Hubby and I found this recipe in a cookbook I'd had for years but never used. It seemed easy, and I wanted a new way to make pork chops that wasn't chopped into pieces and tossed into a pot with a box of Zattaran's Jambalaya and some Antonie's sauce. It's since been a "Hubby" dish, but a few weeks ago, I finally rolled up my sleeves to make it myself. It truly is an absurdly easy way to make pork chops.
Tangy Pork Chops
3 to 4 pork chops
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
1. Preheat oven to 325. While oven is preheating, brown the chops.
2. Mix the honey, Worcestershire sauce and ketchup together until fully combined. Lay pork chops evenly in a baking dish and pour the honey mixture over them.
3. Cover and bake for 20 minutes. Remove cover and continue baking for 15 more minutes.
4. Serve, spooning extra sauce from the dish over the pork chops and enjoy!
This dish goes wonderfully with mashed potatoes and garlic bread. The sauce is without a doubt the best part of the dish. It adds an extra kick to everything on the plate, but I prefer to use a piece of garlic bread to soak it up. These pork chops are so good, even our pickiest friends asked for the recipe to make it at home after we made it for them. And so easy, even I couldn't mess it up (although it helped that Hubby was the one who learned the difference between "cook through" and "brown". That took us a few tries to get right.)
Just in case you're not sure either:
Cooking through - Fully cooked, ready to eat
Brown - Just cook the outside, inside still raw
The time in the oven finishes cooking the chops. We had a few days of overcooked pork before we learned the difference and REALLY started to enjoy the meal.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Thursday, October 13, 2011
The Rogue Noodle
I learned about cooked spaghetti sticking to walls and ceilings when I was a young girl and they showed a character on a TV show doing it to try and find the winning lotto numbers in the shape the spaghetti made. Later, when I moved into my first apartment, I noticed two pieces of spaghetti dried on the ceiling where my roommate had tossed them to test their doneness and they hadn't decided to come down. I know now that you can just take a bite of a piece to find out if pasta's done cooking, but where's the fun in that when you can sacrifice a noodle to the ceiling?
A few weeks ago, I was making dinner, most likely the shrimp scampi pasta and the timer went off on the pasta. Scoop out a piece carefully, try not to burn myself picking up a piece, aaaand toss!
Now, fresh cooked pasta is a little sticky, which is why it sticks to the ceiling. It also sticks to you. So although I threw the noodle upwards like I'd done a hundred time before, for the first time, it stuck to my fingers and, in a move that Einstein would be proud of, altered its trajectory accordingly when it finally detatched. At first, I didn't see where that trajectory landed it. I assumed it was somewhere on top of the cabinets.
Aaaand I was right.
That, ladies and gents, is my rogue noodle, positioned for perfect visability upon entry to the kitchen and most difficult removal. It has been there for several weeks now. And because Hubby and I are getting a house soon, it's going to HAVE to come down. I have no clue how to best go about doing this, but hopefully I won't have to put on a hospital report "busted skull open removing a noodle from the wall."
A few weeks ago, I was making dinner, most likely the shrimp scampi pasta and the timer went off on the pasta. Scoop out a piece carefully, try not to burn myself picking up a piece, aaaand toss!
Now, fresh cooked pasta is a little sticky, which is why it sticks to the ceiling. It also sticks to you. So although I threw the noodle upwards like I'd done a hundred time before, for the first time, it stuck to my fingers and, in a move that Einstein would be proud of, altered its trajectory accordingly when it finally detatched. At first, I didn't see where that trajectory landed it. I assumed it was somewhere on top of the cabinets.
Aaaand I was right.
That, ladies and gents, is my rogue noodle, positioned for perfect visability upon entry to the kitchen and most difficult removal. It has been there for several weeks now. And because Hubby and I are getting a house soon, it's going to HAVE to come down. I have no clue how to best go about doing this, but hopefully I won't have to put on a hospital report "busted skull open removing a noodle from the wall."
