Before I get to what I have been cooking/eating this week I wanted to write a little bit about produce selection. Both for ripeness, and to fit your taste.
Every piece of fruit of vegetable that you buy in stores should at the very least be lightly inspected before being purchased. If you aren't sure what you look for in something, it is just a google search away, I bet there are even videos on youTube that you can look up that would give you information. Some produce you want to be firm, others you want to be softer, it really depends on the item. Avocados are a good example, you want them to be firm, with just a little give, but not soft, and definitely no air pockets. I like mine firm enough to hold their shape, but still soft, I also have a lot of experience in picking them out of the piles in grocery stores.
Now when it comes to cooking, I like trying different things and figuring out which type of something I like. I almost always use sweet onions, because I know that I prefer the flavor of them, and especially this time of year the most famous type of sweet onion the Vidalia onion is in season, and still has a very short season where they are available. I found this out by trying different types of onions in recipes.
Now onto the food this week, I made pork chops in the slow cooker with a bacon and onion gravy, that makes my mouth water just from thinking about it. And on the sides I made some oven roasted broccoli and cauliflower with olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper.
In my opinion, just about any good recipe starts with rendering out some bacon.
Once of the greatest things that I learned from my father is that you don't waste bacon grease, I always have a can of bacon grease for use if needed. One of the most flavorable fats available.
Onions, garlic, thyme, and red pepper flake cooking in some bacon grease.
Seasoning the pork chops before they hit the crock pot.
Pork chops nestled into the onions and garlic mixture, there is some cooked bacon in the pot too, not sure if you can see it in the picture.
Here is the pot after about 4 hours of cooking. Lots of juices have been cooked out and the onions have browned nicely.
The pork chops after they were removed from the pot and resting. Special appearance from my foot.
The delicious onion and bacon gravy!
The before shots of my cauliflower and broccoli on their pans.
After shot of the cauliflower, deliciously caramelized.
The last picture is the assembly of my lunches for the week.
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