Cooking with Eowyn

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Well, fun as that feminism post was, how about something yummy and non-controversial? lol

I don't know why I decided to make pork chops. I hardly ever eat meat anymore, but I had them in the freezer and figured I ought to do something with them. I saw this marinade recipe on cooking, but I didn't write down who posted it. I'm pretty sure it was a family recipe or something.

Pork Chop Marinade

1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup cider vinegar
4 1/2 oz soy sauce
4 TB dark brown sugar
2 tsp dry mustard
1 TB oregano
1 TB thyme
2 tsp garlic

Mix it all together and let the pork marinate for around 24 hours, turning to cover it all every 2-4 hours. The recipe is for about 12 pork chops, so I ended up cutting it way down. I also didn't have any dry mustard, so I used regular mustard instead (1 tsp dry mustard = 1 TB prepared mustard, I looked it up!). I baked the pork chops in the oven, but you can cook them any way you like. The marinade was really tasty, tangy and sweet. I ended up freezing the leftovers, since I didn't want to eat meat too many days in a row. Hopefully it'll still taste good later!

Now that broccoli is an "only for special occasions" food, asparagus has become my new go-to green vegetable. I also, on a whim, bought goat cheese at the supermarket (they had free samples! Wave something in front of me and I will buy it!) and so I decided to make this Creamy Fettuccine with Asparagus recipe from my cookbook. It was pretty yummers. One thing I will say, though, is that one cup of pasta water was too much - I ended up draining it out because it was so soupy (and then of course I had to add more cheese and mustard because I'd drained most of that with the water).

Another thing I've really been wanting to try is risotto. I actually bought arborio rice a while ago, but didn't have any specific ideas to use it. On a whim (are you starting to see how I shop? lol) I'd bought some scallops and I decided they might go well together. Here's the recipe for the risotto, which was on the back of the rice container:

1 cup uncooked rice
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
salt and pepper

1. Saute onion in oil and butter for 3 minutes.
2. Add rice, stirring for about 2 minutes.
3. Stir in 1 cup of broth. Continue cooking and stirring until liquid is absorbed.
4. Gradually stir in remaining broth 1 cup at a time, cooking and stirring until liquid is absorbed before adding the next cup.

Yields approximately 3 cups cooked rice.

Since this was all rather spur of the moment, I didn't have any onion, so I just threw the rice in with the butter and oil and went from there. Also, probably the ideal would've been to use fish stock with scallops, but since I didn't have any, I used half chicken and half beef stock (apparently, now that I don't really eat beef anymore, I can make do with beef-flavored rice, lol). I sauteed the scallops like I usually do, then deglazed the pan with a splash of white wine and added both scallops and wine to the risotto when it was just about done cooking. Mmmmm yummy in my tummy. Maybe next time, if I actually plan ahead, I might do something more adventurous with the risotto.

And right now, I am eating ciabatta bread with leftover goat cheese, topped with a sliced pear and walnuts and toasted in the toaster oven. Mmmmm!