eat me drink me

I love pork and the other day, I got a huge hankering for it.  This came about after talking to my mom,” Try cooking them in apple juice,” she said on the phone.  So, my brain started planning the menu and after receiving beautiful apples, red onions, and a nice head of arugula from my CSA (community supported agriculture), the meal was set.

First, I went to Whole Foods and got three thick cut pork chops.  These babies were about 1 1/2 inches thick and looked oh so good.  At $7.99, it wasn’t too expensive, though three pieces cost me about $17.  Once I got them home, I let them sit in a half cup of Red Jacket Orchards apple juice, for about an hour.  Next, I stuffed them with a mixture of apple, fresh sage, pine nuts, dried cranberries, a little salt and pepper, a dash of tarragon, and a touch of olive oil.  After the saucepan was heated, I poured the apple juice from the pan and put the chops in.  Cooking them on medium heat, I rubbed brown sugar on one side of the pork chop and then let them simmer till each side was browned.

While I cooked the meat, I decided to caramelize the other half of the apple and a small red onion.  Using about 6 Tbs of butter and 1/4 cup of brown sugar made enough sauce to cook the apple and onion, and left enough to drizzle on the finished pork chop.  Taking the head of arugula, I evenly divided it on the plates, thinly sliced some radish and summer squash and put it around the dish, and set the meat right on top.  I didn’t think the greens needed any sauce, since the sweet butter and juices from the meat coated it.

Voila!  A delicious, though not healthy, local, and seasonal meal.
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When in doubt, make a quiche.  At least I think that’s my new motto.  Quiche is a simple, easy to make dish that almost anyone can eat and just about everything can go into.  Now, I am lazy and buy pie crust from Whole Foods; two frozen shells to a pack for about $3.  This makes it even easier to prepare a quiche.  The one pictured here I made with all farm fresh veggies and eggs from my farm share, save for the tomatoes, cheese and crust!
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The other day I had some fridge fixings that needed to be used up.  What to do with a pound of buffalo meat, snap peas, carrots, birds-eye chili peppers, and other vegetable odds and ends?  Mmmm…Time to be creative!  So, I whipped up some super dense buffalo meatballs with chopped up red onion and chili pepper to give them a kick.  With the remainder of the veggies I just pan-fried them a little and served it on the side.  The result, though not serendipitous, tasted amazing.

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These are actually duck eggs, but they were part of today’s adventure at Whole Foods when I saw a bevy of neato eggs.  Read about my adventure on Serious Eats!

And, if anyone wants an emu egg,  you buy and I will fry.