Pumpkin Pecan Pork Chops

Yummy experimental pork chops. (I know it looks yucky, but that's because it's a pic of a reheat the next day)


I marinated the pork chops in the usual mixture of soy sauce, olive oil, black pepper and 7-up plus I added some white wine. This would probably also work well with a beer in place of the soda and white wine.

Then I made a sauce using equal parts pumpkin pecan butter (thanks, manda!) and yellow mustard. Spicy brown mustard would probably be yummy, too. For four chops I made about two cups of sauce...or more. I'm not exactly sure. I added some worcestershire sauce, grill seasoning, black pepper and curry powder. I used masala curry powder from Fiji, which is a bit lighter than most curry powders I've used around here, so I'd recommend going light on the curry powder.

After the pork chops marinated for about an hour, I laid the chops on a baking sheet (on top of foil), spooned out some sauce on top of them, and baked them at 375 for half an hour.

Bacon and Mushroom Bread Stuffing

Before I started anything, I broke up half a loaf of sour dough bread. I say "broke up" because I was too lazy to cut the bread into cubes, so instead I cut the bread into slices a little less than half and inch thick. Then I ripped them into usable pieces. I spread the pieces out onto a cookie sheet, sprayed them with a little cooking spray and sprinkled them with garlic powder. Next I baked them at 325 for about 20min. Tadaa! Garlic croutons!

For the stuffing, first I sauteed some bacon--about 10-12 strips--until cooked through and almost crispy.

Then I took out the bacon with a slotted spoon, and **gasp** used the bacon fat to sautee a small, diced red onion, sliced mushrooms, chopped celery, and sausage (I used aidells portobello mushroom).

I added the onions first, let them clear then added the mushrooms. Once the mushrooms softened, I put in the celery. After I added the celery I added some dry white wine (I used Robert Mondavi 2006 dry riesling...because it was already opened and not completely gone yet). I'd say about half a cup to a cup.

I sauteed that for a while until the celery softened. Then I added some fresh chopped thyme and sage, sauteed for a couple minutes then added two cups of chicken broth. Once the broth was warm, I dumped in the croutons and mixed everything around until all the bread was sufficiently moist. I transfered it all into a casserole dish, layering parmesan and provolone cheese between layers of stuffing. To warm it all, I baked it for 30min at 375 (I think). :-)

Oreo Cookie Pie and Orange Chocolate Cupcakes

Oreo cookie pie. This one's super easy since it's a cold pie that you just stick in the fridge. I didn't want to deal with making the crust with them, so I bought a pre-made one. The pie filling is 1 pack/block of cream cheese, 1 cup sour cream, 1 tub of cool whip, half a cup of sugar, and (I think) half a pack of oreos. I don't know exactly how much we added because I just gave the kids a bunch of oreos to crush and added them until it looked like enough, saving some for topping. Then we refrigerated it for an hour...or two. We were watching Spy Kids, so I lost track of time. What I like about this pie was that it wasn't too sweet even though it's an oreo pie. The sour cream and cream cheese make it less sweet, but still yummy.








After the pie, we made orange-chocolate cupcakes with orange buttercream frosting. I made them orange, by mixing in orange juice in place of some of the milk in a regular chocolate cupcake recipe. I wanted to add candied orange, but I couldn't find any.

Chicken Soup

Thrown together:
Chicken legs and thighs, skinned
Carrots
Celery
Onions
Pasta
Spices--parsley, garlic powder




I was sick, and I really wanted some real chicken soup. Since I didn't have days to make the stock, I cheated a little. I took chicken legs and thighs and skinned them. Then I sauteed some onions, threw the chicken in with some pepper and garlic powder for seasoning, and browned the chicken a bit. Then I poured boiling water into it and let it simmer for 10-15min skimming off the yucky stuff as it came. Voila! I had chicken stock! Seriously, it tasted like regular, simmered for days chicken stock. The only problem with cooking it fast was that I couldn't let the stock cool to scrape off the fat/oil. I did my best, though.



I threw in some veggies and let the whole thing slow cook for a while (I actually don't remember how long, but it was long enough for the meat to be really soft and almost falling off the bone.) I cooked the pasta separately, though because I hate overcooked pasta.