"WHY HAVEN'T YOU UPDATED?!" absolutely no one is demanding to know. Eh...it's a busy time of year. And stuff. Right? Sure!
I think both of us are gearing up for some holiday cooking, so maybe we'll be blogging about that soon. The menu at my house this year will be very low-key. The plan is to make and freeze some meat pies well in advance, so all I have to do is bake them Christmas day and be done with it. They will likely be served with a quick side of Potatoes & Green Beans and a dessert of some kind. Maybe a cheesecake? My mom gifted me her springform pan, and I've been very excited about that.
In the meantime, here is my go-to Christmas recipe. I make these every year - they are super easy, delicious, and big crowd pleasers! They're just kind of pain-in-the-butt messy to deal with, which is why I only bother with them once a year.
_________________________________________
SAUSAGE BALLS
• 2 cups Bisquick mix
• 2/3 cup milk
• ½ lb hot breakfast sausage (if you don't like hot stuff, go all mild)
• ½ lb mild breakfast sausage (if you ain't a wimp, go all hot)
• 12 oz shredded sharp cheddar (definitely use sharp)
Oven temp: 350
In a large bowl, mix everything together well until a gooey dough is formed. It will be very sticky at first – like, totally gross, ew, it won't come off my fingers, what have I done?! Let it sit a few minutes to firm up before rolling. Wash your hands while you wait. Gah. Ugh.
Pinch off a little dough at a time and roll into small balls - I aim for somewhere between the size of a nickle and quarter. Line them up in a single layer – not touching each other - on an ungreased cookie sheet. You can fit many on the sheet, since they will plump up a little when cooked, but not much. Bake 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown.
I usually have about three cookies sheets in rotation while I make batch after batch after batch of these things. If you're making them for gifts or party trays, you'll want to make more than you think you'll need. This is to account for any that might, uh...go missing during the cooking process. Lock your kitchen down. Some people do not understand the meaning of "those are for the office party."
(And honestly, I thought I only ate like three of them, but I'm missing about two dozen. It must have been the dog.)
________________________________
Also, before I go...next time you make Sweet Potato Fries, sprinkle on some chili powder and rosemary along with the salt and pepper. DO IT.
Showing posts with label little piggies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label little piggies. Show all posts
Skillet Smothered Pork Chops
I made these yesterday as part of a big Sunday lunch spread - with rice and gravy (the Tony's roux mix stuff - thick thick!), speckled butter beans, mixed steamed veggies with a homemade cheese sauce, and rosemary rolls (from frozen, don't get too excited).
I was very happy with them! I learned a lot - my pork chops always come out overdone, dry, and ugly-pale. I have figured out the secrets to stopping all those problems. Behold:
__________________________________
Skillet Smothered Pork Chops
• 1 lb thin cut pork chops (thin cooks faster, yay)
• Salt, pepper, and Tony’s (as always, to taste)
• Garlic powder/salt, onion powder/salt, paprika, cayenne, etc. (whatever you have on hand or want to use in a dry rub)
• 1-2 onions, sliced into rings
• 1 can mushroom pieces, drained (or 1 package fresh mushrooms, cleaned and sliced)
• 1-2 cloves fresh garlic, roughly chopped (I suppose this could be optional, but I like garlic!)
• Small bowl of flour, for dredging
• Oil for frying – ½ inch deep in frying pan
• 1 tbs (more or less) butter
Dry rub the pork chops with your seasoning mix of choice – some black pepper, Tony’s, garlic powder, paprika, and a little salt works well. Get both sides real good. Let the chops rest a few minutes while you heat the oil in the skillet (medium-high heat for frying).
Dip each pork chop in flour (you can lightly season the flour with more of the seasoning mix if you want), and shake off the excess. Set the floured chops aside and let them rest another few minutes. When the oil is hot, add a generous pat of butter, and let it melt (be careful of any popping).
THAT is where I was always going wrong. The butter is essential to get the pork chops brown. Butter is a browning agent. You can totally mix frying mediums and put oil and butter together. True story. Enlightening as hell.
