Blue Skies, Smiling At Me

...nothing but blue skies, do I see. It's a gorgeous day! Temps in the 60s and sunshine. (That's a picture of the St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Ammonsville, TX. It's one of painted churches. The pic was taken on one of my three tours of the churches).

Ron and I went grocery shopping for my Mom this morning. And we stopped at Lowe's to pick up a plug for her vacuum cleaner cord. She broke off one of the prongs in the wall socket. Then she used a wooden spoon to get the prong out! It's a wonder she didn't get the shock of her life.

I brought her vac to my house on Thursday so that Ron could repair it. I'm so glad he's handy. He knew just what to do, and now the cord is as good as new and Mom is back in the vacuuming business.

We took her groceries and the vacuum cleaner to her, put everything away and Mom and I took Chuy for a walk. We were there for about an hour, then stopped at another Lowe's on the way home for a piece of pegboard. Ron needed it for a woodworking project he is doing for a co-worker. Got the pegboard, stopped at Subway. I wanted to try their new chicken florentine flatbread sandwich. It was pretty good.

Came home, threw a load of towels into the washer, and got online. Called Josh to invite him and the kids over for dinner this evening. Cyrise will be at work. Reece is going to spend the night, even though he has a cold and is not feeling very well. I have been using my Zicam to keep from catching their colds.

I'm making Party Bake Pork Chops for dinner--pork chops, onion, rice and tomatoes. Oh, and sweet potatoes that we got at the grocery store this morning for 10 cents a pound. Ten. Cents. I bought one for Mom and it cost 7 cents. Ron went back to get more for us. :o)

This is an oldie but a goodie recipe that I got from a Betty Crocker Cooking For Two cookbook I bought when we were first married, nearly 40 years ago.

Here's the recipe straight from the cookbook:

Party Bake Pork Chops

4 lean pork chops, 1" thick

4 thin slices onion

1/4 C uncooked rice

1 can (1 lb. 13 oz.) tomatoes

1/2 to 1 t. salt

freshly ground pepper

Trim any excess fat from chops. Season chops well on both sides with salt and pepper. Brown on both sides in lightly greased hot skillet. Top each chop with a slice of onion, 1 T. rice, and cover with whole tomatoes. Add any remaining tomatoes and juice to skillet. Season with salt. Cover tightly; simmer over low heat or bake in foil-covered baking dish in 350 degree oven 1 1/2 hours or until tender. 4 servings

And here's how I cook them:

I use more than 4 chops, and sometimes thinner than 1". After I brown the pork chops, I pour at least 1 cup of rice around the chops in the big electric skillet. It's okay if some rice is under the pork chops. It actually cooks better if it's not on top of the chops. Because you're using more rice than the recipe calls for, you'll need to add extra liquid--the tomato juice won't be enough. You can use broth, water, apple juice, cooking sherry or another can of tomatoes. 1 cup of rice needs about 2 cups of liquid to get done (the juice from the tomatoes plus enough liquid to make 2 cups). You may have to add a little more liquid during cooking. The rice on the bottom of the pan will get brown and yummy as it cooks.

The onion can be on the pork chops or underneath them. Pour your diced tomatoes (or whole ones) and liquid over everything and simmer on low. I had forgotten that the recipe says you can bake it, so you could go that way if you want.

We usually have some kind of veggie with it--peas, green beans or whatever. Today it will be the sweet potatoes.