One-Pan Whiskey Pork Chops . . .Cook. . .

ALright, I've got to be honest. In my adult life I have made pork chops SOOO many times that I can count them on one hand. Yes that's right, ONE hand. I sat the last couple of days and tried to figure this out.

It's not because I dislike pork- in fact I am quite a fan of pork. Some of my favorite meals include pork: carnitas, pulled pork sammies, anything with  bacon (expect for maybe ice cream).

I have always been under the impression that there a limited options regarding the preparation of pork. I have ALWAYS seen pork chops with a big huge bone, and they are either pan fried or grilled. LACK of creativity. Plus- I do not know, nor will I ever, like meat on the bone. I just can't do it.

My kitchen creative juices seem to be stifled this week. Yesterday I asked Jeff to pick a protien that he wanted to dinner- in order to help get my brain ticking. He, of course, picked pork chops. When I ordered pork chops this week, I ordered center cut BONELESS! So one of the thorns in my side is instantly gone. However I have ZERO pork chop recipies on hand.

I turned to the one website that NEVER lets me down: Group Recipes. This website actual learns what you like, and then suggests recipes that it thinks you will enjoy! That is brilliant if you ask me. I browse the prok chop results for a good 20 minutes I settled on a recipe that turned our to be a Gold Medal KEEPER, and of course felt the need to share it with the world that is currently uneasy at the mention of, "Honey, can we have pork chops for dinner?"

Ingredients:
•2/3 cup light sour cream

•1/2 cup water
•2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
•1/2 teaspoon salt
•1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
•1/4 teaspoon black pepper
•4 6 ounce center cut boneless pork chops, trim
•1/4 teaspoon salt
•1/8 teaspoon black pepper
•1 teaspoon olive oil
•13/4 cup chopped onion
•1 8 ounce package presliced baby bella mushrooms
•1/2 cup whiskey (Jameson)

Directions
Preheat oven to 300. Combine the sour cream, water, flour, salt,pepper and poulty seasoning in a small bowl.

Sprinkle pork chops with salt and pepper on both sides

Heat oil over medium high heat in an OVEN SAFE pan (no plastic)

Add pork and saute 5 mins on each side or until golden.

Remove pork from pan. Add onions and mushrooms and saute for 3 mins.

 Add whiskey, cook 5 min, or until most of liquid evaporates.

Add sour cream mixture into pan. Return pork to pan and spoon sauce over the pork.

Wrap the frying pan handle with foil. Cover frying pan and put in oven for 1 hr at 300 degrees.

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As you can see int he picture- I served this with mashed potatoes (garlic mash, YUM) and green beans. To be perfectly honest I also uped the ingedients for the gravy as well. There were a TON of potatoes, and I wanted gravy left over. I used 8 oz Sour Cream (the small container), 3/4 cup water, 3 T flour, 3/4 t salt, 3/4 t poulty seasoning, just over 1/4 t pepper, 3/4 c whiskey. With these measurements I had plenty of gravy left over, and let me tell you this stuff is GOOD!

Enjoy!

Recipe Swap No. 2 - Cookies

I love cookies, and I know that I shouldn't make them, becuase then I want to eat them all....but I CAN'T help it. It's a weakness, I'm dealing with it.

This week's Friday Recipe Swap theme is Cookies! Pull out the baking bowls and beaters and get to work!

Recipe Swap Friday #1- Comfort Food . . .Cook. . .

I am so excited to see what YUMMY recipes everyone has dug up for our Recipe Swap today! I pulled out one of our old favorites, that is full of Doritos, yes....Doritos!

Nacho Cheese Chicken Casserole

(350 F 30-40 min)

2T butter
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1-1/2 lb chicken (1/2 breast, 1/2 thigh)
16 oz sour cream
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1- 7oz can diced green chiles
1/2t salt
1/2t pepper
1 bag Doritos, crushed
1 cup monterey jack, shredded
1 cup cheddar, shredded

1. Melt the butter, and toss in the onion and garlic. Cook for 3-5 minutes- until the onions become translucent.

2. Add chicken. Cook through- NO PINK.

3. Remoce from heat, and stir in soups, sour cream, chiles, and tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Spray 9x12 baking pan with PAM. Layer 1/3 chips, then 1/3 chicken mixture. Repeat two more times.

5. Combine the cheeses and sprinkle over the top. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Cover with foil if the cheese starts to brown.

Now it is your turn. Post your recipe (w/picture) to your blog, or facebook, or personal website. In the "Mr. Linky" below enter your name, and the link to where ever it is that you posted your recipe, and then submit! All of the recipes with be linked here to this blog. So Simple! If you have any questions at all- just let me know!

Recipe Swap Fridays

So I was thinking that I wanted to start a Recipe Swap Friday here on Cook, Laugh, Create.

Every friday would have a theme, like Italian, Dessert, etc.- and the people that want to participate would simply need to email their recipe along with one picture. The picture is required. I don't know about you, but I wont even buy a cook book if it doesn't have pictures.

All of the contributions will be posted here.

Like anything- I need people to participate. Submissions would be due every Wednesday. Theme's for the next week will be announced along with the Recipe Swap on friday's.

If you think this is something that you would like to participate in- leave me a comment! It think it would be fun, and a great way to get some new recipes into our kitchens!

Pepperoni Pizza Puffs . . .Cook- For Non-Cooks. . .

These are the perfect dippable little kids bites! Sorry about the AWFUL quality of this picture- I made these a while ago, and didn't take a picture. This is a picture of a magazine picture.

