Pork Chops w/ Balsamic Blueberry Reduction

Happy Monday everybody!

How was everyone's weekend?  Ours was pretty busy!  Spent the day Saturday doing tons of errands.  Haircut and color (much-needed - and it looks hot!) was a major highlight.  Hehe, no pun intended.  But we also managed to snag lunch at the first ever Louisville Food Truckus Ruckus.  In a matter of just a few short months, Louisville's food truck scene has exploded.  There's at least 8 or so regulars around town now.  Pretty awesome right?  We got a chance to sample works from Busta Grill (one of the best Chicken Sausages ever - topped with a chimichurri coleslaw and tomato/basil pesto was seriously delicious!).  And then MozzaPi's Thai Pi was awesome too.  Curry, bean sprouts, cilantro, and peanuts made for one delicious pie.  And the truck itself was nothing short of amazing - they had a crazy cool wood-fire grill on the end of the truck to cook all of their pizzas to order!

Anyway... I never got around to posting any of those Red, White, & Blue Party recipes last week, did I?  Well, have no fear, I've got a mighty delicious one planned for today!

Ingredients:
Adapted from Rock Recipes' Recipe

8 bone-in pork chops
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 teaspoon thyme
pinch of nutmeg
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 cup blueberries
2 tablespoons brown sugar
juice from 1 lemon
3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Preheat oven to lowest temperature (mine was 170F).  Heat a large non-stick skillet (a cast iron works well here) under medium high heat and add olive oil. 

Season pork chops with salt and pepper on both sides.  Add 2 pork chops at a time to the skillet and cook for about 4-5 minutes per side.  Let pork chops keep warm in the preheated oven on a baking sheet.

To make reduction, combine garlic, white wine, thyme, nutmeg, balsamic vinegar, blueberries, and brown sugar under high heat in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for about 10 minutes or until mixture is slightly thickened.  Stir in lemon juice and butter and simmer for a couple more minutes.  Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Top pork chops with blueberry reduction and dig in!

This is definitely one of those meals that is simple, but sure to impress!  I loved the combo of blueberries and pork, and if you haven't tried it... you need to!

Hope you all have a great Monday!  But for now... I'm off to start Day 1 of my half-marathon training.  Good thing it's only a Stretch & Strengthen Day.  Should be easy =)

BBQ Pork Chops

Almost every Saturday morning, sometime between 10am and 2pm, I find myself perusing around the Douglass Loop Farmer's Market.  And more often than not, I find myself ogling the meats at the Stone Cross Farm's booth.  I've been having a hankering for some bone-in chops lately, but always arrive too late to the booth to get some.  But trust me, settling for the boneless chops isn't that bad.  In fact, it's not bad at all.

You see the chop in the above picture?  That was only HALF of the whole chop I got.  Yeah, the whole chop was practically bigger than my entire plate.  Now, that's what I call a chop.

And the size isn't what gets me reeled in, either... the flavor of the meat is just superb!

And while I was perusing for recipes last weekend, I came across this little gem at Kohler Created.  By far, one of the. best. pork chop. recipes. ever. EVER.

Don't forget to vote in this week's treat poll:





Ingredients:

Adapted from Kohler Created's recipe


2 boneless pork chops (or in my case, one huge one cut in half)
1/2 cup honey
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
juice from 1 lemon
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
freshly cracked black pepper, to taste

In a medium bowl, combine the honey, brown sugar, dijon mustard, lemon juice, soy sauce, and garlic until sugar is dissolved.

Place pork chops in a large Ziploc bag and pour marinade into bag.  Place in fridge for at least 4 hours.

Heat a charcoal grill under medium high heat and grill chops for about 5-7 minutes per side.  Let chops rest for about 5 minutes before serving.

