Grilled Lamb and Pork Chops

When I sent Rick a link to this recipe that I wanted to try, I was met with resistance.  He was not looking forward to lamb tonight, and I told him that we'd do it, and if he didn't like it, we'd heat something up (corndogs) for him.  I was wanting to do lamb chops because Harris Teeter had them on sale.  I was really wanting to stop by the new Harris Teeter that opened yesterday on Highway 17, and that gave me an excellent excuse to do so.  While I was there and gathering things for our meal tonight, Rick popped up.  We were both impressed with the new store, and it made me even more excited for the other new one that is about to open up closer to our neck of the woods off of Highway 41.


I decided to take the Cooking Light recipe and play with it a little bit.  Rick brought over prok chops to throw on the grill, too, just in case.  I had to play with the herbs from the original recipe because Rick's not a huge rosemary fan, and we were quite impressed.  We served them with our favorite green beans.


Here's what we did.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon dried herbes de Provence
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon dried oregano
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 garlic clove, minced
4 lamb loin chops, trimmed
4 small pork chops

Directions
Prepare grill.

Mix first 8 ingredients together and spread evenly on both sides of each piece of meat.  Grill until desired doneness.

Enjoy!

Parmesan and Sage-Crusted Pork Chops

For dinner last night, we used a recipe from Cooking Light that I found on myrecipes.com.  Rick is a big pork chop fan, and they were on sale at Publix so it was the perfect opportunity to use this recipe that I've been wanting to try out.  Rick wasn't too crazy about the suggested sides so we decided that it would be great with our favorite green beans and a baked potato.  Instead of using crushed green beans as the recipe calls for, we substitute slivered almonds and increase the garlic to 3 cloves.  The results was one of the best dinners that we've ever had!  I foresee us having this one quite a few times in the future!  The recipe here is one that incorporates the changes that I made to the original.

Here's what we did.

Parmesan and Sage-Crusted Pork Chops

Ingredients

1/2 cup regular bread crumbs

1/2 cup panko

1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese

1 1/2 tablespoon chopped fresh sage

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon yellow mustard

2 large egg whites

4 boneless thin-cut pork chops

1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Directions

Combine breadcrumbs, panko, cheese, sage, salt and pepper in a shallow dish and place flour in another one.  Combine mustard and egg whites in a bowl, stirring with a whisk.

Dredge a pork chop in the flour and shake off the excess.  Drop the pork into the egg mixture and let the excess drip off.  Coat the pork chop in the breadcrumb mixture and set aside on another plate. Repeat with other pork chops.

Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat.  When the oil is heated, add the pork chops and cook 5 minutes on each side or until browned and done.

Enjoy!!!

Brunswick Stew

This weekend, I finally tried out the somewhat new Woody's BBQ place in Park West.  They had Brunswick Stew on their menu, and our server was nice enough to bring our table a little sampling of it.  It was pretty good even though the meat in it wasn't shredded...which is what I prefer.

I had never had Brunswick stew until I was in college at UNC.  Liz and I took an anthropology class on Southern Culture, and for one of our last assignments, we did a group presentation.  I was assigned to do a group presentation on Brunswick stew.  I'd never heard of it, but several of my group members talked about how awesome it was.  As part of our presentation, we actually cooked some (heated it up in the St. A's kitchen) and gave it to our class.  That one group project launched my love for this culinary creation.  I've had it at many different restaurants, and I think that the best Brunswick stew that I've had was in a small BBQ joint called Clem's Place in the very small town of Norlina, NC.  Clem's Place also has some of the best barbecue that I've ever had.  It's a little hole in the wall that's right next door to a car wash on US Highway 1.  It's been years since I've been there, but I will never forget it!

Where Brunswick stew originates is quite controversial with people from Georgia and Virginia arguing that they are the ones who created it.  Whoever it was, I thank them! 

As is often the case when I have something out, I decided to try to make Brunswick stew myself this weekend.  A friend from a messageboard had posted a recipe a few months ago, and it looked perfect to me....not too complicated and made in the crock pot!  It was definitely a hit here! 

Here's the version that I made.

Brunswick Stew

Ingredients

1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes

1 can tomato paste, (6 oz.)

4 pound boston butt

1 1/2 cups frozen sliced okra, thawed

1 cup corn kernels, frozen thawed or fresh

1 can lima beans

1 chopped onion

1 large baking potato, chopped into 1 inch chunks

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon oregano

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

2 1/2 cups chicken stock

Directions

Cook pork in crockpot with chicken broth for 2 hours on high. Combine tomatoes and tomato paste; stir to blend. Add sliced okra, corn, onion, lima beans, potato, bay leaf, salt, pepper, and oregano. Cover; cook on low for 4 to 5 hours. Remove pork from the crock pot, shred, and return to the stew. Before serving, remove bay leaf and stir well.  Serve with hot sauce.

