SO. Tired.

That is me today. :smile: We had a wonderful, fun-filled weekend these past few days with my parents, my brother and a family friend at a nearby bluegrass festival. My parents go to a number of these festivals throughout California (and even a few out of state), and John and I enjoy tagging along to the closer ones when we can . The thing with bluegrass is that, well, it’s a bunch of musicians who keep, well, musician’s hours…. meaning such things as staying up till the wee hours of the morning every single night. So after a long day of sitting outside listening to all sorts of pickin‘, everyone grabs their own instruments and heads for the campground to jam until they’re falling asleep standing up.

Okay, maybe not everyone… I mean, those of us who don’t actually play a bluegrass instrument, even if we own do happen to one ourselves–AHEM–don’t go jamming. Which means that I certainly wasn’t out there for hours every night. So I really don’t have the same excuse to be So Tired as everyone else, but, hey, I just am. :grin: Being rather pregnant might have a bit to do with it, and I could add that having a toddler to keep track of would contribute to the tiredness… but that would be a little odd, considering that between the help of my husband and my mama and everyone else, I didn’t have to do a whole lot of the chasing and running and carrying over the weekend.

So, since my mind is fuzzy and not coherent enough to actually write up a logical post, I’m giving you the recipe for those lovely Apple Pork Chops, as requested by Kimi at Bushels of Apples.

The thing is, this is what my recipe card says:

Apple Pork Chops

4 chops
4 Tbsp. butter
2 red apples
3 Tbsp. packed brown sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon

1 Tbsp. butter over each chop
350–30-45

That makes a whole lotta sense, now, doesn’t it?

So here’s how I actually make these puppies. Since, you know, they always turn out so great due to my masterful cooking skills.

Now the very first thing I should tell you is that I always–unless it’s like, 6:30 and I’m just getting to dinner after a crazy day, which did actually happen one time, would you believe it??–I always sear my pork chops in a hot skillet with a little oil before I cook them. They come out much more tender and juicy for me that way… and I’m not a big fan of dried out pork chops. :smile: I also love the boneless pork loin chops for this recipe, but the regular bone-in kind work just fine as well.

I take those four seared pork chops and lay them out on a foil-lined baking sheet. (You just might want to make sure that the baking sheet has a good sized lip around it, or at least that your oven is actually level–or you could just be smart and use a 13×9 pan.) I then put about one tablespoon of butter on each chop. (Which can be, of course, very approximate.) I sprinkle some brown sugar and cinnamon on each one, then place half an apple (roughly cored) on top of it all and slide it into the oven. Real difficult, huh? The amount of time they take to cook depends on how thick the chops are, but since I have such a “thing” about not letting them get dried out (which means I’ve employed every trick I’ve seen on every cooking show about pork chops) I usually check them at around 25 minutes, and they’re usually done at around 30-35.

The best part about the whole thing is the smell when they’re cooking. You can smell that cinnamon and butter throughout the whole house.

Unless, of course, the scent you’re picking up is your butter burning on the bottom of your oven.