Dr. Pepper Pork Chops

Another non-crock pot recipe, but we don't use the slow cooker as much in the summer. Perhaps I'll have more of those recipes later on. Until then I thought I'd still post a recipe on Saturdays. This week's is...

Dr. Pepper Pork Chops
Pork chops (bone-less, bone-in, it doesn't really matter)
Dr. Pepper - 1-2, 8oz bottles
Salt and pepper, or seasoning blend of your choice

Put your pork chops in a bowl and cover with Dr. Pepper.

I was preparing 12 and it took 1 & 1/2, 8oz. bottles of Dr. Pepper.

Marinate 4 - 6 hours.

Drain off liquid, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and/or seasoning salt (I use a little Tony Chachere's), and then proceed to grill (personal favorite), pan fry, or coat in bread crumbs and bake at 375 'til done. I can't say how long that will take because it will depend on how thick your pork chops are. Just try not to overcook them. The Dr. Pepper helps to tenderize them, but nothing will save them from being cooked to death.

Let them rest for several minutes before cutting into them.

I was in a hurry last night so I just pan fried them. Tender, juicy - yummm.

The zuchinni (sauteed with onion, in butter and soy sauce), cucumbers, and tomatoes were all from our garden. There is something so satisfying about serving food you were responsible for growing.

I was told once by my father-in-law that you could do this with Pepsi too (probably with any dark cola), and if I remember correctly we gave it a try and it was good too. You'll have to give it a shot. There is a little sweetness to it, but not much. We don't keep soda at the house since we rarely drink it, but it's worth the effort to pick up a bottle or two every once in awhile just to change up the menu a bit.

Vacation's Over

Kind of.

We aren't doing school right now, so things are still pretty relaxed. We sleep late and take things at a much more leisurely pace. Like today. I didn't get up 'til about 9:00, which I appreciated greatly since I was unable to sleep in while the girls were gone. The neighbors were also going to be gone, so I had to get up each morning and see to their cat.

I'm glad the kids are back because someone has to help eat all the zuchinni and cucumber that are coming out of the garden. If you'll go back a few posts you'll see one I posted on a gardener's prayer. Boy, have I revamped part of that prayer. Specifically the part that askes for it to rain for a couple of hours every night. Trust me - that is a gardener's nightmare. We had rain every night last week and it's caused numerous problems. Of course I knew that much rain was too much, especially since most of those nights it wasn't a nice gentle rain, but nasty storms, with lots of wind, heavy rain, and lightening. We are now battling problems with rot, fungus, and powdery mildew. The tomatoes really aren't liking it. Some of the fruit is rotting on the plants and the plants themselves are starting to look a little poorly. My thyme has died of root rot, and part of my oregano, which was looking so nice before last week, has also died.

It's all okay though. As gardeners we expect this sort of thing. Some things will produce like crazy under the same circumstances that make other plants fail. We just do the best we can, and eat a lot of whatever it is we can manage to coax from the dirt each year. I may end up having to buy more tomatoes for my canning than I would have wanted, or hoped to this year, but it's not the end of the world. And until something else starts producing a little better, we'll just eat a lot of zuchinni and cucumber.

Vacation

School's out - well, it's been done for a couple of weeks now, and the girls are spending the week with my mom, so I'm on vacation. Needless to say, I'll not be doing a crock pot meal this week because I'm going to try and do as little cooking as possible. Okay, if I'm being honest, I'm going to try and do as little of everything as possible.
Now if I could just hit a pause buttton on all the zuchinni coming out of the garden. :D
I offered to send some along with the girls, but mom chastised me for, "...using that four letter word." You know the one - it starts with a C, ends with a K, and it's why most people have a kitchen. Mom's kitchen is for storing all her take out menus, so as you may expect, I sill have 6 zuchinni in my kitchen and the plants are threatening more in the immediate future. It's a good thing frozen, shredded zuchinni has many uses.

I hope you are all enjoying your summer and I'll be back next week.

