I was craving pork. And macaroni and cheese. And broccoli salad. Luckily, I had bacon and a part of a bag of broccoli florets. But first, a Miso-tahini dressing for my meatless Monday pita sandwich of grilled eggplant, grilled mini bell peppers, hummus, tzatziki with cucumber and mint. It was meatless until a neighbor whom I share my Mediterranean meals brought over grilled goat and grilled chicken. Delicious, despite my vegetarian intentions.
I enjoyed cooking before the pandemic, and I still love it even if it's duty. I had made an extra crispy fried chicken the week before and extended the technique to these pork chops. I marinated the thin blade pork chops, which weren't very thin, in buttermilk and hot sauce. After a couple days marinating in the refrigerator, I removed the chops and then put each chop into a bag of seasoned flour (salt, black pepper, paprika, cayenne, onion powder, garlic powder, and Old Bay) and shake, shake, shake to bread thoroughly before laying on a sheet pan.
Before frying, I prepped the macaroni and cheese and broccoli salad. I took cheddar cheese from the freezer, measured out a cup and half of dried macaroni, set out broccoli for blanching, and chopped a couple slices of red onion for the salad.
I set of pot of water to boil, a tablespoon of flour, yellow mustard and nutmeg to put into the macaroni and cheese and cooking oil for the pork chops.
I blanched the broccoli, mixed mayonnaise, cider vinegar, pickle juice, sugar into the chopped red onion. I fried the bacon.
I set out golden raisins and sunflower seeds next to the bacon for the broccoli salad.
I didn't bother tossing out the bacon grease and just added more cooking oil to the cast iron frying pan.
The pork chops were rather large, and so I fried them one at time, 3 to 5 minutes per side or until golden brown.
I started the macaroni and cheese by melting the butter and mixing in the flour for a roux as well as sprinkling a bit of nutmeg and squirting mustard into it.
My roux was kind of bubbly which is my signal to pour in a cup of milk to make the cheese sauce.
My husband had wanted to get rid of this whisk, and I didn't let him because the balloon size is perfect for whipping lumps out of cheese sauce. Once the milk was simmering, I added the thinly sliced cheddar I had defrosted, got it back to bubbling and whisked the heck out of it.
I had boiled the macaroni for two minutes less than the package directions call for--on the edge of being al dente--and tossed the noodles in the cheese sauce and buttered a quarter sheet pan.
What I love about baking macaroni and cheese in a sheet pan versus a smaller glass dish is that there's only one layer--more crispy edge and less gummy pasta.
I was too lazy to grate my frozen Cheddar to top my pasta casserole, and instead took some of the luncheon cheese slices of Colby and Cheddar and topped them on the macaroni and cheese.
I put my macaroni and cheese in a 350 degree oven to bake for 30 minutes.
I tossed the blanched broccoli and half a handful of golden raisins in the mayonnaise dressing and then sprinkled chopped bacon and sunflower kernels on top. One of my favorite salads--the Broadway Pea salad--but swap out the sour cream for cider vinegar and sugar, the thawed frozen peas for blanched broccoli, the snow pea pods for golden raisins, the water chestnuts for sunflower seeds, and you've got this equally delicious broccoli salad.
I almost burned my macaroni and cheese. I'll have to remember to lower the oven temperature to 325 or 300 degrees next time. However, some love that past golden brown crust.
My pork chops came out of the warming oven still moist.
Yay for this meal of Southern comfort food. And delicious leftovers. One chop, however, was too much for one person....my husband and I ended up splitting one, and I gave a pork chop and a serving of mac 'n cheese to a friend, who said the food reminded her of her grandfather's cooking--he used to be a Navy chef. Yeah that was my inspiration too for this meal because my dad was a chef in the military too and used to run the kitchen at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. I need to cook a meal sometime in the near future reminiscent of my growing up in New England, fishing, crabbing, and clamming and cooking.
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