Aloha and good evening to you! Today was a lovely, long, lazy day spent relaxing and reading after a busy past few days. I’m taking things slow for the next few days owing to the humidity here in Texas. Today is King Kamehameha Day in Hawai’i and the humidity definitely feels lush. I want our backyard and pool area one day to resemble a vacation spot complete with palm trees and all!

King Kamehameha Day honors the monarch who unified the islands of Hawai’i under one authority in 1810. The day was established in the late 1800s in response to overwhelming dislike of the current state holiday which held an association with British occupation of the Islands in the mid-1800s. For information about it is celebrated locally, you can read an excellent article about the unique multi-island celebrations here.

In our house, I chose for our dinner to reflect a more tropical theme. This Better Homes and Gardens Magazine recipe for Soy-Sauce Marinated Pork Chops did not disappoint and (surprisingly) garnered really positive reviews from a household that doesn’t eat many pork chops (for preference; not any sort of health or religious reasons).

The pork chops are marinated in part of the sauce prepared that is neither too sticky, nor too salty; and then grilled. The remaining sauce is boiled down to a light glaze that tops the chops that lay on a bed of mixed spring greens. I found it to be a light, summery dish (especially since the only chops available at the time were 1/4in when the recipe called for 1/2in).

I’ve already mentioned the pork chop swap, but to really turn this into a more Hawaiian dish, I made a couple more minute changes to the recipe that neither detracted nor distracted from the original recipe concept. In place of the soy sauce, I used a 50/50 mixture of Bragg’s Liquid Aminos and Big Tree Farms Coco Aminos. For the lime juice, I opted for a 50/50 mix of fresh-squeezed lime juice and Dole pineapple juice (we were fortunate to visit the Dole Plantation in Hawai’i when our parents took us many years ago and I definitely recommend it if you are ever in the area). Instead of canola oil, I preferred to use coconut oil (grapeseed oil would also work very well here).

Things I could have done differently… Instead of sugar, I should’ve used honey for a more sticky dressing. Instead of the coconut oil I used, I should’ve opted for a liquid variety for better emulsification (even though it all boiled down for the dressing). The protein could also be swapped with chicken really well for those who abstain from pork!

What is one of your favorite summery, tropical meals?