Sweet Harvest Pork Chops

Autumn has come and gone (all too quickly, in my opinion - but that's the way Utah weather goes every year!), but I'm still making dinners that have the Fall flavor to them.  I actually made this one up.  Yep, an original from yours truly (one of the very few)!  I tried my hand at whipping something up in the slow cooker for a big contest...that I did not even come close to winning.  But when you taste this, I'm sure you'll be wondering why in the world not - just as I was.  I tease.  Sort of.  Anyway, I tried it out with a pot roast as well, but the chops were our fave.  And I learned, while in my very own test kitchen, that I highly favor white sweet potatoes over the regular orange-y sweet potatoes/yams that I see much more often.  Hands down, the white get my vote.

Anyway, don't wait until next Fall to make this one.  It's a delight all year-round.

Sweet Harvest Pork Chops

A Get in the Kitch Original

Ingredients

2 sweet apples, cored & sliced (I used gala and Fuji)

2 white sweet potatoes, cut into large cubes

4 pork chops, I used bone-in

1 14-oz can low-sodium chicken broth

2/3 c. apple cider

1/3 c. brown sugar

Directions

Combine all ingredients in the crock pot.

Cook on low for 6-8 hours, or high 3-4 hours.

Serve with a green salad.

Creamy, Crunchy Apple Dip

If chocolate or cheese were food groups, one of those would probably be my favorite...or maybe even tie for my very favorite food group.  But since neither of those gets it's own category, I choose fruit as my favorite food group.  You can eat it on your cereal/oatmeal/toast/yogurt/waffles/pancakes for breakfast, as a snack, on the side of your lunch & dinner, mixed in with your salad for lunch or dinner, and with a little sugar for dessert - fruit is the jack-of-all-meals.  And I love fruit for that reason.  But you want to know something else I love about fruit?  You can pair it with something completely unhealthy and not feel quite as guilty as you normally would eating that unhealthy thing.  A perfect example of that situation is the apple dip I'm sharing with you today.  It's absolutely divine, and definitely one of those things you could find yourself licking the bowl clean after finishing it off.  Cheese.  Brown Sugar.  Heath bar.  It's literally that simple.  Don't forget the apples, though, or you're in for a major guilt trip.

Creamy, Crunchy Apple Dip

Something I picked up somewhere...I just don't remember!

Ingredients

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 c. light brown sugar

1/2 - 3/4 c. heath bar bits

Directions

Combine all 3 ingredients in a bowl & mix well, until the sugar is well-incorporated and not a grainy texture.  Serve with Granny Smith apples, or other fruit of your choice (also very good with bananas!)

Tuscan Bean Soup & "cool kid" Cran-Apple Crisps

I ripped this recipe out of a magazine a long, long, long time ago. Okay, it wasn't like ten years ago, but it was at least one year ago. It was back in the good old days of Dick and I scraping every single penny we could to get by - I was taking 21 credits worth of classes while working two seriously part-time and crappy paying internships, and Dick was also a full-time student and working to the death at Real Estate right when all the stinky you-know-what was hitting the big fat economy fan. Anyway, I was just browsing through a very old Better Homes and Gardens at the plasma donation center (holler, BioLife Plasma! hahaha), and I ripped the page out with this very recipe on it and shoved it in my purse, which eventually made it into my recipe binder. What a journey! I'm so glad it came all this way - it was delicious!!! And quite appealing to the eye, if I do say so myself. You can even see the steam coming up! It's a healthy & perfect for cold weather - which is now officially upon us. Hope you like!

Tuscan Bean Soup

From Better Homes and Gardens Magazine

Ingredients

1 c. packaged peeled baby carrots, coarsely chopped

1 small onion, chopped

3 Tbsp. olive oil

2 15 oz. cans cannellini beans, rinsed & drained

1 32 oz. box reduced sodium chicken broth

2-3 tsp dried Italian seasoning, crushed

1 5 oz. pkg. baby spinach

freshly cracked pepper

cracker bread

Directions

1. In 4-qt dutch oven cook & stir carrots and onion in 1 Tbsp oil over med-high heat for 3 minutes. add beans, broth & seasoning. bring to boiling; slightly mash beans. reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. meanwhile, in large skillet heat remaining oil over med-high heat. add spinach; toss with tongs 1-2 minutes, just until wilted. remove from heat. ladle soup; top w/ spinach, sprinkle with pepper. serve w/ cracker bread.

Finally in the Club!!!

