Main Dish

Roasted Grape Pork Chops with Twice Baked Potatoes Recipe

2 · Nov 10, 2014 · 4 Comments

+ This Roasted Grape Pork Chops with Twice Baked Potatoes post brought to you by the folks at Pompeian +

Several years ago, when my sweetheart and I were first married, I decided to try and learn how to cook a really great meal for him. I did a bunch of research and found a menu from one of my favorite Food Network Chefs, Tyler Florence. It was a bit ambitious for my early culinary skills, but I decided that I wanted to give it a go. It was a fun Fontina and Prosciutto Pork Chops with Grilled Polenta Squares and Roasted Grapes.

I followed the recipe to a “T” and I learned two things…

1. Those 30 minute cooking shows don’t equal 30 minutes in the kitchen for the real home cook. UGH!

2. With an amazing recipe, following each step precisely you can look like a total ROCK STAR in the kitchen!

It was one of my kitchen “ah ha” moments. I could cook, I just needed some direction. The meal was aaaamazing! We felt like we were eating at a restaurant. From that point forward, my approach to cooking was totally transformed. I took the time to learn, not just execute. I tasted things along the way, really TASTING what I was doing. I explored as much as possible so that I developed a palette that was educated and refined. I fell in love with the art of cooking!

My husband just celebrated a birthday and when I asked what he wanted for his birthday dinner, he basically said surprise me! I decided to recreate elements of that special meal from so many years ago. Of course… This time I put my own spin on the menu!

We had Pork Chops with Roasted Grapes along with Twice Baked Potatoes, my husband’s favorite!!

I made both of these dishes with some of my new favorite cooking oils… Pompeian Avocado and Grape Seed Oil Sprays.

Pompeian Avocado & Grapeseed Oil Spray is an innovative, unique and eco-friendly cooking spray that utilizes a powerful pouch system without the use of propellants or other artificial additives, so not a single drop is wasted and the oil is never mixed with any chemicals.

The unique spray can and pouch system also help to protect the oil from sunlight and oxygen, keeping the product fresher for longer. Pompeian Grapeseed & Avocado Oil Spray has triple action use—drop, stream, or spray—to allow for flexibility and total portion control when cooking. And it’s FANTASTIC for high heat cooking! I’ve used it two different ways. To brown my chops before I put them in the oven and I used it to crisp my potato skins for my twice baked potatoes. Here’s how you make them…

Pork Chops with Roasted Grapes + Recipe

1.0 from 1 reviews

Roasted Grape Pork Chops with Twice Baked Potatoes Recipe

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Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

25 mins

You will never eat porks chops the same... This brine along with the sweet grapes makes for the best pork chops ever!

Author: Heather // WhipperBerry

Recipe type: Main Dish

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

4-6 thick cut pork chops
1 cup salt
1 cup brown sugar
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons whole all-spice
1 tablespoon whole cloves
1 tablespoon whole peppercorns
4 cups of water
1-2 cups of ice
Pompeian Avocado Spray
1 large bunch of red grapes

Instructions

You need to start your pork chops the day before you plan to serve them. The secret to these amazing chops is the brining process. You'll need a large bowl, add all of your spices.Then your salt and brown sugar.
Bring 2 cups of water to a boil and the pour over your salt, sugar and spice mixture. Stir to help the salt and sugar dissolve.
Once the salt and sugar have dissolved into the water, add a cup or two of ice to bring down the temperature of the brine. Then slide your pork chops into the brine mixture. Add more water if needed to make sure all of the meat is totally covered.
Cover and refrigerate overnight. Once you are ready to cook, remove the pork chops from the brine and dry with paper towels.
Prepare your oven safe pan (I like to use cast iron) with a generous spray of Pompeian's new Avocado Oil Spray. Also, Preheat your oven to 400˚.
I take the dry pork chops and season with salt & pepper and add them to a hot pan over high heat and then turn down the temp to medium high. Brown one side of the pork chops and then turn after 2 minutes or so.
Add your washed grapes to the pan.
Spray with the Pompeian Grapeseed Oil and place in the 400˚ oven for 10 minutes or until your pork chops are fully cooked and sitting at 145˚.
Remove from the oven and let rest for at least 10 minutes.

You need to start your pork chops the day before you plan to serve them. The secret to these amazing chops is the brining process. You’ll need a large bowl, add all of your spices.

Then your salt and brown sugar.

