Pork Chops and Rice

Pork Chops and Rice

Sickness has invaded our house.  It came in with a slight wheeze that turned into a cough.  A slight sniffle, a small sneeze.  The weather is going to turn again, maybe for real this time?  We want to be outside absorbing the last little bits of vitamin D, finishing up the yard work that we wanted to get done before it got too cold.  Instead we are just doing small bits of things in between dealing with assorted viruses.  We could all use some comfort food.  DSCN2402

I pulled this recipe out from the archives.  I originally made it in the summer when my tomatoes and peppers were fresh from the garden.  There is nothing quite like summer tomatoes.  The woodchuck that lives under our garage agrees.  Tiko has an entrance to his den in the garden.  We put a fence around the garden hoping to keep rabbits and assorted other animals out, but there is no stopping a woodchuck.  The garden had been a dog kennel.  Apparently even though I can still smell dog in the area, it doesn’t bother Tiko.

 

Tiko also likes apples and will sit up and eat an apple just like a human.

At some point this summer, we realized that Tiko also has a girlfriend.  We named her Tika.  I have these images of Tiko and Tika hanging out and Tika saying things like “I don’t like that wall there.  I want more of an open concept.” and Tiko obligingly digs another hole.  “You know, our living space is just not big enough, we need a bonus room.”  Tiko sighs and gets back to work.  DSCN2600We need to relocate Tiko and Tika before we have a bunch of little Tikis running around our yard digging up holes that I will probably break my ankle in.

 

When you make these pork chops, make sure the pan is covered tightly when you put it in the oven.  The steam from all the juice and liquid will cook the rice.  If for some reason, you are nervous about the rice not cooking all the way, just put it on the bottom of the pan to absorb all the yumminess from the pork and veggies.

 

 

This dish is so basic and easy that you’ll be able to think of a thousand ways to change it up to fit whatever you are craving.  If summer veggies are no longer available, think about using fall fruits with the onion.  In the dead of winter, you can use some mushrooms and greens.  Hate pork?  Use chicken breast.  Have 6 people coming for dinner?  Slice another onion and another tomato.  Serving just you?  You can still make this.  It beats anything from the cookbook “Microwave Cooking For One”.

 

DSCN2409Share this recipe with your kids.  Have them make it.  This is the sort of food that you want them to be able to cook so that you don’t have to worry when they are on their own.

 

Pork Chops and Rice

Chuck Wagon Casserole

Chuckwagon Casserole

 

With these old recipes, however, there are occasions where the recipe is just non-specific enough that it allows for me to interpret something in a slightly different way.  Sometimes this is as easy as in the Apple Marmalade where I chose to use blood oranges instead of a regular seeded orange.  Sometimes it requires switching out types of mustard.

A lot of recipes call for the addition of prepared mustard.  I am sure that the original intention was to use basic yellow mustard.  That’s boring.

Not only do we have a friend that has a mustard fridge and has done mustard judging, but when we went to the Mustard Festival at the Mustard Museum the kids won 8 bottles of mustard from Koop’s and French’s.  Not one of those mustard’s was plain yellow.  However, in this recipe, because of the title, we had no mustard more appropriate to use than Giddy Up mustard.  I mean, right?  It fits the theme.DSCN2678As long as we are going there, let’s get a good picture of this recipe.  Imagine you are a cowboy.  You have been driving cows down the range.  You are hot, you are tired and dusty.  The sun is now setting, the cows are lowing as they eat sweet meadow grass.  You may hear the trickle of a stream.  If you weren’t bow-legged, your chaps would swish softly as you walked.  Instead, you hear a small jangle of your spurs and the wail of a harmonica as you walk to the chuck wagon.  Your tin plate is in your hand and old Cooky glops something onto it.  More than likely it’s a lot like this dish.  (Ok, probably not, I think I heard stories about the amount of beans that were eaten, but just go with it for the sake of the story.)

This rice-based casserole sort of reminds me of something like chili.  The molasses provides a deep richness.  I chopped the olives up super fine because at least one of the kids still claims to hate them and they’ve never been my husband’s favorite, but the girl and I like them.  I added some water to cook the rice all the way through.  If the lid to my Dutch oven wasn’t missing, I might’ve had slightly better luck.  I may just have to break down and buy a new one some day, however, I’m not quite ready for that kind of upgrade yet.  DSCN2680The best thing about casseroles is that they are infinitely adaptable.  We might’ve added some chipotle powder to ours.  We might’ve added some ancho pepper to it.  There is a possibility that we put some cheese in it. Maybe we added some french fried onions on top and served it with optional sour cream…For all of the additions that we made, the best choice was the addition of something more than plain yellow mustard.

The Recipe:

Chuck Wagon CasseroleIf you like this recipe, check out Sausage Bean CasseroleEasy Beef and Noodle Skillet, and Stroganoff Burgers.

Pinnable Chuck Wagon Casserole Image