GUESS WHAT?

Yesterday was my 4 year Spill the Beans Blog-iversary. Can you believe it? That means you must have wasted hours of your life reading my words over the last four years.

It’s been a really fun thing for me to do, and I definitely think it has forced me to get a little creative in the kitchen. I still have days (yesterday) where I go to the grocery store and feel completely uninspired and end up making buffalo chicken salad for dinner. Crowd pleaser, 100% of the time.

But other days I get all excited about creating something new, taking mediocre photos with my iPhone, and sharing it with you along with some anecdote about my largely unexciting life. It’s all very glamorous.

Speaking of glamorous, tomorrow I get to go to Tulsa. The Paris of Oklahoma! (Name that reference.) (Hint: I only ever reference one TV show).

I’m only going for two days, but I’m pretty excited about it. I’m also really tempted right now to make some sort of segue between going to the panhandle state and using a pan in the kitchen…

But I won’t.

What I will tell you is that Kelly and Aaron and I have had family dinner for the last 5 nights in a row! This is a record. We invited Ethan for the last 3 of them, too. This was night 1. Kelly actually cooked on night 2 and may be making an appearance as a guest blogger with that recipe. Stay tuned.

I came up with this random collection of spices and used it as a dry rub for salmon (above) and pork chops for another night. It’s got a good smoky flavor that works really well on the grill. I didn’t actually measure anything (worst recipe creator ever) but I’ll guesstimate for you here:

1 tbs smoked paprika

1 tbs garlic powder

1/2 tsp dried mustard

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp black pepper

Of course you can increase these quantities based on how much meat/fish/chicken/tofu you’re grilling. I patted the fish/pork dry, then coated both sides with the dry rub and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours before grilling. Worked like a charm.

The second summer staple is pineapple salsa! You know this is my favorite way to have it, but a quick salsa with your main course always makes things look fancier.

1 pineapple, chopped

1/4 cup red onion, chopped

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

2-3 tbs cilantro, chopped

juice of 1/2 lime

salt and pepper to taste

I thought about grilling the pineapple on skewers and then chopping it, but didn’t have the patience. I love the look of grill marks, but it definitely makes the pineapple sweeter so I think I would consider adding some diced jalapeno to the mix if you decide to grill it.

Thanks for sticking with me. Here’s to another four years of my nonsense!