Anyway, when the oil/butter is hot enough to fry in (I always test it out with the tiniest sprinkle of flour to see if it sizzles), add the chops in 3-4 at a time. Don’t crowd the pan. Cook them a few minutes (like, 3-4 minutes?) until brown, then flip them over and cook the other side another few minutes. Remove with tongs to drain on a paper-towel lined plate. Make sure it’s cooked through – if there’s any pink left (check the thickest part of the thickest chop), cook it a little more.
I went ahead and cut all my chops in half, to make extra sure there was no pink in there. Then I pretended this was all part of my plan later, to make serving easier to manage or something. In the past, I was so afraid of pink pork that I overcooked my chops all to hell. That is pork abuse. A little bit of frying will do the trick. You don't have to fry them, then bake them for an hour, then blowtorch them, then drop them in hot lava to make sure they're dead. It's fine. A few minutes on each side will do! It's really liberating to realize this.
When all the chops are cooked through and removed from the skillet, drain most of the oil out. Leave a little bit, plus any of the drippings (the brown floury crud in the bottom of the skillet. Yeah, I know - eww. BUT ALSO mmmm.) Return the skillet to the heat, and toss in the onion rings. Stir them around a bit until they start to get nice and brown. Then add in the mushrooms. Salt and pepper them some (not too much, there is plenty of salt in the meat already! This is a dish that's easy to over-salt), and stir a few more minutes. You want the onions to be softened but not mushy. Finally, add the chopped garlic and stir another minute or two.
I'm glad I'm already married and not trying to date a dude, because I freaking love garlic. If you love garlic, y'all - marry someone that also loves garlic or you will be sad forever.
Remove the pan from the heat. There shouldn't be any juices or anything left in the pan, but you never know. If you have any excess liquid in there, drain it out. Add the pork chops back in, and stir them around with the onions and mushrooms.
Now go into your recipe book, rip out your old onion smothered pork chop recipe, and replace it with this one like I just did.
I was very happy with them! I learned a lot - my pork chops always come out overdone, dry, and ugly-pale. I have figured out the secrets to stopping all those problems. Behold:
__________________________________
Skillet Smothered Pork Chops
• 1 lb thin cut pork chops (thin cooks faster, yay)
• Salt, pepper, and Tony’s (as always, to taste)
• Garlic powder/salt, onion powder/salt, paprika, cayenne, etc. (whatever you have on hand or want to use in a dry rub)
• 1-2 onions, sliced into rings
• 1 can mushroom pieces, drained (or 1 package fresh mushrooms, cleaned and sliced)
• 1-2 cloves fresh garlic, roughly chopped (I suppose this could be optional, but I like garlic!)
• Small bowl of flour, for dredging
• Oil for frying – ½ inch deep in frying pan
• 1 tbs (more or less) butter
Dry rub the pork chops with your seasoning mix of choice – some black pepper, Tony’s, garlic powder, paprika, and a little salt works well. Get both sides real good. Let the chops rest a few minutes while you heat the oil in the skillet (medium-high heat for frying).
Dip each pork chop in flour (you can lightly season the flour with more of the seasoning mix if you want), and shake off the excess. Set the floured chops aside and let them rest another few minutes. When the oil is hot, add a generous pat of butter, and let it melt (be careful of any popping).
THAT is where I was always going wrong. The butter is essential to get the pork chops brown. Butter is a browning agent. You can totally mix frying mediums and put oil and butter together. True story. Enlightening as hell.
Anyway, when the oil/butter is hot enough to fry in (I always test it out with the tiniest sprinkle of flour to see if it sizzles), add the chops in 3-4 at a time. Don’t crowd the pan. Cook them a few minutes (like, 3-4 minutes?) until brown, then flip them over and cook the other side another few minutes. Remove with tongs to drain on a paper-towel lined plate. Make sure it’s cooked through – if there’s any pink left (check the thickest part of the thickest chop), cook it a little more.
