The Foodie Found her Groove Again

It seems that even the better cooks

can struggle from time to time

with a dish.

For me,

that dish recently has been

pork chops.

No matter what I would do,

they would come out tough and dry.

I would even use the digital thermometer

to make sure I would pull the pork

off the heat at 140 degrees,

allowing for medium doneness after resting.

Sigh, even that wasn't working for me lately.

I lost my mojo.

After returning home from our recent trip*,

I was determined to get this dish right again.

*My husband and I traveled to Philadelphia

last week and I will have several posts on that.

However, as I took almost 2,300 pictures,

it will take some time for me to get those posts together

and uploaded.

And perseverance pays off.

Here we have a grilled maple-mustard pork chop

served along with potato gratin,

sugar snap peas

and a sliced tomato drizzled with balsamic vinegar.

I decided a brine was the way to go here.

I have about one quart of water

1/4 cup coarse sea salt

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon mustard chili onion mix

3 tablespoons maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns

1/4 cup sugar cane vinegar

The ingredients were added to the water

and the mixture went into the microwave

on high power for 5 minutes.

Take out, being careful to not inhale the steam**,

and stir to make sure the salt and sugar

are dissolved.

Add ice cubes to cool down the mixture.

**Really, you never want to inhale the steam from hot vinegar.

After the brine has cooled sufficiently,

pour over the pork chops.

Seal and place in the refrigerator.

Important note:

do not let the meat sit in the brine

for much longer than one hour.

The meat will become mealy if left

in the brine too long.

I then took the meat out of the brine

and put it on a rack over a plate

before placing it back in the refrigerator.

I don't worry about rinsing off the meat

after removing it from the brine,

but you can if you so desire.

About an hour before cooking,

take the meat out of the fridge

so the meat can come to room temperature.

Once the potato gratin was nearly finished

cooking on the grill,

I put the pork chops on the grill.

This time I let my intuition guide me

rather than the digital thermometer.

I turned the pork chops

when the meat no longer stuck to the grate

and then let it cook on the second side

for just a few minutes more.

Then when I "knew" it was done,

I removed the meat from the grill

and covered it with foil.

After resting,

the pork was at the desired temperature.

These pork chops were moist, tender

and flavorful.

I made a quick sauce of Dijon mustard,

yellow mustard, maple syrup and cracked back pepper

to go over the top.

Now I've got my mojo back.

Another Friday Night, Another Dinner

Isn't it amazing how quickly those Friday night dinners roll around?

Once a week, it seems.

Well, for this Friday night, I had a new idea for dinner.

Why don't you come along and see what we had this time?

Yet once again, the Internet comes to the rescue as I found a recipe for Pork Medallions with Balsamic Honey Glaze.

Here I have

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar (remember, since we are cooking this, it can be a lesser quality)

3 tablespoons honey

2 large cloves garlic, grated

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

salt

ground black pepper

It's all mixed together now.

Since there would just be two of us for dinner, I bought two thick-cut America's Cut Pork Chops (tm) at the butcher's counter of my local grocery store.

The recipe directions say to sear each side for 1 to 2 minutes on the stove.

Okay, that is done. Now, don't mind me, but I highly doubt that a mere 8 to 10 minutes more in a 350 oven will result in our chops reaching our desired 140 degrees.

And in fact, my handy dandy thermometer confirmed this fact, as it took amost three times as long to reach the target temperature.

Reading through the reviews for the recipe, I decided that the glaze should be reduced a bit more.

So I added the glaze to the hot pan and allowed it to reduce by about 1/3 before adding it to the meat that would be going into the oven.

Looking better.

Now, I'm thinking that I would have cooked these just a bit more on the stove the next time.

But I kinda, sorta followed the recipe this time.

While the meat finished in the oven, I turned my attention to the sides.

In honor of my daughter, I started off with bacon.

Then I added the previously blanched green beans from our garden and the store.

I let the green beans cook till until almost done before removing them to the oven.

Looking good, right?

Then I moved on to the piece de resistance of the evening.

Sauteed Brussels sprouts.

After much trial and error and much determination on my part, I have decided that I like my my Brussels sprouts separated and sauteed with bacon.

The Brussels sprouts leaves are caramelized and oh so very tasty.

Now tell me that this doesn't look good.

The pork chops have reached the optimum temperature of 140 degrees.

The sides are ready.

In the end we decided to split our pork chops in half and save the rest for later.

The veggies we ate right away.

The husband even declared that he liked the Brussels sprouts.

You know what?

The dear husband moved just that much closer to being able to be called the Foodie Husband.

It's a process, dear.

You have to earn it.

Memorial Day Dinner

Today was a casual day around here, after the excitement of watching not one, but two, exciting races yesterday. I am so proud of me: part way through listening to the Indy 500 on the radio, I found a video stream of the race on the Indy Racing League's web site. Sweet!

I found some leftover Napa cabbage in the fridge and finely chopped it. I then grated a carrot and diced some red onion.

Now for my homemade slaw dressing. I mix together about 1/4 c. mayonnaise or salad dressing, 2 tbs. white vinegar and 2 tbs. granulated sugar. I would suggest playing around with the amounts until you get the taste you like.

The cole slaw is ready for serving.

And now on to the mustard sauce. I mixed honey, whole grain Dijon mustard, yellow mustard and diced rosemary in a bowl.

This will accompany the sauteed pork chops.

I have three boneless pork loin chops for dinner. I seasoned both sides with my homemade pork dry rub seasoning.

Pork Dry Rub

1 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/2 tsp. dry mustard

1/2 tsp. paprika

1/4 tsp. Salt

Mix and store in an air-tight container in a cool, dark place.

Sear the pork loin chops over high heat and then reduce the heat to medium. Cook until the internal temperature is 140 degrees for a medium doneness.

I made Kelley's favorite green beans with bacon and shallots as an additional side.