Monday, October 3, 2011
Cookie Catastrophe
We got new neighbors a few months ago, a very nice young couple with a little boy. I met them while going to work and we bonded right away over similar interests. I decided I was going to make them some cookies to welcome them to the neighborhood! I'd made cookies before and they were great, so I wanted to try a new recipe. While scanning my selection of cooking blogs, I found a recipe for some called "World Peace Cookies". Chocolate cookies with chocolate chips. Awesome, perfect, let's roll. Printed the recipe, bought the ingredients and that weekend, prepared to bake.
(recipe from Becky Bakes)
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
11 tablespoons (1 stick plus 3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
5 ounces extra-bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I used milk chocolate chips)
Sift flour, cocoa, and baking soda into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until smooth but not fluffy. Add both sugars, vanilla, and sea salt; beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add flour mixture; beat just until blended (mixture may be crumbly). Add chopped chocolate; mix just to distribute (if dough doesn’t come together, knead lightly in bowl to form ball). Divide dough in half. Place each half on sheet of plastic wrap. Form each into 1 1/2-inch-diameter log. Wrap each in plastic; chill until firm, about 3 hours. DO AHEAD: Can be made 3 days ahead. Keep chilled.
Preheat oven to 325°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a thin, sharp knife, cut logs crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick rounds. Space 1 inch apart on prepared sheets. Bake 1 sheet at a time until cookies appear dry (cookies will not be firm or golden at edges), 11 to 12 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool.
I mixed the dry ingredients, beat the butter and sugar until smooth and ready for the flour. How much flour did the recipe call for? A cup and a quarter.
Now, before I go further, let me explain that I have several measuring cups. One of them is a two-cup measuring cup with different measures on the side for liquid, sugar, and flour, because an ounce, being a unit of weight, varies between substances. The cup measure is only on the liquid.
So I have this cup ready to measure out flour for these cookies and think "hold on a minute. 8 oz is a cup, but according to this thing, 8oz of flour is much larger than 8 oz of liquid. So I need 10 oz of flour to make a cup and a quarter."
Logic, at this point, has obviously led me very far astray. I measured out 10 oz of flour, put in the cocoa and baking powder, and slowly dumped it into the butter mixture. Mix. Mix. Mix... well geez, I think, this isn't coming together at all. It was still completely powder. Not even kneading it was making it come together. So I threw in some more butter and it finally became a dough-like substance. Make into balls, squish 'em down, pop 'em in the oven, and 12 minutes later, we have...
Hockey pucks. Little brown hockey pucks that tasted like flour. Oh my god they were so inedible. Hubby, being the sweetheart he is, said they were fine dunked in milk, but they were still pretty horrible to me. It was like eating flour that vaguely tasted of chocolate. Needless to say, those ended up in the trash can and I got to work on batch two, which ended up much, much better.
(recipe from Becky Bakes)
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
11 tablespoons (1 stick plus 3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
5 ounces extra-bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I used milk chocolate chips)
Sift flour, cocoa, and baking soda into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until smooth but not fluffy. Add both sugars, vanilla, and sea salt; beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add flour mixture; beat just until blended (mixture may be crumbly). Add chopped chocolate; mix just to distribute (if dough doesn’t come together, knead lightly in bowl to form ball). Divide dough in half. Place each half on sheet of plastic wrap. Form each into 1 1/2-inch-diameter log. Wrap each in plastic; chill until firm, about 3 hours. DO AHEAD: Can be made 3 days ahead. Keep chilled.
Preheat oven to 325°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a thin, sharp knife, cut logs crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick rounds. Space 1 inch apart on prepared sheets. Bake 1 sheet at a time until cookies appear dry (cookies will not be firm or golden at edges), 11 to 12 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool.
I mixed the dry ingredients, beat the butter and sugar until smooth and ready for the flour. How much flour did the recipe call for? A cup and a quarter.
Now, before I go further, let me explain that I have several measuring cups. One of them is a two-cup measuring cup with different measures on the side for liquid, sugar, and flour, because an ounce, being a unit of weight, varies between substances. The cup measure is only on the liquid.
So I have this cup ready to measure out flour for these cookies and think "hold on a minute. 8 oz is a cup, but according to this thing, 8oz of flour is much larger than 8 oz of liquid. So I need 10 oz of flour to make a cup and a quarter."
