Grilled Maple Pork Chops

The week. Quieter than last week. We recovered from Easter. James had a heavier week at Microsoft — a strategy offsite he could not escape — and I had my first truly slow week at Amazon in months. I coded for four full days. I shipped a small cleanup. I felt like a software engineer. I took a walk at lunch on Wednesday and did not check Slack on my phone. I was a person for a whole hour.

Karen had a good week too. She and David drove to Port Townsend on Saturday for a day trip. Karen wanted to see the water. She had not been to Port Townsend since before the diagnosis. They stopped at a bakery she likes. They walked along Water Street slowly, Karen using the walker. David drove carefully all the way. Karen reported this all to me on Sunday and sounded fifteen years younger on the phone. David reported afterwards, quieter, that Karen had been very tired when they got home, and had slept twelve hours. Both of these things are true. Both go in the record.

I wrote Jisoo about Karen's Port Townsend day. Jisoo wrote back: "I love that she went. I hope she goes to many more places while she can." I printed the line. It sits on my desk. It reminds me that Karen's life is made of the places she will go before she cannot. I am going to take Karen to more places. I am going to take her to things she wants to do, more than she would ask to go. I told James this on Sunday. He said, "Yes. Let's take her out while she's up for it." He is on my team in the quiet important ways.

Wedding planning: the dress is being altered. I had the first fitting on Thursday. The dress is simple — a slip-style gown in ivory silk, no beading, no lace, no train, just a clean line. I found it at a boutique in Fremont. The seamstress is Korean, actually, a Korean-American woman in her sixties named Mrs. Kang who has been altering wedding dresses for thirty years. She pinned my hem while asking me about the wedding. I told her about Jisoo. She stopped pinning for a moment and said, "You are a lucky girl." I said, "I know." She resumed pinning. She said, "Your mother is a lucky woman too. Both of them."

Dr. Yoon: we talked about the Karen conversation that is coming. I told her I was trying not to pre-answer it. She said, "Good. Let her lead." I said, "I will." She said, "Your instinct will be to take care of her. Resist it. Let her take care of herself by having the conversation she wants to have." I wrote that down. I keep forgetting this and relearning it. My instinct is to caretake. Karen's instinct is to self-direct. We are always in a small tension about this. The tension is ours.

The recipe this week is bulgogi. Again. I make bulgogi when I do not have a better idea, and this week I did not have a better idea, and James loves bulgogi, and I love bulgogi, and on Friday night we ate bulgogi with rice and lettuce and ssamjang and I ate with my hands and James ate with his hands and we did not speak much during the meal because we were too busy eating. That is the best recommendation a meal can get.

Bulgogi was Friday. But the week before, when I was still finding my footing after Easter and James was mid-offsite and I needed something that required almost no thinking, I made these maple pork chops — sweet, a little smoky, done in twenty minutes, no decisions. That’s the real recipe behind the recipe: some weeks you pick something you can make without asking yourself how you feel, and you eat it, and it’s enough. This one is enough.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 15 min | Total Time: 25 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

4 bone-in pork chops (about 3/4 inch thick)
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon olive oil

Instructions

Make the marinade. Whisk together maple syrup, soy sauce, Dijon mustard, minced garlic, apple cider vinegar, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper in a small bowl until fully combined.
Marinate the chops. Place pork chops in a shallow dish or zip-top bag. Pour all but 2 tablespoons of the marinade over the chops. Reserve the remaining marinade for basting. Let the chops marinate at room temperature for at least 10 minutes, or refrigerate up to 4 hours.
Preheat the grill. Heat an outdoor grill or grill pan over medium-high heat. Brush the grates lightly with olive oil to prevent sticking.
Grill the chops. Remove pork chops from the marinade and discard the used marinade. Grill chops for 5–6 minutes per side, brushing with the reserved marinade during the last 2 minutes of cooking on each side, until the internal temperature reaches 145°F.
Rest and serve. Transfer chops to a plate and let rest for 5 minutes before serving. The glaze will set slightly and the juices will redistribute. Serve with roasted vegetables, rice, or a simple green salad.

Nutrition (per serving)

Grilled Maple Pork Chops — The Week We Just Ate With Our Hands