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil and the pour over your salt, sugar and spice mixture. Stir to help the salt and sugar dissolve.

Once the salt and sugar have dissolved into the water, add a cup or two of ice to bring down the temperature of the brine.

Then slide your pork chops into the brine mixture. Add more water if needed to make sure all of the meat is totally covered.

Cover and refrigerate overnight. Once you are ready to cook, remove the pork chops from the brine and dry with paper towels.

Prepare your oven safe pan (I like to use cast iron) with a generous spray of Pompeian’s new Avocado Oil Spray. Also, Preheat your oven to 400˚.

Then I take the dry pork chops and season with salt & pepper and add them to a hot pan over high heat and then turn down the temp to medium high.

Brown one side of the pork chops and then turn after 2 minutes or so.

Add your washed grapes to the pan.

Spray with the Pompeian Grapeseed Oil and place in the 400˚ oven for 10 minutes or until your pork chops are fully cooked and sitting at 145˚. Remove from the oven and let rest for at least 10 minutes.

Twice Baked Potatoes + Recipe

1.0 from 1 reviews

Twice Baked Potatoes

Save Print

Prep time

30 mins

Cook time

1 hour 20 mins

Total time

1 hour 50 mins

These are my husbands all-time favorites. We have them every year for his birthday... YES, they are totally worth the extra time!

Author: Heather // WhipperBerry

Recipe type: Side Dish

Serves: 6

Ingredients

3 large baking potatoes
Pompeian Avocado Oil Spray
1 cup chive flavored cream cheese
½ cup sour cream
½ cup bacon bits
fresh chives
1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
Salt & Pepper

Instructions

Wash and poke your potatoes with a knife and bake at 350˚ for 1 hour. Remove from oven and let cool for a bit. Cut potatoes in half, remove the flesh of the potato into a large bowl.
Spray your potato skins with Pompeian Avocado Spray.
Place in a 400˚ oven for 10 minutes to crisp the potato skins.
In the mean time add your other ingredients the cream cheese, sour cream, bacon, cheese salt & pepper and fresh chives to the potatoes.
Using a potato masher, mix well, but don't over mix.
I prefer my twice baked potatoes to still have the look and feel of potato rather than a smooth mashed potato consistency.
Spoon your potato mixture back into the crisp potato skins and place in a 350˚ oven for 20 minutes.
Remove from oven and top with more shredded cheddar cheese and place back in the oven just until the cheese is melted. Remove and garnish with fresh chives.
Serve along side the pork chops and roasted grapes. You'll be surprised... if you like apples with pork chops, you're going to LOVE roasted grapes with your favorite meat! Give it a go and let me know what you think!

Wash and poke your potatoes with a knife and bake at 350˚ for 1 hour. Remove from oven and let cool for a bit. Cut potatoes in half…

Remove the flesh of the potato into a large bowl.

Spray your potato skins with Pompeian Avocado Spray.

Place in a 400˚ oven for 10 minutes to crisp the potato skins. In the mean time add your other ingredients the cream cheese, sour cream, bacon, cheese salt & pepper and fresh chives to the potatoes.

Using a potato masher, mix well, but don’t over mix.

I prefer my twice baked potatoes to still have the look and feel of potato rather than a smooth mashed potato consistency.

Spoon your potato mixture back into the crisp potato skins and place in a 350˚ oven for 20 minutes.

Remove from oven and top with more shredded cheddar cheese and place back in the oven just until the cheese is melted. Remove and garnish with fresh chives.

Serve along side the pork chops and roasted grapes. You’ll be surprised… if you like apples with pork chops, you’re going to LOVE roasted grapes with your favorite meat! Give it a go and let me know what you think!

Disclaimer + This post is brought to you by Pompeian. I have received product and compensation for my time and recipe development. Please know, that I will only post about products that I truly love and use in my everyday life!

Filet of Sirloin with Rosemary Butter // Recipe

2 · Aug 28, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Filet of Sirloin with Rosemary Butter Recipe // There are some times in life when there is nothing better than a good steak. Seriously… nothing better!! My love of steak started with my first pregnancy. I couldn’t get enough steak. I wanted it morning, noon and night. I tried all different kinds of recipes and basically every form of steak that you could imagine. You know what I learned… When it comes to a good steak recipe, keep it SIMPLE!

Let the steak shine and take center stage. Recently, I had the opportunity to sample some Certified Angus Beef® brand steaks and boy can those steaks SING!

