Table Talk: Sauteed Pork Chops with Quick Apple-Ginger Chutney

I knew I would like this week's recipe because I really like the combination of apples and pork chops.   And this didn't disappoint.

I couldn't find boneless pork chops.  I bought a roast and sliced it into chops.  It would have been better with a tenderloin, but I couldn't find one of those either.  And when your kids are relay racing through the store, sometimes you just have to grab something that says 'pork' and get the heck outta there.

I was a little nervous to brine my pork.  The last time I soaked a turkey in brine it turned into a ham, no joke.  (I was not happy.  It was the worst day ever.  I love turkey and tolerate ham.  And it was Thanksgiving.  The pilgrims didn't serve ham at Thanksgiving!)  When I saw brine in the recipe I had flashbacks to that horrid day, but then I saw that it was only for 30 minutes to an hour and not 3 days.  And also, it's already a pork product, right?  Ham goes well with apples.

Guess what!  They stayed pork chops.  Weird, right?

I didn't feel like my chutney really 'thickened' but it got to the point I was worried that there wouldn't be any juice left if I didn't say enough was enough. 

I would make this again for sure, I liked the ginger in there but I might add a little less next time and maybe try to puree the chutney.  Can I call it a 'chutney' if I puree it?  Tyler isn't a fan of cooked fruit with meat, but he really liked the sauce.  Or I guess I could just double the sauce ingredients and not give him any 'chunks' on his plate.  Or I could just tell him to eat it and quit being such a baby.  And maybe I could stop rambling.

If you'd like to try this week's recipe, you can get it at Michelle's blog (or you can buy the book).  She was our lovely hostess for the week and chose the recipe.  Thanks for the great pick Michelle!

Beet and Goat Cheese Salad with Candied Walnuts (and how I lost my mind)

When I was about 5 or so, my mom made me eat a beet.  I had the kind of parents who made you clean your plate and we were having beets that night.  I am pretty sure they were the canned variety and I sat there with a beet in my mouth, refusing to swallow it, for at least a half an hour.  I thought they were so disgusting, I couldn't imagine letting it go down the hatch.  If I would have been thinking less like a 5 year old, maybe I would've just hurried and swallowed it and not savored the horrible taste for quite as long.  Instead, I turned it into a traumatic moment and have steered clear of beets, in any form, since that day.  

TWD: Mocha(less) Chocolate Chunk Cookies

This week's TWD was fine by me.  I love chocolate chip cookies.  But I was a little confused when I looked at the P&Q page and saw that people were talking about apricots.??  I thought maybe I had no idea what we were really making this week. But guess what!  There were apricots listing in the recipe ingredients.  With the word (optional) next to it.  Phew!  I am not sure I'm cool enough to ruin my cookies with apricots at this point.  (Maybe one day I will look back and laugh at this comment.  I mean, I did eat a beet the other day and I've held out on those since I was about 5.  It wasn't so bad.  One day I might morph into a chocolate-chunk-and-apricot-cookie eating fool.  Never say never.)  I also left out the mocha since we aren't coffee drinkers.  I didn't want to seem like a loser though so I threw some walnuts into a few of the cookies.

I used semi-sweet chocolate and instead of buying chunks I cut my own. About at this point (below) I was wondering why I didn't just buy those perfect chunks at the store.  Nothing perfect about this mess.  And the recipe said something about white chocolate so I threw some white chocolate chips in too.

 I guess the overnight chill is supposed to develop flavors and stiffen the dough.  Well, I skipped it.  The recipe didn't specify to soften the butter, so I used mine cold and by the time I got the dough formed, it didn't seem to need fridge time to me.  And let's face it, if a cookie recipe HAS to be put in the fridge overnight, I will find another recipe.  I can't trust myself to have that kind of forethought. 

 To slightly make up for skipping the chill, after I scooped (I used my 1 oz scoop) the dough onto the cookie sheet, I put the second pan in the freezer for 15 minutes while the first pan baked.

