Could it get any better? BBQ sandwiches, watermelon salad and cookies!

Since Jeff had the day off, we were able to get a lot of stuff done around the house and I thought it would be nice to have a little mini picnic for dinner. We started out tonight with a side dish of Watermelon-Feta Salad with Fresh Herbs.

There were lots of flavors and textures involved in this dish... crunchy, juicy, sweet and salty. Exploding with color, this salad consists of chunky ruby red pieces of watermelon, peppery watercress, salty feta cheese, sliced red onions, fresh basil and mint. For a tart counterpart, we squeezed a fresh lemon over the salad before gently tossing everything together. Finished with just a sprinkle of salt to lure out the hidden flavors, this crisp salad was so refreshing and really hit the spot on this warm day.

Unlike the past couple of days when we should have used it, we were actually able to use the grill for tonight's dinner to cook the meat for these easy Barbecue Pork-and-Coleslaw Hoagies. Nothing fancy here, just pork coated with a spicy barbecue sauce (I didn't even make it!) and grilled until it is still pink in the center. While you wait for the pork to cook, a crunchy topping for the sandwich is combined by tossing broccoli slaw, sour cream, mayonnaise, a couple dollops of horseradish for heat and a dash of sugar to balance the flavors. Now, the original recipe did call for packaged "cabbage and carrot coleslaw" mix, but we already had the broccoli slaw on hand so we just used that. Once the pork is done and has a chance to rest, the tenderloin is thinly sliced and tossed with a bit more barbecue sauce.

To impart a little flavor into the rolls, they are first brushed with more of the spicy sauce before assembling the sandwich. We both thought these sandwiches were excellent... especially with the ease of preparation! The coleslaw topping was light, just creamy enough and had a pleasurable kick from the horseradish. If you don't have a grill or if the weather is not cooperating, you could also prepare the pork under the broiler if desired - just be sure to use a thermometer so it doesn't over cook.

What better way to round out a picnic like this than with some freshly baked chocolate chip cookies! This is actually a light recipe for chocolate chip cookies as it only calls for 8 tablespoons of butter, rather than the usual 16. As such, the dough when fully combined is not as creamy as a regular batch - though, it was still moist enough to hold together. The golden cookies with their cracks and crevices have an interesting texture - not super crispy, yet not soft or cake-like at all. They are firm to the touch and have a rich chewiness to them. With only 3/4 cup of chocolate for the whole recipe, the cookies are kind of skimpy on the chip to dough ratio though, but it was still satisfying enough. It was nice that I did not need to refrigerate the dough at all to keep the cookies from spreading too much - they were not flat at all and had a decent thickness.

Overall, a great light cookie as the texture didn't suffer as much as I thought - not dry or crumby and still buttery enough to pacify a cookie craving... though I would toss in a few more chips next time!

Recipes
Watermelon-Feta Salad with Fresh Herbs
Barbecue Pork-and-Coleslaw Hoagies
Chocolate Chip Cookies