This is a family favorite that I've never seemed to post before! So no story, just delicious pork chops! Strangely, I did post a picture of it.

Tomato-basil pork chops

1 chop per diner
per chop: 1 medium to large tomato, one small onion, handful basil leaves
1 or more large cloves of garlic, pressed
3 T butter
Sherry

To prepare the meat, poke both sides of chops with fork, lightly dredge w salt, pepper, crushed garlic. Set aside. Slice onions, tomatoes and basil. Melt 2-4 tablespoons of butter (you heard me) in a large skillet. Brown the chops on both sides (a few minutes per side), then add the sliced onions to the pan, stir until they are thoroughly coated with butter. Cook until just short of carmelization. If you have any other veggies to add do it now. I had a small black bell pepper, so that went in. Before you add the tomatoes, make sure the pan is browning. If it's not, let the chops fry another few minutes . Add the tomatoes and turn down heat. Continue to sautee until a light sauce has formed. I like to lift out the tomato skins as they separate from the meat. To start creating gravy, through a splash of sherry in. You want a little bit of liquid at all times after this point. Add the fresh basil.

Start water for pasta, continue to simmer the meat while the pasta is cooking. We're using a German egg noodle tonight, but spaetzle, gnochi, or fettucini are also nice with this.

Start to finish about 40 minutes, not counting waiting for the pasta to cook. For a complete step by step time line, check out the Twitter thread, in real time: #basilporkchops.

Abundance

I haven't made a meat dish in a while. This is not because I don't think you should eat meat, it's more a function of the empty nest.

In fact, I find myself cooking less and less, and struggling with quantities. Despite the fact the the kids have been on their own for four years (and one of them for 7--how did that happen?), I still find myself growing, shopping, and cooking for four. And then I have enough leftovers for days and days. Really, I could get away with cooking once or twice a week and then Wei and I just living on leftovers, like we did in college.

It's especially frustrating because right now I have tons of time--my hoped for new job did not come through (yet), and I've cut my teaching schedule back to almost nothing. So I have lots of time for cooking. But with fewer people, and less income, I really have to be careful about not wasting food.

Wasting food, of course, is practically a national pastime. About half the food grown (!) never gets to the table. All you have to do to see how cavalier we are about food is to walk through any cafeteria after lunch, or a park after a big event, to see the trash overflowing, not just with trash, but with uneaten, often perfectly good food.

The EPA has lots of suggestions about how to mitigate the problem, and resources for study. There are entire organizations dedicated to reducing food waste.

Which all seems kind of silly. Because like a lot of things, this is really in our control. Don't buy what you don't need, and eat those leftovers!

This lasted us for 3 meals:

Pork Xandaloo
Grind into a light powder:
2 tsp whole cumin seeds
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp cardamom seeds
3 in stick cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp whole black mustard seeds
1 tsp whole fenugreek seeds (if you've got 'em)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ight brown sugar
1 Tbsp ground coriander seeds
1/2 tsp ground turmeric

if you like heat also use:
2 small hot peppers (like a shishito), cut fine
1 tsp cayenne pepper

Mix into:
5 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1/2 cup tomato paste
up to 6 T water if needed

Pork chops, whatever cut you like. I used very thinly cut boneless center loin

10 T oil
2 large onions

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Fry onions, stirring frequently, until they are a rich, dark brown. Remove onions with a slotted spoon, leaving the oil. Sear the meat on both sides, until the fat starts to carmelize, Turn down the heat and add the sauce. It should cover the meat; if it doesn't add a little water. Bring to a simmer, then place the onions on top. Cover and simmer 30 minutes. Serve over:

Garlic rice
1 cup rice
4 medium cloves garlic

Prepare rice according to package instructions. Using a garlic press, add the garlic when the water comes to a boil.

Wealth

Several years ago, a friend who's into feng shui pointed out to me that the "wealth" bagua in the southeast corner of my garden was a big mess, and might be affecting our family's chi in that area. So we got serious and reconfigured the whole area, putting in a round patio (round is a good symbol for money), planting a lot of gold and yellow plants (same reason), and keeping it groomed. Lo and behold, we had several good years in the income/career success department.

Well, once again, it's gotten neglected, and frankly, the income thing isn't doing so well, so one of my tasks this year is to get this area back under control. I've put in a lot of sturdy perennials, and will fill the messy dumping area with some white sunflowers, (white is the color for metal in feng shui, a good augur for the money bagua). We've also got a cheminee in this area, which is probably not such a good thing in the wealth area (you don't want to burn your wealth), so I'll have to think about what to do with the cheminee.

What works about feng shui is not magic, or directing the chi, or whatever it is that it's supposed to do. It's that it makes you observe things. I always stop "seeing" that part of the garden, and some of that probably translates into parts of my life that I don't "see."

So this year I'll try to make my wealth bagua beautiful and cared for. After all, to be beautiful and cared for is what we all want.

Pork hash
2 pork chops
3 medium russet potatoes
3 small yellow onions
4 T butter
1 T honey
fresh herbs and dried spices- your call. I used basil and coriander
salt and pepper to taste

Bone the chops and dice the meat and rind. Slice the onions, dice the potatoes. I like to salt the potatoes now. Saute the onions in 2 T of butter over medium heat, when they are very limp and starting to carmelize add the pork and pork fat, stirring frequently. When the fat is fully cooked/rendered add the potatoes and the rest of the butter. Saute until potatoes start to brown, maybe 5-8 minutes, then add the honey and incorporate it thoroughly. Add the herbs and spices, and saute another 10 minutes, then turn the heat way down (I used the intermittent setting), cover and let it simmer about 15 minutes.

Wow.

