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Archive for September, 2014

Fried Pork Chops

If you are a regular reader here, you know that I don’t fry food a lot.  Every once in a while, I get an urge for something fried and when I make it, the reason I don’t do it a lot comes right back to me.  These chops were really good, but my whole house smelled like grease after I made them.

I have to say they were worth it.  Check out the original recipe at Deep South Dish.

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4 bone-in pork chops

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup self rising flour

1/2 cup yellow cornmeal

1/4 tsp. granulated sugar

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. seasoning of your choice (I used Penzey’s BBQ of the Americas.)

2 tsp. onion powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. black pepper

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Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  While the oil warms, combine all of the remaining ingredients except the chops in a pie pan.

Dredge the chops in the flour mixture to completely coat them.

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Carefully put the pork chops into the skillet.  Don’t overcrowd the pan, but you should be able to cook two at a time.  Fry until browned on the first side, about 3 to 5 minutes.  Flip the chop and cook for another 3 to 5 minutes or until cooked through. 

Transfer to a paper towel lined plate to let the excess oil drain.

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Along with thousands of other readers, I am a huge fan of the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon.  While impatiently waiting for “Written In My Own Heart’s Blood” to come out, I read her novella “A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows” which tells the back story of Roger McKenzie’s parents.

It was two weeks yet to Halloween, but the gremlins were already at work.”

Roger’s father, Jerry, is a Royal Air Force pilot during World War II and the “gremlins” are hard at work on the plane he is flying.  This short story is a great addition to the Outlander series and fills in quite a few blanks about Roger’s life.  It just wasn’t long enough!

Please join me at Rose City Reader for Book Beginnings.

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More September beauty…

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Good morning and welcome to a long overdue Menu Plan Monday post! I have been trying to get back into a menu plan posting routine, but haven’t been very successful.  Hopefully this post will get me back on track for a while and the motivation to menu plan will come back.

This week is full of easy favorites while C & I tackle a few projects around the house.  Have a great week!!

Salsa sloppy Joes with oven baked fries

Sausage cheese dip with Fritos scoops

Sausage bake with salad

Pizza night

Grocery night

Fall apart pork chops with butter roasted potatoes and salad

Please join me at I’m An Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday.

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Yummy Homemade Tacos

Tacos make a great weeknight supper because they are quick, easy and so tasty.  I was looking a little different way to make them just to change things up a little and I found this recipe at Yummy, Healthy, Easy.

I may now have a new favorite taco recipe.  These were so good!  Please excuse the photos. I was in a little too big a hurry when I took them so they are not the best. 

IMG_95281 tbsp. olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup finely diced onion

1/2 cup tomato paste

4 tsp. chili powder

1 pound ground beef

taco shells

Your favorite taco toppings (I used salsa & cheese in the photo above and also had sour cream.)

IMG_9512In a large skillet over medium heat, add the oil, onion and garlic.  Cook this until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. 

IMG_9514Add the tomato paste and chili powder.  Add the ground beef and cook until there is no pink left in the meat. 

IMG_9516Fill the taco shells with the meat mixture and top with salsa and cheese.  I then placed the tacos in a 300 degree oven just until the cheese was melted.  Serve with your favorite toppings.

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A little wildflower macro fun:

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Here’s another great slow cooker recipe from Eat At Home Cooks who is one of my all time favorite bloggers.  Tiffany is not only a great cook and writer, but also a fellow Kentuckian!

I used her recipe as my inspiration and almost all of the flavors are the same, but I made my own gravy and didn’t use the mix included in her recipe.  Most of the mix packets have MSG and I am extremely allergic so I just made a basic gravy with flour and broth.

These steaks make a great supper with your favorite comfort food side dishes like mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese.  I wish my photos were better, but meat is my photography nemesis!

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1/2 cup + 3 tbsp. all purpose flour, divided

2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. dry mustard powder

Approximately 2 lbs. cube steak

2 tbsp. vegetable oil

1/2 cup diced onion

1 cup beef broth

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Combine 1/2 cup flour, salt, garlic powder and ground mustard in a pie pan.  Dredge the cube steaks in the flour mixture.

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Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Brown the steaks in the oil for about 2 minutes on each side.  Place the browned steaks in your slow cooker.

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Add the remaining 3 tbsp. flour to the hot skillet and stir this into the oil leftover from the steaks for about 30 seconds.  Pour in the beef broth and continue stirring constantly.  Make sure to scrape the bottom of the skillet well to get all of the tasty bits in to the gravy.  Add the diced onions and cook on low for about 5 minutes.

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Pour the gravy over the steaks and cook on low for 5 to 6 hours.

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C & I both love to read and absolutely LOVE checking out eBooks from our local library.  Many books I have read in the last year or two were happy surprises I found while browsing the online selections.  Today’s book is one of those and it is “Mr. Churchill’s Secretary: A Maggie Hope Mystery” by Susan Elia MacNeal.

Here is the first line:

“Half an hour before Diana Snyder died, she tidied up her desk in the typists’ office of the Cabinet War Rooms.”

This book is set in England during the Blitz of World War II and tells the story of an extremely intelligent woman, Maggie Hope,  stuck working as a typist to do her part during the great war.  Needless to say, Ms. Hope finds herself in the middle of a mystery while working as Winston Churchill’s secretary. 

I am a sucker for historical fiction whether it is set in the 1740s, 1840s or 1940s and this was a great book.  This is also a series (Yay for series!) so I plan on reading more of the Maggie Hope books.

Please join me at Rose City Reader for Book Beginnings.

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September…

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Non-Menu Plan Monday

Well, how is everybody?  Me?  I am just fine and finally feeling like blogging again.  For some reason, this summer just took its toll on me and my inspiration well had run completely dry.  Thankfully, the urge to cook, take photos, and (most importantly for this space) write about it is finally coming back. 

I guess I can blame it on the hot weather, but that’s not really it.  There have been a few family health issues going on which thankfully are resolving themselves nicely.  Praise God!!  C & I also have a big personal project we are diving into and, hopefully, I can fill you in on that a little more in the near future.  It’s a wonderful opportunity but a BIGGIE!!!  In fact, if you want to say a little prayer for us, please and thank you, that would be just great.

Do you ever have the feeling that your brain is evolving into something a little different?  I guess that sounds weird, but I have been toying with the idea of changing my blog name to something that seems more “me”.  For some reason, PPC just doesn’t seem to perfectly match what I want this space to be.  I am far from perfect and even though (as my tag line says) cooking and photography are my perfect hobbies, I have never been really comfortable with the word “perfect” in the title.

Maybe I am being too sensitive, but I really don’t want to try to be perfect because I know I can’t be.  Only God and Jesus are perfect and I can only strive to be even just a tiny smidgen like them.  There may be a few changes in this little space, but maybe not.  Can you say, “Indecisive”? 

Thanks for sticking with me through my dry spell until I felt the proverbial rain filling my well again.  Stay tuned for some fun things to come!

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