Monday, July 19, 2010

20 Minute Cooking

I love hearing my daddy talk about all the cooking and baking my grandma did. Noodles from scratch, spread out all over the kitchen, fried chicken, and of course baked goods. Meals that took all day to make! I know my granny did that as well, always having something yummy to eat. I've gotta say... it sounds like a dream to be able to spend all day cooking stuff. But realistically I don't get home until 5 and some days head immediately to the bathroom to shower off swimming pool loveliness and sweat from the zoo. So big fancy meals don't happen quite as much as I wish they did. When they do, poor Blake has to wait until 8 or later to eat! And then we have tuns of dishes to do! And as much as I hate having to cook quick and easy meals, they are what's practical in my life! So I thought I'd share tonight's meal with you. It's a pretty standard meal and has many different variations.


The butcher didn't have the usual small pork chops I like to buy so I had some massive chops to work with. My daddy always taught me to cut up chicken breasts in order to cook it quicker so I applied the same principle to the chops. This is about the easiest way to cook meat folks. Heat olive oil on a pan (med-high), season meat, and sear. It cooks super fast, if you cover it even faster. I grew up eating meat cooked like this and it's one of the first things I ever learned to cook. Simple, easy, fast, and yummy. My favorite part is that I can feel like a fancy chef... looking through my spices getting creative as I want. You can add sauces or anything you want it's pretty hard to mess this up.


Blake and I have recently gotten into asparagus thanks to my aunt and uncle. They cook it in the oven with some olive oil and salt. I wanted to warm up some rolls so I thought I could just do it on a pan on the stove. It was very easy. Wash what we wanted, heated olive oil on the pan then threw them in along with salt and pepper. Stirred them around until they were bright green.


And sometimes I do things this easy. Sticking a bag in the microwave... don't even open it. That's so easy it's not even funny. I love using fresh veggies, but when I don't I use frozen. These steamer bags are amazing. Now, please don't judge any spots you see in my microwave. You see it's way above my head and I have to pull out the step ladder to even see the bottom. So it's not cleaned that often I'll admit.

Now because I felt like it I added a couple tablespoons of butter and sugar along with salt and pepper. Judge me if you want, I couldn't resist it though. It's kinda like when I have a bowl of Wheaties I have to add a bit of sugar... it's the same kinda crave. It's just SO good.

Served this with some Sister Shubert dinner rolls. I buy the kind in the bag so I can pull out what I need. Tonight I brushed on some herb oil and sprinkled some sesame seeds on them. They were done in about 7 min. And of course they are amazing.

This meal was a super fast meal to cook... like I'm pretty sure it only took 20 min. So this is the kinda stuff I make more often than that other stuff that takes more time. And it's kinda healthier so I don't feel as bad when I make that other stuff :) haha. There is always time to make supper if you have some staples around. It's an important part of the day and I always look forward to it!


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