Baked Pork Chops with Stuffing and Apples

Another simple recipe from the gals at Curves. Nothing like talking food while you're working it off! This is compliments of Sherry's sister and is a simple three ingredient meal (four if you count the margargine!) As usual with these conversational recipes, the amounts aren't really discussed but you'll get the general idea.

Baked Pork Chops Ingredients:
1 package pork chops
1 can apple pie filling
1 box corn bread stuffing mix

Baked Pork Chop Instructions:
Brown the pork chops on both sides in a frying pan. Make the box of corn bread stuffing mix. (mine required margarine and water) Layer in a baking dish, apple pie filling, browned pork chops and pre-cooked corn bread stuffing. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Serve with a green vegetable or salad and you have a full meal.

Thanks Sherry. Can't wait to try the next one.

Kids Party Idea and Tasty Barbecued Pork Tenderloin

Movie Viewing for Cheetah Girls One World Premier
The girly gatherings around the Disney movie releases have been so fun that we're having one ourselves for the August 22 premier of the One World movie featuring the Cheetah Girls on the Disney Channel. Similar to the parties held for the Miley Cyrus Best of Both Worlds 3D and High School Musical 2, we'll have the girls over for pizza and a craft and then they'll settle in for the big show. This movie takes place in Bollywood instead of Hollywood and the Cheetah Girls will be wearing lovely, traditional Indian clothes for the big finale.

So based on that, the girls at our party will be making their own saris for their craft! Using the simple instructions found online (http://www.wikihow.com/Dress-in-a-Sari), we are going to transform 4 yards of tulle into a cute mock-saris for each girl. (Since tulle is only about $1 per yard, it was the obvious choice albeit a see-through one. The girls will be wearing their shorts and t-shirts under it anyway). We'll finish it off with a pin from the Dollar Store and make sure to take lots of pictures.

Pork Tenderloin and Tomato, Vidalia Salad
I haven't been doing much original cooking lately as most of my stand-by favorites are the summer salads featured on my website. I did, however, use a variation of one of the favorites last weekend to make a tasty meat and salad combination.

Tomato, Vidalia Salad Ingredients:
1 package plum tomatoes, chopped (for extra color, use yellow and red tomatoes)
1/2 small vidalia onion, chopped
1/2 cup vinegar (I used a garlic and oil vinegar found at regular grocers)
6 T olive oil
1 T minced garlic
1 T fresh basil, chopped, cut or ripped
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients. After a half hour or more, pour off the liquid into a large ziploc bag and place the pork loin in the marinade. Marinade 1/2 hour or more in the refrigerator. Grill tenderloin 10-15 minutes (depending on size - until the juices run clear and the meat is firm). Serve with the salad as a garnish.

Vacation Update and Great Baked Pork Chops

Fun Vacation to Turks and Caicos
Sorry it's been a while but we had the 4 day power outage and then went on a fabulous vacation to Turks and Caicos. We stayed at a Beaches resort which I would highly recommend if you have a family. This particular resort had 6 pools, 9 restaurants, 38 X-Boxes and more. The pools were all different so it was fun to experience the variety throughout the day. The kid pool was right alongside a cute little diner that they could run into for a quick hot dog or milk shake. Each pool also had a swim up bar and my kids made great use of them for their special Shirley Temple drinks. They are also building a whole new section there that will feauture a huge water park.

My favorite parts of the vacation:
1. snorkeling with the kids (Paker wants to learn to scuba when he turns 10 now)
2. watching my son defeat my husband an the half-life-sized chess game
3. the restaurant variety - kids were able to try sushi and the japanese steak house knowing they could get a hot dog later as needed.
4. the safe environment for families which allowed the kids a little freedom. Being able to walk into the poolside diner to get your own hot dog is a big deal when you're small.


Yummy Baked Pork Chop Recipe
I saw some great looking pork chops at the store but had no time to crock pot them so I found a simple baked pork chop recipe. I revised it since I didn't have a couple ingredients* and this is the resulting simple, delicous baked pork chop recipe.