I learned about the Tuesdays with Dorie cooking/blog club about a year ago from a couple of the other cooking blogs that I follow, and I thought it was super cool. At first I was intimidated because the things these cool club kids were making were pretty out of my league & pretty fancy shmancy, but my courage has grown over time, and I asked for the book (Baking From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan) for my birthday this year. One of my BFF's, RJ, gave it to me, and that very night I came home to send my official email to get in. For a little while I thought for sure they didn't think I was cool enough for the club because it took a little while (honestly, it seemed like forever because I was so excited!) for the response to come. But as of this week, it's official....drumroll, please....I'm in!!! I'm now one of the super cool Tuesdays With Dorie bloggers/bakers! This is not the first recipe I've made from the book, but the first one I'm blogging, so here it goes:
These crisps were delicious! I invited my family over for dessert for the very occasion of making my first TWD recipe that I'd be blogging, and they were a hit all around. It was the first time I've ever made anything with fresh cranberries, and let me just tell you that the end product is to die for, but the raw uncooked berries are not my fave. I have the eat-as-you-cook habit, so I tasted them as I was putting the crisps together, and let's just say I'll never do that again. hahaha

Cran-Apple Crisps

Baking From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan

~Adam's Apple Mashed Potatoes~

So, I was looking at the "recipe of the day" that I was emailed from my favorite Food Network.com, and it looked too simple and delicious not to try. I've definitely never had apples in my mashed potatoes before, so this was a first. To tell you the truth, I've also never made my mashed potatoes from scratch before, so the whole thing was a first for me! hahaha embarrassing, but true. Dick was a little hesitant, about the whole thing...especially when I told him the recipe was from Guy Fieri (he comes across a little nutso on TV, don't you think?!), but he loved them, and so did I. We had them on the side of some chili-crusted salmon I found at on one of my fave cooking blogs: Gourmified, and we looooooved that, too! I highly recommend both recipes. The only thing I'd change about the potatoes is to add more garlic, or mince it up or something, because that flavor just wasn't strong enough for me. Here's to you, Guy - I'm now much more confident that there is method to your madness...but still a little nervous about your hair lol.

Adam's Apple Mashed Potatoes

From Guy Fieri of the Food Network

Ingredients

3 1/2 lbs baby yukon gold potatoes, halved

kosher salt

8-10 cloves garlic

black pepper

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 c. half and half

3 Tbsp butter

2 Granny Smith apples, cored & diced

Directions

preheat oven to 350. put potatoes in large pot & cover 1 inch w/ cold water. bring water to boil over high heat, add salt, and cook about 20 minutes until tender.

meanwhile, create boat shape w/ tin foil & add garlic cloves. season w/ salt & pepper, drizzle w/ oil. seal foil & roast about 30 minutes until nicely caramelized. heat half & half in small saucepan over low heat until hot.

drain potatoes & put back into pot. heat from pot will continue to dry out potatoes. add half & half, butter, and roasted garlic & mash. fold in apples & season to taste.

Butternut Apple Soup

So, quite some time ago (it was seriously probably six months or so ago) I was with the fam at my grandparents' house, and I was flipping through a cookbook. My grandma is a diabetic, so it was a book of recipes specifically for a diabetic diet. Anyway, I saw this soup and really wanted to try it, so I wrote the recipe on a post-it, and six months later, here it is! The only thing I didn't do was top it with the Swiss cheese because we didn't have any, but I think that would've only made it even better! I'll definitely do that next time. We really liked it, but I definitely should have halved the recipe - we had it for dinner, lunch the next two days, and there are still leftovers in the fridge! hahaha It was delicious and super easy to make, and I always love anything I can put in the crock pot. I also love how festive it is for Fall! Don't you?!

Butternut Apple Squash

From The Diabetes Comfort Food Cookbook

Ingredients

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 onions, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp dried rosemary

1/2 tsp cracked black peppercorn

5 c. vegetable or chicken broth

1 butternut squash, ~2.5 lbs, peeled & chopped

2 tart apples (granny smith), coarsely chopped

1 c. shredded Swiss cheese

1/2 c. chopped walnuts


Directions

in a large skillet, heat oil over med-high heat for about 30 seconds. add onions, and cook about 3 minutes to soften. add garlic, rosemary & peppercorns. cook about 1 minute, then transfer to slow cooker. add broth, then stir in squash and apples. cover and cook on low 6-8 hrs, or high 3-4 hrs, or until squash is tender. preheat broiler. working in batches, puree soup in blender. ladle soup into oven-proof bowls, sprinkle with cheese & broil until melted, ~2 minutes. Sprinkle with walnuts.