The Much Anticipated Pork Tenderloin

I think I've been talking about this pork tenderloin recipe for at least a week now.  It was one of the first recipes that caught my eye when I purchased Vera Bradley's Cooking with Friends Cookbook.  We were going to do it earlier, but it requires 24 hours of marinating time which means that I must think about it ahead of time...something that doesn't always happen when I'm trying to juggle nursing school and working part time.  Then we were going to do it over the weekend, but a sale on baby back ribs distracted us. Finally, the time has come for us to do the pork tenderloin!!!

Saturdays in the South

As I'm sure you've been able to surmise, Saturdays in the South always involve college sports.  This time of year, it's college football., and in a month of so, it will be college basketball time.  This evening, Rick's Carolina (not to be confused with mine which is the REAL Carolina--UNC) will be taking on Tennessee in what he calls "Big Boy Football."  It looks like even Halloween is going to take a backseat to the game tonight which is fine with me.  I'm in an interesting place in my life when I don't have children and I've had enough Halloween fun over the years to feel no regret in sitting this one out.  Due to the lower percentage of children in my neighborhood, we are going to be hanging out here to watch the game.  I picked up a bag of candy just in case some trick-or-treaters come by, but Rick is hoping that we don't have many to interrupt the game.  Of course, that would mean that we get to enjoy all those little fun-sized bags of M&Ms!


We are FINALLY going to be making the pork tenderloin recipe from the Vera Bradley cookbook that I picked up while in North Carolina this evening for the game.  I opted not to marinate it for the whole 24 hours, but hopefully, 10 hour will be plenty of time.  I'll definitely be blogging about it tomorrow.


This morning, we were debating what to do for breakfast. I was trying to talk Rick into making me breakfast in bed, but unfortunately, I was unsuccessful.  On the fortunate side, however, I was too tired to make the pork chops that he brought over last night so we decided to fry them up, put them on biscuits, and have a pork-filled day!  Being from the South, frying is a part of life.  I'm not a huge fryer, but over the past year or so, I've become more comfortable with it.  Pork is another stable in any good Southerners diet (albeit a bad one).  My home state of North Carolina is known for its fabulous barbecue, and I was converted to the vinegar-based style during college.  I'll have to post my crock pot "barbecue" recipe here at some point.


So here is the goodness (and badness for the waist line) that we called breakfast this morning.  Rick put the whole pork chop on his, but I halved mine and ate the other half on the side (pictured in a wee-bit blurry picture below).



Saturday Morning Pork Chop Biscuits

Ingredients
2 Frozen Grands Biscuits
2 pork chops
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
3/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup panko
flour
Vegetable oil


Directions
Preheat oven to 375F.  Once oven is preheated, place biscuits on a ungreased baking sheet.  Cook for 16-22 minutes.


Heat oil (about 1/4 inch deep) in a heavy skillet.  

In a bowl, whisk together egg and milk.  In another bowl, mix together bread crumbs.  Place on a plate to coat pork chops.  Place flour on the plate to dredge pork chops. Dredge a pork chop in the flour and shake off the excess.  Dip the pork chop in the egg-milk mixture, and the coat with bread crumbs and panko.  Repeat with the other pork chop.


When the oil is heated, place the pork chops in the oil.  Cook for around 4-5 minutes per side for a total cooking time of around 10 minutes. Use a knife to cut the chop to check for doneness.  Cooking time will vary based on thickness of the pork chops.  Place the pork chops on a plate covered with paper towels to drain.  Once drained, place the pork chop in the biscuit.  

Rick likes to put  a little mustard on his.  Enjoy!!!

Emeril to the Rescue

My original plan for dinner last night was to do this pork tenderloin recipe that I had found in my new Vera Bradley Cooking with Friends cookbook. Unfortunately, I hadn't paid close attention to the recipe, or I would have realized that I needed to let the pork tenderloin marinate for 24 hours before grilling. Rick and I decided that it would be the perfect meal for this weekend which left me wondering what I was going to do for dinner that night.

After several of the recipes that I wanted to do from the cookbook required long (ie 3 + hours) of marinating, I decided to go on foodnetwork.com to see if I could find something to do. I guess I had pork on the brain because I started looking for pork chop recipes. Rick is a big fan of pork chops, but we so rarely have them that I decided to make them for a change. The recipe that I found had a side dish of Cheese Potatoes Au Gratin which would kill two birds with one stone. I was drawn to the pork chop one because it allowed me to expand my pantry purchasing liquid crab and shrimp boil and Emeril's Bayou Blast. I've never purchased Emeril's Essence before, and I was out of Cajun seasoning so I thought I'd give it a try. It's a little bit more expensive than the larger containers of it, but I liked it. The pork chops did require some marinating time, but I shortened it to just shy of 2 hours, and they were still great! They were definitely a hit!

