Makes me wanna nom nom nom nom nom

I've discovered a new marinade that I'm crazy about. Sure, it's a salad dressing, and I'm positive it's really good on some crisp, sweet butter lettuce topped with Kalamata olives, cherry tomatoes, and fancy sliced radishes. But I'm loving this dressing because I've just used it as a marinade for dressing our meat for dinner twice within a week.

On Thursday night Carlton fired up the grill and I whipped out a gallon size ZipLoc bag. I put in four little 1/4" thin sliced bone-in pork chops that were BOGO (buy one package of four and get another free, woohoo!) at the grocery store with a generous squirt of the dressing and let it sit while the coals got themselves all hot and ready. I've gotta say, those pork chops were soooooo delicious! The dressing/marinade charred around the edges, caramelized in some spots, and got tangy and zesty and salty and all sorts of rich and delicious on those pork chops! I'd say that if you're cooking anything over open flame that takes more than 8-10 minutes to cook completely, I wouldn't marinate the meat first, but rather baste it onto the meat after it's gotten started cooking on the grill because it was cooked just right for our skinny little 1/4" pork chops. I served the pork chops with something I've only recently discovered in the freezer section of the grocery store, and Carlton and I both agree--they're delicious! Alexia Sweet Potato Fries. This time I bought the chipotle flavor and they were soooo good along with the pork chops! (This is the one and only way I will eat sweet potatoes thus far... they must be oven fried and Trisha loves them!)

Then tonight I took those individually frozen chicken tenders you buy in the big bag from the frozen meats section of the grocery store, and I put them in a baking dish, frozen, straight into the oven for the 20 minutes of recommended baking time. Once the 20 minutes were up, I took the baking dish out, squirted my dressing over each of the tenders, and turned the oven onto high broil for about 4 or 5 minutes... just long enough for the dressing to start to caramelize around the edges of the chicken. Delicious! We had some starchy sides tonight--no veggies because I wasn't in the mood for any. Some herb baked potato wedges and Sister Schubert's Dinner Yeast Rolls. What a delicious and easy meal! I dirtied one baking sheet, two dinner plates, two forks, one butter knife, and two drinking glasses! Carlton was lucky that his "doing the dishes chore" (aka put the plates in the dishwasher) was so quick and easy.

So, if you're tired of the salty zest of Dale's Seasoning and you're not up for Spicy Buffalo or Sweet, Smoky Barbecue flavors, go Greek! Feta and oregano? Yes, please!!!!