Yum Peaceful Cooking: Over Due Salubrious Sunday and Over the Top Award

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Over Due Salubrious Sunday and Over the Top Award




You know what? I haven't posted a Salubrious Sunday meal for a while.

Why is that?

Hmm...probably a lot of reason but I don't wanna get all foodie-analytical on you so lets just fix the situation and move on.

May I present to you yet another recipe from my Pillsbury Fast & Healthy Cookbook: Honey Mustard-Glazed Pork Chops

You know what else?

I suck at making glazes.

They never ever remotely resemble what I think of as a glaze. You know like those hams...all sweet and candied and good.

Not mine.

 I get....a sauce.

Someday I will conquer the glaze.

Salubrious Sunday was not that day.

I did slightly alter this recipe. I was in the mood for Spanish Rice (which is posted --->here<---) and Calabacitas (which is posted --->here<---) so I needed the meat to be a little more....something. The letters in red will be what I added / changed, which isn't much.

Here are the ingredients:

1/3 cup honey
2 tablespoons yellow mustard (Dijon Mustard is MUCH better)
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 Chipotle in Adobe Sauce
1/2 tsp onion salt  powder
1/2 tsp Lemon Pepper
1/4 tsp pepper
4 boneless pork loin chops, 3/4" thick
Orange slices, if desired

In a small bowl, combine your honey and mustard (and cloves if you're gonna play by the book)






Take out one of those chipotle peppers




Slice it open.....



Do you like it hot? or not? Me? I'm chicken...so I removed all those little seeds and then chopped up the pepper





btw...it took days for that stain to go away. I tried bleach, lemon...409. Its all good now...but for a while there....not so pretty

Ok...add the pepper to the honey mustard mixture and set it aside.

Heat your skillet over medium-high. Sprinkle your chops with onion salt and pepper....and lemon pepper (if you're not playing by the rules).




Add the meat to the pan and cook 3 minutes. Turn. Reduce heat to medium-low; pour the honey mustard sauce over the chops.




Cover and cook about 10 minutes or until no longer pink inside (and meat thermometer inserted into the center reads 160').



Sooo....does that look like a glaze to you? I dunno, it looks like good ole sauce to me. And now that I think of it, of course it would. All that steam from covering the skillet is going to keep everything moist...even a wanna be glaze doesn't have a chance.

This wasn't my favorite meat. It needed something. Or lots of somethings. I dunno. There just wasn't enough flavor. I can't imagine how bland it would've been without the chipotle pepper. If I try it again, maybe I'd add a jalapeno, some onions....garlic. Something to make up for the disfunctional glaze sauce.

For the chops, the calories were only 270 (calories from fat 80)l total fat 9 g (sat fat 3 g, trans fat 0g); chol 70 mg, sodium 330 mg. Carb 24 g

And now...for the highlight of my day....check this out!! I got an award :) from my fellow lush, Heather over at GirliChef.



Thank you sooo much Heather!!!

Don't you just love awards? (Well except for those "loser awards" you'd get at camp. You know the ones.... Messiest Cabin, Latest Troop, etc.)

Anyways...I'm suppose to answer some questions, using one word? riiiiiight.

1. Where is your cell phone? on my cookbook
2. Your hair? a mess
3. Your mother? wonderful
4. Your father? precious
5. Your favorite food? chocolate, no wait...bread. shoot...potatoes. noooo chocolate. crap
6. Your dream last night? weird
7. Your favorite drink? margarita on the rocks
8. Your dream/goal? content
9. What room are you in? den
10. Your hobby? seriously?
11. Your fear? cockroaches
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? the 90's
13. Where were you last night? shhh
14. Something that you aren't? grown-up
15. Muffins? top?
16. Wish list items? kitchen-aid!!!!
17. Where did you grow up? SoCal 
18. Last thing you did? ate, no wait...drank wine
19. What are you wearing? jammies and sir sports-alot's t-shirt
20. Your TV? on
21. Your pets? too many
22. Friends? close
23. Your life? busy
24. Your mood? nostalgic
25. Missing someone? sometimes
26. Vehicle? small (nicknamed: Chuy)
27. Something you're not wearing? umm...never mind 
28. Your favorite store? any store with a kitchen gadget section


Ok, that was relatively painless (for me that is). And now I'd like to pass this award on to a few of my bloggin buds....Shane over at Culinary Alchemist, Michelle at Big Black Dogs, Cathy from The Dutch Bakers Daughter, Erica at My Columbian Recipes and Debby over at A Feast For The Eyes

Just grab the badge, and load it up onto your blog and have fun!

