Biscuits and Bacon Gravy

This post was of course originally going to be about both the biscuits and the bacon gravy, but I botched my biscuits.  Bacon gravy, on the other hand.... mmm... bacon...

This is from my sister's college roommate, a native South Carolinian... this breakfast makes up for the entire existence of grits. 

Split Pea Soup

Alas, there is no way to make split pea soup appetizing looking:

On the other hand, it has everything else in the world going for it:  it's delicious, low-calorie, satisfying, easy, and cheap (unless, like me, you purchase a 10-lb. ham just to have a leftover ham bone.)

Fast Sausage Ragu, now with less weird coloring!

The fast sausage ragu from Bitten looks much prettier if you use white wine instead of red.

It gets rid of the green eggs and ham problem-- the food is now the appropriate color.  You should, however, rinse out the measuring cup you use for your wine before you put milk in it, otherwise the milk curdles ever so slightly, which you will not notice until you stir it into the rest of the sauce.  It's still delicious, though. 

The wine used here was Woot Cellar's Triacipedis.  They have consistently delicious, reasonably priced wines.  Plus amusing descriptions.

Pork Roast

This is so simple, it barely qualifies as a recipe.

The steps are:
1.  Throw a hunk of meat in the oven.

There is no step two. 

Fast Sausage Ragu

This turned out really well; I was a little leery of putting milk and tomato paste into the same sauce (although it's amazing with cream, so why not?), but it was fantastic.  And it only took about 20 minutes, start to finish.

For all that I keep wanting to color-correct this photo, the sauce did turn out purplish, since I used red wine instead of white... but I needed to open a bottle anyway, for the next day's stew.  Hence, purple sauce.  C'est la vie... it was delicious.

Pork chops

Pork chops are one of my go-to weeknight dinners-- pretty easy, pretty quick, and very satisfying. This if from a month or two ago (hence the asparagus-- it was still spring).


This is more of a method than a recipe. Start with thick pork chops (an inch or so would be great); dry them with paper towels.

Sprinkle each side with seasonings (salt, pepper, rosemary, tarragon, thyme, oregano, sage, etc.) Let sit for a bit, then heat up a heavy duty frying pan to which you have a lid over high heat. Add some butter to the pan to grease it; it should sizzle immediately. Add the pork chops; sear the first side for 2 minutes, then flip and cook the other side for a couple of minutes.

When both sides are nice and brown looking, add a splash (maybe 1/4 cup) of whatever you'll be drinking with dinner (beer, wine, or water), cover the pan, and reduce the heat to medium low. Cook for an additional few minutes (5-10, depending on the thickness of your pork chops and how hot the pan is), just until pork is no longer pink in the center.

Serve with a veggie and a starch; you can pour the pan sauce over everything.