Domestic Goddess: Pork Chops and Apples

To motivate me to cook, I've decided to post about recipes. I'll try and post a new recipe every month. I decided to post "pork chops and apples" first because it's Tom's favorite. I'll warn you, the apple part of the recipe is pretty sweet, if you don't like sweet this recipe is definitely not for you. Also, most of you already know this, but I'm a beginner cook so none of the recipes are going to be fancy schmancy. Feel free to post if you have any suggestions! :)

Servings: 2

Ingredients:
Pork chops (2-4, depending on size of chops)
Apples- cored, peeled and sliced (2 or 3, depending on how much you like apples)
Garlic powder
Salt & Pepper
Egg

Flour (1/4 cup)
Bread crumbs- I use seasoned (1/2 cup)

Ginger (1/4 tsp)
Cornstarch (1 TBS)
Cinnamon (1/2 tsp)
Nutmeg (1/4 tsp)
Soy sauce (1 TBS)
Brown sugar (1/2 cup)
Apple juice (1/2 cup)
Butter (1 TBS)

Part 1: Pork chops
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Prepare 2 small plates, one with flour and another with bread crumbs. In a bowl, beat 1 egg. Set aside. Season pork chops with salt, pepper, and garlic powder on both sides. Dredge pork chops first in flour, then egg, and finally bread crumbs. Heat a little olive oil in a medium size frying pan until medium high heat. Then fry chops for about 2-3 min per side or until browned. When they are browned, place the chops in a baking dish and put it in the oven to bake for 35 min.

Part 2: Sweet Cooked Apples (start about 15 minutes before pork chops are done)
Put brown sugar, apple juice, soy sauce, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cornstarch, and butter in a sauce pan. On medium heat mix all the ingredients and wait until the butter melts. Once it is well mixed, add the apples. Make sure all the apples are coated in the sauce. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes and the sauce should thicken. Stir occasionally. I like my sauce with all of these flavors and for it to be as thick as syrup. If you don't have the soy sauce, ginger or nutmeg, don't worry...the goal of the apples is to get a nice sugary, cinnamony apple taste and if you omit those ingredients, it'll be ok. I just like the mix of flavors. :)

You can cut the apples whatever way you want, but I prefer to cut them in thin slices like the smaller slice on the left. When they are on the thin side, they cook through faster.

Once chops are finished baking...pour apples and sauce over chops. There is a nice salty and sweet going on in the dish, and also, we think mash potatoes go well with it. (see first picture)

Note: I made up this recipe by combining a few of the pork chop recipes I found from online. Also, about the sauce, you can use it (minus the apples) as a marinade when you grill. You can also substitute the apple juice with another like pineapple juice and have grilled pineapples with it. We haven't tried it yet, but I bet this marinade goes well with chicken. Anywho...these are just extra ideas for you to play with.

My next post will be a dessert recipe. I have one more recipe to try before I post the one I think is best. :)

Thanks for reading!!

xoxo

Happy Birthday Alicia!!!

I want to give a birthday shout out to Alicia. She is one of my dearest friends, and I wish I could be in Ohio with her to celebrate. Happy 24th sweetie!

xoxo

Claire Elisabeth

Birthday: March 27, 2009

In true Lois fashion..."Hoooraaaaay!" Claire was born yesterday. Check out the pics from Matt below. Congrats Matt and Erika!

She has strawberry blonde hair and blue-gray eyes. If you want the rest baby stats let me know and I'll post them.

xoxo

March Birthdays (some missed and one just in time)

I'm pretty new to the blogging world, and since I posted adorable pictures of Kaitlyn, I thought it would be only fair to post some of the other March birthdays I missed and one I almost missed. EKkkk...Sorry!!

March 11- Johanna: Ya know it's the craziest thing...Jo and I have an adorable picture together where Jo was sitting on my lap and I was helping her with her shoes too! However, I went with the silly picture from the Sears shopping trip instead.

March 18- Momma (aka Millie P): My mom gave me a granny robe for Christmas so we could match. Adorable, I know...awww....

March 25- Jenny : Wooohooo.... Jenny is probably one of my most faithful blog readers. I had to give her a shout out! :)

Happy Birthday Ladies! Sorry for the belated birthday post...and whew..Jenny, you made it just in time! I didn't know if I wanted to do the whole birthday shout out thing, but it's a lot of fun... :)

xoxo

Kaitlyn's 2nd Birthday (a few days late)

Aaaahhhhh...she's two! Can you believe it...and she'll be a big sister soon! SOoo CRAZY!! It's seems like yesterday I was holding the lil' peanut in my arms (and yes, she still looked big whenever I held her) *sigh*...

