It’s Wednesday and I thought that I would jump back into the Wordless Wednesday foray but soon realized that I lack the ability to just post a picture with no words.
I took these pictures of the kids yesterday. When Cara was a wee lass, we took HUNDREDS of pictures of her. Every day I would take like 30 pictures. Some I would trash and some were kept but the point is that my camera was always in my hand. Now, maybe it’s because I’m chasing after Ollie and Cara but I don’t take so many pictures these days. Hell, Ollie’s lucky if he ends up with one picture a month.
Poor second child.
Also, I entered my bewbs in Lotus’s Bewb Fest ’09. [I’m #27] I should have known better than to take that picture in THAT dress. There are a couple of reason why I took that dress back and one of them was because it made my boobs look lopsided. So in defense of my boobs, I present to you a better picture. To be fair to everyone else who entered, you should vote based on what’s on Lotus’s site.
On the Oscar front, I don’t know how he is today. I assume that he’s a-ok or the vet clinic would have called me but they are “closed” on Wednesdays and don’t answer the phone. I’ve posted the picture before, but here’s Oscar in all of his uppity glory.
And one last thing.
I tweeted about my awesome pork chops:
Why be modest when you know something’s really that good?
I got several responses asking for recipes and so that’s what I’m giving you now.
First off, I season all of my meat before I freeze it [with the exception of ground meat]. Usually I season everything with Kosher salt and pepper and depending on what I plan on doing with the meat at a later date, I’ll put garlic powder on it as well. Freeze it just like you would normally. Once it’s thawed, it’s like the meat has been marinated.
Here’s what I did to make my badass pork chops:
I grabbed a four pack of thick center cut pork chops out of my freezer that I had seasoned with garlic powder, Kosher salt, pepper and dried thyme prior to freezing.
Once they were thawed, I took two eggs, beat the crap out of them and added a splash of milk. In a glass pie plate, I mixed about two cups of flour, a big pinch of Kosher salt and some pepper. First I dunked the pork in the flour mixture, then the egg bath and then back in the flour.
I tossed the dredged chops into a big skillet that was set on medium heat with about a quarter of an inch of oil [use what you like] and left them alone. Don’t mess with them. Seriously. Leave them alone. Once the side I could see started looking “moist” and the edges of the chops that were in contact with the pan started turning brown then I flipped them. And left them alone again. If you mess with them then you’re going to loose the breading and that’s sad so don’t do it!
To tell if they’re done, you can either go by feel [if you push on the middle with your pointer finger, there should be very little “give”] or you can use a quick read thermometer right in the middle. I cook my chops to around 155 degrees. You’ll get a bit of carryover cooking while the chops hang out waiting on you to make the gravy.
Once the chops are reading a temp that you’re comfortable with then pull them out and let them drain on either some paper towels or a wire rack.
In the pan where you cooked the chops, drain off almost all the grease off. Take the flour that you used to bread the chops and sprinkle some of it in the pan. I don’t measure stuff so you’re going to have to play it by ear. I normally use enough flour to thinly cover the bottom of my skillet. Use a wooden spoon to scrape any yummy brown bits up into the flour.
If the flour is still white and dry then you need to add some more fat. At this point I use olive oil [NOT extra virgin, just plain olive oil] and add just enough so that you make a paste of oil and flour. You know you have the right mix when you can jiggle the pan and the rue spreads out a little. Cook the rue until it starts to smell toasty. Be careful here because your rue will go from toasty and awesome to burned and crap in no time flat. Low heat is best for this. It takes longer but it’s “safer”.
Once your rue turns golden brown then you add in the milk. Again, I don’t measure my milk so add a little and stir like crazy with a whisk and then add more if you need it. The ultimate goal is to have a gravy that’s thick enough to cover the back of a spoon. Keep stirring until the gravy gets all happy. Now’s the time to check for seasoning. If you used the flour from the dredging like I suggested, then you already have some salt and pepper in the gravy so season with care.
Guess what? Dinner’s ready!
I normally serve my chops with mashed potatoes and green beans but corn works great too. Gravy can be a tricky thing but with some practice, you’ll never use a premade gravy again.
And thus ends my “Wordless Wednesday”. *snort*
Shh image is by richard winchell and the other’s are by me.
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