Emeril's Shake 'Em Up Pork Chops

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1/4 cup plus 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2 teaspoons liquid concentrate crab and shrimp boil (recommended: Zatarain's)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 3 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 bone-in center-cut pork loin chops, about 12 ounces each
• 1 cup dry bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup masa harina
• 1 1/2 cups finely grated Parmesan
• 1 tablespoon Essence Bayou Blast
• 1/3 cup olive oil

Directions

In a large resealable plastic bag, combine the wine, 1/4 cup of the oil, the crab boil, pepper, cayenne, garlic, and bay leaf. Add the pork chops and marinate, refrigerated, turning occasionally, for 2 to 4 hours.

In a clean, large plastic bag, combine the bread crumbs, masa harina, Parmesan, and Essence. Shake to mix.

Remove the pork chops from the marinade and shake to remove any excess. One at a time, add the chops to the dry mixture and shake until evenly coated. Remove, place on a large plate, and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

In a large skillet or saute pan, heat the remaining 1/3 cup of oil over medium-high heat. Add the chops and cook until golden brown and cooked through, 5 to 6 minutes per side.

Remove from the pan and serve immediately on top of portions of the Cheesy Potatoes au Gratin

Cheesy Potatoes au Gratin

Ingredients
2 pounds Idaho potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
8 ounces Cheddar, grated
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease a medium gratin dish with butter.

Cover the bottom of the pan with an overlapping layer of potatoes. Lightly season with salt and pepper and top with a sprinkling of cheese (about 2 tablespoons). Continue layering potatoes, seasoning, and cheese, ending with the remaining cheese on top. Pour the cream over the potatoes, pressing lightly with your hands to cover the potatoes with cream.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake until the cheese is absorbed into the potatoes and the potatoes are tender when pierced with a knife, about 50 minutes. Remove the foil and bake until the mixture is bubbly and the top is golden brown, about 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let rest 10 minutes before cutting into portions.

Oven-Cooked Pork Ribs

Yesterday was definitely a day full of cooking for me. I suppose I was trying to get in as much cooking as possible before school restarts next week. In addition to the cake that I made, I also did biscuits and gravy for Rick and I for breakfast, and then for dinner, we had ribs and cole slaw.

We've done baby back ribs in the past, but this week, Publix has spare ribs on sale. My favorite way to do ribs is to start off with them in the oven and then put them on the grill to get a little charred and add some flavor. I had done them not too long ago using this method, and they turned out perfectly. I start them off by preheating the oven to 250F. The ribs are covered on both sides with barbecue sauce (yes, we will get to that later!), completely wrapped with aluminum foil, and placed on a baking sheet to cook for 2 hours. As you can imagine, the ribs create quite the aroma as they cook which makes waiting the 2 hours a little difficulty towards the end.

Usually, after the 2 hours are up, we take them to the grill for a few minutes per side, but when we got to the grill last night, it refused to light. We weren't really sure what was going on, and since it was starting to get dark, we decided to take them back in to finish under the broiler. I added a little more barbecue sauce to both side of the rack of ribs and broiled them for a 5-7 minutes per side. I was really impressed with the results! They didn't dry out which is always a fear of mine. The key is to cook the pork to 160F to make sure to that all the bacteria are killed while still ending up with a tender, juicy piece of pork.

For the sauce, I got the idea from a messageboard on Inside Carolina when we did them the first time, and we liked it so much that it has become our sauce of choice. It's simple and easy even though it isn't home made. When getting a bottled BBQ sauce, it can really be hit or miss (and more like miss, miss, miss in my experience) until I was introduced to the goodness that is Sweet Baby Ray's. The label isn't flashy so it probably never caught my eye when browsing the sauce aisle at the grocery store, but I am so glad that I was introduced to it. We mix it with hot sauce (in this case, Moore's Wing Sauce). I did 3/4 Sweet Baby Ray's and 1/4 Wing Sauce so that it wasn't too hot for me!

Here are the recipes.

Oven-Cooked Pork Ribs

Ingredients
1 slab pork ribs (can be spare or baby back)
1 bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's Original BBQ sauce
1 bottle Moore's Wing Sauce

Directions
To make the sauce:
Mix 3 parts Baby Ray's to 1 part Moore's Wing Sauce. (I start out with a 3/4 cup and 1/4 cup and then add more from there)

For the ribs:
Preheat oven to 250F. While oven is preheating, brush both sides of the rack of ribs with sauce. Wrap ribs in aluminum foil and place on a baking sheet. Place ribs in the oven and cook for 2 hours. After two hours have passed, take the ribs out of the oven. Check meat temperature with a meat thermometer to make sure that the meat is 160F. If it has not reached 160F yet, rewrap with the foil and return to the oven to cook some more (cooking time will vary based on oven and size of rack of ribs). Once the meat has reached 160F, unwrap from the foil and coat both sides again with the sauce.

Pick one of the two following options to continue cooking.
Option 1: Turn on oven broiler. Place ribs on a broiling pan, and broil rack of ribs for 5 minutes on each side.
Option 2: Place ribs on a hot grill for 2-3 minutes to char the meat, and then flip them for another 2-3 minutes of cooking.

Enjoy!