Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Still cooking
--Maple-Glazed Pork Chops



Maple-Glazed Pork Chops
Pillsbury Complete Cook Book Copyright 2000, 2006

Pork Chops:
4 pork chops
¼ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon coarse ground pepper

Maple Glaze:
¾ cup pure maple syrup or maple-flavored syrup (I had to use both - more fake than real)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons prepared mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1. Heat grill. Rub both sides of pork chops with salt and pepper. In small saucepan, combine all glaze ingredients; mix well. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Set aside.
2. When ready to grill, place pork chops on gas grill over medium heat or on charcoal grill 4 to 5 inches from medium coals. Cook 15 minutes, turning once.
3. Brush pork chops with glaze. Cook an additional 10 minutes or until no longer pink, turning once and brushing frequently with glaze. Bring any remaining glaze to a boil; serve with pork chops.

I used smaller boneless loin chops so my cooking time was less than described above.

Yields: 4 servings. Per serving: 370 cal, 8g fat, 50mg chol, 430 mg sodium, 54 g carbs, 20 g protein
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I had originally planned a pork chop and gravy recipe but it seemed more like a grilled pork chop kind of night. Unfortunately I didn't have enough pure maple syrup to make this and had to use mostly pancake syrup which is fine on pancakes and waffles but really an entire different animal than pure maple syrup and I'd prefer not to use it in recipes like this.

These weren't bad but the sauce lacked the oomph the would have made them really special. I really think it was the fake syrup that messed it up. It's sweeter and has a heavier maple flavor that pure maple syrup. The tang from the other ingredients would have shone through a bit more with the real deal.

Yeah, I'm still cooking. I opted to skip the gym last night instead. I'm really looking forward to my vacation from the gym.

I'm still nervous too. If you have a positive (i.e. nontraumatic) birth story to share with me, I'd love to hear it.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

It look's to good to be through I am definitely going to try this

Unknown said...

You're going to do GREAT! The gym will turn around to be your friend when you have this baby...I promise!

M Smith said...

Honestly, I thought my labor and delivery were pretty good. So much so, that I managed to do it without drugs. No kidding. I remembered the advice of my birth class that said, "Try to labor at home as long as possible because there is nothing worse than arriving at the hospital and finding out that you haven't even hit 5cm and can't be admitted."

Well, after about 3 hours of active labor, we headed out and imagine my surprise when they told me I was at 8.5 cm! I thought, "Hey, I'm in transition! And it can't get any worse than this, right?"

So, there you have it! I finally realized that the contractions I was having was not the braxton hicks variety at about 4pm, we left for the birth center at 8pm and my son was born at 10:35pm.

Good luck on your Labor and Delivery!!!

Heather said...

Still cookin' Paula. I love that you still keep the blog going probably right up until the baby is born, oh the dedication you have!!
I am kidless so I don't have a story, but the chops looks good.

Anonymous said...

Well I just had my little man on june 3rd and it was the easiest delivery by far (#3). I started contractions about 2 in the afternoon but the were about an hour apart so they didn't really bother me, I even got supper cooked and dishes done! About 11:30 they got to be about 10 to 15 minutes apart so we called my mom to come over. I still waited until they were between 7 and 5 minutes apart which was around 1 am to call the hospital. They said to come on in. We got there around 1:30am and I was dialated to 5. Too late for any drugs but it went really quick and he was born at 2:20am. They were actually telling me to hold on and wait because the doctor wasn't there yet. But the pain wasn't as bad as I thought it would have been without any drugs. I hope you have a fast and complication free delivery! :)

Anonymous said...

My experience with #2 (41 yrs. ago) was a lot like Tracy's. Things really speeded up when I got to the hospital. While they were getting me prepped (didn't get to finish, by the way) rushed me into the delivery room. The doc wasn't there yet and I just knew the nurses would have to do the delivery. As he rushed in, I was barking orders to "hurry".

This was the easiest time for DH...the nurse came out to the waiting room and he thought they would tell him he could go to the labor room to be with me. Instead, they said "It's a beautiful girl."

My "baby" has had two very difficult deliveries of my DGDs and never fails to mention begrudingly that "all you had to do was cough and out I came." LOL!

P.S. #1 was a pretty normal delivery other than I stopped contractions and delayed everything for an hour or so.

Jan

Anonymous said...

I forgot to mention one thing I thought was noteworthy. When all was over, I still had on my makeup, lipstick and all. :)

Jan