Wordless Wednesday

Pork chops with heirloom tomatoes, basil and garlic

Maybe the cold makes me revert to meat

In my northside Chicago neighborhood, we still have an old-fashioned Centrella butcher in a little free-standing, independently owned grocery store. If it's not the last of its kind, it's close. It's the sort of place where the bag boy knows which car is yours, and the butcher/owner remembers your kids' birthdays.

For most of the time my kids were growing up and I was working downtown full time, we seldom went there, because he's only open during working hours-- 9 to 5 and closed Sunday-- so I was never able to make it. A few years after starting to work at home I had a facepalm moment, duh! I don't have to buy the awful industrial meat at Dominick's anymore. So I periodically do a "meat binge" and rack up the protein meals for a while. His chickens have actual dark meat, you can get fresh, never-frozen turkeys the day before Thanksgiving, ground chuck that you'd swear was ground steak (at half the grocery store price), homemade (by him) sausage, and guaranteed tender pork.

Rosemary pork loin roast with roasted potatoes

Small pork loin roast, boned (the butcher will do this for you)

1/4 cup olive oil
2 T dried rosemary
1 T dried sage
green peppercorns, ground, to taste, or about 1/4 teaspoon
sea salt, to taste, or about 1/2 teaspoon
4 large cloves of garlic

1 large russet potato per diner

Blend the herbs, 2 cloves of the garlic, and oil together. Cut about 6 slits in the roast and insert slices of the remaining garlic cloves. Rub the oil mixture on all sides of the roast. Let sit on the counter 1 to 3 hours.

Heat oven to 450F/230C. Roast the meat for 20 minutes. While it is roasting, cut the potatoes into large chunks (peel or not, personal preference), put them in a pot and bring them to a boil, then drain*. Potatoes should have just started cooking (don't let them cook through). Remove the roast from the hot oven and baste it in its own juices, then add the potatoes to the roasting pan and dot with butter. Turn the oven down to 300/150 and continue cooking, basting meat and potatoes occasionally, until thickest part of roast is 170F/75C. (One source I found recommended 145/62. My thermometer has pork at 170-180. If you're not sure, slice into the meat. Pork should have no red in it or it isn't done.)

Pan gravy

When it's done, transfer the roast and the potatoes to a serving dish, and use the drippings to make pan gravy. Simply put the roasting pan on a burner, add a cup of liquid (broth and/or white wine, or water if you have neither). Bring it to a simmer and scrape the browning off the bottom. Add a pat of butter and simmer till it melts, then strain it. For a thicker gravy, add the butter first, with an equal amount of flour, and heat until it forms a thick paste, then add the liquid and mix thoroughly. Don't worry if it looks lumpy, the lumps will come out when you strain it.

*Starting the potatoes in boiling water helps ensure that they actually finish cooking in the oven rather than getting some raw and some cooked, which is what always happens with me. I think it's genetic, because my mother, wonderful cook though she was, also could not roast potatoes to save her life.

Still had some cranberries left over

Another original recipe, although there are other similar ones on the web (there's probably a web law for this-- if you can think of it, there's already a website).

Porkchops with cranberry gravy

1 pork chop per diner

1 yellow or Vidalia onion, sliced
1 1/2-2 T butter
6 oz fresh cranberries
1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
1/2 cup white wine
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
add'l liquid as needed

Season the porkchops by sprinkling salt, pepper and parsley on each side. Let sit about 10 minutes. Over medium heat, melt the butter in a large saucepan, then sear the pork chops on both sides allowing the pan to brown a bit. Add the onions and sauté until they just start to go translucent. Add the cranberries and heat until they start to release their juice (about 5 minutes). Add the white wine and the sugar and cook the liquid down. When the pan starts to sear again, add the broth.

Continue simmering, turning the chops occasionally, adding liquid (water, broth or more wine) as the gravy reduces. Cook until chops are cooked all the way through, about 15 minutes more or less depending on the thickness of the chops.

Serve over egg noodles or fettucini.

With the cheese bread, this was a beautiful holiday meal. If only there had been someone here to share it with me!

For the carnivores in the family

Here's some stovetop recipes for chicken and pork. A family stand by, so it probably qualifies as comfort food. As a child, I had no idea chicken could be cooked any other way.

Porkchops with mushrooms and onions

Season one porkchop per person, both sides, with parlsey, salt and pepper. Set aside.

Melt about 2 T of butter in a very hot sauce pan, sautee a pint of mushrooms until all the butter is absorbed (this will happen very quickly. Pan will end up slick but not greasy). Dash with the juice of half a lemon, or jar equivalent, and sautee until the shrooms release moisture. Add another 2 pats of butter, and sear both sides of the chops. (It's seared when it releases easily. If you have to pry it up it's not done). Cook another 5 minutes, until the pan browns nicely. Add a little liquid (water, tea, or stock, maybe 1/4 cup at most) and the onions. Continue sauteeing, turning the meat periodically, until the onions are transparent. Add 1 to 1 1/2 cups of stock or tea, about 1/3 c at a time, until a nice brown gravy forms. You can thicken the gravy by dredging the meat with about a tablespoon of flour before adding the liquid.


Greek chicken

Marinate the chicken in the juice of one lemon, oregano, salt and pepper. Let sit at least one hour (or, in fact, all day if need be).

For true Greek Chicken, you'll want to bake it at 375 for 45 minutes, turning it once. You can also pan fry this dish. Put 2 T of olive oil on the hot pan, then sear the chicken, turning it when it releases easily, until it's nicely browned on all sides. Add stock and simmer until the meat is thoroughly cooked. The stock will make a nice clear gravy; to increase the amount, just add more after you remove the chicken and make sure the pan is scraped clean. For pretty gravy strain it, but it's fine with all the flotsam in it too.

Serve with garlic mashed potatoes.