We served this with some leftover homemade macaroni and cheese and some mixed vegetables.  This was the perfect Friday night meal.  So what are you waiting for?  It's Friday night!  And if you're in the Louisville area tomorrow morning, between 10am and 2pm, don't forget to check out the Douglass Loop Farmer's Market for some goodies!  Especially for some Stone Cross Farm's pork chops!

Have a great weekend guys!  We'll be headed up to Indianapolis for a graduation party (and to possibly hit up the outlet malls in Edinburgh on the way up) so don't forget to vote in the poll above to suggest something I should bring with me!

"Asian" Noodle Bowl

Happy Monday guys!  How was everyone's weekend?  Ours wasn't too bad.

With food trucks popping up all over the west and east coast, it's kind of hard not to be aware of them.  But when you live in the Midwest, things are a little bit different.  Louisville is a Commonwealth so it's really hard to change certain regulations - one of them being the allowance of street vendors in most urban areas. 

However, they are actually becoming present here.  One in particular, L'il Cheezers Gourmet Grilled Cheese, has taken Louisville by storm.  We actually got to visit them Saturday night and were very impressed with what we got!  (I'll post pictures tomorrow!) 

But while waiting in line, I, of course, had to take pictures of the truck and such, and ended up including some random guy in one of them.  He came up to us and was like "Hey, sorry for ruining your picture."  And I was like, "no worries, just as long as you're okay with being on my blog".  And so one thing led to another, and as others heard that this girl (me) had a "food blog", I was then passing out my cards left and right.  It was my first experience just letting my blog be known to strangers.  It was exhilarating. 

What am I getting at here?  Well, when I first started my blog, I didn't want to talk about it with anything.  Not that I was "embarrassed" about it, but that it was just my personal outlet, I guess.  Public speaking has never been my forte, and I've been known to get real nervous talking it up in front of a crowd, but this weekend, it was different.  These people showed genuine interest, and hell, if I can get at least one of them to visit or be interested, I'd be happy. 

How about you guys?  Do you openly talk about your blogs?  Did you take a while to be comfortable about it?  Or am I just crazy?

Anyway, I was a little under the weather last week, and wanted something a little different from the normal chicken soup to cure me.  So I gathered what I had laying around and came up with this Asian Noodle Bowl.  It's quite flexibile, and you don't really need to use the ingredients that I've got listed (although it was a great combination!).  Just use what you have on hand and you're bound to discover something wonderful.  And honestly, I think it did help me feel better, too!

Ingredients:
Adapted from The Cilantropist's recipe
Serves 2

2 pork chops
salt and pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 oz. Asian egg noodles
1 cup pac choi (same as bok choy)
4 cups chicken stock
1 piece dried Kombu 
Sriracha, (optional)
Red pepper flakes, (optional)
bamboo shoots, drained (optional)

Preheat oven to 300F.

Season chops with salt and pepper.

In a large, oven-proof skillet, heat olive oil under medium high heat.  Brown pork chops on both sides, about 3 minutes per side.

Place skillet in oven and bake chops for about 25-30 minutes, or until cooked through.  Allow to rest for 5 minutes before slicing.

In a large saucepan, bring chicken stock to a boil and add kombu.  Simmer for about 15 minutes.  Add pac choi and blanch for about a minute or two, or until the leaves turn bright green.  Remove pac choi with a slotted spoon and transfer to a plate, and set aside. 

Add egg noodles to stock and cook according to package directions until tender.  Mine were "quick" noodles, so it took maybe about 2-3 minutes.  Remove noodles with slotted spoon and set aside in a bowl.

Ladle some stock into a soup bowl and add noodles, pac choi, and bamboo shoots.  Top with sliced pieces of pork chop.  Add red pepper flakes and sriracha, if desired.  Serve while still hot.

This was pretty simple and easy!  And like I said, you could practically use any protein, vegetables, noodle, stock combo you'd like.  This is just what I had on hand and it worked out perfectly!  It was super tasty and definitely helped clear my head of a little bit of illness!

Hope you guys have a great Monday and be back tomorrow!