Stuffed Pork Chops

I made this for dinner one night when it was still summerish out, and have been meaning to blog about it for ohh, the past five weeks? I had a couple of those succulent, super-thick pork chops, ringed with a big strip of tasty fat sitting around. They were begging to be split and filled with some type of buttery, herbed breading, popped in the oven and cooked til golden brown with the juices running out, and the porkfat all crisp and crackly... and umm... oh, excuse me for a moment while I wipe away the drool.

So I found an interesting-sounding recipe that involved pork, breading, peppers, and a can of tomato sauce among other things... and then I proceeded to create a dish that included none of these ingredients. I'm famous for Googling recipes and then not following them. What can I say? Sometimes you just want a little inspiration or at the very least, to sneak a peek at portion sizes. I've been known to take the scientific approach: "Oh, so I need about 2 cups of a liquid, something salty, something tangy, something savory..." Once I made an Asian sauce for tilapia that had (swear to God) a secret Tootsie Roll melted in for the sweetness factor.

So, my pork chop stuffing was prepared with cubed bread, a small pat of butter and some olive oil, onion, celery, fresh sage and parsley from the herb garden, golden delicious apple, allspice, salt and pepper, and a handful of raisins.

What you do is chop that all up and sautee it in a pan with the butter and olive oil. Herbs go last - in fact, I'm not even sure if I put these in the pan at all - maybe I just mixed them in the bowl afterward? No matter. Stuff the pork chops with this aromatic mixture, arrange in a baking pan, pour apple juice over the top to half-fill the pan and cook at 350 until they seem done. (I'm terrible at this - I have no idea how long I cook things for. I just do the fork-test.)

This was probably one of the best dinners we've had in the last month. That, and the Indian feast I just whipped up on a whim tonight. But you won't get to hear about that until at least mid-November! :)

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