Pork Chops, Beans, and Mashers

We tried this fun and easy recipe for a dinner with pork chops, green beans, and mashed potatoes. Best part about it was that we got to use our new aquisition, a battle tested cast iron skillet.

First we got the veggies prepped. So we peeled and chopped 3 pounds of yellow potatoes, placed them in a pot, covered them with water and added a teaspoon or so of salt.

We also washed and trimmed 1 pound of green beans.

Next we took 4 pork chops with bones and smothered them with mustard and Demerara sugar.

We also poured 2 cups of veggie broth into a pot and added a couple of rosemary sprigs.

Now every thing was ready to turn on the stove. For real for real. We started all four burners and turned the oven to 350F. In one pot we got water to boil, in another the potatoes, in a third the broth. On the fourth burner we placed that cat iron skillet, got it nice and hot, added olive oil, and placed the pork chops in it. We seared the meat from both sides. For maybe ten minutes or so.

Then we shoved the skillet, meat and all, into the oven for another ten minutes.

When the water was boiling we added the beans for just about 6 minutes.

Shortly before dinner we added 2 tablespoons of butter, salt, and pepper to the broth. We also added the juices from the skillet and

put it all through a sieve for a sauce.

The only thing left were the potatoes. We drained them and mashed them up with more butter, heavy cream, salt, and a couple handfuls of Parmesan to taste. That was it: Green beans, mashed potatoes, sauce and pork chops

Oooooh yes. Goodness on a plate. A good mouthful of heartwarming comfort.

Bloody Mary Beef - Bam!

COMFORT FOOD indeed! This was one scrumptious forklicking eat'em-up dinner for the history books. You could drown all your sorrows in this dish. Not withstanding the fact that we had to open the bar early for it. A pot roast brisket in a Bloody Mary sauce. We kid you not.

This one came straight out of the hallowed pages of Jamie Oliver's new cookbook Comfortfood and - BAM! - right into our new Christmas-present Emeril Cookware casserole. A cook-off of Titans, if you will, right in our kitchen.

We started with seasoning a 2 lb piece of  brisket with salt and pepper from all sides.

Then we cranked up the heat on that casserole dish and added a few gluggs of olive oil.

We placed the chunk of meat into the heat for a good 10 minutes until it was seared all around.

In the meantime we cranked the oven to 250F and roughly chopped up one big red onion and two sticks of celery.

We reduced the heat and gently cooked the veggies for another 10 minutes.

That gave us time to get sauced. At 11 a.m. mind you. We mixed up 3 1/2 cups of smoothly crushed uncooked tomato sauce (our best description for a "passata" substitute), the juice of 1 lemon, 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, a few drops of Tabasco sauce, 3 tablespoons vodka, and 1 tablespoon port.

All that we added to the meat and cranked up the heat to a boil.

We tied up a handful of rosemary sprigs with 2 fresh bay leaves.

The herbs got tossed into all that goodness and then ...

... we shoved it into the oven. For 5 1/2 hours. The aromas coming from the kitchen all day long made it, of course, hard to wait.

Half an hour before we were ready for dinner  we got a pot of water to a boil and tossed in a few handfuls of green beans, trimmed and halved, for just about 6 minutes. We drained them to serve.

We also boiled a pot worth of yellow potatoes, peeled and cut, until they were soft. We drained them as well and then mashed them up with about one cup of heavy cream, a few chunks of butter, salt, and freshly grated nutmeg. Oooooh, goodie.

When we brought the brisket back to daylight, we removed the herbs and pulled the meat apart with a fork.

This will be, no doubt, a holiday classic for years to come. Let's just say: New Years with all the good attentions can wait for a few days. This dinner was not for timid souls. It was made for eating.

Green Bean Casserole (thanksgiving #5)

We added an all-American classic to our Thanksgiving menu - Green Bean Casserole. For help we turned to Carrie Vitt and her blog Deliciously Organic. Her recipe turned out to be an absolute knockout. And needless to say, she avoided any store-bought cream of mushroom soup.

To get the show on the road we cranked up the oven to 425F and thinly sliced up a whole red onion.

We mixed it up with 2 tablespoons of coconut oil (that we had to melt a little first, Duh Papa), salt, and pepper and

spread it all out on a baking sheet.

 

We roasted the slices for 30 minutes. Halfway through we tossed them around a bit.

 

Of course, we should have checked a little closer to the end to ensure the right finish. We got them just a titsy bit too crunchy. No worries, though. After we got the onions out we turned the oven to 375F for the next step.

In the meantime we had busied ourselves with cleaning up and halving 2 lb of green beans.

We tossed them into boiling water for just about five minutes. Nibbling on them to check, we retrieved them with still some bite to them.

They were rinsed in cold water to stop the cooking process.

Next we sliced up 1 lb of mushrooms and

melted 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter.

 

We sauted the mushrooms with salt and pepper for 10 minutes, eating a few along the way. The taste and smell was just too much to resist.

Then we added 3 tablespoons of flour and worked it into the juices.

It was followed up with 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth and

1 1/2 cups of heavy cream.

We gave it another five minutes whisking well, waiting for the sauce to thicken.

Last but not least the beans and mushroom sauce were tossed together in a baking dish and topped  off with the onions. We shoved the casserole into the oven for 20 minutes.

There it is, Green Bean Casserole, loading down a Thanksgiving plate. Everybody loved it. What a perfect recipe. Thanks again  Carrie Vitt and Deliciously Organic. We'll repeat this next year.

Chicken Not Pie

This came from the pages of The Runner's World Cookbook. Loaded with vegetables and an absolute winner with the girls, it took but 30 minutes to prepare.

For starters we halved and sliced up 2 sticks of leek.

For five minutes we sauteed them in a little olive oil with salt and pepper.

Then we added 1 glass of white wine, 1 cup of vegetable broth, and

some chopped thyme. While we brought all that to a boil and a few minutes of simmer, we sliced up 2 chicken breasts.

We cooked the chicken for about 6 minutes. That gave us some time to peel and chop up into bite-size chunks 3 yellow potatoes.

Then Lily retrieved the chicken and placed it on the side.

We added the taters and boiled them for about five minutes.

In the meantime we prepared 1 carrot and 1 parsnip, added them for another couple minutes while the sauce was thickening.

Then we prepared 1 handful of sugar snap peas, and 1 bushel of green asparagus and added them, too, for just about three minutes.

To wrap it up we added the chicken, the juice of 1 lemon and some fresh parsley.

Not bad for  fast and furious weekday evening. It sure got our yummy going. Enough to make us polish our forks.