Balsamic Pork Chops

I do not know why I feel the impulse to share this recipe too, but it was so easy to do and pretty tasty. I bought these pork loin chops and didn't know what to do with them. I tried this recipe out. They were about an inch thick and oh, so much better than a regular pork chop.


Ingredients
4 pork loin chops
olive oil
salt and pepper
4 garlic cloves, crushed
4 tablespoons honey
1 cup balsamic vinaigrette

Directions
1 On medium high heat enough olive oil to lightly coat your frying fan.
2 Rub the crushed garlic on both sides of the pork chops. Salt and pepper to taste.
3 Place pork chops in the pan with oil.
4 Brown pork chop on each side (about 2 minutes per side).
5 In a bowl mix vinegrette and honey.
6 Once chops are browned, reduce heat to medium low.
7 Pour vinaigrette/honey mixture to the frying pan.
8 Coat the pork chop in the sauce and simmer for 10 minute.
9 Adjust cooking time as needed per thickness of chops.

On another sidenote... things are going well with work. I mean, it is truly great. Now if I could only find the time to give the house a good cleaning. We're in the talks of getting a new swingset. I made the mistake of buying a cheaper set, and that's what we got. We're just worried that it is gonna fall apart and someone is gonna get hurt. So we went to Rainbow and OMG, you could buy a new car for the price of some of the playsets. We'll see what happens.
We're heading up to Chicago later today for a surprise birthday party for our neighbor. Seems a bit silly to me, but should be a nice weekend. The kids are staying with my parents.

The First Week

My first week is over. I loved it. It was great to feel like I was doing something worthwhile. It'll be nice when I don't have to get out of bed at 5am, but really, I think this is going to work out great. Even my blood drawing seems up to par. Hopefully the butterflies will go away shortly. I still get a little nervous. Especially since people are over my shoulder watching me.
The kids are doing great at daycare. Maya's teacher says she is her favorite and most polite student. Really??? How come the politeness suddenly disappears when I come around. Brennan is doing well too. He cries initially, but his teachers say he does just fine. His reports indicate that he seems to eat better there too. Yeah.
Monday we went to Bloomington to a friend's bday party. The kids love their friends.
Last night we went to see the Dark Knight. It was fun to go on opening night with the crowds. The movie was good. Not 100% awesome, but it is definately a movie you wanna see in the theatre.

Monkey Bread Surprise

Just thought I'd share this yummy treat with my readers. I made this for some friends and they LOVED it. It's a good recipe to make with kids too. Not the healthiest thing in the world, but delicious nonetheless. I told Adam to try it and when I asked him if he liked it his words were... "Who wouldn't?"

Monkey Bread Surprise


Ingredients
3 (10 ounce) cans refrigerated biscuits, separated and cut in half
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, removed from package and cut into 3 strips lengthwise
2 cups sugar
4 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup butter

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In bowl combine sugar and cinnamon and mix well.
3. Take one of the half biscuits and knead it into a circle.
4. Slice each cream cheese strip. Will need 60 slices total.
5. Dip a cream cheese slice into sugar mixture. Make sure it's completely covered.
6. Place into center of biscuit circle.
7. Roll up biscuit around cream cheese and pinch together.
8. Roll in sugar mixture till cover.
9. Place seam side up in bundt pan.
10. Repeat until all the biscuits are used up.
11. In microwave safe bowl melt butter. Add remaining sugar mixture and mix well. Pour evenly over biscuits.
12. Bake 35 minutes.

Vacation

So our trip to California was full of adventure, little time to rest. I think we had the best flight ever with the kids. They did so good. They love landing at LAX, because we always take the bus to the rental car place. They love the bus! We met up at Grandpa's the first day. This was the only day I drove myself to the mall. Usually I go to the mall to escape several times, also to check out all the cali stores that are no where to be found here. Funny how I only come home with Gap and Banana Republic clothes, which I can get right here. I think it's because those are the cheap stores in the mall and I have to buy something. We spent one day with Grandma Rene in the valley, before leaving the kids behind and going to Vegas. Vegas was fun. We didn't leave winners, but we didn't leave a ton of money in the casinos either. I was lucky in roulette and addicted to a Wizard of Oz slot machine. An Elvis machine also paid me quite well. Adam had one fantastic poker hand that brought him $450, and yet we still lost money, yes! We saw Mama Mia, the show. It was fun and I'll look forward to seeing the movie. I was also fortunate to meet up with a couple of my cousins I hadn't seen in years. Meanwhile, back in LA, Maya and Brennan went to a special premiere of Wall E in Hollywood. There was a preshow with all the Disney characters. The kids also spent a day at Grandma Rene's school. When we returned we hit the LA zoo with the Gurewitz family. It was hot, but we saw a lot of animals. Brennan was loving his cousin Maddux. They were having so much fun and calling each other cousins the whole vacation. The fourth of July we were back in the Valley... it was hot, but the swimming made it feel really comfortable. We didn't bother going to see fireworks with the kids being so tired from the day. The next day we met up with one of Adam's friends in the OC for breakfast. We went to the Original Pancake House, which had me very excited since I miss Madison's. San Diego was nice and cool. We spent some time near the beach and hit SeaWorld. The kids enjoyed it for the most part. The shamu show always amazes me. A new addition to the park was SesameLand. They had a few kid rides and a bunch of climbing equipment for the kids. We went to an Elmo 4D movie that Maya screamed through... "Get me out of here" "I don't like this". We got splashed when firehoses went off, bubbles when Ernie and Bert were in the bath, etc. The best part was when Cookie Monster threw his cookie at us. Both kids jumped as it appeared to be coming right at us. Brennan kept trying to grab things in the air. It was pretty comical. We spent our final night with Grandma for her birthday. I worked with the kids earlier and had helped them make stepping stones with their handprints for her. They turned out pretty good. Our flight home went okay too. Bren and I sat next to some girl who still had her ER band on. She was passed out the entire flight and I could only assume she was either a drug addict from the multiple needle marks or suicidal from what appeared to be a slash across her arm. Oh, plus she looked anorexic too. Our big excitement for the night was picking up Stella. She was very well taken care of and I think misses her doggie friends and life with a fenced in yard.
We've been trying to get back to normal. Brennan still thinks he should be sleeping near us, since that is what he did the past 2 weeks. Today I took the kids and a friend to see Alvin and the Chipmunks, the $1 movie. It was awful, but the kids seemed to enjoy it. Adam has a work conference tomorrow and a family work picnic following. A group of my girlfriends are getting together as well. Sunday Adam is signed up for a golfing/bowling tournament and monday I go to work. Time is flying and I am trying to catch a breath. I hope we can find a routine once I start my afternoon hours. Cali pictures are in the previous post.

California Show

I'll write more later, but for now here's some pictures. Click on the picture to make the slideshow bigger.