Baked Pork Chops

Keep reading if you want melt in your mouth pork chops. Stop reading if you don't like your recipes to take too much time, because this one takes 1 hr 30 min bake time, but only 15 min of prep. Are you still with me?? Good. Read on.

So me and my deal matching self got a good price (for the City of Chicago) on pork chops. I decided to look for a recipe that didn't involve the crock pot since the last 3 or more meals I made came from it. (What can I say... it gets crazy around here!) Allrecipes.com comes through again :) Here's the recipe http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baked-pork-chops-i/detail.aspx This recipe calls for a can cream of mushroom soup, which I didn't use. I used a homemade cream of chicken that you can find here on my blog. But there is a catch... I didn't have chicken stock, or bullion. What to do?! I didn't want to use water (totally bland boring yuck). I used some of the white wine the pork chop recipe calls for... quite fragrant! The wine was Barefoot's Sauvignon Blanc - it was on sale :)

here's the browning process

 

post soup application

right out of the oven

here's the end result... pork chop goodness!

These were exactly what I was looking for. Not tough bland pork chops. These pretty much fall apart and have plenty of flavor. Even my recipe substitution of wine instead of chicken broth worked out just fine.

I do recommend browning your pork chops until there is a deep brown crust that has formed. That's REALLY good. 

These were even awesome as leftovers... maybe even better. You know how food does that sometimes? Yeah. Real nice.

So, give it a try if you have the time.

DIY Cream of Chicken Soup

Forgive me if you already saw this from my Facebook page, but I got tired of buying Cream of Chicken soup and finally got around to Googling for a homemade version. It's not bad. A friend suggested adding actual shredded chicken and onion powder to make it a little more authentic. Good suggestions.

Here's the link. http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-diy-crea-16827 I plan to use this in my recipes instead of canned versions. Way less expensive and without all the sodium and preservatives!

Awesome Beef Stew for Beef Stew Haters - Slow Cooker

I will begin with this:

I HATE BEEF STEW

I don't know what it is. I don't really like beef unless it's steak that has been grilled (mouth watering at the thought). So beef in beef broth with potatoes and carrots and onion soup mix doesn't appeal to me. Of course, it's one of my husband's favorite things since it includes beef and potatoes. Anyway, on a Saturday afternoon he has a vision of having our friends over after church for beef stew with tiny potatoes. (BTW - If you have a Trader Joe's nearby, they sell teeny tiny potatoes and it's SO worth the trip to the store to get them... sold in a 1 lb bag and no cutting of potatoes required - leave skins on... awesome!). Of course, I think to myself, gross. Beef stew. Maybe I'll just eat a little of it and eat a lot of salad or something. Then I decide to search for beef stew on the ever-handy allrecipes.com and came across this:

Kyle's Favorite Beef Stew
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/kyles-favorite-beef-stew/detail.aspx

The recipe had a lot of reviews with a lot of stars, so I read through the ingredients and saw Worcestershire sauce and wine. I think to myself: Yes. This will make it all better. And the inclusion of mushrooms. Cooked in the wine. Then it goes in the crock pot. Yes. This is the one.

I did a few things differently right off the bat: I used whatever red wine we had in the house and open (it may have actually been a bottle of 2 buck Chuck Merlot :). I used 3 cups of beef broth instead of 2 cups of water and only 1 packet of onion soup mix. I used baby carrots and teeny tiny potatoes with the skins on for ease of preparation. I cooked all the beef, onions, garlic and mushrooms as directed the night before and put them in a container together and refrigerated them overnight. I don't believe this had any adverse affects, but I haven't had it any other way, so I can't comment at this time. The next morning I put all the refrigerated ingredients in the crock pot along with the carrots, potatoes, parsley and pepper and cooked it on high for 4 hours. Then came the cornstarch thickening thing at the end, which I did as directed.

The result: AWESOME

The use of Worcestershire sauce and wine makes all the difference in this recipe. When I was preparing the beef, my house smelled like we had sat down to a steak dinner with red wine flowing. When we got home from church the house smelled awesome again. Everyone seemed to enjoy the stew and the extra punch of flavor. My husband had leftovers the next day and the stew was still awesome. I believe he called it the best thing ever put on a plate. I don't know about that, but I can tell this recipe will be made over and over again.

NEXT TIME: I'll probably cut the onions a little smaller. They're just too big to eat when only quartered. I'd like to try it when I have time to cook it the full 8 hours and not prepare and refrigerate ingredients overnight to see if there is a difference.

Ham and Potato Soup

If you'll be having leftovers from a Christmas ham, this is a great creamy soup to make. I substituted chicken broth for some of the water and didn't use the bullion. It was great, thick and abundant!

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/delicious-ham-and-potato-soup/detail.aspx