Some days, fast and easy wins

I was prepared to read into brining my pork chops, but in the end, I was just plain tired and took the easy way out. We stopped at the grocery store on the way home from work this morning (Dude hates this, but does it anyway) and we have been very good sticking to our non-weight related resolution of $100 a week for groceries-except for his movie purchase, but I digress. They had nice thick pork chops on sale and he salivated, so we picked up a package for the two of us. The kids don't really like the chops and who knows where they would be today. I had read about people brining the chops-and all sorts of other meats. I was going to do that today, or at least look into it as I know it takes awhile and I had other stuff I planned for dinner. Yeah, slept late, kids interrupted everything I wanted to do and soon it was 7 o'clock. Too late to make the Clucks-n-Spuds casserole, so I just took the easy way out. Marinate the chops in my favorite marinade, slap them in the cold cast iron pan and gently cook until 160 degrees. They were very tender and by the time we ate, I would have been happy with cold cereal. In case you need a quick pork chop option, here it is:




Easy pork chops:
2 bone-in chops (I threw away the wrapping, but they looked like a T-bone steak)
Lawry's Steak and Chop marinade





Place a small amount of marinade in a flat dish that is big enough to hold chops. Nestle the chops in the marinade. Place chops on top and then pour some more marinade on top. Man handle the dish to get the marinade all the way around the chop. Let sit on counter for half an hour. Place chops in a cold, dry skillet (I used my cast iron one). Cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes until a nice sear appears. Flip and cook another 10 minutes. These were thick chops-at least an inch thick. Do not cook them this long if you have thin chops. The last 5 minutes of cooking, I added about 1 TBSP water to pan and it helped boil up the juices and fond on the pan and gave the chops a nice caramel color. Test with instant read thermometer to make sure the pork is done. I took my off the heat at 155 degrees and let rest for about 8 minutes and it hit 160 degrees no problem. Since it was so late and I wanted to gnaw the legs off the table, we used a box of potatoes and rounded out the meal with a bollioa roll (Mexican roll). They were tender and we both enjoyed them. Especially with the hurricanes I made-that will be another post!


He offered to help me 'undecorate' the tree, so I'm off in search of boxes. Don't judge me-I have worked a few days of OT lately and I just keep staring at tree, trying to will it to shed my ornaments and hop back in that box. So far, it just looks at me and mocks me. Stupid tree.