So...I got home today and what do I find? My daughter has decided to make the box of Duncan Hines 100% Whole Grain Triple Chocolate Chunk Muffins that I picked up at the store over the weekend (I had gotten a coupon through one of those banner ads on BakeSpace.com). Oh yum!

And what do I do with it?

Why, I decide I need to celebrate my award!

And of course improve on a boxed product. So I mixed 50/50 Hazelnut Spread (I was too cheap to buy the Nutella brand) and mascarpone. (killer combo on it's own....seriously). And I looked at this lovely dark chocolatey muffin and decided I wasn't going to "ice" the muffin. It's a muffin, not a wanna be cupcake.

So I sliced it and spread it....and ooooh eeeeem geeeeeee!!!



Now thats Over the Top!!

19 comments:

  1. That muffin is pretty over the top! ;-) Such a bright and pretty meal--too bad you didn't like it more, it certainly looks and sounds good.

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  2. Certainly does NOT look like you suck at glaze making. I LOVE your adaptations and think it looks perfect!

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  3. I think your glaze...er, sauce, looks really good! But that muffin thingie is insane! Thanks for the award! Btw, didn't you see Axel's post? You can buy 28 gallons of Nutella at Costco really cheap. Just pull out that coupon book! LOL

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  4. Glaze or sauce, it looks good to me. I have a hard time properly glazing things sometimes myself, I've found more reduction time is usually the way to go.

    Awesome muffin, too. :)

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  5. Congratulations on the award!!! I enjoyed reading your answers.

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  6. Hecks yeah, that's over the top! Love it :D LOL on the adobo stain...I feel your pain there. Chicken looks worth it, though! I love your answers...rollin' as usual :D

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  7. You picked 2 perfect additions to this recipe, the Chipotle in Adobe Sauce and Dijon Mustard. I would have done exactly the same.

    Love Chipotle in Adobe Sauce!

    Thanks so much for the award! So sweet!

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  8. Sorry you were disappointed in the glaze - the flavors sound delicious and it looks yummy from where I'm at! Thanks for sharing so many tidbits about yourself. And holy divinity - love that muffin and it's stuffin!

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  9. Deb - thanks...I think it's worth revisiting with a facelift

    Donna - but I thought glazes were suppose to be all sticky and gooey and fun.

    Cathy - Oh ya..I saw Axels post....is he jumping on the bandwagon with all those gallons of Nutella? LOL. And just so's ya know...you sooo deserve the award. Especially with all that baking. Btw...good luck with the Pillsbury Contest!!

    Bob - ya...more reduction and if that don't work...maybe a bit of starch?

    Erica - thanks...but did you notice? I passed it on to you!! LOL

    Heather - how much did you drink? it's pork not chicken...but with all the chicken I make, I can sooo understand the confusion! LMAO

    Michelle - You're so welcome! With all that your doing for the HBin5 and your wonderful recipes...it was a no brainer :)

    Reeni - LOL...ya....that muffin...well, it added to MY stuffin!!

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  10. Those peppers sure do stain the board don't they! I have trouble getting my chops to be full of flavor sometimes. It's weird, I can simmer for hours and you'd never know it. I don't think I can do a glaze very well either. Oh well, your dish looks very yummy and so does that Nutella goodie!

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  11. Congratulations on your award. That is a clever award.

    Your glaze (or sauce) is gorgeous. I enjoy sauce making and think it makes all the difference in the world to a good meal.

    So glad you changed the mustard to Dijon. We only keep the ballpark stuff for people who want it on their hot dog (my husband who is a purist about his). I use Dijon on mine.
    Sam

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  12. I don't care what ya call it, I'd eat that!

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  13. I am also terrible at making glaze... I always end up with a watery sauce :(.

    However, I love your adaptations for this recipe. Great idea!

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  14. Lol crazy muffins like that need coffee!

    And as long as your glaze/sauce coats something and tastes great, I think you succeeded!

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  15. Congratulations on the over the top award. I do think you are the funnies of food blogger of all the ones I follow, and the answers to the questions display your humor beautifully!

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  16. Thanks so much for the award!
    I'd love to have a plateful of that there chicken-- you did a great job. Chipotle! Yowza! Now, that's flavor and heat!

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  17. I usually chop up chipotles on a small plate, just so I don't stain my cutting boards! Just thought I'd pass that on for next time.

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