Crockpot Cooking: Apple Butter

I know. We're up to our eyeballs in zuchinni, the cukes are coming in at an alarming rate, and soon we'll be knee deep in diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. Who can think of canning apple stuff at a time like that. Well, I can. The apples will start ripening around here in another 2-3 weeks. That is, the sweet ones - the ones you want to turn into apple sauce and apple butter. I usually just wait and get whatever still happens to be picking when the Granny Smith's come in, but I'd like to try some of the sweeter ones this year.

All that being said, on to...

Apple Butter
Applesauce                Brown sugar
Cinnamon                   Allspice
Cloves                        Nutmeg

Pour your crock pot nearly full of applesauce. Add some brown sugar - I usually start with 1c. and then add more later if I think it needs a little more sweetener. Add your spices - start with about 2tsp. cinnamon and 1/2tsp each of the other spices. Then turn your crock pot on low. Some books or web sites suggest letting the lid rest on wooden spoons in order to allow the steam to escape, but I just put a splatter guard over the top instead. I find the moisture evaporates even quicker that way. You'll cook this down about half and then add more apple sauce. When it has cooked down about a third more you can taste it and see if you think it needs anymore sugar or spices. Keep adjusting things and cooking until you're satisfied with the taste and thickness. I like mine very thick, so I cook it down a lot. If you like it runnier, you just don't cook it as long, or if it already thickened too much you could add more applesauce or apple juice. It usually takes most of a day for it to cook down completely. You'll want to stir it on occasions as most crock pots have a hot spot or two that will tend to burn during very long cooking. In addition to that, you'll want to scrape down the sides as it cooks to keep them clean so there won't be any residue to burn. This may sound like a lot of work but it's not really - and it certainly beats the stove top method that requires constant stirring. After that, all you have to do is can it. Prepare your jars, rings, and lids and let the water in your canner get hot. Fill the jars and process in the water bath, after it comes to a full boil;  5 min for pint or half pint, or 10 min. for quart. Personally, I like the little 4oz. jars and I process them 5 min. If you're not familiar with canning, please look it up - these are not detailed instructions and are only helpful if you're already familiar with all the other necessary steps.

Some of the apple butter we canned in 2009 (the small, dark jars) - I didn't have as many 4oz jars then. I made sure I had plenty of them last year.

Sometimes I make apple juice for apple jelly by cooking peeled, cored apple slices and allowing them to drain in a jelly bag. When I do it that way, I use the leftover apple pulp(pureed with a stick blender) for my apple butter. There's no sense in letting it go to waste and a bonus is that it doesn't take as long to cook it down since quite a bit of the moisture has already been removed from it.

Nineteen

Nineteen years (and one day) ago I was busy getting to know my brand new daughter, and marveling at everything my mother (who'd had a ring-side seat during the delivery) was telling me about her birth, and what happen immediately afterward in the NICU (I had asked her to go with them when they took Ri). The Dr.'s and nurses were still scratching their heads over how she had come through completely well after such a long, difficult, and dangerous delivery; they certainly hadn't expected her to. They could not explain how it was that she was fine. So many things went wrong during that delivery, but she was perfectly healthy. I believe she was a gift from a merciful God. I wasn't saved at the time, but later on Ri was part of the reason I did get saved.

Yesterday we celebrated her birth with a day full of some of her favorite foods. I fixed pizza sticks for lunch, chicken and dumplings for supper, and chocolate pie for dessert. Right after I served her pie it started raining hard. She jumped up from the table with an, "Eeeeeeeppp!!", ran in the sunroom, slung open the sliding glass door, and threw herself prostrate on the floor in order to get pictures of the rain spashing on the deck with the camera she had gotten for her birthday. Family, Superman, and her best friend had all pitched in for the ridiculously expensive thing, but that's okay. She's worth it.

Nineteen years ago I felt lucky to be holding my daughter. Today I know I'm incredibly blessed to have her. She's such a wonderful, beautiful, exceptional person. I'll have to give her over to her new husband in a year, but I'll hold on with all I have and enjoy every minute I can with her until then.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!!