When I bought the pork chops from Costco, I thought they were stacked two deep in the package. What I found when I opened the package was beautiful, impossibly thick chops that were begging to be stuffed.

QUICK TIP: StoveTop Stuffing is boring and salty on its own, but bulk it up with carrots, pears or apples, onions and celery and it cuts the saltiness down considerably. I start by putting a little butter or olive oil in a small pot. I sauté the vegetables (and apple/pear) until a little bit softened before adding  the vegetable or chicken stock (whatever I have around, in the quantity required for the recipe). I bring the veggies to a boil until the carrots are soft. From that point, just follow the box directions and you’re set!

I’ve also developed an obsession for squash soup thanks to Irv & Shelly’s Fresh Picks, a local produce service that we’ve had delivering new and exciting produce to us every other week. My secret to amazing squash soup?

1) Roast the squash with some red pepper, onions, olive oil and herbs

2) Blend with chicken or vegetable stock (I like a thicker soup, so I don’t use much)

3) Add a splash of half & half

4) LET IT SIT FOR AT LEAST 24 HOURS. Seriously. The flavors in this need to blend and evolve.

I love this on its own or mixed with chunks of chicken breasts as a delicious saucy treat. I’m sad butternut squash is pretty much done for the season, but I did the same thing with a carnival squash and it was *almost* as good. Almost.

This actually wasn’t the plan when I picked up some pork cubed steaks from the discount meat bin, but when I started poking around for recipe ideas for cubed steak I felt silly for never considering it! Also, it’s ridiculous how easy this was to make. So easy that I’m sure this will become a regular meal in the house!

My shortcut? You know from my Shepherd’s Pie recipe that I never skimp on the mashed potatoes, but use a pressure cooker to make it clean and simple. Nope, the secret’s dry country gravy mix. Not only does using a dry gravy mix save a ton of time; it’s also much lighter than traditional gravy. You’ll be trading richness for quick-and-light, but there’s so much flavor in the steak, you won’t miss it. I promise.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 cube steaks (pork or beef)
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp Paprika
• 1 tsp salt
• 6 turns fresh ground white pepper
• garlic salt (generously)
  
• 1 egg
• splash of half & half
• vegetable oil, fill the bottom of the pan about 1/3″
  

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl flat and deep enough to dredge. Mix egg and milk/cream in another.

Salt and pepper the cube steak before dredging in the egg wash, then dredge in flour mixture. Dredge again in egg then in flour to thicken the coating.

Heat oil until drop of batter sets it bubbling. Cook on each side ’til it’s browned, about 4–5 minutes per side, flipping with a pair of tongs when halfway done. When cooked through, lay the steaks on paper towel to soak up the moisture and grease.

For dinner serve with mashed potatoes; for breakfast serve with eggs and hash browns and smother with country gravy.

Bravado? Maybe a bit, but it’s true. My meatloaf, even when not in MEATCAKE! form, is the stuff of legend. Back when I made the MEATCAKE! I promised a recipe but failed to deliver. Today I give you my secret (modified from Mark Bittman’s recipe in How To Cook Everything). You’re welcome.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 lb ground pork (I usually buy country ribs—about $1/lb—and grind it myself)
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I like Progresso’s Garlic and Herb breadcrumbs) soaked in
• 1/2 cup milk (until soggy; takes a few minutes)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 large cloves minced garlic
• Dash of Penzey’s Chicago Steak Seasoning
• 1 large carrot, shredded
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 stalk celery, diced fine (optional)
• 1/2 green pepper, diced fine (optional)

Combine all the above ingredients well. And USE YOUR DAMN HANDS. Get ‘em messy. You can wash them. There’s no way to combine this well enough without using your hands. Form into a loaf and place in a bread pan (I use a silicone bread pan). Bake at 350ºF for about an hour, or until the internal temp is about 160ºF. Drain the grease and transfer to a cookie sheet to set.

KETCHUP GLAZE (from Black Widow Bakery, where I learned to make the MEATCAKE!):

• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/8 cup dark brown sugar
• Splash of Worcestershire sauce

To make the glaze, heat ketcup, sugar and worcestershire sauce until combined. Spread over meatload. Clean your pan IMMEDIATELY afterward or it’ll be a pain to clean.

That’s it!! It’s super easy and so, so very good.

Since I started teaching in August, my 10-hour days plus my teaching schedule have made dinners at home generally boring and certainly nothing worth posting. Lots of repeats of previous favorite meals, that sort of thing. But I’ve decided to begin harnessing what time I *do* have to begin cooking meals ahead of time. As a result, my Hamilton Beach Programmable Slow-Cooker has been getting quite the workout!!

This recipe was a gamble, and an exercise in clearing out a bottle of honey mustard from the fridge that was not really my favorite — too honey, not enough mustard. This was mostly eyeballed but it’s worth recording. The end result was unbelievable.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of honey mustard
• 1 tsp ground sage
• Fresh ground pepper (to taste)
• 1 large clove garlic, minced
• 1 cup low-sodium beef broth (as usual, I swear by Kitchen Basics)
• 2 tbsp tarragon vinegar (my husband’s uncle’s homemade stuff… to die for! It’s easy to find Tarragon vinegar in the store, too)
• 2 onions, chopped
• 1 1.5lb pork tenderloin

Cook honey mustard, vinegar, garlic and sage in a saucepan ’til warm and combined. Toss onions in bottom of your slow cooker, and put thawed tenderloin on top. Add beef broth. Pour sauce over tenderloin. Cook for 6-8 hours on high or 3-4 hours on low.