Logic, at this point, has obviously led me very far astray. I measured out 10 oz of flour, put in the cocoa and baking powder, and slowly dumped it into the butter mixture. Mix. Mix. Mix... well geez, I think, this isn't coming together at all. It was still completely powder. Not even kneading it was making it come together. So I threw in some more butter and it finally became a dough-like substance. Make into balls, squish 'em down, pop 'em in the oven, and 12 minutes later, we have...
Hockey pucks. Little brown hockey pucks that tasted like flour. Oh my god they were so inedible. Hubby, being the sweetheart he is, said they were fine dunked in milk, but they were still pretty horrible to me. It was like eating flour that vaguely tasted of chocolate. Needless to say, those ended up in the trash can and I got to work on batch two, which ended up much, much better.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Cat's Story: Egg-splosion
Here's a story from Cat about how not to re-boil an egg if your hardboiled egg comes out runny.
"So, a couple evenings ago I decided I wanted to make some egg salad for a sandwich to take to work for lunch the next day. I put the eggs on the stove to boil, then went to go fold some laundry. I came back and saw that the water was already boiling. I didn't want the eggs to be overdone, so I immediately took them off the burner. Unfortunately, they must not have been boiling enough, because when I peeled them, the yolks were still gooey inside. Oops.
I grabbed a microwave safe bowl, filled it with water and popped the eggs in, then stuck them in the microwave for two minutes. I have a lot of friends who hard boil eggs in the microwave, so I didn't think anything of it. Well, the beeping goes off, so I reach in and carefully pick up the eggs....
BOOM! The eggs EXPLODE everywhere! Boiling water flung all over my face. My boyfriend was immediately there. After I ran to the bathroom and washed out my eyes, he helped me clean up the mess. Getting egg off the CEILING sucks. I held a box of frozen vegetables against my face for a while and soon the ouchies stopped...so yeah...all good. And lesson learned. And now I have post-traumatic stress disorder from hard boiled eggs."
"So, a couple evenings ago I decided I wanted to make some egg salad for a sandwich to take to work for lunch the next day. I put the eggs on the stove to boil, then went to go fold some laundry. I came back and saw that the water was already boiling. I didn't want the eggs to be overdone, so I immediately took them off the burner. Unfortunately, they must not have been boiling enough, because when I peeled them, the yolks were still gooey inside. Oops.
I grabbed a microwave safe bowl, filled it with water and popped the eggs in, then stuck them in the microwave for two minutes. I have a lot of friends who hard boil eggs in the microwave, so I didn't think anything of it. Well, the beeping goes off, so I reach in and carefully pick up the eggs....
BOOM! The eggs EXPLODE everywhere! Boiling water flung all over my face. My boyfriend was immediately there. After I ran to the bathroom and washed out my eyes, he helped me clean up the mess. Getting egg off the CEILING sucks. I held a box of frozen vegetables against my face for a while and soon the ouchies stopped...so yeah...all good. And lesson learned. And now I have post-traumatic stress disorder from hard boiled eggs."
Friday, September 23, 2011
Broccoli and Shrimp Scampi Spaghetti
Know what food I'm ga-ga for right now? Shrimp. Know what food I used to refuse to eat unless it was the smallest possible size and deep-fried? Shrimp. And by "used to" I mean approximately a year ago. There was just something about the texture and shape that always bothered me. When we went to a hibachi joint for dinner that gave shrimp appetizers, I'd pass mine over to Hubby and would turn down the shrimp tempura he'd offer me. Popcorn shrimp I'd order if it were the only thing on the menu I'd want, and I wouldn't eat the big ones. Sometime last year, though, I decided to widen my tastes and actually tried a piece of the offered shrimp tempura. Now we fight over who gets the last one, I happily eat my own appetizer, and I get cravings for shrimp. Now, I haven't actually cooked with large shrimp, but when my friend JQ shared her recipe for Broccoli and Shrimp Scampi Spaghetti, knowing just how much Hubby loves shrimp scampi, I was determined to give it a try.
(Original recipe from Hudocks to Haddocks: The Life, Times and Food)
8 oz spaghetti
¼ cup butter
2-3 tsp minced garlic
(approx) ½ cup Italian bread crumbs
(approx) ¾ cup dry white wine (I'm sensitive to alcohol, so I use the same amount in chicken stock. Works just fine.)
