Dream Dinners Recipe Review #1 - Cider Braised Pork Chops

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, our friend Leslie invited me to do a Dream Dinner session. Basically it's a kitchen where you assemble meals to freeze. Take a few out each week to defrost and either throw them in either a saucepan or baking pan to cook and Voila! You have dinner with little to no fuss. I have always wanted to try a place like this and the experience was great. It took only two hours to assemble what came to be 36 servings. Some meals were three servings. Others were 6 servings. If you want to know more check out their website.

http://dreamdinners.com/main.php?static=index

I do think that some of these meals can be assembled more cheaply at home. But that is only if you have the majority of the spices and condiments that are used. If you don't already have those ingredients on hand, then this is really a great and inexpensive way to go.

Anyway, here is the first recipe review.

CIDER BRAISED PORK CHOPS

Description from the Dream Dinners website - Lean boneless pork chops are jazzed up with apple juice, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar and tart granny smith apples, then gently flavored with allspice and herbs. Simply sear the chops on the stove top, add the sauce and simmer.

These were delicious and super easy to make. Just like the description says. I browned the chops, poured in the sauce and let it simmer. It was done in 20 minutes. We served this with mixed veggies and mashed potatoes. We poured the sauce and apples over the pork and potatoes. Excellent. The sauce was both sweet and tart. A perfect complement to the pork. Definitely a fall meal that I would like to eat again and again. I am already on a search for a similar recipe so I can make this with the pork chops I have in my freezer. If I find one, I will of course share it.

I give this one 5 out of 5 stars.

Pasties...Mmmmm...

So looking back, our past weekend was greatly centered on food. This made me realize that I haven’t posted any reviews on foods/recipes in quite a while. So I should probably remedy that…..

About a month ago, I got it in my head that I wanted to make pasties. You know those delicious hand held pot pies that have been made famous by miners in both Cornwall and the UP of Michigan. I found the following recipe on Allrecipes.com.

Cornish/Finnish Pasties

INGREDIENTS
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup shortening
1 1/4 cups ice water
1 teaspoon salt
5 1/2 cups thinly sliced potatoes
2 carrots, shredded
1 onions
1/2 cup diced rutabaga
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
1/2 pound lean ground pork
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons monosodium glutamate (MSG)
1 cube beef bouillon

DIRECTIONS

• Whisk together flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut shortening. Make a well in the center of the mixture, and quickly stir in ice cold water. Form dough into a ball. Set aside.
• Dissolve the bouillon cube in the hot water. Combine uncooked vegetables, uncooked meats, salt, pepper, monosodium glutamate, and bouillon.
• Roll out pastry dough into 6 x 8 inch rectangles.
• Place about 1 1/2 cups of filling in the center of each rectangle. Bring 6 inch sides together, and seal. Cut a slit in the top of each pasty.
• Place on dull, not black, baking pans. Bake at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C) for 45 minutes.
• Makes 8 servings

I did make the following changes:

• I diced the potato is very small pieces rather than sliced.
• I omitted the carrots.
• I used all beef since I couldn’t find ground pork at our grocery store.
• I omitted the MSG
• I added Worcestershire sauce for extra flavor.

I made a double batch and found that I had a ton of filling left over. I made a third batch of just the dough and I STILL had filling left over. Something to keep in mind if you decide to try this recipe.

I ended up with about 20 Pasties. I froze the extras raw. We have made them a couple of times since then and we have found that they only take 50 minutes to cook if you pull it straight from the freezer. The same amount of time as any pot pie you would buy in the store but the flavor is so much better since it is fresh and homemade.

I give these 5 out of 5 stars for taste but 2 out of 5 for labor. They took quite a while to put together. But definitely worth it in the end.

I am so done with being pregnant

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want our little girl to arrive early. But boy am I more uncomfortable this pregnancy. My hips are killing me, I can’t get comfortable no matter what I am doing and I am leaking already. Ugh! Oh well. It’s really a small price to pay for such a rewarding gift in the end.

On a positive note, we are pleased to finally have a name for our little girl. Amelia “Mia” Grace. We can’t wait to meet her.

We are also looking forward to how Ana will take to having a sister. I know it will be an adjustment for her but hopefully all will go well. She has been absolutely adorable (duh!). She points to my belly and says “baby”. She will also kiss and hug the baby (my belly). It’s the only thing that she has never said no to when we ask her to kiss or hug the baby. If we ask for hugs or kisses for us it’s hit or miss if she wants to grace us with her affection. But when it comes to the baby, she never says no. I think we will take that as a good sign.

