Sam D. wrote:
> I don't usually refer to recipes for a lot of the things that I cook
> because I am so very used to doing them. There are some things like
> meat loaf or pasta sauce for which I never use a recipe. But the three
> recipes below are ones that I do follow pretty closely when I prepare
> these dishes. These are some of my favorite ways of preparing chicken.

Same here. Recipes are not my forte. Our system is: Nancy takes
something out to thaw and I figure out what to do with it when I get
home. ;-) Honestly.

As others have said, frozen leftovers from weekend cooking always helps.
Turkey breasts, stews, chili, soups, etc

Let's see... ok last night I got home and she had taken out pork chops.
I debated about tossing them into the oven with some saurkraut and
baking them for an hour and a half or so and serving with mashed
potatoes and frozen corn (from the fresh stuff last summer frozen in
tilia bags) but decided against that.

So I decided to fry 'em. I diced up some onion and garlic (very small
dice), peeled and quartered some yukon gold taters, and washed and cut
the stems off of some green beans.

Fired up the taters and got the skillet on to heat for the chops. When
the skillet was up to temp, I hit it with just a *touch* of butter and
added the onion and garlic for a few minutes until it started to soften.
Seasoned the chops with s&p and into the skillet. Then got the beans
going in another skillet with some olive oil diced garlic and s&p over a
pretty high heat and tossed them periodically. When the chops were done
I removed them from the pan and shielded them with al. foil to let them
rest. Then I deglazed the pan with a good shot of Pinot Grego (sp?)
white wine and reduced that. While that was reducing, I drained the
potatoes and put them into a serving dish and tossed with s&p, butter
and a LOT of fresh chopped flat leaf parsley, covered and set aside.

Now, back to the chop pan which had reduced by about 50%. I stirred in
oh, I don't know maybe a tablespoon and a half of Grey Poupon and
stirred until smooth, then removed from the heat and added about, maybe
a tbl of *cold* butter and constantly stirred until blended in.

Plated the chops with a serving of parsley potatoes and green beans and
drizzled the sauce over the chops. Garnished the plate with some parsley
sprigs (I normally don't do that kind of thing but it was there so eh,
why not?)

So that's pretty much how I cook, I see what I have to work with and
just say "eh, I don't know that sounds good" and away I go.

--
Steve

Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it.
Autograph your work with excellence.