Enjoy the pics of this silly California girl...and check out Erika's Blog (link on the side bar of my blog, under "blog list") to see pictures of the big birthday!

Sometimes she likes to pinch. I usually respond by opening my mouth and pretending to devour her fingers.

Princess Kaitlyn

I'll let you in on a little secret...if Kaitlyn starts to get a little frustrated with you just distract her with a little tickle or flip her upside down. She'll forget....it's a fabulous trick.

In this pic, I am trying to put Kaitlyn's shoes on her. Sadly, this was probably the last time she can sit on my lap and I am able to stretch my arms to help with the shoes. As you can see, she's rather long...I'm fairly sure she will surpass me in height soon.

Happy Birthday Kaitlyn!!

xoxo,
Porkchop (Her new name for me...strange, but funny) :)

New Look and Music

Hey All! Hope you are all doing well...I found a new look for the blog and I added some music. Please let me know what you think by taking the polls which are located on the side of the page. Also, please post if you would like to comment more than what the poll has to offer. (I love when people post. hehe)

If you would like to do anything to the music, scroll to the bottom of the page and play with it all you want. I hope you all have a great weekend!

xoxo

PS. I have an idea about what my next blog is going to be about...it may be a little different than my other posts... :)

St. Patricks Day

Happy St. Patty's Day! Don't forget to wear something green. There's nothing new here, just a picture and video to get you in the St. Patty's Day mood. :)

This isn't a very good picture, but it was the brightest rainbow.

This is news reporting at it's finest. This is a clip from Mobile, AL where people claim to have seen a leprechaun. Enjoy!

xoxo

March 15, 2009: Shamrock Run

Hey Folks! Yesterday, Tom and I and many other adidas friends ran in the 31st Edition of the Portland Shamrock Run. Most of us signed up for the 5K. I ran with Maria, and it was our first time running together. I was pleasantly surprised that Maria and I kept a pace that was pretty much perfect for one another. We were steady the entire time, survived the longest uphill ever, and even had enough energy to kick it up a notch at the end. It was such a good race, and even though it was cold, rainy, and my feet were soaked, I had so much fun. Tom and I are very fortunate to have friends to share fun days like this with.

Group Pic after the 5K. In this Picture (L-R): Tyler, Adrian, Andrea, Maria, Tom, and Ap

Tom getting pumped before the race

One of my favorite quotes of the day was from Maria. During our run she said, "Look around, this is truly Portland...it's cold, rainy and many people are running outside."

xoxo

The Wild Dave

This past weekend David Hoying decided to grace us with his presence. We had a fabulous time doing a lot of hiking, eating, and drinking. Enjoy all the pics!

Day 1: Walking Tour of Downtown- The first day Dave arrived we went on a walking tour of downtown Portland. We only made it to Pioneer Square and the Willamette River before we met up with Tom. We had a fabulous dinner at Jake's Famous Crawfish, walked around Powell's bookstore, and finally ended at the Shanghai Tunnels for a few beers.

Day 2: Cannon Beach- According to Tom, we did about a 3 mile round trip hike along the coast. It was pretty cold, rainy, and muddy, but it was so much fun. For those of you who know me well, I am NOT an outdoorsy person at all. But this weekend, I discovered that I really like walking along trails and playing in mud. I don't have many pictures that represent the trail accurately, but we spent most of the hike trying to dance around really muddy parts. We took the trail to another beach and by the time we started going back, a storm came in and the misty rain turned to hail. We decided that it would be better to run most of the way back because of the weather. After awhile the rain/hail stopped and we took it back to a walking pace. However, because of the little run we did, the bottom of our pants and shoes were caked in mud. :) It was so much fun!

Tom and Dave jogging on the muddy trail

Dave jogging downhill and trying to avoid getting muddy

Our shoes 1/2 through our hike

A little bit of sun would peek through the clouds every now and then :)

When we finally made it back to the car, we spotted Caribou along the side of the parking lot

Day 3: Waterfalls at the Columbia River Gorge- After Church, fabulous brunch, and taking advantage of Tom's adidas discount, we headed east to see the waterfalls. We stopped and saw a few small waterfalls before getting to the big one (Multnomah Falls), which is pictured below. We did a 2.2 mile round trip hike to the top of this waterfall with an elevation around 620ft. Luckily, we had pretty nice weather for Dave's last day.