I went ahead and cut all my chops in half, to make extra sure there was no pink in there. Then I pretended this was all part of my plan later, to make serving easier to manage or something. In the past, I was so afraid of pink pork that I overcooked my chops all to hell. That is pork abuse. A little bit of frying will do the trick. You don't have to fry them, then bake them for an hour, then blowtorch them, then drop them in hot lava to make sure they're dead. It's fine. A few minutes on each side will do! It's really liberating to realize this.
When all the chops are cooked through and removed from the skillet, drain most of the oil out. Leave a little bit, plus any of the drippings (the brown floury crud in the bottom of the skillet. Yeah, I know - eww. BUT ALSO mmmm.) Return the skillet to the heat, and toss in the onion rings. Stir them around a bit until they start to get nice and brown. Then add in the mushrooms. Salt and pepper them some (not too much, there is plenty of salt in the meat already! This is a dish that's easy to over-salt), and stir a few more minutes. You want the onions to be softened but not mushy. Finally, add the chopped garlic and stir another minute or two.
I'm glad I'm already married and not trying to date a dude, because I freaking love garlic. If you love garlic, y'all - marry someone that also loves garlic or you will be sad forever.
Remove the pan from the heat. There shouldn't be any juices or anything left in the pan, but you never know. If you have any excess liquid in there, drain it out. Add the pork chops back in, and stir them around with the onions and mushrooms.
Now go into your recipe book, rip out your old onion smothered pork chop recipe, and replace it with this one like I just did.
Easy Boneless Pork Chop With An Amazing Flavour.
So, last night was kind of a bust. Which wholeheartedly sucks because I finally got a chance to cook and it wasn’t even worth half the effort I put forth (not too much).
Let me just throw this out there: the internet is a scary place. I bet you already knew that. The internet is especially scary for a naïve and innocent girl who just wants to find a yummy way to cook pork chops. Seriously. (that is not to say this recipe is bad – it’s not entirely…what went wrong was something I bet I could easily fix. I just am in awe of how many recipes I trip across that sound HORRIBLE. Or how many I’ve tried that have gotten rave reviews that taste like something I dug out between Battlecat’s back teeth. Not that I’ve ever eaten anything from my cat’s teeth. Jesus!)
I found a recipe on a site full of user-submitted recipes and I have to admit I chose it because a. it didn’t involve making a gravy and I did NOT want to make rice last night and b. it had the Best Title Ever.
It was called “Easy Boneless Pork Chop With an Amazing Flavour.”
With the period on the end! And just the one chop!
So, without further ado, Easy Boneless Pork Chop With an Amazing Flavour:
EASY BONELESS PORK CHOP WITH AN AMAZING FLAVOUR.
4 boneless pork chop(s) (HAHA)
3 tbsp applesauce
¼ cup butter (This recipe was written by someone from England, and the original recipe called for 100 g of butter, so I just read the comments and did what those fools said.)
1 tsp sage
1 tsp rosemary
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 apple, chopped (I used a Braeburn, because it was all I had left)
salt and pepper
(In my own words, because the original recipe kind of rambled on and on about “flavours.”)
Mix butter, apple sauce, and oil together. (I melted my butter…not all the way, actually, because this needs to be kind of stiff) Add rosemary, sage and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. If it’s not stiff enough to coat the meat (ew?), add more butter.
Score the pork chops with lines on both sides. Place each chop on it’s own piece of foil, just enough to tightly wrap. Smear the coating on both sides of meat, massaging it in generously. (EW!)
Wrap the foil tightly around the chops and put in the oven on 350 for 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven and unwrap just enough to fit apple wedges on top of each chop. Wrap that shit back up.
It says to cook it for 30 more minutes but to check it often to make sure it’s not overcooked or dry.
Here’s the problem with this – it’s SWIMMING in juice, so you can’t tell it’s overcooked or too dry. Mine was.
It smelled AWESOME as it was cooking, even Will commented on it. When we got down to eating it – not so much. It just tasted like a bland, overcooked pork chop. Obviously, the overcooked part was my problem. This morning I talked to Squirrel about it (we both talk about food a loootttt) and he said you pretty much have to marinate pork overnight for it to soak up any flavor. SO, I will definitely give this one more chance, but I will marinate it to see if that helps.
