Golden Pork Chops

This is what I made for dinner last night and I'm not exactly sure why they're titled "Golden Pork Chops", but I thought that they were a yummy twist on an old standby. The standby being browning your chops before smothering them with Cream of Mushroom soup and milk(which is pretty taste if you use half and half instead of milk). I got the original recipe from allrecipes.com and made the adjustments from the comments, which is what you'll see here.

Golden Pork Chops

Ingredients:
4-6 pork chops (whatever you've got on hand)
seasoned salt
garlic powder
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 onion, diced
fresh mushrooms, sliced (I used an entire package---we like mushrooms)
1 clove minced or crushed garlic
1 Tbsp butter
2 cans condensed cream of mushroom soup

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a large skillet over medium heat, melt butter and add mushrooms, onions and garlic---cook until onions are opaque and tender (you may need to adjust the heat settings so you don't burn the garlic).
3. Mix soup and mushroom mixture in a bowl and set aside.
4. Season pork chops with seasoned salt, garlic powder and pepper to taste.
5. Brown pork chops on both sides in same skillet used for mushroom mixture.
6. Place chops in 9 x 13 casserole dish and spoon soup/mushroom mixture over the top.
7. Cover with tinfoil and bake 45 minutes.*
8. Remove tinfoil and bake for an additional 15 minutes.*

*Cooking time varies according to thickness of pork chops, internal temp should reach 160 degrees.

Tastes great with sides of pan-fried or roasted potatoes and green beans. The sauce is so yummy that it would also make a great stroganoff-style sauce to be served over rice or egg noodles.

*I may try to take pictures of finished food products in the future, but we were to ravenous to wait for a picture and I don't take great pictures anyhow!!

Dirty Little Secrets

I must say, the whole Tiger Woods thing has been pretty strange. I was just talking about it to Ryan last night and I mentioned that while I would love to know exactly what was going down, it's really no one's business and I was giving kudos to Tiger for keeping things private and protecting his wife. Well, I guess he just couldn't handle the pressure because he finally issued a statement this morning. And I feel inspired (probably poor word choice here).

But while celebrities are airing some of their dirty laundry, is there something that you love but you are embarrassed/ashamed to admit to? I have lots of items on my list. Someday, maybe I'll write an entire list, but for today I'll just come clean on the few that popped into my head while driving today.

1. I like Michael Bolton---well, his music, anyway, though the haircut has helped.

2. Aaron Neville isn't too bad either....well, his voice is strange, but I love the soft-rock songs that get played on FM100 (loved him on Sesame Street with Ernie). *Note: my sister used to be able to do a mean Aaron Neville---it was always a great treat!

3. I also like Rod Stewart. I can't quite imagine how he became famous because he hasn't got a voice and he's totally gross (but I guess he's better now than back in the day), but once again, great songs. *Picking a picture for this one was not an easy task---there were so many gems to choose from!*

I may have fessed up about the next two before, but here they are anyway.

4. I LOVE mafia/mob movies, however because most of them are rated 'R', I have only ever seen them when they get edited for television and Fox13 plays them on a Saturday afternoon.

5. I also enjoy the occasional 'black' comedy---I thought Beauty Shop was pretty funny and I LOVE Queen Latifah.

That's all I can think of at the moment, but I'm positive there are MANY more and I'll post them as they come to me.

What are your secret loves? Please comment or blog about it yourself and let me know when you do so that I can get that glimpse into your life as well!!

Cheesy Broccoli Soup

Not completely accurate title because broccoli isn't the only vegetable in this one, but who cares what it's called because it is delicious---by far my favorite cheesy soup recipe...don't get me wrong, the cheesy cauliflower soup is also delicious, but this one is just a bit more substantial.

This is what we had for dinner last night along with some french bread from Wal-Mart (have you had their french bread? It's pretty good!). Recipe comes from my MIL, who I was very grateful was home last night when I couldn't find this recipe and had to call to get it again! Thanks!

Cheesy Broccoli Soup
4 - 5 C. potatoes, peeled and cubed to bite-size pieces
2 C. carrots, diced
1 C. onions, finely diced
4 - 5 C. water
6 Tsp. chicken bullion


Boil above ingredients for 15-20 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.
Stir in 10 oz. frozen, chopped broccoli, 1/4 tsp. dry, ground mustard, and 1/2 tsp. pepper.

