Sunday, December 27, 2009

Garlic/Green Onion Roasted Potatoes and Pork Chops

Recipe adapted from Ashleigh Bennett's FB post of "is making baked pork chops with green onions and garlic and roasted potatoes".

Home sick, not feeling well, nothing to eat. Read the above post and decided it sounded good. OMG it was very good. :)

I turned the oven on to 350, peeled and cut up (about 1 in thick) 2 potatoes, spritz them with olive oil and added sprinkled on some savory salt and pepper, through them in the oven and head to the store...


  • 2 Medium Potatoes, cubed about 1 inch thick
  • Olive Oil
  • Savory Salt
  • Pepper
  • Rosemary
  • 2 Pork Chops - about medium thickness
  • 2 Green Onions, sliced
  • 2 Clovers Garlic, sliced
  • 2 Tbs butter



Start the potatoes:
  • Set oven at 350
  • Put tinfoil on a bake pan
  • Spread potatoes evenly
  • Spray with olive oil (if you have a mister, or baste, etc.)
  • Sprinkle with Savory Salt, Rosemary and Pepper

Bake for 30 minutes and then start the pork chops:
  • Turn potatoes (they make stick) and group together, misting with some more olive oil
  • Add pork chops, sprinkle with savory salt and pepper.

Bake for 30 minutes then turn:
  • Slice garlic and onions. Do the onions in 2 batches, lower parts and upper parts.
  • Turn the potatoes again and spritz with olive oil
  • Turn the pork chops
  • Spread the garlic and the bottoms slices of green onion over the potatoes and chops

Bake for 30 minutes then turn again. At this point the chops had been cooking for an hour.
  • Turn the potatoes again.
  • Remove the garlic and onion from the chops (just push it onto the pan) and flip them.
  • Put the onions and garlic back on the top of the chops.
  • Cut a few tablespoons of butter into little chunks and sprinkle around on the potatoes.
  • Sprinkle the potatoes with the rest of the onion

Cook for another 15 minutes or so.

At this point the chops were done, the potatoes were nicely golden with a crunchy outside but tender inside and the garlic and onions were cooked into everything. I plated them and then added a tablespoon or two of sour cream to the top of the potatoes.

The green onion / garlic added a great flavor to everything; and the rosemary on the potatoes along with the sour cream really finished it off nicely. Not sure if it was just because I was sick or what, but wow - the first bite was awesome. :)

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Italian Rustic Chicken Dinner

I made the following in 25 minutes; from the first slice of the tomato until I plated it. Fast, easy and very good. This does not have too much in the way of subtle flavors - its just a great tomato, garlic, olive oil and basil flavored dish. This makes a large serving for one of a Sauteed Chicken Breast, Fresh Tomato Sauce, Sauteed Italian Vegetables and Pasta.


  • 1 Parmesan Crusted Chicken Breast, pounded to about 1/4 an inch (buy at WholeFoods or make yourself)
  • 4 Medium ripe Tomatoes, cut in half
  • 1/2 a White Onion, julienned
  • 1 small Italian Eggplant, sliced thin
  • 1 small Zucchini, sliced thin
  • 1/2 a Red Bell Pepper, julienned and cut in thirds
  • 3 cloves of Garlic
  • 5 Basil leaves, chopped
  • Kosher Salt
  • Black Pepper
  • Fresh Pasta
  • Parmesan Cheese - 1/4 cup or so



There are four separate dishes that are all cooked at the same time.
  • Preheat the oven to 325
  • Melt 1 tbs of butter in a skillet and saute the Chicken Breast on both sides, just until it is golden brown.
  • Cut the Tomatoes in half, top half and bottom half and place in a french chef pan or another skillet and start cooking on medium high heat.
  • Prep the Vegetables
  • By this time the Chicken should be done; move it to a pan and place in the oven to finish cooking
  • Add a few tablespoons of olive oil to the skillet the chicken was cooked in and start sauteing the Onion.
  • By now the Tomatoes should be starting to break down; mash a bit with a potato masher right in the pan, turn them down to medium and let them continue to cook.
  • Add the Eggplant to the skillet with the Onion and let them saute
  • Add a few pinches of salt to the Tomatoes and two or three tablespoons of olive oil.
  • Stir the Vegetables and let them saute until the onions start to caramelize. You should flip the eggplant so it cooks on both sides.
  • Smash the garlic to remove the skins and throw the broken garlic into the Tomatoes.
  • Add the zucchini and red bell pepper to the Vegetable mixture and continue to saute. Sprinkle with a teaspoon or so of kosher salt and some fresh black pepper.
  • Stir the Tomatoes and add more olive oil if needed - if too much liquid has cooked out.
  • Start a pan of boiling water for the Pasta. The pasta I had only took 1 1/2 minutes to cook. So I added it near the end.
  • Add the chopped basil to the Tomatoes.
  • Basically you are now stirring both the Tomato Sauce and the Vegetables - breaking down the tomatoes and forming a nice sauce, and sauteing the vegetables until they are done.
  • At the end (this was about 20 minutes from start); put a few spoonfuls of the tomato sauce into the Vegetables and stir them around a bit to get some tomato and garlic flavor on them.


At this point everything should be done and you just have to plate.
  • Pour the pasta into a strainer
  • Spoon a few tablespoons of sauce onto a plate
  • Place the chicken on the sauce and add some pasta next to it.
  • Spoon sauce on top of the pasta and chicken
  • Add vegetables to the plate
  • If there is any sauce left spoon some on top of the vegetables
  • Sprinkle with some Parmesan cheese and serve!