Pork Chops with Dijon Cream Sauce

First of all, let me apologize for the horrible photo. Our camera was out of batteries at the moment so I used my cell phone camera which is pretty horrible. These pork chops taste WAY better than they look in this picture. Sorry!

Ingredients:

4 whole boneless pork chops (about 3 to 4 ounces each)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/3 cup chicken broth

1 1/2 Tbs dijon mustard

1/3 cup half and half

Directions:

1) Trim excess fat from pork chops; sprinkle both sides evenly with salt and pepper. Heat large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat; mist with nonstick cooking spray. Add pork chops and cook 3 to 4 minutes on each side, or until golden-brown. Remove from skillet; keep warm.

2) Add broth to skillet; stir to loosen browned bits. In small cup or bowl, stir mustard into half and half; add to skillet. Bring to boil, stirring constantly; reduce heat and simmer 5 to 6 minutes, or until sauce has thickened. Spoon sauce over pork chops and serve immediately.

chocolate doughnut holes

I made these tonight because my family came up for the evening and I wanted to have a treat ready. Try them out! So good! They disappeared faster then I could glaze them.

I got this recipe from smittenkitchen.com. Such a good website!

So here it is:

The most important thing to know about this recipe is that like most cake doughnuts, it makes a very sticky, soft dough. This one was so sticky I actually added a couple extra tablespoons of flour, and still felt panicky as it wanted to stick to the counter. Don’t do that, panic, I mean. Flour your counter very well. Plop the dough down on top. Flour it well and gently pat-pat-pat the dough until it is flat. The less you disturb it and the more generously you flour your counter, hand and cutter, the less sticking you’ll have. If it gets disturbingly soft, put the shapes (and/or dough) on a parchment or waxed-lined sheet and pop them in the freezer for a few minutes until they’re easy to pick up again.

My changes were to adjust the flour a bit, tweak a couple ingredients, add additional instructions, weights and I used a different glaze.

Yield: 4 dozen 1.5-inch holes. I halved the recipe and used a 1.25-inch cutter so I had a little over 2 dozen.

2 3/4 cups (12 3/8 ounces or 352 grams) all-purpose flour
1 cup (3 ounces or 90 grams) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa
2 teaspoons (about 3/8 ounce or 10 grams) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (about 1/8 ounces or 4 grams) salt
4 large eggs
1 1/2 (10 5/8 ounces or 300 grams) cups sugar
1/3 cup (2 7/8 ounce or 84 grams) sour cream (what I used) or buttermilk or you canmake your own
3 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces or 42 grams) butter, melted and cooled a bit
Your fat of choice for frying (solid vegetable shortening or canola, peanut or vegetable oil are popular choices)

Whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. In a medium one, whisk eggs, sugar, sour cream or buttermilk and butter. Stir wet ingredients into dry until well blended. Chill batter until cold, at least 1 hour and up to 3.

Flour your counter generously (see Note up top) and scrape dough onto it. Flour dough. Flour your hands. Gently pat dough out until it is 1/2-inch thick. Dip a 1 1/4 to 1 1/2-inch round cutter into a dish of flour and cut rounds from dough. Pat scraps of dough together and cut them again. If your dough or doughnut holes have gotten too soft to easily pick up, put them on a floured or parchment or waxed paper-lined tray and put them in the freezer for a few minutes, until they’re firm enough to gently handle again.

Prepare your fryer or fill a 5 to 6-quart with 4 inches of oil. Heat to 375°F (190°C). You can fry 6 to 12 doughnut holes at a time, about one full minute on each side. The trickiest parts will be visualizing when the doughnuts are done — since they’re chocolate, the color change will be subtle; I suggest practicing with scraps of extra dough first — and keeping your oil at an even temperature, if you’re not using a deep-fryer. Make sure you bring the oil back to 375°F after each batch.

Drain doughnut holes on a stack of paper towels. Once cool, roll in glaze (below) and let drain and dry on cooling racks.

I understand that these should keep for a day or two. We’ll probably never find out.

Full-Sized Chocolate Doughnuts: You can use this same dough to make 3-inch round doughnuts (with a 1-inch hole removed from the center). Because the dough is fragile, I definitely recommend popping the shapes in the freezer to firm up a little before you drop them in the fryer. You will want to fry them for 2 minutes on each side. It should yield about 16 3-inch doughnuts.

