I always try to eat delicious food. Unfortunately I don't have that much money, so I have to cook a lot of it at home. But thats OK because I love cooking and I love eating at home with my wife. This is a website with my favorite recipes and a little bit of commentary.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Porkchops Mit Kraut

Tonight we had one of Elvis' favorites - Porkchops with Sauerkraut. It was delicious. Babies don't much like sauerkraut though, so she mostly at applesauce and maybe like 1 bite of hashbrown casserole. When we were cleaning up she saw me sneaking applesauce out of the jar and begged for some. I quick did some slight of hand (the hand is quicker than the baby's eye) and gave her a spoonful of sauerkraut. She got a real sauer look on her face and acted like she was going to bawl. The wife came to the rescue and let her spit it out into a napkin. I guess it is an acquired taste. So that she would trust me in the future I followed up with several healthy spoons of applesauce.

Porkchops Mit Kraut


3 pork chops
a healthy amount of kraut
1 beer
about 1/3 cup applesauce
a real good squirt of Dijon style mustard
salt and pepper for the chops

Apply salt and pepper to the chops, then fry them until they are well fried on each side. I used a cast iron skillet and a little oil. Meanwhile combine the rest of the ingredients in a big pot like a Dutch oven. When chops are done browning toss them in the Dutch oven with the rest of the ingredients. Cook, covered, on the stove on a low simmer until the chops are fall-apart soft.

Hashbrown Casserole

1 can cream of chicken soup
3 T melted butter
1 t salt
½ t black pepper
½ c diced onion
2 c grated colby
2 pounds thawed hash browns

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9X13 pan. Mix everything together and bake uncovered for 35 minutes.

It makes a pretty sizeable amount of casserole but it cooks down. For 2 people you might want to cut the recipe in 1/4.



In other news I finally got around to trying Dave's Insanity Sauce.



Its pretty hot. I used to grow a kind of pepper called the Caribbean Red Hot.



Those were HOT peppers. I used to make a sauce out of it called "Asses of Fire." I used to draw a burning buttocks on every jar. Dave's Insanity Sauce is as hot as the sauce I used to make. One drop is enough to make you sweat and burn. Keep in mind, I practically drink Tobasco and Louisiana Hot sauce. I consider those to be very mild. Dave's Insanity Sauce is on a whole different level. Its hotter because in addition to using very hot peppers they add hot pepper extract. A drop of that on the tongue is like being hit by pepper spray. Pleasant to me, but fear factor to most. I used to pickle the Red Hots to eat whole. That is until I tried one. I tricked my friend into eating one and he was instantly on the ground sweating, nose running, hiccupping, and eyes leaking. I fealt real bad so I popped one down thinking - no big deal. WRONG! The exact same thing happened to me. At first you think, that isn't so bad. Then it keeps getting hotter and hotter and finally your nose runs and you break into a sweat and your eyes start watering. Then it hits your stomach and you start hiccuping. Dave's Insanity Sauce isn't that bad but it is about 1/3 of that. Its still edible but only for the seasoned chili eater.