The Pork Chop Endeavor

Since I don't have too many hobbies, I thought I would start to spruce up my meals in the kitchen a little bit. I love cooking, and it's always been fun for me, but it's not fun when you get off of work at 6 and have a 1 hour commute. Being as such, I try to use the weekend for fun meals. Last night I made stuffed peppers...they were great. But tonight, I wanted to try a truly difficult family dish, one whose tenderness has eluded me at every attempt: pork chops.




Okay, I never said I was a great cook. It's just that I can't get them to taste good, ever! However, my friend Cheryl (a real friend named Cheryl, not some imaginary friend that I made up and gave the same name, or me speaking in third person) promised me that pork chops taste good. I must have been doing something wrong, so I did what any cook would do: I called my mother. Now, my mother is Southern, born and raised in Georgia, so sometimes it's hard to get a recipe out of her. I'll ask her for her recipe for cornbread, and she says, "Oh, you just take some meal, add some milk until it looks good..." or her recipe for gravy: "Just take some oil, throw it in a pan, add some milk and salt and pepper and stir it until it looks good". Long story short, there aren't a lot of measurements done in my mother's kitchen, which is sad, because this means I may never be able to recreate her perfect turkey gravy. She told me I could brown the pork chops in some oil, add some diced tomatoes, and simmer until tender. It sounded almost too easy...and guess what, it was!

It smells really good...we'll see how it tastes.



I've heard rice is great with pork chops, and I chose yellow rice because it is one of my favorites (sorry mono-sodium glutamate haters! I'll try to keep it to a minimum!)



My finished product:



I did make one mistake; I added basil. I didn't even know what basil tasted like, and it gave the pork chops a sweet taste (but it made it look so pretty!). Better luck next time...still pretty good though. Thanks Cheryl!