Clean Out The Fridge Dinner

Let's face it, we all have those nights. It's been a busy day running errands, driving around, laundry, cleaning, working in the yard. Now the dinner hour is looming ahead and you find yourself hungry so you head into the kitchen hoping for inspiration. Opening the fridge reveals the weirdest combination of things ever. A couple butterflied boneless pork loin chops. Half a package of baby spinach leftover from making salads. A small handful of garlic cloves and a small onion that needs to be used up. The cupboard is nearly as uninspired. Some spices, half a can of bread crumbs, a little parmesan cheese.

While that may not sound as inspiring as just calling for takeout, you actually have the makings for a pretty delicious and fairly quick to fix dinner. Want to know more? Keep reading to the easiest no-recipe meal ever.

The butterflied pork chops are just begging to be stuffed with something delicious. I grabbed a small handful of garlic cloves- I used 5, but use garlic to taste. Chop it up real small. You can use already minced garlic from a jar if you have it, or even garlic powder. Chop up about 1/4 cup onion too. Mince it up nice and small. Melt a little butter in a skillet and add the onion and garlic, season with salt and pepper. Cook slowly for 5 or so minutes until softened.

While that's going grab that half a package of baby spinach and chop it up coarsely. A couple good sized handfuls is all you need. Throw that in the skillet too and saute for a few minutes until wilted. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Add a small handful of breadcrumbs and a small handful of parmesan cheese and mix it up.

Line a baking sheet with foil and butter it liberally. Place the chops on the foil. Season with salt and pepper. Divide the spinach stuffing between the chops, fold over and secure with pics. Brush the top of the chops with a little more butter and sprinkle with additional bread crumbs and parmesan cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes until done. So delicious and so easy and hey- no recipe needed!!

Poor Man's Crown Roast of Pork

My vintage cookbooks are filled with pictures of smartly dressed housewives serving a perfect crown roast of pork to her guests. Sometimes every bone is perfectly Frenched and topped with a white paper frill. The middle is usually filled with some sort of stuffing or perfectly arranged fruits or vegetables. Must be rough! In my lifetime I have yet to see a crown roast of pork in person. We just don't cook those things anymore. I suppose as it became more popular to entertain guests by eating out, cooking elaborate roasts and cuts of meat kind of fell out of fashion. Perhaps?

Pic from Williams Sonoma

These days a crown roast of pork will set you back about a cool $150 on the average. Not exactly budget friendly or something a busy family is likely to have on the dinner table. It's also way too much food for the two of us. It's definitely not in my budget, but that doesn't mean I can't wing it and come up with an equally delicious and almost as impressive alternative- the Poor Man's Crown Roast of Pork.

That's where pork ribs come in. I can get a couple racks of baby back ribs or pork spare ribs and stay close to $20 total meat cost and have almost as striking a presentation. This is not a quick weeknight meal, so keep in mind, you'll want a good 2 hours allowed for cooking.

Poor Man's Crown Roast of Pork

2 racks pork ribs

olive oil

desired meat rub (we like Feiny's)

1 cup white wine

1 cup chicken stock

1 16 oz box cornbread mix or 2 Jiffy mixes

8 oz package fresh mushrooms

2 leeks

1/4 cup butter, divided

2 cups chicken stock

2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage

salt and pepper

The day before, or as early in the day as possible, bake the cornbread according to package directions. Cool and crumble and allow to dry a bit. You CAN use a homemade cornbread recipe if you prefer.

Mmmm cornbread in the cast iron skillet

Unwrap the rib racks and pat dry. If you prefer, pull off the silverskin from the back side and trim off any excess fat. Rub the ribs with olive oil, then season generously with the meat rub. 

To assemble the ribs into a crown, stand one rack on it's edge (grab a helper or balance on something heavy like a large can of juice). Thread some cotton cooking twine onto a large (huge, actually) needle; you don't have to knot the end. Stand the second rack up matching the ends (don't overlap them if at all possible, just butt up against the other) and attach them by "sewing" together with the twine and knotting the thread. Clip the thread and repeat 3 or 4 times. Now, bend the ribs into a "crown" with the curve of the rib on the outside and sew up the other ends the same way. 

If you don't have a giant needle you can overlap the ends and use metal skewers to hold the racks together (I had to this time because of course, couldn't find that needle!). Just be sure and remove before stuffing. I took a good look at the racks and put the thicker edge on the bottom for more stability.

The "shorties" trimmed off the end. Don't discard them-
throw them in the roasting ban with the rest of the ribs.

NOTE- If the racks of ribs are really long you might want to trim off a few rib bones and throw the extra into the freezer for future soup or something. Or cook them in the middle and just keep as leftovers to drizzle with some BBQ sauce for snacks. You want a crown roast that fits into your roasting pan and one that doesn't need 5 gallons of stuffing in the middle. I bend them a little bit in the store and get the shortest ones I can find.

Those ends make a great lunch the next day

Place your roast in a roasting pan. Pour the wine and chicken stock in the bottom of the pan. Cover loosely with foil and roast about an hour and a half to two hours at 300 degrees. Remove from oven and drain off drippings but reserve them.

