Blue Cheese Stuffed Pork Chops

Have you ever been bored by pork chops? Try stuffing it with blue cheese! It's so delicious and it takes less than half an hour to make.This stuffing also contains apples and cabbage to bring out the sweetness. Any apple will do. As a shortcut, I used coleslaw mix instead of shredded cabbage.

Good with some apple juice!

Blue Cheese Stuffed Pork Chops

Makes 2 servings

2 pork chops

2 oz blue cheese

1/4 cup diced apple

1/4 cup diced onion

1 scallion, chopped

1/4 cup coleslaw mix

Salt & pepper

2 tbsp olive oil

Turn on the broiler. Trim the fat around the pork chops. Cut a slit in each pork chop. Mix the blue cheese, apple, onion, scallion, scallion, and cabbage. Stuff each pork chop with the mixture. Salt and pepper the pork chops generously. Drizzle a heavy pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Place the pork chops in the pan, then drizzle with the rest of the olive oil. Broil in oven for 5 minutes on each side.

Position the pork chops toward each other to prevent the stuffing from falling out

Serve with these biscuits and coleslaw, or potatoes and green beans. This meal is filling and delicious!

Fried Chicken and Cajun Biscuits

It's time for some comfort food. I love fried chicken, but I always thought it was too hard to make at home. Then I found this recipe. It's amazing!

To go with the chicken, I made some biscuits based on a recipe in....you guessed it....The Kitchen Bible. I added some Cajun seasoning to complement the fried chicken. 

Pull-apart Cajun Biscuits

Makes 16 biscuits

2 1/3 cups of flour

1 1/2 tbsp sugar

2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp paprika

1/8 tsp Cayenne pepper

1/8 tsp dried basil

1/8 tsp ground black pepper

dash of cloves

6 tbsp butter, chilled, cut into cubes

1 1/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and seasoning. Cut butter into the flour mixture, until it resembles coarse cornmeal. Stir in the buttermilk to make a soft dough. Form biscuits with your hands, or use a spoon to drop biscuits into an unbuttered cake pan. Place each biscuit next to each other, barely touching. Bake for 18 minutes. 

I love pulling these apart! Serve warm with fried chicken and coleslaw for a comforting homemade dinner in less than thirty minutes. Beware of food coma!

Chickpea and Mushroom Soup

Chickpea and Mushroom Soup

Makes 2 servings

1 tbsp olive oil

6 oz Portobello mushrooms, sliced

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 slice of bacon

1 can (16 oz) chickpeas, drained

2 tbsp parsley, chopped

1 shallot, chopped

2 cups chicken broth

1 tbsp brandy

Salt & pepper

2 slices of Swiss cheese

Cut up Portobello mushrooms.

Heat olive oil in a frying pan on medium high. Saute mushrooms with garlic cloves for five minutes. In another pan, fry a slice of bacon until crispy. Add to food processor with chickpeas, parsley, shallots, garlic and mushrooms.

Process until smooth.

Add the mixture to a medium pot with chicken broth. Bring to a boil on medium heat, stir occasionally. Stir in the brandy. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to serving bowls, then add Swiss cheese while soup is still hot. Wait 5 minutes before serving.

This soup is full of flavor! Cut the bacon if you want a healthier version.

Pumpkin Pancakes

I've been wanting to try this recipe for the longest time. I hope it's not too late to write about a pumpkin recipe! She's not kidding when she said you've got to try them. They are delicious! 

I don't have pumpkin spice, but it's easy to make. Just follow these instructions. I love that there's cornmeal in these pancakes, but I think I'll lower the salt next time. Top  them with some cinnamon pecan butter and maple syrup. Mmm mmm.

To make the cinnamon pecan butter, whip 4 tablespoons of butter in a food processor with 1 tablespoon of chopped pecans and 1/4 tsp of cinnamon. The nuttiness is delightful. These yummy pancakes started the day off right.

Friday Flashback: Snow!

It snowed yesterday! But it mostly melted overnight and iced over. Still, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a white Christmas. 

A quick look at our past years' albums reveals that we didn't cook very much the weeks leading up to Christmas. Instead, we did a lot of snow sports. Needless to say, we got a lot of snow in Alaska. So naturally we spent a lot of time in the snow. The first year Bill got his snowboard, he tried it out in our driveway. 

Thumbs up for not falling

Then he dragged me to the practice hill in Hatcher Pass. Dragged because I was terrified of going fast, but I didn't want my fears to get the best of me. I'm determined to improve, but I will to do it at my own pace, which is very very slowly.

Going so slow, it looks like I'm just standing there

After a couple seasons of learning, I still prefer going back-country snowboarding, despite the effort of walking up and the risk of avalanches. Why? Well, it's much nicer to fall on a bed of soft snow!

Hatcher Pass, Alaska

Actually in between snowboarding and cross-country skiing, we did learn how to make pizzas three years ago a few weeks before Christmas. We were so proud of ourselves. Even though it was misshapen, we devoured it with delight. Now we make pretty good looking (and tasty!) pizzas, but the first one was still special.

Mushroom and Spinach Pizza

Last year, we also visited our friends at the Musk Ox Farm a week before Christmas. Check back if you want to see pictures of some cute musk oxen!