Pork and Apples

Last night I made the most delicious meal.  It was Giada DeLaurentiis' Pork Chops with Apples and Pancetta.  Now I did not find the recipe via pintrest, but by watching one of my very favorite shows, Giada at Home.  Luckily, I am able to record the newest episodes of shows like Giada at Home, Sandwich King (which was awesome this week), 10 Dollar Dinners, and of course Secrets of a Restaurant Chef.  Her recipe was so incredibly easy that made with mashed potatoes I was still able to make delicious Marshmallow Cookies at the same time.

Now for tonight's meal there was fairly no hassle and I followed the instructions, except I cut them in half.  Now you may think, wow they eat such good food, they must spend a butt load at the grocery.  Well I'll let you in to one of my secrets. Portion control.  I bought a pack of pork chops (4 total) and I used two for this recipe and I'll use the other two this week on an asian dish.  I do the same for chicken and ground turkey.  I almost always use one package of meat in two meals. Then just add in fresh vegetables and voila! This week at the grocery I was able to save $22.90 in coupons! It was a great trip! I only used mostly Kroger coupons and it seems grocery's are going up (I have buyer's remorse about everything!) 

Anyways, the only problem I encountered in this dish was the sauce would just not thicken, so I did end up adding some flour and allowing it to thicken (without the pork chops in the pan).  It was super easy though and I definitely recommend this!

Steps: cook pancetta, then remove and put on paper towel, put pork in pan and sear both sides for two minutes each, take out and add butter and cook with apple chunks (which was super easy with our apple corer: this is for Stephanie and Kristian who may or may not know what this is.  Another super awesome kitchen gadget everyone needs.
Back to the pork, I then cooked the apples for 5 minutes, then removed and added the onions, heavy cream, apple cider (i did not have apple juice), and the fresh thyme.  Then simmered and added the flour to thicken, then added the pork chops and simmered for 10 more minutes.  Then I served these delicious little babies up with some mashed Yukon gold potatoes, skin left on. and the meal was amazing.

Caleb felt it necessary to show you a close up of his big plate then of both of ours, again with Hercules (since these are his Tales).

Also, notice how he is always in my seat and just blankly staring, wondering why he doesn't have a plate! He gets very jealous. I mean, wouldn't you if you had to eat the same flavor of food and same meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner... I know I would. But that's the life of a dog and there isn't much left to say about that. 

Now after we enjoyed these big monstrous plates, we were able to enjoy dessert, YUMMY S'mores cookies! Now I absolutely love s'mores... in fact, for my 20th birthday, some great friends, Kristian and Brittany actually got me a s'mores kit and Caleb made a fire and we enjoyed them right then and there! I don't know what it is about that sweet marshmallowy goodness that gets me going, but boy oh boy I could eat anything and everything having to do with s'mores.  I mean, don't they just look divine, almost like heaven on a tin foil pan...

So there you have it, an easy, easy, easy, peasy meal along with my favorite dessert.  You should definitely try it, it was sweet, salty, crunchy and delectable!  Caleb liked it too.

Also, we just picked up Herc from the groomers so I just wanted to share his before and after pictures.  So here you have before:

 

and after:

  

Now if he just isn't the cutest little baby ever, I don't know what is! I wonder how much less he weighs now that all of his fur is gone? Now, he was 10 pounds this past Thursday, but now... I mean he lost a lot of fur, so we will see!

On a side note, I started a new book today that I am so very excited about! It is all the rage, and Kristian will probably tell me how it ends if I don't finish it today... That's just how I am :)  Now I'm off to cuddle with Hercules and read him The Hunger Games.