Breaded Anything Says Southern

Breaded Pork Chops (Memaw's)

4 pork chops

1/2 cup flour

Salt and pepper

1/2 cup shortening or oil

Salt and pepper chops and dredge in flour.

Heat shortening in large frying pan until medium hot. Place pork chops in hot fat. Fry on rach side until golden brown and meat is no longer pink. Remove chops from skillet and drain on paper towel. Pour excess shortening from skillet. Make a white gravy to serve with chops.

White Gravy:

3 tablespoons drippings from pan

3 tablespoons flour

Salt and pepper

1/2 cup milk

1 cup water

Brown flour in drippings in skillet. Salt and pepper to taste. Gradually add milk and water until desired consistency. Use more milk if necessary. Sprinkle with fresh ground pepper.

That was the last pork recipe in my cookbook from Memaw. I see chicken, dirty rice, and liver and onions left in the main dishes section.

If someone has a special request for a recipe that is not included in this cookbook, please let me know so that I can get it from Memaw.

Don't forget the family fish fry at MOUF's this Sunday. Still no challenges on the caramel icing cake? Maybe I will do something else. My Saturday may be too busy for messing with icing.

Quiet, but not a lazy day here today.

The dirt movers had a day of rest, and we had a day of quietness. But we did not rest. My hub and I added new soil to three of our veggie beds, added peat moss, and he tilled them so that they are ready for this season.

I know, you think I am late. We have been eating asparagus, lettuce, Swiss chard, and curly kale. Onions and artichokes are ready, and a tomato that just came up in the front flower bed is flowering and growing well. So now to add some seeds to the three new and improved beds and watch them grow.

We will be back to the noise again early tomorrow, so I will save that early wakeup to add more recipes from Memaw. We are approaching the chicken recipes, so stay tuned.

My hub took this photo of Flip this afternoon. We have a hardhat that will fit him, but he will have nothing to do with it. Funny!

Fort Pork?

My first year of teaching English was in 1970 at a predominantly black school in my hometown. I met the most wonderful 7 th graders, and one of them was "Pork Chop." Sorry to say that I don't have a clue as to what was his real name. Unlike many teachers, I threw away my grade books after a couple of years. I am better at decluttering than I realize, I guess.

"Pork Chop" was a happy fellow who indeed had eaten too many pork chops. Wonder when he got that nickname? But the rest of his story is that he had been born at Fort Polk near Leesville, Louisiana. When we were filling out some forms for his class, he always wrote that his birthplace was Fort Pork (no typo intended).

Bet he would have enjoyed Memaw's next Just Plain Cooking pork dish:

Skillet Pork Chops (Memaw's)

4 pork chops

1 onion (cut in 4 slices)

1 bell pepper (cut in 4 pieces)

4 tablespoons uncooked rice

1 can whole tomatoes

Salt and pepper

Salt and pepper chops. Brown chops in heavy skillet.

Top each chop with 1 tablespoon rice, 1 slice onion, and 1 piece bell pepper. Pour can of tomatoes over the pork chop mixture. Cover skillet and cook over low heat until pork chops are tender and rice is cooked about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Serves 4.

Our Pond Story Continues

5:00 am--lights on the pond. Are you kidding me? In the dark? We don't get sunlight here until after 6:00 am!

Our levee to our pond is being reconstructed and moved before the break of dawn. Will wonders never cease? Actually this is day three of a possible twelve day process. The color change has gone from breathtaking lush green to dull brown to reddish brown to muddy muddy and now the reverse. Except there won't be green grass on top of the new levee until someone plants it. Hope no one is counting on me. I have enough problem with my flowers and veggies.

Back and forth. Back and forth. Since 5:00 am this morning all I have heard and later seen is the steady movement of two John Deere tractors pulling dirt movers back and forth . First scraping off the old levee and then depositing onto the new one next to it. What senseless work in a world where too many people are starving! I could write more, but what the use?

The Other White Meat

We are not chicken eaters ( except for the once in a blue moon, awful for your health fried chicken from The Market Basket-- we like better than Popeye's ). An occasional egg or two is as close as we get to real poultry. Why? I don't know. We just don't like chicken. Just like you may not like sauerkraut, and we love it. Had it last night cooked on top of country style pork ribs. Yummy! Think there are leftovers for tonight, too.

Needless to say, we are pork eaters. So the following recipe from Just Plain Cooking by Memaw is a hit around here:

Pork Roast ( Memaw's)

1 4 pound Boston Butt roast

1 large clove garlic

Salt and pepper

Pierce holes in the roast with the tip of a sharp knife blade and insert slivers of garlic in the holes made with the knife. Rub salt and pepper all over the meat.

Heat a Dutch oven until hot. Place roast in Dutch oven and brown on all sides. Turn heat to low under the pan. Cover with lid and cook until roast is done, or it is no longer pink inside. Turn meat several times so it will cook evenly. Remove meat from pan. Pour off most of fat. Make gravy with the remaining juices.

To make gravy:

Thicken the juice with flour (about 2 tablespoons). Brown flour. Add water --about a cup more or less-- for desired thickness of gravy. Stir with a fork for smoothness. Cook until desired thickness. Add more water if necessary. You need no more salt, as juices will be salty.

Another Video/foto of Narrowboating

When I figure out how to include the really good video of me (orange Michelin woman) helping with the locks, I will do it. Until then, this is the best that I can do.

Two Years Ago This Week

Two years ago we were invited to attend our Dutch nephew's wedding in Nottingham, England. As we are definite travelers, we looked for something else to do or see while in that beautiful country of my forefathers (not my hubs!).

We had both been interested in trying a narrowboat journey somewhere, and the canals near Nottingham and in the Pottery District seemed the best choice. So after the lovely British wedding, my husband and I, along with our adult son, began our excursion in a narrowboat.

It was like living in an RV floating down the canal. We had all the luxuries of an RV. Each evening we stopped and tied up along the banks for the night. Most evenings we were near enough to a small village for a meal at a pub.Our other meals were lovingly prepared by moi in our complete kitchen. Of course we had tried to stock up on provisions beforehand at the nearest British Walmart.

Thank goodness we had our son along with us, since the 90+ locks in less than a week would have never been accomplished by the two of us! Our trip was just as our son described it: It was good to do it and good to be finished with it.

Hope this video gives you an idea of our trip.