Family Day, Children, Brining

Today is Family Day in Canada which means the bowling alley is thick with kids and the noise would be horrendous. The bowling alley cancels our league for the day - I am not quite sure I approve of  that. I guess they make more money from families on that day than they would from our league. Even if we bowled, the kids would still be there in force, downstairs if nowhere else. I was saying to Matt earlier (Saturday) I wish they had introduced Family Day during our working life. Would have been an extra day off during the year. They were certainly talking about it but didn't make it into a stat day until the time we were living in the US. Ah well.

I sell Avon working with another rep who supplies me with my product.  She, poor woman, was involved with her daughter the last few weeks. Her 3 year old daughter who has been pronounced legally blind. What a horror at 3. I am so very sorry for the family.

As you know, I have been having problems with Matt and tough meat. So Saturday night I decided to have pork chops and ended up brining them then doing them in a Korean style way. I have posted the brine. I don't know, but Matt did eat all his pork chop so maybe it worked. I did brine them for 4 hours.

BRINING Pork Chops

3 cups cold water, divided
3 Tbs coarse kosher salt (or 2 1/2 tablespoons table salt)
Optional flavorings: 2 smashed garlic cloves, 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns, 1 bay leaf

1. If you have time, brining the pork for even a brief period adds flavor and ensures juiciness in the finished chop. Bring 1 cup of the water to a boil, add the salt and optional flavorings, and stir to dissolve the salt. Add 2 more cups of cold water to bring the temperature of the brine down to room temperature. Place the pork chops in a shallow dish and pour the brine over top. The brine should cover the chops — if not, add additional water and salt (1 cup water to 1 tablespoon salt) until the chops are submerged. Cover the dish and refrigerate for 30 minutes or up to 4 hours.

Korean Style Pork Chops - a simple recipe for Korean style marinated pork chops, resulting in melt in your mouth, super delicious pork chops. Best ever!

4 pork chops
1 Tbs olive oil
1/4 cup soy sauce low sodium
2 Tbs honey
4 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp ginger minced
2 tsp sriracha sauce
black pepper to taste

1. Brine first

2. Preheat oven to 400 F degrees.

3. In a medium size bowl whisk together the soy sauce, honey, garlic, ginger, sesame oil and sriracha sauce. Pour over pork chops and let marinade for about 20 minutes.

4. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet for medium high heat. Add pork chops, without marinade, and cook for about 5 minutes for the first side, or until it gets a nice brownish color. Flip the pork chops and pour the remaining marinade over them. Cook another 5 min on this side.

5. Place the skillet in the oven to finish cooking them. Roast for about 10 minutes, or until pork chops are completely cooked through.

Servings: 4

Tips
If your pork chops are not very thick, mine were about 1 inch in thickness, you might not need to finish cooking them in the oven.

Author: Joanna Cismaru


Have a great day
 

Bowling, Groundhog Day, Candlemas, Tough Meat,

Decided to go bowling on Wed. afternoon, what a disaster. I could not get my ball to go where I wanted. You would have  thought I had never bowled before in my life. Thanks goodness it wasn't a league day. By the way, we have moved from 7th to 5th place this week. Long may it continue. We were playing in a lane next to 3 ladies who go every Wednesday but are not actually members of the Wednesday league. They had some goodies to eat and kindly offered us a chocolate chip cookie which one of them had baked. They tasted good, but I nearly broke my teeth trying to eat one. I guess I should have dunked it. Nice of them though. Thought I would choose the leprechaun instead of a bowling animation for a change.

Groundhog Day, but I can't remember if we are hoping it does see it's shadow or doesn't. OK I just

looked it up, we don't want him to see his shadow if we want an early spring. That especially applies to yours truly, spring means fresh asparagus to me. Apparently in Europe it is actually Candlemas Day which is where the tradition began I suppose. I just found these little rhymes.

From England, the poem:

If Candlemas be fair and bright,
Winter has another flight.
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Winter will not come again. 

From Scotland, the poem:

If Candlemas Day is bright and clear,
There'll be two winters in the year. 

From Germany, the poem:

For as the sun shines on Candlemas Day,
So far will the snow swirl until May.
For as the snow blows on Candlemas Day,
So far will the sun shine before May. 

So here's hoping. We haven't had a bad winter here really, although in some parts of North America their snow falls have not been funny. I cannot imagine getting several feet in one snowfall.

Well more bowling today of course so I do hope things go better. I actually had a painful day yesterday and had to take a few Tylenol 3 to cope. Fingers crossed.

I am planning to do a Portuguese type Pork casserole for Saturday. Matt is still having problems with meat toughness so I am avoiding giving him meat of any kind which hasn't been well cooked in some way. I even made Portuguese Style Chicken the other day and he found the thicker pieces of chicken to be tough. The NY Times came up with some Pressure Cooker recipes which would do the job,  trouble is, I don't have a pressure cooker and am not about to buy one at this stage. Pity, they look good. I remember my mother saying my cousin used to wield her pressure cooker like the rest of us used a fry pan.

I often see baby bok choy in our store and wondered about recipes. This recipe doesn't specifically say baby, but I think it would work really well.

Stir-Fried Bok Choy or Sturdy Greens

This recipe works equally well with bok choy or sturdy greens, both of which have tough ribs and leaves that have a cruciferous flavor. I steam them for a minute before stir-frying so the leaves won’t be too tough.

