Tasty Ideas

Recently I intended on making a strawberry jam marinated pork chop recipe however that morning I completely forgot that we were supposed to marinate the pork chops according to the recipe we were using.  I did have the pork chops out in the fridge though so I figured I might as well use them and see if I couldn't just make up my own recipe.

Now, I consider myself to be a pretty good cook but I don't usually come up with really inventive recipes so the success of these pork chops was really amazing (and tasty).

These turn out very tender, sweet and savory.  

White wine and strawberry jam Pork Chops

Ingredients:

4 medium sized pork chops

1 cup white wine

1 cup chicken broth

1/4 cup strawberry jam(I used our homemade strawberry lemon marmalade from last year)

salt and pepper to taste

Salt and pepper pork chops while olive oil is heating in large pan

Saute pork chops in olive oil till brown.  Remove pork chops temporarily to a plate 

Now add white wine to deglaze pan

Add chicken broth and strawberry jam to the pan and thoroughly incorporate

Add pork chops back to pan and bring the mixture to a simmer

Cover pan with lid and allow to cook for another 25 minutes until pork chops are cooked thoroughly and are tender.

Serve with oven roasted potatoes or egg noodles.  

Fireballs

This one I got from another website out there called SurvivalPodcast.  I've been really swimming in cherry tomatoes lately, some from our black cherry and some from our Christmas Grapes so I wanted a different way of using them up. I noticed this recipe recently and thought I'd give it a try.




1 gallon cherry tomatoes (green tomatoes work best)
4 garlic cloves
4 celery stalks cut the height of a quart jar
4 hot peppers
4 clump of fresh dill
1 quart water
1/2 cup pickling salt
2 quarts white vinegar

Combine water, salt & vinegar. Bring to a boil.

To each of four quart jars add a garlic clove, a celery stalk, a hot pepper, and a head of dill.

Pack cherry tomatoes into the jars. Pour hot brine over tomatoes, leaving 1/2 inch head space.

Remove air bubbles, adjust lids, and process in boiling water bath for ten minutes.

Now mine are probably going to taste a little different from this recipe because I was all out of celery and hot peppers.  So instead I added crushed red pepper and cayenne.  Plus I also added anise because I wanted to experiment with this a bit.  I can't wait to see how they turn out!


Today I also managed to make some homemade pizza sauce that I actually started last night.

Yesterday as hubby and I were racing to get ready for Hurricane Irene I cut an eggplant, grabbed a few more ripe tomatoes from the vines and some that weren't so ripe(I didn't want to lose any tomatoes to the tropical storm force winds we've been told to expect), grabbed one of Brad's Produce super sweet candy onions and some garlic, the last bit of celery and about a tablespoon of olive oil and began the long process of cooking everything down in the oven.  We have pizza stones in the oven so even after I turned the oven off as we prepared to go to bed I knew the tomato mixture would continue to cook throughout the night.
This morning after racing to the grocery store I moved the mixture to a sauce pan so I could hurry it up a bit.  The trick with pizza sauce is you really have to get it to cook down to a pretty thick mixture.  Thankfully I did beat Irene and any power outages and I got it canned.
All while fighting off a headache all morning long.  Thankfully the headache is starting to go away.  Just in time for the rain and wind to begin.

Hubby and I also managed to tie up some of the plants this morning and I even had a close encounter with a hummingbird.  This little guy was about 6 inches from my face.  He kept preparing to go to the feeder but sudddenly he obviously noticed me peeking out from the tomatoes and decided to try to figure out what the heck I was.  For about a minute he hovered in front of me.  Too cute.