Pork Chops with Mustard Sauce Ingredients:
4 pork chops about 1/2 inch thick (mine were huge - more than 8 oz. each)
2 T. Grillmaster steak seasoning (or comparable amounts of ground pepper and salt)
1/2 can chicken broth
1/2 can skim milk (or half and half)
2 T. butter (not needed if you use half and half)
2 T. dijon mustard

Instructions:
Rub the seasoning onto both sides of the chops. Use non-stick frying pan or coat a regular pan first with cooking spray (we like Pam!). Cook chops on medium-high heat until browned (about 4-5 minutes each side). Remove chops and keep warm. Add broth, mustard, milk and butter to skillet. Put chops back in and simmer about 10 minutes or until sauce thickens a bit. Flip the chops once or twice during that time.

*no idea what the actual conversion should be for this but I didn't have half and half so I used my skim milk and then added the butter.

Simplicity of Oven Roasted Pork and Chop Suey

I think one of the real benefits of pork (and chicken) is that they have very little flavor and can pull off just about any combination of seasonings and marinades that you throw on them. It's a major benefit if you cook the pork one day and use in leftovers later that week. That's precisely what I did with a pork roast earlier in the week and it worked out great.

Our barbecue was not hooked up for the holiday weekend so I made the pork roast in the oven on Monday. It was marinating for a couple days which is always helpful but not necessary if you don't have the time. I was a bit nervous when cooking the roast because I found a lot of contradictory information when searching for a guide on how long to cook that 4 pound roast.

One thing that is consistent that I'll share right off the bat. You need to cook pork to an internal temp of 170 but you take it out of the oven when it's about 165 because it continues to cook after you remove it from the oven. Pork is so lean these days that it has a real tendency to dry out if you aren't careful.

I ended up going the slow and easy route and just started early enough so I could cook as long as it needed. Not quite as slow as a crock pot but I allocated 3 hours on 325. It only needed 2 1/2 hours to reach 165 and then we let it set for another 15 minutes before carving.

You can really use any combination of ingredients that you like but I usually use at least one oil (or butter). Here's the scoop:

OVEN ROASTED 4 LB. PORK ROAST
Cook Time: 2 1/2 hours (then let stand 15 minutes)
Prep Time: 5 minutes

Marinade Ingredients:
1/2 cup olive oil
2 T. lime juice

Rub Ingredients:
2 T.Italian Seasoning
1 T. Coarse Ground Salt
1 T. Coars Ground Pepper

Instructions: Cover the roast with the marinade and then rub with the rub ingredients. Let set for 1/2 hour to 2 days. Bake at 325 for about 2 1/2 hours (oven temps vary so just keep checking with a meat thermometer).

We ate leftovers the next day and then had an entirely different meal yesterday when we chopped up the remaining pork and added some La Choy chop suey vegetables. The pork chop suey was yummy and kept it interesting.

Here's that recipe in a nutshell:
- leftover pork chopped (I had about 1 lb. left)
- 2 cans Chop Suey Vegetables
- 1 can chicken broth
- 2 T. soy sauce

Heat them up in a pan and serve over rice. You can also add those crunchy things (from La choy on top)

Scrumptious Crock Pot Pork Chops and Apples

Here's another super simple main dish recipe made in the crock pot. If you like home cooked food, the crock pot has to be the best invention ever! We'd been eating a lot of creamy sauces so I tried this one with a chicken broth base and it was outstanding. The chili powder spices gave it a nice flavor but didn't make it spicy by any stretch.

Pork Chops and Homemade Applesauce
2 lbs. boneless pork chops (use whatever you have really - this is just what I made)
2 apples quartered
1 14 oz. can chicken broth (or enough to cover pork)
1 cup apple juice
1T chili powder
1 T Emeril's Southwest Essence (includes salt, paprika, chili poweder, cumin, coriander, cayenne pepper)

Combine in crock pot. Cook 8 hours on low (or 5 on high). Serve with the apples on the side - awesome.

