0039. beef, spinach, & potato experiment

I had ground beef, frozen spinach, and potato in the fridge/pantry/freezer, and had no idea what to do with it all. PK isn't a huge fan of spinach by itself, I'm not a fan of frozen spinach by itself, Monkey hates most potatoes, and I'm so freaking sick of meatloaf that I might scream if I eat another bite of it in the next month. So, what was I supposed to do with all this stuff? Dinner had to be made, and those were the only ingredients I had. I called PK up and asked him what to do (he used to run a kitchen way back in the day before we met, so I defer to him when I'm clueless... or my mommy - I love her cooking). His solution? "Mix them together!"

So, I cubed up the potatoes, chopped some onion, threw in some minced garlic, and put about 2 pounds of ground beef into a giant pot. The ground beef was the 73% fatty kind, so it made a LOT of juice. Add that to all the juice from the frozen spinach, and there was plenty of juice to cook the potatoes.

It looks weird, but it tastes pretty good.

If you know nothing about potatoes, then you know that it takes a LOT of spices to flavor a potato. I'm pretty sure I cubed up like 8 small yellow potatoes... maybe 9? Whatever. It's a lot. I also put an entire bag of frozen spinach in there, so I had to add a lot of spices. I don't know how much I actually put in since I eyeball almost everything I cook, so I'm just going to list the ingredients. If you feel comfortable eyeballing it, have at it.

Ingredients:

• small yellow potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 bag frozen spinach
• about 2 pounds ground beef
• freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• ground sage
• finely chopped dried oregano
• salt
• pepper
• parsley flakes 
• dried red pepper flakes (to add a little heat)

0032. Garlic Pork Chops with Mushrooms

Garlic Pork Chops with Chanterelle Mushrooms

Cook Time:

40 minutes

Prep Time:

10 minutes

Servings:

4

Wait Time:

0 minutes

Ready Time:

50m

Rating:

• 1 (cup) chicken broth
• 1/4 (cup) dried black chanterelle mushrooms (I used baby portabella)
• 1/4 (cup) rice wine vinegar
• 2 (tablespoon) soy sauce
• 2 (tablespoon) honey
• 1/4 (teaspoon) red pepper flakes
• 2 (teaspoon) sesame oil
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 (tablespoon) minced fresh ginger (I used ground ginger)
• 4 (1/2 inch thick) boneless pork chops

1. Bring the chicken broth to a boil in a small saucepan. Add the dried mushrooms, and simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes. In a small bowl, stir together the vinegar, soy sauce, honey, and red pepper flakes. Set aside.
2. Heat the sesame oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the pork chops, and brown for about 2 minutes on each side. Add the garlic and ginger; cook and stir until fragrant. Stir in the soy sauce mixture, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 5 minutes, uncovered.
3. Remove the mushrooms from the pan using a slotted spoon, and slice into thin strips. Stir the mushrooms and chicken broth into the pan with the pork chops, and simmer uncovered over low heat until the sauce has reduced by about 1/3, and the pork chops are cooked through.
4. To serve, place pork chops onto serving plates, and spoon equal amounts of the mushroom sauce over them.