HopeAbound: Orange Ginger Pork Chops + tips

I've been working really hard this week at using what I have in my pantry and freezer stock. I mean, that's what I build it for, right?

Right!

Ok...really....I had all intentions on going grocery shopping. It is now Thursday and I have yet to make it to the store. What does that tell you?

SO...when I took a short look at what I had in my stock and saw that I had pork chops, I was bored from the get go...

BLAH!!!

Usually, we either just grill our pork chops fix them as tomato soup pork chops. It's old and overdone for us atleast.

I grabbed my cook book that I love the most and skimmed through it hoping that something would POP.

But..it didn't. I opened up the fridge and the top freezer and thought for a minute.

In the fridge I saw my orange juice and in the freezer I saw the ginger root in the door.

Can't get any better than orange ginger pork chops.

I was hesitant at first about just whipping something up, but I thought I'd give it a go anyways.

Here's what I used:

2 pork chops (more like pork steaks)

3 cloves grated garlic

1.5" of ginger, grated

1 1/2 cups oj

2 Tbspn garlic salt

S&P to taste

3 Tbspn Olive oil

Here's how I did it:

I pulled the chops out of the freezer. Sprinkled some S&P and garlic salt all over them and put them in the fridge to thaw (this was in the morning).

Then I got the ginger (yes it was frozen but it keeps longer in the freezer), three cloves of garlic, and the orange juice. The ginger and garlic I grated up and I poured about 1 1/2 of oj into the bowl with it.

When supper time rolled around, I was ready to rock 'n' roll!

Pour the olive oil in the skillet and allow it to heat up. Place the chops in the pan and brown nicely on each side. Time depends on thickness.

Once the chops are browned, simply pour in your mixture.

This is where you turn the heat to a low heat and let it sit for a while. The juice will reduce and become a rich and yummy looking glaze.

We decided to have fresh steamed broccoli and carrots and mashed potatoes with our chops.

Here's two good tips:

Number 1

If you desire those creamy-licious mashed potatoes but always end up with pasty, dry spuds...try this for a change.

Cut your potatoes in small cubes. Place in your pot. Pour enough milk to barely reach the tops of the spuds. Add 1 Tbspn of butter and turn on a low heat. If the heat is too hot, your milk will scorch and become yuck.

Cooking your potatoes this way allows the potatoes to soak up the milk and butter instead of the plain water. Thus resulting in delicious, creamy, buttery, tasty mashed potato heaven.

It also let's you work on the rest of the supper instead of rushing at the end to get the potatoes finished.