From the bottom of the Multnomah Waterfalls

From the top of the Multnomah Waterfall

The Wild Dave posing by a smaller waterfall

Dave- Thanks for taking the time to come and visit. We had such a great time with you. Come back soon!

Hopefully these pictures will entice the rest of you to visit us as well! :)

xoxo

Cookies and Tom's Eye

Cookies
In preparation for this weekend, I made some homemade chocolate chip cookies. Since I have become a domestic goddess, I have perfected the chocolate chip cookie. The recipe is simple and deeeelicious! Let me know if you'd like the recipe!

Tom's Eye
For those of you who saw Tom over the holidays, he finally went to the doctor and got rid of it. Don't worry...he only wore this for an hour and then let it air dry. For those of you who have no idea what's going on with Tom's eye, he had a stye that became infected over the holidays. As soon as we got home, Tom's went to a doctor who prescribed some meds. At Tom's last visit to the opthalmologist, the doc decided to just open it up so it will heal quicker. You'll see in the next post that his eye looks so much better. :)

xoxo

Introducing New Friends and Trivia Night

Introducing New Friends
Well Ladies and Gents, it has occured to me that I may have many stories that also involve the following people pictured below. I thought it would be a fabulous idea to introduce them so you can now put a face with the name. :)

This is Dave and Linda. Dave's a member of the basketball design team with Tom. They are tons of fun and are very talented in many PlayStation 3 and Wii games. What's unique about Dave and Linda is that when you play a game...and this can be any game, they have a theory/strategy to win. They are very nice and often share their strategies so we don't all look like fools. hehe.

This is Shane and Maria. They were the first people I got to know on my very first trip to Portland. They are incredibly sweet and sincere, and we always have a really good time going out. They both work at adidas. Shane designs running shoes and Maria designs itty bitty little kids basketball shoes (sooo cute!).

This is Mark and Tyler. They are a little hard to describe...sooo you just have to meet them. They are tons of fun and we enjoy going out to dinner and watching movies with them. I guess the best way to describe them would be to describe the vibe they give off... they have a laid back, creative energy about them. Mark worked at adidas designing basketball shoes with Tom and now, he works at Nike. Lately, Tyler and I have been baking pies and giving them back and forth... I think the Tom and Mark are enjoying it. :)

Trivia Night at the Goodfoot

One night at a bar Dave and Linda brought up that we should find a place that hosts trivia nights. At first we thought it was one of those little game things that you play at B-Dubs or Damons. However, they explained some bars host a trivia night where people come up with a team name, answer questions, and sometimes there are prizes. I guess in Boston (where Dave and Linda lived before) it was a huge thing, and they missed it.

Lo and behold, we found a trivia night at the Goodfoot. There were 4 rounds (general trivia, movies, bonus, and music), 10 questions in each round, and lots of extra ways to earn bonus points. Shane, Maria, Dave, Linda, Tom and I a.k.a "General Tsaos and his chickens" (our team name) all went on to score 12 right answers. Yup, that's right...12 right answers. We were the lowest scoring team; therefore we earned, 1 pint of PBR and choosing next week's Bonus Round category, which we picked "sneakers". hehe. It was a great time and hopefully next week we can beat our score of 12. :)

xoxo

Floreeeda...as Millie P would say :)

Recently, I went on a trip to Naples, FL with my mom. The highlights of the trip were eating great seafood, going to the museum, and the average 75 degree weather. We also went to a lot of the nice shopping districts. Apparently, the majority of people in Naples, who happen to be over 55 and retired, are not at all affected by the recession. There were tons of people everywhere we went eating at nice restaurants and shopping their little hearts away. :) Below are a few pictures...very few because I didn't take a lot. Also, below I made a little list of Pros and Cons if you are ever thinking of maybe visiting Naples. Enjoy!

St. Agnes Catholic Church, Naples, FL

Naples Museum of Art

Waterside Shops

Pros: Vanderbilt Beach (very pretty), Miramar Outlets (best I've ever been to), near to Everglades and Marco Island. Recommended Restaurants include- Blu Sushi and the Dock at Crayton Cove

Cons: People are snobby. I cannot tell you how many times people looked me up and down when I was wearing jeans and an old Tri-Delt t-shirt. Driving is terrible. You either have people that drive extremely slow or ridiculously fast. There is no in between and people are not nice when driving. There are a lot of older rich folk that expect you to get out of their way...I know this sounds crazy, but just take my word for it. :)

xoxo