We recently bought pork chops at Costco and froze them for future dinners. It’s worked out really well because the pork freezes excellently and the meat doesn’t seem effected by the process. I wanted to make a pork and squash dinner so to the internets I went! And I found a recipe: Rosemary Pork Chop Skillet.
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Two things to keep in mind: 1) It does NOT take 35 minutes from start to finish because I don’t know about you, but peeling the skin off squash is the biggest pain in the butt ever and takes FOREVER. So be prepared–it’s more like an hour start to finish. 2) I would measure the calories by the ounces of the pork chops you have, not go off this recipes. The pork chops we got at Costco were humongous (10 and 9 ounces each) so double what the recipe said.
I started the prepping. I peeled a bunch of the skin off the acorn squash but it was aggravating me and my hand was cramping so Michael took over the peeling.
While he peeled, I chopped the onion and measured out all the other ingredients. And I got the rosemary from the garden.
I skipped the zucchini (we didn’t have any) and the sage. (I had some fresh thyme but I wasn’t sure if I could substitute the thyme for the sage). Michael worked on browning the pork chops and then added all of the ingredients to the skillet.
While dinner was simmering in the skillet, I poured a glass of wine. It was a wonderful, earthy bottle of Zinfandel that we got for Christmas from Michael’s stepbrother. I loved the wine. It was sweet like cherries and tasted like pepper and dirt. It was a lovely combination. I consulted the wine book my brother got me for Christmas to make sure that this Zinfandel would go with pork and it did. Score!
Dinner took a little longer to make because we had those monster Costco pork chops. As a result the pork was a little dry. Next time, we’ll cut them in half lengthwise. I think that would be better.
The squash and onions were really flavorful and we both enjoyed that. There was enough leftover squash and onions to have for lunch the next day. This isn’t the best pork recipe we’ve ever done but I think it was decent. The search continues…
QUESTION: What’s your favorite way to eat squash?
Lisa
Peeling squash is so very hard! I prefer butternut or acorn squash recipes that involve roasting them in the oven then scooping out the insides. There are grocery stores here that sell butternut squash already peeled and cut up, which I would invest in to make your recipe.
I like butternut squash steamed and mashed with a little maple syrup and butter, and pureed with curry and a green apple in a soup.
Lisa Eirene
The other squashes are much better. I’ve seen the pre-cut squash at Trader Joes. I might try that next time.