Cheese "sauce"
In a sauce pan, melt 1/2 C. butter or margarine and add 1/2 C. flour to form a roux. While stirring constantly, slowly add 2 C. milk until it begins to thicken---DO NOT BOIL, while continually stirring, add 1 lb. cubed velveeta. Once velveeta is melted and sauce is smooth, add to the soup.

Coffee Cake Muffins

Does anyone remember that great coffee cake that was served with school lunch in elementary school? You know, with the pink glaze and a drizzle of cocoa colored swirls on the top? Man, I loved that stuff! Just reminiscing here, the recipe I will share isn't like that cake.
On Sunday morning I was in a rare mood. I woke up to a completely clean kitchen and in the mood to make something delicious for breakfast. The original plan was to make crepes, but Ry and the kids were ravenous and couldn't wait for 15 minutes to eat, I decided to let them go ahead and eat cold cereal while I made one of my favorite breakfast treats that takes a little longer so that by the time they were finished, they would be hungry for 2nd breakfast (yes, we're hobbits!); Ryan and the kids were grateful.

Coffee Cake Muffins
Combine the following ingredients together and set aside:
1/2 C. brown sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 Tbs. flour
2 Tbs. melted butter


Mix the following according to the directions below:
1 1/2 C. flour
1/2 C. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 C. milk
1/4 C. shortening
1 egg
1/2 C. water


Combine dry ingredients. Cut-in shortening. Mix water and egg together and add to the dry ingredients. Stir just until moistened. Line muffin pan with paper or foil baking cups. Put in small amount of batter, sprinkle on brown sugar mixture, put on another layer of each. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

Breakfast Cake

If you don't have time to make the Coffee Cake Muffins, this is a little bit faster option and it feeds more (if that's an issue). This comes from the SU! employee cookbook that was given for a Holiday gift nearly 6 years ago. This particular submission comes from Dave Baugh (if you care).

Breakfast Cake

Ingredients:
1/2 C. vegetable oil
2 eggs, beaten
1 C. milk
3 C. flour
1 1/2 C. sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt


Topping:
1/2 C. brown sugar
2 Tbs. flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 Tbs. butter, melted


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine ingredients, and place in a 9 x 13 greased pan. Mix topping ingredients and sprinkle over the cake. Bake for 25 minutes.

Halloween

Ellie & Ben were really looking forward to Halloween this year. Ellie was Alice in Wonderland (thanks for sewing the costume, Mom) and Ben was a soldier (he did have fatigue pants as well but they were WAY too large). The pics aren't too impressive, though, because the kids were too excited to hold still very long, but "Statue of Liberty" one is totally funny!

Friday was "Party Day" according to Ben and "the best day EVER" according to Ellie because of multiple Halloween happenings. Ben had his party at preschool that morning and had so much fun (he loves your Halloween CD, Teacher Wendy, especially "Ghostbusters") and Ellie had her Halloween parade and party in the afternoon. After Ellie got home from school we headed to Grandma's to play with Payton for a little while before going to Grandpa's house to see Grandma Suzy's witches and then went to my sister Angie's house for the Hansen Halloween party.

After all the fun on Friday, I was totally not feeling "Halloweenie" on Saturday and if we would have been able to talk the kids out of trick-or-treating and doing something else instead, I would have been all for it! It probably didn't help that I had a pinched nerve in my back all day Saturday and pretty much just spent the day lying around with a heat pack on my back. It wasn't so bad, though because the doorbell stopped ringing around 8:30 so we turned off the lights and put the kids to bed before I fell asleep not too long after.

Doesn't November feel like such a relief after all the craziness at the end of October? I would like to enjoy November instead of feeling compelled to begin all the December craziness. I'm sure it doesn't help that lots of local radio stations beginning playing Christmas music on November 1st. My choices of stations to listen to has been greatly diminished because of this; don't get me wrong, I LOVE Christmas music, but if I begin listening to it too early, by the time Christmas rolls around, I find myself absolutely exhausted from all of it. If only more people would boycott the stations who play the 'tunes' so early then it wouldn't be an issue.

The Face Of Concentration

This is what Ben looks like when he learned how to play a few classic games such as Pac-Man, Pole Position and Rally-X.
And to my family, he doesn't just get this trait from me, Ryan does it as well!

And this is what my boy looks like when he figures out what I'm up to!

I love little boys!!