Meanwhile, make the stuffing. Begin by wiping the mushrooms clean- don't wash them in the sink. Trim the stem ends and slice somewhat thickly. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a skillet and saute the mushrooms for about 5-10 minutes, until lightly browned. 

Remove to large bowl. Clean the leeks and slice, using the white part and just a tiny bit of the green part. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in skillet and saute leeks for several minutes until tender.

In large bowl, toss the mushrooms, leeks, cornbread crumbs, herbs, salt and pepper with enough of the stock to moisten but don't soak the stuffing. Pile the stuffing in the center of the roast and bake at 350 degrees until heated through and golden brown on top, at least 30 minutes.

If you would like gravy, make gravy using some of the drippings from the roasting pan, some flour to make a roux, and additional chicken stock. Add a bit of milk or cream for richness and add a bit of fresh chopped thyme for freshness. I love cranberries with pork so I also poured a little warmed whole berry cranberry sauce over the ribs.

It may not be the real deal crown roast but it's just as delicious for a fraction of the price. It's a fun and unusual way to serve ribs too. 

Just a few quick notes about this dish-

It can be fairly difficult to move from the baking pan to a serving dish. I made it in a rimmed baking sheet lined with foil. Place the roast in the baking sheet in the oven and then add the broth and wine.

To transfer to a serving plate, use the foil to carefully lift and transfer the roast. Sometimes it helps to have a helper on standby in case you need an extra hand. Tear off the excess foil so you can't see it under the roast, and garnish as desired.

To help the roast hold its shape better and not have it break apart when you move it, wrap some cooking twine around the middle of the roast 2 or 3 times to secure the bones. Cut the twine and remove after transferring but before serving, of course

Gobble Gobble Gobble !!!

Oh, if you could only hear my turkey impersonation...... maybe it's good that you can't !!!

I am a Thanksgiving baby and therefore, I love turkey, and I have lots to be thankful for right now. Two simple facts. We also happened to have a boneless turkey breast in the freezer, so......why not ??  It's fallish outside (if you call the 70s in Iowa in October "fallish") and almost November !!! And with the Chef's and my new work schedules, we haven't really done a lot of real cooking the last couple weeks. All the more reasons to spend a leisurely Sunday puttering around the kitchen with the sounds of NFL football in the background.

So I planned my little mini-Thanksgiving menu without having to make a single trip to the store for something I was missing- amazing !!! Roast turkey breast with chestnut stuffing. Roast baby yukon gold potatoes and baby carrots, and cranberry sauce (can't have turkey without cranberries !!) Easy enough !!

I started with a FULLY THAWED boneless turkey breast roast (about 3 lb). This one came with that little net bag on it, but I always cut that off before I cook it, I think they are messy and unnecessary and if you like the crispy brown turkey skin, that stupid string thing always messes up the skin.

You can still see the imprint from that net but after it roasts, that goes away. I sprinkled the roast all over with freshly cracked black pepper, some lemon herb seasoning and crushed dried thyme, and then cut a couple bacon strips in half and laid them across the top.

I should probably specify that I used just regular bacon, not maple or apple or any fruity flavor- just plain old regular bacon. Into a 350 degree oven the yummy little bird went for a nice roast. After about an hour and a half I added enough baby carrots and baby yukon gold potatoes to the roasting pan for the two of us.

I didn't think there was enough drippings yet to really coat the veggies so I added a couple tablespoons of browned butter with sage that I had in the fridge (but you could use just butter, or a little butter and a pinch of sage if you like or even bacon fat if you have it). Back into the oven for another hour and it came out perfectly juicy with the veggies absolutely perfect. Total roasting time was just about 2 1/2 hours for our 3 lb breast, if you rely on a thermometer, you want to shoot for 170-175 degrees.

And I'm not gonna lie- I stink at making gravy, so I used the little gravy packet that came with the turkey- just added some of the turkey drippings to it.

Besides the turkey and veggies I also made a small batch of chestnut stuffing. I loooooove chestnuts and I try to get some every fall to use in different recipes. For my stuffing I used 6 hot dog buns, cut up into small cubes and left out to dry most of the day,

about 1/4 chopped celery with leaves, 1/2 small onion diced, 1/4 chopped chestnuts (I used the roasted jarred chestnuts from Williams Sonoma),

about 1/2 to 3/4 cup chicken broth, a couple tablespoons butter, freshly cracked black pepper and crushed dried sage leaves (1/2 tsp to a tsp to taste).  Melt the butter in a small skillet and saute the onion and celery until softened but not brown.

Toss the cooked vegetables with the bread cubes n a large bowl.

Drizzle with chicken broth and toss until evenly moist. Pile into baking dish that's been sprayed with cooking spray and dot with a little bit more butter. Cover with foil and put in the 350 degree oven with the turkey for about an hour. I remove the foil the last 15 minutes or so to brown and crisp the top.

Dinner turned out really good- just like real Thanksgiving !!! Except with no pumpkin pie.....bummer......