Tip: crock pot meat is generally not that attractive. If you are serving to guests, take the extra couple minutes to brown the meat in a frying pan before putting it into the crock pot.

I like a lot of the spice mixtures that are combined like the Emeril one above. If you don't have it, just put a bit more chili powder in or one of the other Emeril ingredients like paprika or cumin. My motto is don't ever make a special trip to the store for one silly ingredient - just experiment with alternatives!

What's cookin' this week?

So simple baked pork tenderloin
We had one of our all-time favorite dishes this weekend. It's a baked pork tenderloin (or any cut of pork like roast, loin, chops. Your cook times would just vary depending on the size.) The key is the amazing sauce that it cooks in. It's almost one of those "guess what is in this" type concoctions because it really doesn't taste like what I'm about to describe.

We served it with the 90 second Uncle Bens rice that I always talk about and some lightly fried asparagus. The asparagus was leftover from the night before when we'd served it steamed (whole bunch only takes 7 minutes in the micro if you put just an inch of water at the bottom of a covered microwavable container.) Since we like our aspragus a little crunchy, it still had enough umph after that first day to allow it to be fried the second day. The aspragus was stored in a ziploc bag so I just tossed in some breadcrumbs, salt and pepper and then fried them on the stove top in a little bit of olive oil. Yummy!

Here is the recipe for the baked pork tenderloin:
1 1/2 lbs. pork tenderloin
1 can cream of chicken soup (can be cream of anything really - mushroom, celery, etc.)
coupla squirts catsup (say 2T)
coupla squirts worcestershire sauce (say 2T)
(I've made this a bunch of times with no measurement tool available and coupla squirts worked just fine.)
Bake in a covered baking pan for almost 2 hours at 325. I took the cover off for the last half hour.

I know it doesn't sound good but trust me when I tell you this one is a real crowd pleaser and as simple as can be.

Today in my Crock Pot - Southwest style chicken
We're switching to chicken since we had pork the last two nights. I have great luck throwing all sorts of pantry items into a crock pot for something different each time. Some staples that work well with crock pots are the cream of (anything) soups, chicken and beef broth soups, french onion and golden mushroom soups, cheddar cheese soup, tomatoes (either soup or diced), roasted red peppers, and crushed green chilis. The dried soups or soup mixes like beef bouillon, chicken bouillon, onion soup and taco seasoning are also handy. Of course, your tastes may differ from ours but these are what we keep around and use every week. Today's crock pot chicken is going to have a bit of a southwest flair to it. This is what I'm cooking as we speak:
- 2 large chicken breasts
- 1 can cream of mushroom
- 1 can cheddar cheese soup
- about 2/3 of a 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
- 1 can crushed green chilis
Cook 8 hours on low, or in my case, 2 hours on high and 4 hours on low since I didn't put them in early this morning.

Party in the Planning
Just a few short days after our New Years fun, we're in the process of whipping up more festivities. This time for Kristin who is turning 40 at the end of the month (but SO doesn't look it). She had no desire to have a party but requested a girlfriend weekend with just a couple close friends with the preference of somewhere warm. Since the whole gang won't be able to attend the getaway, we're going to have a fun pseudo-spa night first so everyone can toast one of our youngest friends finally joining our ranks. We're going to follow Kelly's lead and request that one of our local nail places hold evening hours for our group of about 10. We can bring in a couple little simple munchies and some adult beverages (in plastic cups) while sitting around getting manicured and pedicured together. The real bonus in our case is that the salon is right next door to one of our nicer restaurants so we could tie in appetizers or dinner if the group chooses. A fun time should be had by all.

Then a week later, it'll be off to sunny (hopefully) Sanibel Island for a couple days in the sand with our new beach toes. Doesn't get much better than that. Thanks to all the hubbies for watching the kids so we can enjoy this girlfriend time.

If you try any of our party ideas or recipes, let us know what you think.