Vacation Pork Chops

We were off on vacation at one of our fave spots; a pretty fully equipped cabin in the woods in Door County, Wisconsin, and had decided on dinner “in.”

The thing is about visiting a particular place at least once a year for two decades is that you learn a few things…
1) bring your own chef’s knife, etc., because, nice cabin or not, theirs are not so good.

2) the local market is a smaller version of our everyday market, with the same prices,

so, no need to pack a bunch of foodstuffs for the three+ hour drive (bonus!).

Full disclosure: I did, indeed, pack a few things, like my fave hot sauce, our preferred coffee, and some gallon-sized zipper food bags, which I use a lot. I also pre-made the pasta base for our new fave Chopped Salad.

Our trip to the market yielded us these pretty tasty looking pork chops, a bottled vinaigrette for a marinade, and a bagged chopped salad kit to add to our prepped ditalini pasta.

INGREDIENTS
•Bone-in pork chops
•1 bottle Greek vinaigrette – or your fave
•1 tbsp hot sauce
•Gallon-sized zipper bag
•Olive oil (for the grill)
•Barbecue sauce

Note: these chops were huge, and there were just the tow of us, so I just used two. This recipe should be more than enough for four, or even six, smaller chops.

Stir the hot sauce into the vinaigrette until blended, then pour over the chops in the bag, close the bag, toss to coat both sides of the chops, and stash in the fridge on a rimmed plate (to catch any drippage) for a few hours or, always more better, overnight; flipping the bag over when you think to.

About an hour before you plan on grilling, bring the chops out of the fridge to come up to room temperature, and, hey, why not open a nice bottle of wine? We had a favorite rosé from Dragonette cellars in California.

When ready to cook, heat your grill to medium high, remove the chops from the marinade (discard the marinade).

Brush olive oil on the grill before adding the chops. Cook for ten to 15 minutes per side, until the center of the biggest chop registers 145º in the center, brushing each side with the barbecue sauce as you go.

Remove the chops to a platter, cover loosely with foil, and set aside to rest for five minutes or so while you toss the salad together and gather folk around the table.

Perfectly cooked, nicely flavored chops, and I didn’t even miss all of the spices and seasonings I would have used at home.

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