There is no sincerer love, than the love of food. ~ George Bernard Shaw

It’s been raining in Northern California pretty much constantly since December 24th. I happily avoided a week of the rain by being in the Mojave Desert for a week, a post on that will be up in the next week with lots of pretty pictures. So it’s been difficult to do my daily walk, I’m just not willing to put on all of my rain gear and walk in cold and windy rain storms every day. Plus, it seems I picked up a case of COVID, not confirmed since I didn’t have a fever so I didn’t test. But I’ve had no energy for two weeks and still have a nagging cough. However, whenever there’s been a break in the rain I’ve gotten outside to walk.

One of the things I’ve always done more in the winter than in the summer, is grill outside. My new apartment has a patio so I can once again utilize my small propane grill and today’s six hour break in the rain opened up an opportunity to grill up some really delicious pork chops, the ones pictured above.

I’ve taken quite a journey in my life where pork chops are concerned. My mom was generally a very good cook when I was a child, but she had a few things she just missed on. One of those was pork chops. I think falling prey to the idea that you don’t dare cook pork anyway other than well done, you know, to avoid trichinosis. So she would turn pork chops into dried out hockey pucks. Now I still liked pork chop night because she often made them with potato pancakes and Spanish rice which were both quite tasty. We always ate the pork chops with copious amounts of apple sauce to both give them some moisture and flavor. As such, once I was out on my own I didn’t bother to buy pork chops nor order them in a restaurant. Then in 2010 I was fortunate enough to spend three months at my aunt’s cabin in Utah while training for my Everest Trek. The nearest town to the cabin is in Panguitch, Utah and it’s a one-horse kind of town and certainly a one grocery store town. The store was seriously lacking in a lot of ways but it had the most incredible meat department. All of their meat was from local farms, super fresh and reasonably priced. The girl that worked the meat counter most days was also really cute and one day she tried to sell me some pork chops, I declined. But if I have a weakness in life…., I told her about my mom’s pork chops and the deal she made me was this. Marinate the chops, put them on the grill and cook them medium rare, if they weren’t absolutely delicious, she’d refund my money. So I did and they were, and my whole relationship to pork chops was permanently changed and I’m so happy it was.

My message tonight is short and simple. Even when the weather is bad and you’ve been caged in side for three weeks, don’t let your mood crash, find little ways to bring a little joy and happiness into your life even if it’s in small ways like a couple of well marinated, medium rare pork chops. ~ Rev Kane