Okay, here’s the caveat. If you have a newer model Rival Crock Pot, there’s no way you can cook this for 6-8 hours. They have redefined “high” and “low” and, well, it’s just sad. If you have one of these, Goodwill is always happy to receive your crock pot. Then you can get the Hamilton Beach Programmable Slow-Cooker, which ACTUALLY cooks things slowly (what a concept, right?!).

When it’s done, shred the meat with a fork and combine the  meat with the sauce and onions. Great for sandwiches or served with Pillsbury Crescent Rolls.

My dearest friend Tracy is not a shortcut chef. In fact, were I a superhero, she would be my nemesis. She bakes. From scratch. She makes sauces and breads and even makes her own damn brown sugar. But this is one of the many reasons I love her. Her food is always amazing and nobody but nobody bakes like she does.

So when she told me she wanted to unload some of the curried apple chutney that she made and canned, I jumped at the chance. Then I had to figure out what to do with it. Pork seemed like a good idea, so I paired the curried apple chutney with some pork chops, cauliflower and carrots and baked it all.

The result was interesting, and I mean interesting in the best possible way. The flavors were unexpected and fantastic,  sweet and savory all at once. We’ve still got more chutney for experimenting with, but this was definitely a winner.

One of the keys to keeping at-home cooking interesting is knowing how to put meals together, combining flavors in a variety of ways. Tonight’s dinner was grilled on my Mario Batali Grill Pan. For these great thinly cut pork chops I used Penzey’s Northwoods Fire, a nice smoky and spicy blend. I brushed the chops with a light layer of Sweet Baby Ray’s Hickory & Brown Sugar BBQ Sauce, my absolute favorite sauce.

Pretty much any variety of Sweet Baby Ray’s gets added to my list of favorite things. It’s just incomparable to other sauces, in my opinion. It’s not too runny like some, not too smoky like others. Every type I’ve tried is pure perfection, though my favorite is the Honey Barbecue Sauce.

I paired dinner with some baked curly fries and a mix of green beans and Trader Joe’s Roasted Corn. The smoky sweetness of the corn is the perfect complement to the spicy pork chops. Just writing about it makes me want more!

Tonight’s dinner was extremely average tonight, so I almost didn’t post it. However, it also included a brilliant discovery: Penzey’s Country French Vinaigrette herb blend is one of the best pork chop seasonings I’ve found!! It’s supposed to be a salad dressing blend, but I sprinkled a generous amount of the blend over the pork chops before tossing them under the broiler to cook, and the flavor was just phenomenal.

I paired this with some Vigo White & Wild Rice, steamed asparagus and some leftover Bearnaise sauce (with fresh tarragon) from Thanksgiving.

One of my very favorite authentic Asian dishes to make is Spicy Garlic Eggplant. The recipe can be found on the back of the Spicy Garlic Eggplant Ready Sauce, and it’s super simple.

Start with 4 center cut pork chops, an onion, some garlic, and two packets of Lee Kum Kee Spicy Garlic Eggplant sauce. I also like to add sweet corn and baby peas to this to add some sweetness.

First, chop an onion, some garlic, and peel and slice a small eggplant into cubes. I prefer regular eggplant to Chinese eggplant, but either works well. Sauté the onion, garlic and eggplant with some sesame oil and a bit of soy sauce until the onion is caramelized and the eggplant is soft; letting it char a bit also adds a bit of flavor. Set this aside in a bowl.

I then take 4 center cut pork chops and cut them into cubes; these will be sautéed in the same pan. Brown the meat and add one packet of garlic sauce. Toss with the meat and let the meat cook thoroughly. When the meat is done, add back the eggplant and onion and the remaining packet of sauce.

Toss until combined and heated thoroughly. Serve over rice; I used Chinese brown rice this time, a new favorite.

I can’t wait to tell everyone tomorrow that yes, I made this. It’s outstanding and smells incredible!

This super-simple glaze adds a really unique kick to pork chops or chicken. To make the glaze, I mixed 3 tbsp honey with 1 tbsp water and chopped up 3 chipotle peppers (seeds removed). That’s it. Seriously.

I made it with Near East brand Curry Rice, one of my favorite quick-side-dish brands. With a wide variety of rice, couscous and pasta flavors that are all far more flavorful than the more mass-market brands like Knorr and Lipton, Near East makes it super easy to keep your side dishes intriguing and flavorful without being too heavy on the salt.

I served this over some mashed purple potatoes acquired at the Oak Park Farmer’s Market. The result is a bit strange-looking but really delicious. Purple potatoes have a really delicious, rich, earthy flavor that are a great contrast to your average mashed potatoes.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 lb Pork Steaks, Country Ribs, or Pork Chops, chunked
• 1/2 onion, sliced ; 3–4 cloves garlic, crushed or sliced
• 1 envelope Onion Mushroom Soup Mix (or any variety of Onion soup mix)
• 1 cup water
• 2 tbsp Tomato Paste (I prefer Amoré Double-Concentrated Tomato Paste in a tube… you won’t waste half a can of tomato paste ever again!)
• Baby carrots, frozen corn, frozen peas, vegetables as desired

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Sauté onion & garlic in olive oil. Add pork chunks and brown on all sides. Add all remaining ingredients. Simmer on low until vegetables are tender and meat is cooked through, about 15–25 minutes.

I like serving this over mashed potatoes, but you can also cut up potatoes and add them to the stew as well.