pork chop a la king...ish

(note: originally posted here.)

ok, so...anyone who has known me for quite a while will be surprised at the vast amounts of cooking and domesticity that are commonplace for me now. i think it's pretty nifty, as does the man...and the puppy has been known to partake every now and again. and we're all still alive! so while my baseboards will never be clean, we're at least eating fairly well. i've made soup, people. from scratch!!

i love to hunt down recipes from ye olde internets to try, but i have also become pretty adept at just tossing stuff together and calling it dinner. almost every time this has worked out well. so i thought, meh, why not just post these. that way i've got 'em for posterity or a repeat performance or whatever, and if they help somebody else, well then good for us all.

now, i don't claim that these are lab-tested or that they are gonna be delicious for you. i also don't claim that these are original necessarily. i mean, the recipe i'm about to post is one that i threw together out of my cabinet, but that doesn't mean someone else didn't already have this idea. so...please don't sue me for copyright infringement if you came up with this recipe first is i guess what i'm sayin', cuz i totally didn't know it was yours. and if it is yours, lemme know and i'll give ya credit.

and away we go...first, the ingredients:

-pork chops, boneless...i used about 3 and the total weight was around a pound or so
-1 can mixed veggies, drained
-1 small can pieces and stems mushrooms, drained
-1 can cream of mushroom soup (yummmm)
-1/2 can milk - i used whole milk, but that's because i'm a bad bad person...i'm sure it would work with whatever percentage you use
-1 chicken bouillon cube
-a pat of butter - real butter, because see above, i'm a bad bad person :)
-1 tsp corn starch
-steamed rice

so. i had about a pound and a quarter of pork chops thawed out for tonight, but i didn't want to do the same ol' baked pork chop thing. the man gets bored with that, and i try to make sure all the carnivores are kept happy around here, helps me sleep with both eyes closed. ;)
ok, i cubed the pork chops and got them going over medium heat with a little bit of olive oil. i drained them once they were cooked through and dumped in the mixed veggies and the mushrooms. mixed veggies can vary, and this particular brand had corn, peas, green beans, potatoes and i think celery. since it was only one can though, it was just enough on the veggie meter.

in next was the cream of mushroom soup and then the half can of milk...i gently stirred all of this and got it back up to just shy of a boil. around now is when the butter went in, and then i crumbled the bouillon cube into the mix.

can i just say here, i've grown to love bouillon cubes?? they really do add a little bit of "oomph" to recipes, especially when you're cooking something from scratch. off my soapbox now...things were moving along pretty well, but my sauce was looking a little thin. here's where the cornstarch made its appearance.

if you've never used it, oh my GOD this stuff is a miracle worker in the kitchen, you absolutely must must must try it. a little goes a long way, however. i cranked up the heat to high, and got everything to just boiling. meanwhile, i mixed about a teaspoon or so of cornstarch with about 1/3 cup of water. you must put the cornstarch in water first, or you'll get lumps. lumps are bad. stir the cornstarch/water mixture well, then pour into whatever you're cooking. then just stir as it continues to boil, and you'll see everything start to thicken up a bit.

truthfully, i don't know for certain if the cornstarch was necessary or not in this one...i might have been impatient, since when i went to put the leftovers away, everything seemed pretty durned thick. all up to you on that one. so...now i had creamy vegetable and pork chop goodness...now what to do?

about an hour before all the fun began, i got some rice going in the steamer. all i had to do now was spoon out some rice, and top it with the creamy goodness...the man agreed that it was yummy, although he added a little bit of salt.

and there ya have it...tonight's dinner, internet. if anybody gives this a try, let me know how it worked for you or if you tried something different!