10 oz small shrimp (I use frozen salad shrimp)
½ pounds of broccoli chopped into florets
¼ tsp of each of the following seasonings: cumin, red pepper flakes, basil & onion salt
1. Cook pasta al dente
2. Boil broccoli
3. In a skillet, melt butter and sauté minced garlic. Add in all seasoning & wine (or stock), simmer for a moment. Add in shrimp and cook, tossing frequently, until pink. Slowly (a tsp at a time) mix in breadcrumbs. You may or may not use all the bread crumbs, just continue adding until your mixture has thickened up a bit. (Note: If it gets too thick, don't panic! Just mix a little extra wine/stock in until it gets to the consistency you like.)
4. Drain pasta, do not rinse. Put back in hot pot with drained hot broccoli and mix in shrimp scampi.
5. Serve garnished with freshly grated Romano cheese
Of course, this wouldn't be "Learning By Burning" without SOME kind of incident. First attempt at making this dish, I've got the ingredients ready, the water boiling for the spaghetti, the shrimp dethawed, the broccoli cut, and as I'm looking at the recipe, I realize - I have NEVER 1) cooked broccoli and 2) sauted anything, so I have NO idea when either of them goes from "Not Done" to "Done" to "Overdone". Crap. Luckily Hubby was home with me at the time, so he ran a quick google search while I worked on what was already going on the stove (melting butter and boiling spaghetti). We got the broccoli boiling and the garlic was, well, not a problem really. Surprisingly, I have never managed to time this dinner as perfectly as it ended up being for that first harried meal. I've gotten closer (especially since we remembered we got a food steamer as a wedding gift. Whoops. We've been steaming the broccoli since and it's great) but something always finishes a little too early.
This has quickly become one of our favorite meals, and I'm confident enough in making it now that I actually made it for my mother during her last visit as it's similar to a dish she used to make. She loved it! And it reheats well, making it great leftovers for the next day too (assuming you HAVE any leftovers and haven't licked the plate clean).
(Original recipe from Hudocks to Haddocks: The Life, Times and Food)
8 oz spaghetti¼ cup butter
2-3 tsp minced garlic
(approx) ½ cup Italian bread crumbs
(approx) ¾ cup dry white wine (I'm sensitive to alcohol, so I use the same amount in chicken stock. Works just fine.)
10 oz small shrimp (I use frozen salad shrimp)
½ pounds of broccoli chopped into florets
¼ tsp of each of the following seasonings: cumin, red pepper flakes, basil & onion salt
1. Cook pasta al dente
2. Boil broccoli
3. In a skillet, melt butter and sauté minced garlic. Add in all seasoning & wine (or stock), simmer for a moment. Add in shrimp and cook, tossing frequently, until pink. Slowly (a tsp at a time) mix in breadcrumbs. You may or may not use all the bread crumbs, just continue adding until your mixture has thickened up a bit. (Note: If it gets too thick, don't panic! Just mix a little extra wine/stock in until it gets to the consistency you like.)
4. Drain pasta, do not rinse. Put back in hot pot with drained hot broccoli and mix in shrimp scampi.
5. Serve garnished with freshly grated Romano cheese
Of course, this wouldn't be "Learning By Burning" without SOME kind of incident. First attempt at making this dish, I've got the ingredients ready, the water boiling for the spaghetti, the shrimp dethawed, the broccoli cut, and as I'm looking at the recipe, I realize - I have NEVER 1) cooked broccoli and 2) sauted anything, so I have NO idea when either of them goes from "Not Done" to "Done" to "Overdone". Crap. Luckily Hubby was home with me at the time, so he ran a quick google search while I worked on what was already going on the stove (melting butter and boiling spaghetti). We got the broccoli boiling and the garlic was, well, not a problem really. Surprisingly, I have never managed to time this dinner as perfectly as it ended up being for that first harried meal. I've gotten closer (especially since we remembered we got a food steamer as a wedding gift. Whoops. We've been steaming the broccoli since and it's great) but something always finishes a little too early.