Chocolate-Stuffed Doughnut Holes: Why didn’t I think of this before? I bet awesome things would happen if you pressed a tiny piece of chocolate into the center of your unfried doughnut hole. Let us know if you try it in the comments.

Doughnut Glaze

8 ounces powdered sugar
3 tablespoons water, milk or buttermilk (what I used, highly recommended)
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk together until smooth. If you need it thinner, add more water, milk or buttermilk, a few drops at a time.

grandma's buttermilk pancakes

Since we don't have church until one o'clock, I decided to make a yummy breakfast. This is my Grandma Ricks' recipe for Buttermilk Pancakes. They are my dad's favorite!

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp baking soda

dash of salt

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 c milk

1 large egg

1 Tbs oil

Directions:

In a small bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In another bowl, combine buttermilk, milk, egg, and oil. Stir well.

Add flour mixture. Stir well.

Then make your pancakes! Yummy!

**So in my family, we're all about cheese pancakes. I know that sounds crazy but they're actually very delicious. Cut up little cubes of cheese, then, toss them on top of your pancake batter after you've poured it onto the hot skillet. Then cook and flip like normal. You can see my cheese pancakes in the picture below on the right. Serve with syrup and/or peanut butter.**

Baked Italian Sausage Rotini and Bruschetta

I found these recipes online and decided to try them both for the first time tonight. So, here you go!

Baked Italian Sausage Rotini

Prep Time: 15 Minutes

Cook Time: 30 Minutes

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 tsp minced garlic

1 pkg uncooked ground Italian sausage

8 oz rotini pasta, cooked

1 bottle four cheese spaghetti sauce

2 tsp. red pepper

2 cups mozzarella cheese, divided

Directions:

1. Roll the ground sausage into small balls.

2. In a large fry pan, brown the garlic in olive oil.

3. Then add sausage balls and cook until browned.

4. In a large bowl toss together the sausage with all the other ingredients, reserving 1 cup of cheese.

5. Pour pasta mixture into a 9x13 inch pan sprayed with cooking spray.

6. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove from oven, top with remaining cheese and bake 5 more minutes.

Bruschetta

Prep Time: 15 Minutes

Cook Time: 3 Minutes

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 loaf French bread

1/2 cup olive oil

2 tsp garlic salt

1 oz basil

1/4 Tbsp salt

1/4 Tbsp pepper

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 cup red onions, chopped

4 Roma tomatoes, chopped

Directions:

Wash tomatoes, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (leaving at room temperatures). Dice red onions into 1/4 inch pieces. Chop basil into 1/4 inchs pieces.

In large bowl, combine tomatoes, red onions, garlic, salt pepper, 1/4 cup olive oil and basil. Mix well.

Cut loaf of bread crosswise. Place on cookie sheet. Brush evenly with combination of 1/4 cup olive oil and garlic salt.

Place bread in oven until lightly browned.

Slice and top bread with topping mixure and serve.

And here's what the finished products looked like! So yummy!

Let me know what you think and if you would change anything.

lemon garlic tilapia and cool pasta salad

Lemon Garlic Tilapia

Prep Time: 10 Minutes

Cook Time: 30 Minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 tilapia fillets

1/8 cup lemon juice

1 tablespoon butter, melted

2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 teaspoon parsley flakes

pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.

2. Rinse tilapia fillet under cool water and pat dry with paper towels.

3. Place fillets in baking dish. Pour lemon juice over fillets, then drizzle butter on top. Sprinkle with garlic, parsley and pepper.

4. Bake in preheated oven until the fish is white and flakes when pulled apart with a fork, about 30 minutes.

Cool Pasta Salad

Prep: 20 Minutes

Chill: 30 Minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups elbow macaroni or 2 1/4 cups corkscrew-shaped pasta (rotini), cook without salt and drained

1 can (12.5 oz) white chunk chicken breast in water, drained

1 small cucumber, cut in half lengthwise and sliced (about 1 1/2 cups)

1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half

1 small onion, chopped (about 1/4 cup)

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

3/4 cup prepared fat free Italian salad dressing

Directions:

1. Place the pasta, chicken, cucumber, tomatoes, onion and parsley into a large bowl.

2. Add the dressing and toss to coat.

3. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

This is a fun and easy summer meal! It doesn't heat the house up too much and it's light and delish! Give it a try and let me know what you think!