Dinner Report: Pastured Pork Chops

I just finished dinner. I cooked up the Creswick Farms pork chops I bought last week and they were among the best chops I've ever had.

By way of preparation, I sliced an onion and sauted it in butter and olive oil. Removed from the pan - I used my french oven. Added the chops and browned them on all sides. Topped with a mix of 1 can cream of celery soup, about 1/2 C milk, a little water, some garlic powder salt and pepper. Baked at 350 for about 35 minutes (these weren't super thick chops).

The result was very tender with good flavor. Served with mashed potatoes and used the 'gravy'. I'm looking forward to having the other chop tomorrow night!

Sorry, no pictures, already ate. Oops.

Mealtime: Simple Pork Stew

After my trip to the market on Saturday - I backed it up with a run to Meijer of course - I felt like making something simple for dinner.

Oh, and I had a second motivation too. I wanted to try out the french oven I picked up the weekend before. What could I make? How about a real basic stew?

Pork stew it was.

Ideally I would have cubed some of the pork I picked up at the market, but it was frozen and I didn't feel like trying to rush the defrost process (I'll be eating those tomorrow), so I used a package of supermarket chop suey meat. Other ingredients: One medium organic onion, a little olive oil and two cans of Ro*Tel.

I like Ro*Tel. If you ever want an easy meal, find your self a chunk of meat that can be slow cooked, throw it in the crock pot with some Ro*Tel and in eight hours you'll have dinner.

Back to the stew.

Isn't that a good looking pot?

Oops, I digress.

Keeping it basic, I diced the onion and sauted it in a little olive oil, then browned the pork - I skipped flouring it. Added the onions back in, the Ro*Tel and a pinch of salt. Simmered for about 20 minutes.

The end result? Tasty. I think it would have been better with a longer simmer, the pork had just a bit more chew that I would prefer, but it was still quite good. Served with a side of organic potatoes, mashed. Simple comfort food for a late winter evening.



Let's go to the scoreboard:

Taste Rating: B. Would make and eat again, but would probably tinker with cooking time.

I Done Good Rating: D+. Didn't use the local pork. Ro*Tel is neither local nor organic afaik - tastes good though. The organic onion and potatoes were trucked in from who knows where. I'm not giving this a failing grade because I did intentionally select the (industrial) organic produce and at least I went through the effort of making it. Oh, and I just ate the leftovers, so no waste.