This has quickly become one of our favorite meals, and I'm confident enough in making it now that I actually made it for my mother during her last visit as it's similar to a dish she used to make. She loved it! And it reheats well, making it great leftovers for the next day too (assuming you HAVE any leftovers and haven't licked the plate clean).
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Emily's Story 2: WARNING - Hot Glass
Here's the second story from Emily with a bit more danger and explosions.
"I have 2 good friends who are sisters, and they used to be roommates. A few years ago, I was at their apartment. One sister "A" was making baked french fries. The other "B" had just put water on to boil for hot chocolate. (Their names actually do start with A and B. haha) A took the fries out of the oven, which were in a glass baking dish, and put them on top of the stove to cool. A and I were standing in their small nook of a kitchen when all of a sudden, the glass dish exploded. I somehow jumped my uncoordinated, slow-reflexed self out of the kitchen and into their living room area. A just stood in the corner of the kitchen, shocked. No burning, broken glass touched either one of us! It turns out that B had turned the wrong burner on for hot chocolate, and placing a glass dish on a very hot burner does not work well. There were pieces of glass melted to their kitchen floor. Of course B felt terrible, but we were just thankful that none of those pieces were embedded in our skin."
"I have 2 good friends who are sisters, and they used to be roommates. A few years ago, I was at their apartment. One sister "A" was making baked french fries. The other "B" had just put water on to boil for hot chocolate. (Their names actually do start with A and B. haha) A took the fries out of the oven, which were in a glass baking dish, and put them on top of the stove to cool. A and I were standing in their small nook of a kitchen when all of a sudden, the glass dish exploded. I somehow jumped my uncoordinated, slow-reflexed self out of the kitchen and into their living room area. A just stood in the corner of the kitchen, shocked. No burning, broken glass touched either one of us! It turns out that B had turned the wrong burner on for hot chocolate, and placing a glass dish on a very hot burner does not work well. There were pieces of glass melted to their kitchen floor. Of course B felt terrible, but we were just thankful that none of those pieces were embedded in our skin."
Monday, September 19, 2011
Emily's Story 1: Piece of Cake
Thanks to Emily for her two stories about education through experience in the kitchen. Way to think under pressure!
"Last month, I wanted to make a cake for my husband's birthday. I tried to take the easy way out and use a mix. As I started to open the bag, I thought, I should use scissors, but then I figured I almost had it open. The bag finally opened, and the mix flew everywhere! I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, throw it away and make one from scratch, or just give up. I looked at my mess: about half of the mix was still in the bag, with some on the floor, and some on the counter (and some in the skillet from last night's dinner). I tried to remember the last time I had wiped the counter down and how thoroughly I had done it. I remembered wiping it down the night before, and hadn't used the counter since. I decided that was good enough, and I scraped the mix into my bowl. As I did this, I saw a piece of shredded cheese on the counter. Maybe it wasn't as clean as I thought...but at least baking it would kill any germs! I still had to make up for what was on the floor, so I looked up a cake recipe and added a little bit of all of the ingredients and hoped for the best. The cake actually came out great! It was fluffy and moist, and no melted cheese was found in it! And since I only had whole wheat flour on hand, at least the cake ended up being a little bit healthier."
"Last month, I wanted to make a cake for my husband's birthday. I tried to take the easy way out and use a mix. As I started to open the bag, I thought, I should use scissors, but then I figured I almost had it open. The bag finally opened, and the mix flew everywhere! I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, throw it away and make one from scratch, or just give up. I looked at my mess: about half of the mix was still in the bag, with some on the floor, and some on the counter (and some in the skillet from last night's dinner). I tried to remember the last time I had wiped the counter down and how thoroughly I had done it. I remembered wiping it down the night before, and hadn't used the counter since. I decided that was good enough, and I scraped the mix into my bowl. As I did this, I saw a piece of shredded cheese on the counter. Maybe it wasn't as clean as I thought...but at least baking it would kill any germs! I still had to make up for what was on the floor, so I looked up a cake recipe and added a little bit of all of the ingredients and hoped for the best. The cake actually came out great! It was fluffy and moist, and no melted cheese was found in it! And since I only had whole wheat flour on hand, at least the cake ended up being a little bit healthier."
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