2010 December 22 — Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

Eating Out

December 22, 2010 · by JudyL

We eat out so rarely and we tend to get in a rut and eat at the same places over and over. We can go 90 miles to Kansas City, about 65 miles to Joplin or 50 miles to Pittsburg, KS. My preference is Pittsburg because it’s closer and there’s no traffic but there’s also not a whole lot there. Joplin has more stores (Target, Books-A-Million, etc.) but the traffic there is always bad! Kansas City has everything . . way too much to do in one day but the traffic there is worse than Joplin.

There’s one restaurant that we go to every time we’re in Kansas City. There are other restaurants I would like to try but Vince always wants to go to the same place and I’m happy to go there too. In Joplin, there’s a Thai restaurant where we always stop and I love that restaurant a lot so I’m happy to go there. In Pittsburg, Vince always wanted to go to a Chinese restaurant. I think I ate too much Chinese food when we lived in Owensboro and I have a real hard time with buffet type restaurants. I think about dirty hands and sneezes and . . well, I just don’t like to do buffet restaurants. Do they bother you at all? I’d really rather just eat at home.

A while back I noticed an Italian restaurant in Pittsburg, Napoli’s, and the parking lot was packed. That’s always a good sign. When I was coming back from Louisiana week or so ago, Vince and Chad met me there and it was so good. Vince said the sauce tastes like his dad’s sauce. I’ve only heard him say that about one other restaurant! Vince is off this week and this morning he suggested we not have a big breakfast and go to Napoli’s for lunch.

I don’t like red sauce but got this ravioli dish with pesto, mozzarella (in the middle), sun dried tomatoes and toasted walnuts. It was so good! I brought half of it back for Chad to have for his lunch and I’m already wishing I hadn’t been so generous!

Of course we can’t go to Pittsburg without going by our new favorite grocery store, Aldi. Aren’t these chocolates cute? They’re good too — no corn syrup . . they use real sugar! I didn’t know we were going to Aldi today and bought butter on sale at the local grocery store yesterday for $2.49 and it was $1.89 at Aldi. I’m really going to have to get organized and plan monthly trips to Pittsburg or Joplin (both have Aldi) and stock up on things when I go. Little savings add up!

· Filed Under: Home & Garden · 14 Comments

Stuffed Pork Chops

December 22, 2010 · by JudyL

For my stuffed pork chops, I don’t really have a recipe so I’ll just tell you how I do them and you can follow my guide and do anything you want with yours.

The first thing I’ll tell you is that I made 5 pork chops. It’s just as easy to make 5 as it is to make 2. Three of them went into the freezer, already stuffed and ready to thaw and bake . . with no effort, no mess and a great meal in no time at all.

Start with a pork chops that are 1″ to 1-1/2″ thick and have a “pocket” cut into them. If you don’t want to mess with it, your butcher will probably do it for you. Mine did!

For the brine, I used a jar of chicken broth. I heated about 1/3 of the jar in the microwave, then added about 1/4 cup brown sugar and about 1/4 cup salt and stirred til the salt was dissolved. Then I added the rest of the broth, a couple of bay leaves, some oregano, some parsley, black pepper and onion powder. I added a cup of cold water (really I added ice to cool down the broth). Pour the brine over the chops, cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours but no longer than 6 hours.

For the stuffing, you can use whatever you want. You could add something like Stovetop dressing, a sausage dressing . . really, whatever you want. I use smoked boudin and if you’re not from Louisiana, you may not know what boudin is. I browned some onions in a little butter and removed the casing from the boudin and added it (not the casing) and then added some chopped parsley.

Drain the chops from the brine. I do not rinse them because they’re covered in good spices. Brown the chops quickly in a bit of olive oil. Stuff as much stuffing as you can inside the chops.

Place the chops in a baking dish. If there’s any remaining stuffing, spread it around the chops. Cover and bake at 350 for 1 hour – 1 hour, 15 minutes.

They are good!! And just think . . there’s three more waiting in my freezer for a night when I don’t want to cook! You can add a sauce over the top if you’d like. Our favorite is a Maple Syrup Sauce:

In the skillet where the pork chops were browned, add 2 T. butter. Add 1/2 of an onion, finely chopped. Saute til clear. Add 1 cup chicken broth, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. pepper. Simmer til reduced by about half. Add 1/4 cup maple syrup, 1/2 tsp. ginger powder. Stir til the sauce is simmering and serve over pork chops.

· Filed Under: Cooking · 8 Comments

Eating Greens

December 22, 2010 · by JudyL

Chickens love greens! They get so excited when we move them to fresh grass. But, this time of year, there’s no fresh grass to be found . . just ugly brown everywhere.

The thought occurred to me that since bean sprouts are so easy to grow indoors, that’s a way I can give them some amount of greens almost every day. Here’s a post I did a while back about sprouting. I had this bowl of sprouts from lentils.

A bag of dried lentils is less than $1 and if this bowl of sprouts is from about 1 tablespoon of beans.

They see us coming the minute we walk out the door and they get so excited! They run from one end of the run to the other while waiting for me to get there.

I think I can hear them saying Hurry! Hurry! They devoured the bowl of sprouts so quickly!