Pork Chops

Kim was able to get an excellent deal on pork chops at the grocery store.  The pork chops were buy one, get one free.  On top of that, she bought the packages of pork chops that were on Manager's Special.  Each package had a two dollar off coupon on it.  As a result, she not only was able to get one package for free, she also received four dollars off the purchase!

She wanted to make some good pork chops, but she didn't want to fry them.  She doesn't like to fry food since it's not very healthy, and the oil tends to splatter everywhere.  She was able to find a recipe for Busy Day Pork Chops, which are baked.  The instructions were easy to follow and she had all of the ingredients!  She served the chops with rice.

The pork chops did end up being a little dry.  She cooked it for the full 11 minutes on one side, because she didn't think it looked cooked enough when it came time to flip the chops over.  She only cooked the chops for 9 minutes on the other side.  She feels that if she only cooked the chops for 9 minutes on each side, it would have been much better.  The dish was still good, and she would definitely make it again.

Catfish Parmesan

I had two pieces of catfish fillets left in the freezer which I defrosted.  I wanted to try to make something different with them, instead of simply cooking them in a little oil, garlic salt, and Grizzly Joes seasoning on the stove (which is pretty good too).

I found a recipe for Catfish Parmesan which sounded good, was baked, and used ingredients which I already had.  Most catfish recipes I found were either deep fried, and/or used cornmeal.  While I don't have any issues with cornmeal, I didn't want to buy a whole package of it just for one dish.  I'd have to go out of my way to try to find more uses for it...

The recipe said to dip the catfish in butter before putting it in the "crumb mixture".  This just sounded very unhealthy, so I put some oil on it instead and then dipped it in the crumb mixture.

The dish was pretty good.  I don't like these breadcrumbs that I was using.  It was the generic Ralphs brand.  I'm glad that I was able to finish it off.  I would consider using this recipe on chicken or some other meat.

Not My Favorite Macaroni and Cheese

I think I found this recipe when I was looking for ways to use up cottage cheese.  I only made half the recipe since I didn't want a lot of it in case I didn't like it.  There is more "other stuff/sauce" than actual pasta used in this recipe.

Mike thought the Mac and Cheese was ok.  Apparently he liked it a lot.  I thought it was terrible.  He thought the bread crumbs were a little over the top.  He claims they only put that on "fancy mac and cheese".  That's fine by me, one less step that I would have to do.  I told him that if I made this again, he would have to eat the whole thing since I really have no interest in eating it again.

I found Chuck's Favorite Mac and Cheese recipe on AllRecipes.  I don't think Chuck and I have the same taste in food because this was definitely not my favorite mac and cheese at all!

Orange Chicken

Mom gave me a number of oranges from her orange tree.  I decided to try to use those oranges to make Orange Chicken.  I then found this orange chicken recipe.

I didn't have any Panko breadcrumbs since Mike used all of it, even though he only needed half of it, for the Chicken Parmesan recipe.  I used regular breadcrumbs instead.  I also didn't have Mirin, so I didn't use any.  I also don't like Siracha sauce, so I didn't put any in there either.

The dish turned out OK.  The chicken wasn't as "crunchy" as it could have been.  This might have been because I didn't use Panko breadcrumbs.  Also, the smaller pieces of chicken turned out a little overcooked.  I would cut the chicken into larger pieces next time.

Also, the recipe said to add the cornstarch directly to the sauce that was cooking on the stove.  This caused the orange "glaze"/sauce to have lumps of cornstarch in it.  I then remembered that Mom always told me to add cornstarch to cold water and then add that to the sauce.  I put some more cornstarch to about a quarter cup of cold water and added it to the sauce.  After I did that, the sauce started thickening up.

I squeezed almost two whole oranges in order to get the amount of orange juice I needed to make half the recipe.