Happy Thursday, everyone!

Last night was a successful evening in the kitchen.  Nothing broken, no eggs on the counter… just good food and happy bellies.

Part of the reason is probably because I made a meal that I’ve made many times before.  So it comes a little more naturally to me.  And being relaxed in the kitchen usually equates to less disasters!

I made a recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks:

I know we all have our own thoughts and opinions about Martha Stewart.  But when it comes to the kitchen, the woman knows her stuff!

Every recipe I’ve made from this cookbook has turned out really well.  And most of them are pretty easy (if I’m saying that, you know it’s true!).

Normally I would just link you back to the original recipe, but since it’s in a book, I can’t do that.  So I’m going to attempt to put the recipe into my own words.

Ingredients for the Crispy Apricot Pork Chops

(this is for serving 4, but you can easily split it in half for 2 servings):

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 slices bread (whole wheat or multigrain work great)
• 4 pork-loin chops, each about 8 oz. and slightly less than 1 inch thick.  She recommends bone-in chops.  I’ve done with bone and without and it’s always turned out great.
• apricot jam (enough to cover the top of each chop)
• salt and pepper

I served the pork chops with roasted potatoes, so I’ll also explain those (they are super easy and delicious).

Ingredients for the potatoes include:

• 3-4 medium potatoes (or 1.5 potatoes, if you bought gi-normous ones, like I did)
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 packet of Lipton Recipe Secrets onion mix

Directions for the potatoes

(get these ready first because they take longer in the oven):

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Spray a 13X9 inch pan with cooking spray.
• Wash potatoes and cut them into small chunks (in my opinion, the smaller the better because they cook faster and get crispier).
• Put potatoes in a bowl and mix together with the olive oil and onion mix.

• Pour the mixture into the baking dish and put the dish in the oven.  Bake for around 35 minutes, stirring occasionally.

In the meantime…

Directions for the Pork Chops:

• Set oven to 425 degrees (same temperature as the potatoes, which works out well)
• Spray baking sheet with cooking spray
• Tear the bread into pieces and throw it into a food processor (or I used a blender, and it worked great).  Pulse into large crumbs.  Then add the olive oil and pulse again, until the crumbs are slightly moistened with the oil.
  

  chunks of bread in blender before pulsing

   

  

  crumbs with oil

• Pat the chops with a paper towel to get rid of moisture.  Then season both sides of the chops with salt and pepper before laying them on the baking sheet.
• Next, spread the apricot jam on the tops of both pork chops.  The jam should be thinly spread and covering the entire surface of the chop.

jam on pork chops

• Add the breadcrumbs on top of each pork chop and pat them gently so they will stick.

• Bake the pork chops for around 14-16 minutes (if they are boneless, it might take closer to 18 minutes).  According to the recipe, a meat thermometer should register at 150 degrees.  Or you can just cut one of them open to make sure it isn’t too pink, like I did.

And that’s it!  I added some frozen veggies that I nuked in the microwave and this is the finished product:

Absolutely delicious.  Warm and comforting.  The apricot jam isn’t too sweet… it seems to all just balance perfectly.

The first time I made this for my mom and myself, we were literally gnawing the last of our meat off the bone (nice visual, huh?).  It was that good.  You wouldn’t think something so simple would be so tasty, but it’s really one of my favorite dishes.

Following dinner, I felt the need for something sweet.  Fortunately, I had the perfect thing.  Remember these?

What?  Don’t judge.  Yes, I baked the cupcakes for my mother-in-law’s birthday and not for myself.  But do you really think she was going to eat 24 of them?!  I didn’t think so.

And now, a question for ya…

What is your favorite entrée that you make?