Recipe Blog

Now, I’m not a fan of pork chops. I love other forms of pork, but chops have never been one of those things that I would choose to eat. But, the Man likes them so I cook them. This is another recipe I found while skimming through a cookbook that sounded tasty and was fairly simple to do. Bonus is that I had most of the ingredients already in the house.

Ingredients:

• 4 pork loin chops
• 1/4 tsp finely shredded orange peel
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/4 pineapple juice
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp cornstarch

Combine together orange peel, orange juice, pineapple juice, soy sauce, honey, pepper, and garlic. Mix well and use this as a marinade for your chops. I recommend marinating for a day, but 6 hours will be enough. Place chops on a rack in a broiler pan – save the marinade. Broil for roughly 15 minutes, turning the chops once.

Put the saved marinade in a sauce pan over low heat and add cornstarch. This thickens it to a nice sauce that goes very nicely on not only the chops, but the fries I made with it. *grin* Tasty and may do this marinade again for chicken.

I have a pretty standard recipe for doing roasts that I’ve used for years. It tastes great and involves a lot of garlic. *smile* But this past month, I was writing up our meals for the month so I could get the grocery list together. I decided to pull down a cookbook (which I have a ton of) and flip through it for some ideas to try. I found this one and it sounded pretty good.

I’m not a huge fan of straight horseradish, but I like it better when it’s tempered with other things. The sauce you get at the end is *really* good and worth doing on its own for other dishes.

Ingredients:

• 4-6 lb. roast
• 1/3 cup horseradish
• 1 tsp finely shredded lemon peel
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 tbsp parsley

Preheat oven to 325. Cut inch wide pockets into the roast, about 3 inches apart. Combine horseradish, lemon peel, and lemon juice. Save 2 tbsp of this mixture. Stir the butter into the rest of the mixture. Rub onto the roast and into the pockets. Cook, fat side up, for roughly 90-120 minutes – for medium rare. See temp chart below to determine doneness. Let the roast rest for 15 minutes before cutting into it!

Take reserved mixture and add in the sour cream and parsley. Pass this around with the meat. Enjoy!

Temperature Chart

You can use a meat thermometer to determine doneness. Keep the thermometer away from bone and fat. When reading the thermometer, put it in the thickest portion and check temp. Then push it in a little bit farther – if the temp drops, continue cooking. If it stays the same, remove it from the oven.
Rare……………. 120 to 125 degrees
Medium Rare… 130 to 135 degrees
Medium……….. 140 to 145 degrees
Medium Well… 150 to 155 degrees
Well Done…….. 160 degrees and above

I love new recipes for chicken, even though I still would rather have my mothers. *grin* This is another recipe courtesy of Pinterest that I thought I’d try out.

If you don’t have fresh dill, you can used the dried dill – just use 1 teaspoon. The dried herbs are much more potent than fresh. I’ve made this mistake before and regretted it. Also, if your chicken breasts were like one of mine (fat as hell), you need more time browning it. Duh, I know.

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, (1-1 1/4 pounds)
• Salt & freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 3 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, or canola oil, divided
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 2 teaspoons flour
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill, divided
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Season chicken breasts on both sides with salt and pepper. Heat 1 1/2 teaspoons oil in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and sear until well browned on both sides, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to a plate and tent with foil.

Reduce heat to medium. Add the remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons oil to the pan. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Whisk broth, flour, 1 tablespoon dill and lemon juice in a measuring cup and add to pan. Cook, whisking, until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes.

Return the chicken and any accumulated juices to the pan; reduce heat to low and simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 4 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a warmed platter. Season sauce with salt and pepper and spoon over the chicken. Garnish with the remaining 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill.

We made this a few months ago and it turned out really well.  The recipe doesn’t talk about seasoning the meat, which is a mistake. At the very least, toss some salt and pepper on it when you brown it. If you like other things, go ahead and sprinkle it on.

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds beef, cut into 1″ cubes
• 1/4 cup butter
• 3/4 cup sherry or water
• 1 medium clove garlic, minced
• 2 cans (10 1/2 oz) golden mushroom soup
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
• 1/2 cup water
• egg noodles or rice – amount varies depending on how much you want.

In skillet, brown beef in butter. Add remaining ingredients. Cover and cook over low heat two hours or until tender. Stir occasionally. Serve over egg noodles or rice.

How easy can that be? The golden mushroom soup really gives this a great flavor. Give it a try when you can!