Also, next time, I will leave the rosemary off of Will’s pork chops. I always forget that he HATES rosemary. I make fun of him and just tell him to brush the grass off, but it kind of sucks when someone who loves you a whole lot can’t remember what you hate hate hate and you have to pick your food apart. I’m sorry to my husband, who has very definite tastes, if not at all varied or interesting.
So what did we have with these pork chops? Well, parsley potatoes, which you don’t need a recipe for (but, hey, how do you cook yours? Mine are never as good as mom’s!) and green beans.
Oh, green beans.
I love green beans. Well, no, that’s not entirely true. I love green beans in their fresh, unadulterated form. I love them just a little bit crunchy with just some olive oil and salt or hey! some lightly toasted sesame seeds. Mmmm.
I live with a man who wants them canned with bacon and a stick of butter and an entire salt mine thrown in for good measure. Actually, no, I live with a man who has NO IDEA how he wants them, just “not like that” and I know what he means, but I am not going to spend 30 minutes chopping up raw bacon to appease his steadily widening ass. NO NO NO. (sorry for the rant there!) I just don’t believe green beans need bacon and canned soup and fried onions and what other abominations people come up with to serve at family get-togethers. (that is not to say I don’t eat those things with delight – but on a run-of-the-mill Thursday night?)
Especially this time of year when I’ve got veggies ready to go in the ground for the first time ever and all I can think about is FRESH! And SIMPLE! And WHOLESOME!
So I just steamed my green beans for a bit until they were just tender and then I sautéed them with a little butter and garlic and I seasoned them with a little ground pepper and kosher salt.
Ok, too much butter. And not fresh garlic, just minced garlic from a jar and too much of it, at that. I was in a hurry, ok?
So green beans? Not very good. My fault. Not wholesome or fresh or any of the above. Just garlicy and slick with butter and sad. Wasted potential.
I just felt like last night could have been a lot better. It gets me down, you know?
BUT! We went grocery shopping last night for and I got all the stuff for some planned meals (do you plan four or five meals in advance so you know what to buy/what’s in your house that needs to be used?). Hopefully not too far in the future, I can post about your breakfast quiche (hoping to try that tomorrow…can I make it ahead and keep it in the fridge overnight?), my beef tips (oh dear), a creamy shrimp and pasta DO OVER! (with plain tomatoes, maybe served cold?) and a spinach, provolone and sausage pizza.
Speaking of that pizza, I got the recipe from a blog friend so I’m a little more trusting than just pulling it from the deep blue sea. However, it calls for 2 links of Italian sausage. And then it goes on to tell you to break up the sausage while you’re browning it, which leads me to believe it’s ground? In the grocery store yesterday I wasn’t sure where to look. Meat department? Deli? Do you know? I feel like an idiot.
Let me just throw this out there: the internet is a scary place. I bet you already knew that. The internet is especially scary for a naïve and innocent girl who just wants to find a yummy way to cook pork chops. Seriously. (that is not to say this recipe is bad – it’s not entirely…what went wrong was something I bet I could easily fix. I just am in awe of how many recipes I trip across that sound HORRIBLE. Or how many I’ve tried that have gotten rave reviews that taste like something I dug out between Battlecat’s back teeth. Not that I’ve ever eaten anything from my cat’s teeth. Jesus!)
I found a recipe on a site full of user-submitted recipes and I have to admit I chose it because a. it didn’t involve making a gravy and I did NOT want to make rice last night and b. it had the Best Title Ever.
It was called “Easy Boneless Pork Chop With an Amazing Flavour.”
With the period on the end! And just the one chop!
So, without further ado, Easy Boneless Pork Chop With an Amazing Flavour:
EASY BONELESS PORK CHOP WITH AN AMAZING FLAVOUR.
4 boneless pork chop(s) (HAHA)
3 tbsp applesauce
¼ cup butter (This recipe was written by someone from England, and the original recipe called for 100 g of butter, so I just read the comments and did what those fools said.)