We had a pretty busy weekend. It started with me trying something new on Saturday. Our friend Leslie sent an invite to try Dream Dinners. It’s a place/program that she has used in the past for herself and another friend. Basically it’s a company that sells prepared (but uncooked) meals. You order from their monthly menu and then go to their kitchen and use their ingredients to prepare those meals. The meals are uncooked but pretty much ready to either throw in the oven or a pan. All you do is freeze and take them out to defrost. The price per serving ended up being really great (much better than eating out) and the meals sounded good so we decided to give it a try. It was a lot of fun and the food smells/looks fantastic…..and that’s before it’s even cooked! I already have 3 of the meals defrosting. Tomorrow we will probably have the Cider Braised Pork Chops, Wednesday – the French Fried Chicken, and Thursday – the Meatloaf and twice baked potatoes. After that we will still have 7 meals to eat. Most meals serve three. I did prepare two meals that serve 6. I feel very prepared for the next couple of weeks. And the 6 serving meals will be great if we have company after Amelia get’s here.

The rest of Saturday was spent with the peeps. They had fun playing with Ana as usual. Chris and his mom visited the Renaissance Faire that Terry and Nancy hosted on their beautiful piece of property in Monroe, WI. The faire along with a Shakespeare play performed after the faire, raised money for the Arts Department at Monroe High School. Terry and Nancy are very involved with the local arts scene are very supportive of the Arts in their local schools. They are truly amazing people.

Sunday was spent at Edwards Apple Orchard. My dad, Mary, Aunt Jane and my cousin Lisa met us there. We didn’t stay long but we stayed long enough to enjoy the beautiful weather while eating some apple doughnuts and drinking cider. Ana was able to visit the animals in the barn. Unfortunately, it seems that petting of the animals is no longer allowed so she wasn’t able to feed/pet the goats. We finished off the trip with buying our usual Apple Orchard products (soup, squash, apple butter, apples, etc…).

We then headed home where we made plans to meet the Jones’s at Red Lobster for dinner. It was a really nice dinner. The kids were great. Delilah was cute as always. Ana was pretty happy considering how tired she was. She was driving me nuts with kicking me under the table but other than that, she was really great. And the twins were a ton of fun. They entertained Ana and had her dancing in her high chair. Very cute!

All in all a very busy weekend but quite enjoyable.

Ambrose Winston 11/1/2002 - 9/4/2009

Almost a week ago, we lost a very dear friend.

Our Boy. Our Puppers. The Dude. Ambrose.

Although I have lost loved ones in my life I fully admit that I was not as close to those loved ones as I was to our Ambrose. Not a day has gone by that I haven’t cried over the sudden loss of our boy. He was our first baby. Anyone who says that our pets are not like our children has either never had a pet and/or never had a child.

That being said, the grief that I have felt this week scares me as I know that it is only a fraction of what I feel if I were to lose a parent, my husband, or my child.

On top of my grief, it hurts to see Chris so upset. Ambrose was his boy more than he was mine.

To hopefully bring some closure for myself and maybe others who also loved Ambrose, I have written down all the things I hope he knew while he was still with us.

• I loved watching you bound around outside in the snow. If I could have I would have made it snow everyday just for you. You are the only one who may have loved the snow more than me.


• I loved seeing your face at the back door waiting to be let inside.


• I loved how you rarely barked to be let in. You just patiently waited. Trusting us to know when it was time to come in.


• I loved the way you would greet us when we walked in the front door.


• I loved the way you would dramatically pretend you were just too tired for the last leg of our walk. And then when we arrived home, you would run around outside and play with apparently tons of energy. Sneaky puppy. I am sorry that we didn’t have more walks so they could end that way.


• I loved the way you got excited if you saw me put on my tennis shoes or your dad or I grab your leash.


• I loved the way you patiently allowed Ana to climb all over you. You never complained.


• I loved the way you would sit under Ana’s chair and wait for her to share food with you. Which she always did. It never occurred to her to not share with her Boy.


• I loved the way you would sometimes purposely scare the crap out of Mauri and chase her upstairs.


• I loved the way you would torture Raven by sniffing his butt.
  I loved the way you would force yourself in between our legs so we would rub your back and butt.


• I loved the way you would push your dad over in bed so you could have more space. It didn’t seem to matter that we bought a king size bed just for you. You still wanted more space.


• I loved the times you blessed me with your presence on my side of the bed. I wish I had been able to stay in one position longer just so you could have stayed longer.


• And I loved the rare times you would force your way between me and your dad in bed so you could put your head on his chest and allow me the pleasure of petting your butt and back.


• I loved the way you always treated a trip to the vet or the groomers as a mini-vacation. You were never scared. Well sometimes you didn't want to be left at the groomers. But you were always happy afterwards.


• I loved seeing you prance around after you had been groomed. As if you were the most handsome puppy in the World. Oh, by the way, you were the most handsome puppy in the World. But you obviously already knew that.


• And lastly, I am so sorry that we couldn’t be there to hold you when you passed. I hope you knew that we loved you very much and had we been able/allowed, we would have stayed with you and held you till the end. I wish we had been given the chance to say Good-Bye to each other. That is the very least that a Puppers as perfect as you deserved.
  
  Great, now that I am in a total mess of tears, I bid any reader Adieu. Hopefully my next post will be a happy one.