.  On the way home, we stopped at P.C. Richard’s and bought a new washer and dryer.  I can honestly say I’ve never been this excited to do laundry.  They’re all fancy with cool functions like steam cleaning to kill allergens which might help with Munchkin’s eczema.

We sat around in the yard enjoying the gorgeous weather and ended up watching the Macy’s fireworks on TV instead of live because Munchkin was tired and ready to go to bed.  After he fell asleep, we set off some fireworks of our own and watched the fireworks other people were setting off. I can’t wait until next year because the Macy’s fireworks will be on the East River again giving us an awesome view.

Today is Tommy’s first day of full time work so I’m making him a special dinner tonight so me and Munchkin are heading to the supermarket!