Take a Picture: Pork Chops with Apples

Today is the official launch date of my new food blog, although you wouldn't know it by looking at the posts. I figured it would be nice to start out with a small catalog of recipes so for the last week or so I've been pulling material from my other blog, "Here's the Thing", doing some edits, loading and giving the posts their original time stamps. There is more to come but I'm satisfied with the foundation.

On Wednesday, suffering from what amounts to a minor disappointment, but seemed major at the time, I had a long conversation with my bestie, JP. He helped me decided on a blog title, something I'd been over-thinking for days. Then we started talking about a visual concept, as he'd already agreed to make a banner for me. A picture sprang into my head but unfortunately, I am unable to draw anything but mice. So I decided to email my very creative friend, The Hat, told her the vision and begged her to make it happen.

Yesterday was a big day.

The Hat and I talked and about 15 minutes later she emailed me some art. I was back on the phone with her before the ink dried, so to speak, to tell her how utterly perfect it was. It was even better than what I was thinking and trust me, I was thinking something pretty great. A couple of minor changes and voila! there was my perfect little dishy lady (who I plan to name), all ready for her debut.

The art was immediately emailed to JP, who'd nonchalantly figured he'd putter with the banner over the weekend. But once he saw the dishy little gal he couldn't wait to get started.

Last night, as I began preparing dinner, he and I were on the phone, discussing the merits of various type faces, tweaking colors, fussing with the side bar. It's been long established that he and I share a brain, so this was a very delightful process. I mentioned that it seemed appropriate that we were puttering with my food blog while I was cooking.

"Take a picture," he said. (He's quite insistent that all the recipes include pictures so that he will be able to tell if he cooked a dish correctly. And besides, who doesn't love pictures of food?)

By the time the family sat down to table, I knew that this blog would launch a lot sooner than expected. It was time to get the dishy little woman out into Blogopia. It was all very exciting. But I had to wait until today. First, I had to eat my pork chops.

Pork Chops with Apples

For the chops:
4 boneless, center-cut, pork loin chops, patted dry
1 T. fresh thyme leaves
1/3 c. dry white wine
2 t. balsamic vinegar
1 t. unsalted butter
salt & pepper
olive oil for cooking

For the apples:
3 firm apples, cored and sliced
1 c. brown sugar
2 T. unsalted butter

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Lightly season the chops with salt and pepper and cook a couple minutes, turning to brown both sides.

Deglaze the pan with the wine, stirring to bring up the browned bits. Sprinkle chops with thyme leaves and balsamic vinegar. Cover skillet and reduce heat to medium. Don't let the sauce boil away.

While pork chops are cooking, melt 2 T. butter in another skillet.

Put brown sugar on a plate and press both sides of the apple slices into the sugar. Place apples in melted butter and cook on medium high heat, turning after about 3 minutes. Cook the apples another 2-3 minutes, just so they get a little brown, and remove to a platter.

Arrange pork on platter with the apples. Scrape the butter-sugar sauce from the apple skillet into the pork juices, stirring to combine and finish the sauce with one teaspoon of butter. Pour sauce over the pork and serve.