Monday, January 16, 2012

Kitchen Stashbusting Days 6, 7, and 8. The end.

I succeeded in getting rid of some more meat:  pork chops, chicken breasts, and ground beef.  On Saturday, we had one of my favorite "comfort food" meals - pork chops and scalloped potatoes. From scratch, the way my mother taught me.  I've tried those dehydrated-nasty-boxed scalloped potatoes, and they are just awful.  I also do not like any onion flavor in mine.  So here's how Mother says you must make these - for two people.

Pork Chops and Scalloped Potatoes

Preheat oven to 350˚.
Peel and slice 2-3 large potatoes - about 1/4" thick.
Slice your boneless pork chops about 1/2" thick.  I use ONE of the thick boneless chops you get at Costco, and I slice it into 4 pieces.
Put a layer of the potatoes in the bottom of a 3-quart baking dish (I use Corningware - the one with the glass lid). Sprinkle the potatoes with about a tablespoon of flour, some salt and pepper, and then dot with about a tablespoon of butter (cut in small pieces).
Repeat with another layer of potatoes.
Use the chops for the next layer, and finish with a layer of potatoes - each time sprinkling with flour and dotting with small pieces of butter. You should have 3 layers of potatoes with the chops underneath the top layer.
Pour in about 1/2 cup milk - you should be able to see it down in the layers of potatoes, but it shouldn't be as high as the chops. (How do I know this? Major mess in the oven from overflowing, burning milk!)
Bake, covered, for an hour and a half. I've tried it for an hour, but the potatoes don't get tender.

I used to try to eat ALL of this. But I would have potato overload, and I just don't need this any more. So we have leftover potatoes, which are wonderful fried up for breakfast the next day.

On Sunday, I tried a new chicken recipe, which I won't be sharing because it was AWFUL.  I took about 3 bites, and the rest went into the trash.  A bowl of cereal filled me up.

Tonight we had hamburgers - Don had his with a bun, and I ate mine without. I was just craving some beef.

I'm trying to decide how long I want to go with this.  What's my goal?  To use up some of the excess, I think.  But as I've been doing these posts, I'm now wondering if it's a bad thing - to have the excess.  So, I've decided to stop, and go back to just doing what I've been doing for years. This has been fun, but now it's over.

1 comment:

Holly said...

My boyfriend and I love au gratin potatoes but we always buy the box. I may have to try homemade one night.