Pepperoni Pizza Puffs

(prep 15 min. Bake 25 min @ 375 F)

3/4 cup flour
3/4 t. baking powder
3/4 cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
4 ounces shredder mozzarella cheese (about 1 cup)
4 ounces pepperoni, cut into small pieces (about 1 cup)
     - look for the mini pepperonis, these work great!
1/2 cup store bought pizza sauce
2 T. fresh basil finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, sliced

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Spray a 24-cup mini muffin pan with PAM. In a large bowl wisk together the flour and baking powder; wisk in the milk and egg. Stir in the mozzarella and pepperoni. Let stand for 10 minutes.

2. Stir the batter and split it up among the mini-muffin cups. Sprinkle with a little more cheese if you want to. No such thing as too much cheese! Bake until puffed and golden, 20-25 minutes

3. While you are waiting on the oven, microwave the pizza sauce until warmed through. Then stir in 1 tablespoon of basil. Sprinkle the puffs with the leftover basil.

Serve the puffs with red pepper slices and pizza sauce for dipping. If you are a dip-a-holic, pull out the ranch!

Velveeta Nacho Bake . . .Cook- For Non-Cooks. . .

I realize that everyone isn't as lucky as I am in regards to that fact that I have time every day to put a homecooked meal on the table. Every now and again I come across recipes that I think busy mom's/people will appreciate. They are not only EASY but they are also DELICIOUS!

So I decided that I am going to start are label called Non-Cooks. Here you will find all these wonderful recipes. Most are kid friendly as well. Give them a try, let me know what you think!

Velveeta Nacho Bake 

(prep: 15 min. Bake 20 min. @ 400 F)

 
1 pkg. (12 oz.) VELVEETA® Shells & Cheese Dinner
1 lb. ground Turkey
1 pkg. (1-1/4 oz.) Taco Seasoning Mix
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup Fat Free Sour Cream
3/4 cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese, divided
3/4 cup Salsa
1/2 cup coarsely crushed tortilla chips

1. Prepare Dinner following Basic Directions. While Macaroni is cooking, brown meat, drain. Add taco seasoning mix and water to the meat; simmer 5 minutes.

2. STIR sour cream prepared Dinner. Spoon half of the Dinner mixture into 8-inch square baking dish; top with layers of the meat mixture, half of the cheese and the remaining Dinner mixture. Cover.

3. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Top with salsa, remaining cheese and the crushed tortilla chips. Bake, uncovered, an additional 5 minutes. Makes 5 servings

Kicked Up Refried Black Beans . . .Cook. . .

Jeff requested fajitas for dinner tonight. This is a simple enough request. However I don't just do fajitas, there must be sides to accompany. This is just who I am.

However- I get so BORED with plain 'ole refried beans, especially the Rosarita ones straight out of the can. Um- no thank you!

Today's creation was a WIN and I wanted to share it with all of my Mexican food loving friends. Make them and love then- you will never go back to Rosarita.


Chile-Lime Refried Black Beans

1-20.5 oz. Can Refried Black Beans
1-4 oz. Can Diced Green Chiles
2 T Butter
1/2 t salt (more or less to taste)
Juice & zest of 1 lime

Melt the butter first, and then throw the rest of the ingredients into the saucepan. Heat until bubbly and all combined.

You could forgoe the butter- but I URGE you not too. The fat is what makes refried beans worth while. Besides you have already made a "healthy" decision by going with black beans over pinto beans.

Rosarita- I'm sorry..... you just weren't good enough. Adios!

Where Does Your Food Come From? . . .Cook. . .

On the weeks that we don’t have the kids, Jeff and I have taken to watching movies. We both do our own thing for the majority of the day- but as evening rolls around, we settle on to the couch and pop in our next NetFlix DVD. For some reason the DVD awaiting play last night was a documentary entitles Food Inc. I am not a documentary lover. I will admit that my guilty pleasure is definitely a romantic comedy. Jeff is an extremely intelligent man, and prefers things that challenge his mind. I have subjected him to one romantic comedy after another the last few weeks- so I suppose that this switch to a documentary was an attempt to fulfill his DVD needs.

In any case, I am rambling.....

I am a foodie- through and through. Some people eat to live, I DEFINITELY live to eat. I appreciate ever little morsel of deliciousness like it may very well be my last. My favorite type of cuisine is currently Tapas. Why would any person want to eat a gigantic plate FULL of the SAME thing? The idea to provide a diner with quite a few different items in small portions at reasonable prices is ingenious. If you haven't treated yourself to your local tapas place, do it now!

With all of that out there, and my clear obsession for food known....Food Inc. has changed the way that I look at what I am eating. This movie was so profound that I could not sleep last night. I imagine for some people that this may not be the case; however food is a HUGE part of my everyday. Feeding my family is my responsibility and mine alone. I encourage- better yet....I CHALLANGE each and every one of you to watch this movie, and then make some changes in your life.

If you are a NetFlix subscriber, you can watch Food Inc. instantly on your computer or TV.

I will be updating my blog as to the changes that I am making for our family. I will post recipes that are friendly to the change, and shopping habits and deals (hopefully) that I incorporate as well. It's time to change our lives!

Change #1 Shop At Trader Joes

 
Trader Joes will provide me with more choices than the big chain grocery stores. I am looking to buy from the little guy. I am looking for organic, the Hippie Revolution has begun! Gosh I wish that I lived somewhere where stuff actually grew..........