Miso Crusted Pork Chops

Fun fact of the day: encrusting anything in miso makes it taste 100 times better. There's no question that adding it to a pork chop would make it that much more delicious. Not to mention the fact that it makes a perfect centerpiece for a dinner dish. Served amongst baked eggplant and asparagus with apple ginger chutney it makes any dinner the best dinner of your life.

There's something funny about posting to this blog every week. It's easy to get caught up in it and just accept it and not take account for anything else. For example I now expect everything I eat to be as delicious as all the food I make. I also expect it to look as beautiful as Katy's photos make it look. Naturally that's sort of an unrealistic expectation. But why should it be?

It's a new year and that means new starts. Sure boxed mac and cheese is fine when you're tired and don't feel like cooking, but there's no substitute for a perfectly cooked pork chop when you're in the mood for it. In my personal opinion there's been too much accepting the status quo in this country. What happened to the greatest country on Earth? I personally blame congress and the banking industry. But to get back on track, this is not a year to go with the flow. This is a year of getting better. Doing this blog every week reminds me that settling for anything less than the best isn't an option.

Baked Eggplant and Asparagus

• 1 Eggplant chopped
• 1/2 pound Asparagus julienned
• 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
• 1 tablespoon Sesame Seeds
• 2 teaspoons Garlic Salt

1. Preheat your oven to 375°
2. In a large mixing bowl toss the Eggplant, Asparagus, Olive Oil, Sesame Seeds and Garlic Salt together.
3. Fill a small casserole pan with the vegetables and bake for 15 minutes. Stir halfway through baking.

Apple Ginger Chutney

• 1 Fuji Apple diced
• 1 tablespoon Ginger freshly grated 
• 3 tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Balsamic Vinegar
• 1 Yellow Onion diced
• 1 tablespoon Brown Sugar

1. Heat the Apple Cider Vinegar, Balsamic, Onion and Apple over high. Boil out most of the moisture. 
2. Add the Ginger and Brown Sugar. Stir and cover. Heat over medium-low heat for 10 more minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Blend if a smoother chutney is desired. 

Miso Crusted Pork Chops

• 3 Pork Chops
• 2 packs of Yellow Miso Soup Mix
• Olive Oil

1. Heat just enough Olive Oil in a skillet to cover the pan over medium heat.
2. Pour the packets of Miso Soup into a shallow dish. Place the Pork Chops in the dish, cover both sides of each chop with the miso. Message the mix into the meat.
3. Place each pork chop in the skillet. Evenly cook on both sides. Don't worry the miso will turn out a little black. Place the skillet in the oven to finish cooking if needed.
4. Serve with Apple Ginger Chutney, and Baked Eggplant and Asparagus. 

Go ahead and change things up for your meal tonight. Put a twist on an old favorite and make it something worth talking about instead of just filling the hole that is dinner.

Photos by the great and talented Katy Weaver

Pork Apple Barrel Spending Burger

Pork burger with beet and goat cheese salad

Before I start this post I just want to let you guys know about our new sponsor, The Employment Branch, which is a temp agency for recently out-of-work non-essential government employees. That's right, The Employment Branch, "Yes, you actually HAVE to work to get paid."

Pork burger with beet and goat cheese salad

I've been wanting to make this burger and put it up on the blog for a long time and we all know once you've built something up in your mind for such a long time, it always lives up to your expectations. Before I continue to ramble on about how perfect this burger is for an autumn weekend dinner, I want to explain the name of the burger. No I'm not going to explain the joke to you and why it works, but I do want to say that I took a page out of Bob's Burgers book and

made a burger of the day

. If you don't watch

Bob's Burgers

then you probably should. Why? Because you're reading this blog and you obviously have some brain functionality and like to laugh.

fall produce

I'm not going to keep talking about a burger. It's a pork burger with apple chutney, goat cheese, and onion rings served with a beet and goat cheese "salad". That's all you need to know, enjoy.

fall produce

Hello, W orld!

pork burger

Pork Burgers

yields 5 burgers

• 1 lbs. Ground Pork
• 1/4 cup Oats
• 1 Egg
• 1/2 teaspoon Garlic Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon Pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon Sage dried

1. Mix everything together in a large mixing bowl with your hands.
2. Make patties, should yield about 5. 
3. In a large skilled or if you have a grill, coat with a touch of oil. Turn the heat up to 11! Actually no, don't do that, just turn it up to like medium high. Cook each side for about 2 minutes or until it's golden brown.
4. Top your burger with the apple chutney, onion rings, and some goat cheese.

I like adding oats to my burgers, because it makes the meat go a bit further. And we all love meat that keeps on coming.

Apple Chutney

• 4 Apples quartered and seeded
• 2 Fiji
• 2 Gala
• 1/2 Red Onion sliced
• 2 teaspoons Olive Oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar
• 3 tablespoons packed Dark Brown Sugar
• 1 tablespoon Molasses
• 1/2 teaspoon Cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon Curry Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Garlic Salt
• 1/4 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon Paprika

1. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat while you turn the onion and apples into pebble sized pieces with a food processor.
2. Stir the apples and onion into the hot oil. Stir all the other ingredients and let simmer for about 1 hour 30 minutes, be sure to stir occasionally. 

baked onion rings

Baked Onion Rings

• 1/2 Red Onion thickly sliced
• 2 Eggs
• 1/3 cup Milk
• 1/2 cup Flour
• 1 cup Bread Crumbs
• Oil
• Salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375°. 
2. Get small-ish mixing bowls. Put the flour in one, eggs and milk (whisked together) in another and the bread crumbs, salt and pepper in the last one. Lightly coat a baking pan with some oil. 
3. Coat the sliced onion rings in flour. Then dip in the egg and milk mixture and finally the breadcrumbs. Place in the baking pan and cook for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Flip halfway through cooking.

beets

Baked Beet and Goat Cheese "Salad"

• 3 Beets
• 3 Golden Beets
• 2 tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar
• 5 oz. Goat Cheese
• Micro Greens

1. Prepare the beets for baking (cutting off the tail and the green stuff). Preheat the oven to 350. Place the beets in a baking pan and cover with tin foil.
2. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours. Take out of oven and let cool. The beets can be prepared the evening before. 
3. Remove the skin from the beets. Slice vertically to make beet discs, which also happens to be what I call records. 
4. Stack the beets and goat cheese together and top with micro greens.

Pork burger with beet and goat cheese salad

Just because it's fall that doesn't mean you need to drench everything in pumpkin spice. Now go out there and make something delicious and avoid Starbuck's pumpkin spice latte, it causes gourding.

All photos taken by

Katy Weaver

pork burger and beet salad