1 tsp sage
1 tsp rosemary
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 apple, chopped (I used a Braeburn, because it was all I had left)
salt and pepper
(In my own words, because the original recipe kind of rambled on and on about “flavours.”)
Mix butter, apple sauce, and oil together. (I melted my butter…not all the way, actually, because this needs to be kind of stiff) Add rosemary, sage and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. If it’s not stiff enough to coat the meat (ew?), add more butter.
Score the pork chops with lines on both sides. Place each chop on it’s own piece of foil, just enough to tightly wrap. Smear the coating on both sides of meat, massaging it in generously. (EW!)
Wrap the foil tightly around the chops and put in the oven on 350 for 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven and unwrap just enough to fit apple wedges on top of each chop. Wrap that shit back up.
It says to cook it for 30 more minutes but to check it often to make sure it’s not overcooked or dry.
Here’s the problem with this – it’s SWIMMING in juice, so you can’t tell it’s overcooked or too dry. Mine was.
It smelled AWESOME as it was cooking, even Will commented on it. When we got down to eating it – not so much. It just tasted like a bland, overcooked pork chop. Obviously, the overcooked part was my problem. This morning I talked to Squirrel about it (we both talk about food a loootttt) and he said you pretty much have to marinate pork overnight for it to soak up any flavor. SO, I will definitely give this one more chance, but I will marinate it to see if that helps.
Also, next time, I will leave the rosemary off of Will’s pork chops. I always forget that he HATES rosemary. I make fun of him and just tell him to brush the grass off, but it kind of sucks when someone who loves you a whole lot can’t remember what you hate hate hate and you have to pick your food apart. I’m sorry to my husband, who has very definite tastes, if not at all varied or interesting.
So what did we have with these pork chops? Well, parsley potatoes, which you don’t need a recipe for (but, hey, how do you cook yours? Mine are never as good as mom’s!) and green beans.
Oh, green beans.
I love green beans. Well, no, that’s not entirely true. I love green beans in their fresh, unadulterated form. I love them just a little bit crunchy with just some olive oil and salt or hey! some lightly toasted sesame seeds. Mmmm.
I live with a man who wants them canned with bacon and a stick of butter and an entire salt mine thrown in for good measure. Actually, no, I live with a man who has NO IDEA how he wants them, just “not like that” and I know what he means, but I am not going to spend 30 minutes chopping up raw bacon to appease his steadily widening ass. NO NO NO. (sorry for the rant there!) I just don’t believe green beans need bacon and canned soup and fried onions and what other abominations people come up with to serve at family get-togethers. (that is not to say I don’t eat those things with delight – but on a run-of-the-mill Thursday night?)
Especially this time of year when I’ve got veggies ready to go in the ground for the first time ever and all I can think about is FRESH! And SIMPLE! And WHOLESOME!
So I just steamed my green beans for a bit until they were just tender and then I sautéed them with a little butter and garlic and I seasoned them with a little ground pepper and kosher salt.
Ok, too much butter. And not fresh garlic, just minced garlic from a jar and too much of it, at that. I was in a hurry, ok?
So green beans? Not very good. My fault. Not wholesome or fresh or any of the above. Just garlicy and slick with butter and sad. Wasted potential.
I just felt like last night could have been a lot better. It gets me down, you know?
BUT! We went grocery shopping last night for and I got all the stuff for some planned meals (do you plan four or five meals in advance so you know what to buy/what’s in your house that needs to be used?). Hopefully not too far in the future, I can post about your breakfast quiche (hoping to try that tomorrow…can I make it ahead and keep it in the fridge overnight?), my beef tips (oh dear), a creamy shrimp and pasta DO OVER! (with plain tomatoes, maybe served cold?) and a spinach, provolone and sausage pizza.
Speaking of that pizza, I got the recipe from a blog friend so I’m a little more trusting than just pulling it from the deep blue sea. However, it calls for 2 links of Italian sausage. And then it goes on to tell you to break up the sausage while you’re browning it, which leads me to believe it’s ground? In the grocery store yesterday I wasn’t sure where to look. Meat department? Deli? Do you know? I feel like an idiot.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)