Keepin' it real...

So we've had pork chops thawing in the refrigerator for like, um, two-ish days.  I like to make sure my meat is thawed.  Really thawed.

The plan was to throw them on the grill tonight.  However, it's been raining here all day.  And I'm such a good wife, that I didn't want to subject my husband to stand in the rain to grill the perfect pork chop.  Plus, the grill is so waterlogged it won't start.  It has rained so much here that the road leading to our house is under water and our side yard is now a pond.   We won't get into the drainage issues that the county procrastinates fixing,  as I feel, ahem, back to the chops...  (Whew!  Tangent divert there!  Good work, GHM!)

Lately, I've been channeling The Pioneer Woman.   Well, parts of her.  I have been reading her blog and trying some of the recipes.   Not that I homeschool, live on a cattle ranch, or have written a cookbook or anything, but there are a few things about PW that I find kinda cool:  I would love to own her cameras/lenses and take the caliber of photos she does.  I would love to have her kitchens (yes, that is supposed to be plural), not to mention her culinary skills.  But, most of all, I love her sense of humor.  She's sarcastic.  My type of gal!

Back to the pork chop dilemma.  Did I mention I had a dilemma?  I know I mentioned pork chops, but I think I might have missed the dilemma part.

I had a pork chop dilemma:  Need to cook thawed chops.  How to cook them?  A good teacher/mom/blogger like myself knows what to do:  search the 'net and steal a good recipe.  Only problem?  It had to include ingredients I already had because I didn't want to build an ark and paddle to Publix.  And did I mention we're at the end of our weekly menus and that food is a bit scarce in our house?   Picking a recipe proved to be a bit challenging:  

All Day Crock Pot Chops? Nope.  No time.

BBQ Chops with grits?  Nope.  No grits.  (That's like a misdemeanor in Cackalacky, so shhhh!)

Orange Glazed Pork Chops with Stuffing?  Nope.  No oranges.  Or glazey stuff.  Or stuffing. 

You get the picture.  A lot of "nopes" going through my mind.  Well, I think there was one "uh-uh", and possibly an "there ain't no way I'm eatin' that!" 

So then I think, "HMMMMM... I'll bet Ree (that's the Pioneer Woman's real name) will have something for me."  And, you know what?  She did.  Once again, P-Dub comes through for her fans.  Namely, me.

So what if PW's recipe calls for thin breakfast chops and I've got big ole' mack daddy chops?  So what if it calls for oil AND butter?  (My treadmill is crying right now thinking of all the extra miles it will be forced endure.)  So what if it calls for smashed potatoes and wedged iceberg salad as sides and all I've got is a box of Bisquick and a head of broccoli?

Undaunted, I head to the kitchen and begin making my fried chops, steamed broccoli, and biscuits.   All is well until I decide to make actual biscuits instead of my usual sloppy drop biscuits.
I knead the dough, 10 times, as the recipe says.
I roll out the dough to 1/2" thickness on a properly floured Bisquicked surface.
I cut the dough into beautiful biscuity shaped thingies with a 2.5" biscuit cutter.
Okay, I'm fibbing.  I don't have a 2.5" biscuit cutter.  Or a 2" biscuit cutter.  Or any biscuit cutter.  Who'da thunk a University of Idaho beer glass could multitask?    
The biscuits look a bit thin, but I figure they'll rise.
Right?
I followed the recipe exactly.  They have to rise.
Right?
Riiiiiiight.

So, our dinner was good.  Fried chops turned out very well.  Not tough, just tasty.

Steamed broccoli was, well, steamed broccoli.  (Do you really need a pic of that?  I'd say no.)

And the biscuits?  The biscuits...

Hard tack, anyone?