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. 
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 I originally made it in the summer when my tomatoes and peppers were fresh from the garden.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. 
We 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”.
Share 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.
Rather than dwelling on the melancholy of passing time, I’m going to grab another ripe tomato and make this salad again.
As 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.)
The 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.
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However, in the middle of chopping everything, I realized I only had half the amount of celery that I needed. And then comes the struggle. I want to be true to the recipes, but there have to be some cases where substitutions are allowed. For this one, I split the difference. I went to the store and got the celery, but I did not go to Penzey’s to get cayenne pepper and used Berbere seasoning instead.
This recipe seems exotic for 1950’s Iowa, but I can see where it would be a good use for those vegetables that are still hanging on when the apples are starting to ripen.
This is a good basic chutney. Not something you’d find in an Indian restaurant. It might have a little too much celery for my taste, but it’s good. It’s that nice mix of sweet and tart and spicy that chutney should be.