 The first, non cold batch seemed to do just fine.  They were a little less cripsy around the edges when they came out of the oven.  I think the colder ones get browner edges while waiting for the cold center to bake.

 Either way, no complaints here!  We all loved them!   I made some for Tyler with just white chocolate chips and he said he wanted about a hundred of them. The rest of us all loved the chocolate chunks.

  Next time I would probably skip the chill again and leave the cookies on the cookie sheet for a minute to cool before removing them to a rack.  They wanted to fall apart a bit right out of the oven but after a minute or so, it was easy.

This was a great recipe and you can never have too many great cookie recipes! (In my opinion, anyway)  You can buy the book, or get the recipe at our host blog for the week:  Galettista

If you'd like to see what the other TWD bakers did you can go HERE.

Bowtie Pasta with Chicken, Asparagus, and Lemon

Let me start by saying that I feel much more competent when it comes to baking than cooking.  I am so glad we are doing dinners this year so I can get out of my comfort zone a little bit and cook some new things and maybe become a little bit better than before.

 This recipe actually called for penne pasta but I figured it didn't matter all the much.  Hadlee wanted bowtie, and I think when my kids have some kind of say in dinner, they are more likely to eat it.  I am not sure if it's because I let her choose the shape of the pasta or not, but my kids seemed to like this quite a bit.  I love all the components of this dish, especially the asparagus.  It's something we don't have all that often, but when we do, it makes me happy.  The fresh herbs and lemon make this really feel light, fresh, and delicious.  The best news?  According to the book a 1 2/3 cup serving is 380 calories.  I'm sure that changes slightly depending on what pasta and other ingredient you use, but still, that's pretty good for a pasta dish.

I used chicken tenderloins, cooked them whole and sliced them after the first sear the recipe calls for.  (I have a thing about cutting raw meat/chicken and try to avoid it when I can.)  I also wondered if it would have been easier to keep the asparagus whole (after trimming the ends) until after it was cooked.  It wasn't super easy to fish the 1 inch pieces out of my stock pot after boiling them.  My sauce wasn't as thick as I thought it would be after the 15 minutes of simmering so I tossed the chicken with about another T of flour before adding it back to the sauce.  It seemed to do the trick.

I have never used leeks before. (gasp)  Well, not that I can remember anyway, and I really liked them.  I am going to start using those things all over the place.  I also didn't expect myself to really like the thyme flavor but I did. (I don't think I used the whole 2 tsp though, maybe 1 or 1 1/2 because I was scared.)

I felt like it was a bit too lemony but I tend to be that way when it comes to lemon.  Hadlee added more lemon to hers, so there ya go.  Next time, I might reduce the lemon a bit (and just let Hadlee add to hers) and either reduce the amount of pasta or double the amount of chicken and asparagus.  We are trying to be a little better about what we eat lately and even though the pasta was whole grain, I felt like the ratio was a bit off; there was a lot of pasta compared to protein and veggies.  All in all, this was a win for us and something we would make again, and soon! 

If you'd like to try the recipe, you can get it at Valerie's blog (or you can buy the book).  She was our hostess for the week and picked a great recipe.

Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

We've made these a few times now (like 4 or 5) but I am just getting around to sharing the recipe.  If I could remember and plan ahead everyday, we would have them everyday.  My kids LOVE, LOVE them.  They have almost replaced their favorite breakfast food and they might be my favorite breakfast food.  I love bagels.  And these bagels are so good it's ridiculous.  My favorite bagel recipe so far, by far.

I adapted the recipe to use active dry yeast because that's what I always have on hand (I buy Red Star active dry yeast in bulk) and that's what I want my recipe to call for.  I don't want to have to buy different kinds of yeast.

If you like cinnamon raisin bagels, these need to go on your to-make list.  They take some planning and a little bit of time, but they are so, so worth it!