12 to 16 oz bok choy or sturdy greens, like collards, or packaged Southern greens mix

¼ cup chicken broth, vegetable broth or water
1 Tbs Shao Hsing rice wine or dry sherry
2 tsp soy sauce
¼ tsp cornstarch
1 Tbs peanut or canola oil
3 garlic cloves, smashed with the flat side of a chef’s knife or minced
1 slice ginger, smashed with the flat side of a chef’s knife or minced
Salt to taste
¼ tsp sugar
1 to 2 tsp sesame seeds, to taste

1. If using bok choy, trim off the bottoms and separate into stalks. Rinse if necessary and drain on paper towels. Cut crosswise into 2-inch pieces. If using collard greens, stem, discard stems and chop the leaves coarsely. Bring an inch of water to a boil in the bottom of a steamer, and place the bok choy or greens in the steamer basket. Steam 1 minute, remove from the heat and rinse with cold water. Squeeze out excess water and drain on a kitchen towel.

2. Combine the broth or water, rice wine or sherry, soy sauce and cornstarch in a small bowl and place within arm’s reach of your pan. Have the remaining ingredients measured out and near the pan.

3. Heat a 14-inch flat-bottomed wok or a 12-inch skillet over high heat until a drop of water evaporates within a second or two when added to the pan. Swirl in the oil by adding it to the sides of the pan and swirling the pan, then add the garlic and ginger and stir-fry for 10 seconds, until fragrant. Add the bok choy or greens, sprinkle with salt and the sugar, and stir-fry for about 30 seconds. Stir the cornstarch mixture and swirl into the wok, then stir-fry 1 minute, or until the greens are just tender. Sprinkle on the sesame seeds. Remove from the heat and serve.

Servings: 4

Source: The New York Times



Have a great day
 

Solar Power, Jigsaw, Tough Meat, Snow

I was talking about power and energy on Friday and reminded myself of the asparagus farm where I spend so much time every year. He uses solar panels on the farm buildings, and has a large field which will be lying fallow for 20 years. He applied to the local township for permission to put in solar panels which, being a biggish field, would have supplied a lot of power. He never did get that permission. How very short sighted of them. I remember being in Greece more than 50 years ago and they were installing solar panels in several places and yet today in Canada they wouldn't permit it.

Every so often I do Shockwave daily jigsaw puzzles. I am so slow that I never rank but I just enjoy

doing them. Heck you don't have to turn all the pieces the right side up for a start LOL. Saturday I did one as usual and apparently did it quick enough to rank 439th. How about that, I didn't think I would ever make a ranking of any kind. I was quite chuffed. Obviously it wasn't the hardest puzzle in the world. Can't have been can it? By the way, I did Sunday's puzzle, no ranking!

I am kind of at my wit's end lately as Matt has decided practically all the meat we get is too tough. I agree it is tough, but I can eat it, he won't. It's OK if I stew it or something similar but if we have a steak, which we eat rare, he doesn't enjoy it. Saturday night we had a rib eye steak and Matt ended up throwing most of his away. I have kind of decided what I should do, is always give him stewed meat but make myself steaks. Be a pain in the butt mind you. I have some instructions for aging beef which I have never tried, but I guess I need to. It is a fact that beef was hung a lot longer in England, and was therefore much more tender, but we have been here a long time and it's only recently Matt has decided he can't eat this or that.

By the way, we got snow on Saturday night so when we got up it was whitish. Not very much but it lasted all day long.

Talking of beef.....here is a recipe for beef. However, as it says you can swap it for chicken or shrimp. We don't have prawns round here.

Tangy Beef and Mushroom Noodles

Tangy beef and mushroom noodles is one of the speediest (and tastiest!) dishes you could make for dinner. Dish it up in only 20 mins and we guarantee the whole family will be happy. A couple of sirloin steaks go a long way in this recipe. You can get creative with this recipe too - you can happily

use any other veg you've got at home that you want, or swap out the beef for chicken breast or prawns to make a change. This simple recipe is going to one of your new favourites

2 X 220 g sirloin steaks, sliced
100 g tamarind paste
Juice 2 limes
3 Tbs soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp sunflower oil
300 g mixed mushrooms, sliced
6 spring onions, sliced, plus extra to serve
200 g sugar snaps
300 g noodles
pinch chilli flakes
4 Tbs toasted cashews, chopped

1. Toss the steaks in the tamarind paste, lime juice, soy sauce and sugar, and put in the fridge.

2. Heat the oil in a wok and fry the mushrooms, spring onions and sugar snaps for 3-4 mins, until just cooked; remove and set aside.

3. Remove any excess sauce from the steaks and add them to the wok. Cook for 2-3 mins, then remove and set aside with the vegetables.

4. Meanwhile, cook the noodles according to pack instructions, then drain once cooked.

5. Turn the heat down, pour in the marinade and bring to a simmer for 2-3 mins. Add the noodles and toss to coat well, then tip in the beef and vegetables. Stir until everything is warmed through, adding a little hot water to loosen if necessary. Sprinkle over the remaining spring onion, chilli flakes and cashews to serve.

Servings: 4

Source: GoodtoKnow

Author Notes
You can also enjoy it the next day if you have any leftovers; simply make sure to reheat thoroughly

Have a great day