Pork Chops with Pan Sauce

When I was little, I would only eat pork chops with ketchup, which is probably why I hardly ever consider cooking them. But since both the husband and the kiddo love pork, I've been trying to make it more often. In an attempt to make it more than just pork chops, I made a little pan sauce to go with it. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough liquids, but it was still quite tasty. 


Pork Chops with Lemon Butter Pan Sauce
1 tblsp clarified butter
2 bone in pork chops
juice of one lemon (really should have been 
1/4 onion, sliced thin
1 tblsp capers
1 1/2 tblsp butter
Melt clarified butter over medium high heat. Season pork chops with salt and pepper and place them in the pan. Cook for 4 minutes. Flip chops and cook for 3-4 minutes more. I cooked mine to an internal temp of 150, but I think you can cook to 140 if you're not pregnant (you should look it up instead of taking my word for it). Remove chops from pan and cover. Deglaze pan with lemon juice. Add onion and cook until lightly browned. Add capers. Remove from heat and immediately add butter and stir to combine. Top chops with sauce and serve.

Grilled Pork Tenderloin

We had some great friends over for dinner the week we were trying to get ready for a bunch of dogsitters, so I was in need of a low stress meal that could be made on the grill. I wanted to aim a little higher than burgers and dogs, so I picked up a pork tenderloin at the farm. I was going to make a bourbon marinade someone suggested, but failed to note that it was supposed to marinate for 12 hours prior to grilling. With two hours to go before they arrived for dinner, I had to improvise. It turned out pretty good, but probably could have done with a longer marinade. I served this with a variation of the veggies in foil, some corn on the cob, and tomatoes with basil and olive oil. We ended the night with some vanilla ice cream with fresh peaches and then I soundly beat the pants off of everyone at 500 Rummy. (Are you practicing, KT?)


Grilled Pork Tenderloin
1 tenderloin (around 1.5 lbs)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lime juice
1 tblsp chopped garlic
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp oregano
salt and pepper
Put all ingredients in a ziploc bag and squish around to make sure the tenderloin is well coated. Let rest in the stove for at least 2 hours. Heat grill to high. Sear pork over high heat, then reduce to medium low. Cook for 15-20 minutes and then check internal temperature. Pull pork from grill at 155 and let rest. Temperature should reach 160 while resting. Slice and serve.

Stuffed Cabbage

Have you ever noticed how gigantic the heads of cabbage are at the farmer's market? I'm always amazed, but can't stop myself from buying them. Having already used my standard cabbage accompaniment (ham steak) in another dish, I decided to try my hand at stuffed cabbage instead.

Stuffed Cabbage
1 package boil-in-bag brown rice
1 lb ground pork
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, grated
1 egg
squeeze of tomato paste
10-15 large cabbage leaves
14 oz can diced tomato
1/2 cup white wine
salt & pepper
Cook rice according to package directions. Mix ground pork, beef, onion, garlic, egg, salt, pepper, tomato paste, and cooked (and cooled) rice in a mixing bowl. Blanch cabbage leaves until they are limp enough to bend, but not fully cooked. In the bottom of a baking dish, mix can of tomato, 1/3 can (approximately 1/2 cup) of white wine, and salt and pepper. Lay a cabbage leaf flat on the counter, mound pork mixture in middle, fold in sides, and roll. Place seam side down in sauce. Continue until all mixture is used. Cook at 400 degrees for one hour or until internal temperature reaches 160.

Ideas for next time - spice up meat mixture, add spinach and cheese to meat mixture, make more sauce, etc.

Dressing up Ham Steak

After a crazy day, I had about 5 minutes to make dinner before everyone in my house, including me, had a breakdown about how hungry we all were. Ham steak to the rescue! I also made another attempt at getting Natty to eat veggies, but apparently rice isn't his thing... Stinker.

Ham Steak with Mustard Sauce
1 ham steak
1/4 medium onion sliced
1/4 cup white wine
1 heaping tblsp course ground mustard (by tblsp here, I mean one of the regular spoons out of the drawer, so it was probably more like 2 tblsps if you're actually measuring)
Cook ham steak in skillet over medium high heat until browned. Remove from skillet. Toss in onions and let brown for a minute. Add wine and deglaze pan. Add mustard and combine. Remove from heat.

Cheesy Rice
1 package instant brown rice
1 large carrot chopped into 1 inch chunks
milk or water
1/4 medium onion chopped
1 handful shredded mozzarella cheese
Cook rice according to package directions. Add carrot to water while rice is cooking. Drain rice and carrot. Place rice in serving dish. Puree carrot in food processor with a small amount of milk or water to help it along. Saute onion. Add pureed carrot, sauteed onion, and cheese to rice and stir to combine.

Happy Accident Dinner

I don't normally cook pork, but Kevin really likes it so I picked it up at the farm. I didn't really know what to do with it, so I checked out Missy's recipe blog to see if she had any good ideas and came across a pork and eggplant stir fry. I had eggplant in the fridge (1st happy accident), so I was set. Missy's original recipe can be found here, but I made some adjustments according to my pantry. Thank you Missy for the great idea!

Pork and Eggplant Not-Really-Stir-Fry
2 tblsp peanut oil
2 pork chops cut into cubes
1 red onion sliced
4 cloves garlic chopped
1 red bell pepper sliced
1 eggplant sliced (shoestring)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tblsp oyster sauce
1 tblsp hot pepper and garlic sauce
1 cup chicken broth
1 tblsp corn starch
1 cup edamame (in the shell, 1/2 cup if not in shell)
10 leaves basil
brown rice

Heat oil in large stir fry pan until shimmering. Add cubed pork chops and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Stir and cook until browned. Remove from pan and return pan to heat. You can add a little more oil if you need it. Add onion, garlic, and bell pepper. Stir and cook for a minute. Add eggplant. Mix soy sauce, oyster sauce, hot pepper and garlic sauce, and 3/4 cup chicken broth in a dish and add to pan. Mix corn starch and remaining 1/4 cup chicken broth in a dish and add to pan. Return pork to pan and bring sauce to a simmer. Look at sauce and determine you've made too much sauce and realize that you forgot to make rice to sop it all up. Turn around and notice that your frozen edamame are still sitting on the counter. Add edamame to the pan and rejoice in this happy accident that gave you five minutes in which to make instant brown rice, which coincidentally takes five minutes! Quickly make brown rice. Chiffonade basil and throw it in the pan at the last moment. Serve the not-quite-stir-fry over rice.

Notes for future: cut eggplant into cubes instead of shoestrings, add in extra veggies.