TWD: Croissants

I realized the other day that I have been a member of TWD for over a year now.  I've been baking with the group since it started it's second run last February!  And while I haven't missed a week of baking, I've yet to host.  I've been feeling a bit guilty about it, really.  It's all part of being in the group, right?  When they ask for volunteers to host, eligible bakers should volunteer.  I hadn't done that yet and I told myself that the next recipe I saw that I was excited about, I would stop being a pansy and say I would do it.  So here I am.  I realized when I went to make these that I maybe should have read through the recipe (or recipes) before blindly saying I would host.  I mean, could I have picked a longer recipe to type up?  It's really doubtful.  I wasn't super worried about making croissants since I had done it before but now that my arms have gotten a workout with all the rolling, my fingers will now get their workout with some serious typing.

Table Talk: Homemade Turkey Breakfast Sausage

 Uh, is that breakfast sausage or a steaming pile of......?

Isn't it supposed to be in link form?

Can you even call it breakfast sausage at this point?

All good questions.  

To which I will say: 

1) It's supposed to be breakfast sausage but I can see where you'd be confused, 

2) Yes 

and 

3) I have no idea.

I am not sure where I went wrong with the link situation but I have a few ideas.  I bought the tube of frozen ground turkey (What?  It was cheaper, so kill me!)  and it seemed to have quite a bit of liquid in it.  Maybe I should have drained it first or something?  When you buy it from the meat counter, there's usually a pad at the bottom that soaks up all the extra juice and maybe that's a necessity here?  I also used dried buttermilk powder and water as a sub for the buttermilk.  

When it was time to form the links, it seemed way to wet so I added some dried bread crumbs.  It was barely firm enough to form but I was afraid of adding too much bread and just turning them into fried breadsticks with some meat.  Even though I barely got them formed into links, I kept going, thinking that maybe once I started cooking them, they would magically hold together.  Not so much.  They held together well enough until I flipped them.  I was ever-so-careful and the first flip was okay but it seemed the more I cooked them, the less they held together.  I finally gave up and just made a steaming pile of sausage.  Yes, that's the official name I am going with.

 For my family's sake I tried to pretend I meant to make some kind of breakfast hash with it. :)  

It's supposed to look like that, see?  (I'm not sure they believed me either.  Maybe it was because I was laughing maniacally while I was smashing it up.)  

I really liked the flavor of the sausage which surprised me, I was afraid I wouldn't like the spices involved but I did.  I want to try again, but next time, I think I will try the ground turkey from the meat counter and some real buttermilk and hope it goes more smoothly.

Don't let my idiocy deter you from trying the recipe, you might be a sausage-making-whiz!  You can get it at Talesha's blog.  She was our host for the week.  Even though this wasn't a shining moment for me in the kitchen, I liked trying a new recipe and of course I learned some new things.  Like with all of my failures. :)  

TWD: Boca Negra (Chocolate Cake)

Apparently Boca Negra means "black mouth."  Um, that doesn't really sound appetizing.  But then if you read on, you find out you aren't really eating mouth, but that the cake is so chocolatey, it will turn your mouth black.  And believe me, I can work with that.  

Is anyone surprised I halved this recipe?  I did.  And then I decided I would bake it in ramekins and make 4 small cakes.  It worked well.  Which was surprising since I didn't use the bourbon, I used water with some caramel flavoring.  I made the white chocolate cream (also subbed water with caramel flavoring for the bourbon) but it wasn't set up enough to take the picture, so ice cream stepped up to the plate.  And I'm not sold on the cream but it was pretty delicious with ice cream.

 I don't really know what this cake is supposed to be like.  Since I changed the recipe, I'm not sure it turned out how it should, but it was delicious still.  It was gooey and delicious in the middle and super chocolatey.  It was almost more brownie-like than cake-like.  I think this recipe would be super easy to make gluten free since the full recipe only has 1.5 T of flour.

I used the food processor method so it came together so quickly and easily it was almost ridiculous.  Next time you are in the mood for something with chocolate, you should give it a try.  You can get the recipe at A Frederick Food Garden (our host for the week).

And if you'd like to see what the other TWD bakers did this week, you can go HERE.