When you have a good quality steak, you really don’t need anything else other than some salt and pepper and a few simple rules for the grill, maybe a touch of herbs. I found a great recipe on the Certified Angus Beef® brand website for Grilled Ribeye Steak with Classic Steak Butter and put my little spin on it.

First of all, I used a Filet of Sirloin rather than the Ribeye cut and simplified the recipe down to a few basic simple ingredients.

Filet of Sirloin with Rosemary Butter

4 Filet of Sirloin

generous salt and pepper

1/2 stick of unsalted butter at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon of fresh minced rosemary

a pinch of salt

Season the steak generously with salt and pepper. Place on a very hot grill. After 2 minutes, flip the steak over and cook for another 2 minutes. Continue that process until you get to the temperature that you prefer. We like our steak medium rare, so we grilled our steak for a total of 12 minutes, turning it every 2 minutes. Let rest for at least 5 minutes before serving.

For the butter, place the room temperature butter in a small bowl with a pinch of salt and the minced rosemary. Stir until completely combined. Place on a sheet of parchment paper and roll butter into a log. Place in freezer for 20 minutes. Once butter is chilled, cut into medallions and place on hot steak and serve.

This quite honestly is my all-time favorite meal. I paired it with smashed fingerling potatoes and some grilled peaches and it was truly divine. We also applied the same recipe and cooking method with some New York Strip Steaks and paired them with the smashed fingerling potatoes and thick slices of beef steak tomatoes topped with salt, pepper and chives. Seriously, this meal is out of this world!

When you have quality meat like the Certified Angus Beef® brand, you know that you are getting quality steaks and pairing them with simple, yet flavorful sides will take your meal or event to a whole new level. To find where you can purchase Certified Angus Beef® brand products visit their site to find a location in your area!

What is your favorite way to serve steak? Looking for more inspiration? Follow the folks at the Certified Angus Beef® brand on Instagram for all kinds of mouth watering ideas!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Certified Angus Beef via Burst Media. The opinions and text are all mine.

Life is Good in the Kitchen When You have the BEST Chicken Salad Recipe

0 · Jul 14, 2014 ·

Chicken Salad Recipe // It has long been said that the kitchen is the heart of the home and I whole heartedly subscribe to that idea. When it comes to house hunting, the very first thing I look at is the kitchen. If it’s not up to muster, I won’t even bother with the rest of the house. It’s truly that important to me. It needs to be spacious, light and very functional. It needs to have a welcoming feeling where friends and family feel natural and at home. I spend 90% of my day in the kitchen, no joke, and through that room I connect with those that I love.

Growing up some of my favorite memories are from the kitchen’s of my Mom and my Grandfather. I have amazing memories of fabulous feasts along with simple memories of sitting with my Grandfather in the morning while he ate his breakfast. He always had olives, cheese and toast for breakfast. The good olives and cheese that were like a foreign language to me. He would always give me a taste and my face would go squiggie with the new sour flavors that my young palette had yet to grow accustomed to.

I have memories of my Mom making some fabulous holiday dinners in tiny kitchens that boggle my mind when I think about it today. How on earth she managed to cook those masterpieces with a tiny oven and hardly any work space just blows me away. I learned so much from her and my Grandfather when it comes to home cooking. They taught be to be fearless!

Together my Mom and Grandfather along with hundreds, if not thousands of hours watching the food network… I feel like I’ve earned a pretty good home cook degree. One of my favorite shows right now is The Kitchen on the Food Network. I TiVo it every week! One of it’s co-hosts is Katie Lee one of my favorite home cooks. Katie has published a couple of cookbooks focused on The Comfort Table. She also has fabulous tips and tricks on how to make comfort food a little easier on the waistline! On top of that she also stars in the LG videos showcasing their products. She is a master of seasonal ingredients and I love learning from her when I watch each episode of The Kitchen.

Now speaking of The Kitchen… Have you seen the kitchen set that Katie gets to work with? Wow, if I could work in a kitchen like that someday, I would be in Heaven! If you haven’t seen it yet… You need to watch an episode and look at this kitchen marvel. First off, the color of the open cabinets is divine, the subway tile, the decorative chalkboards. As far as style is concerned, they nailed it! But did they nail function? Of course! Their kitchen is packed full of aaaamazing LG appliances. Like have you seen the LG Door-in-Door™ Refrigerator?

Brilliant!! It’s like they get me! My kiddos are constantly asking for snacks this summer and rummaging around the fridge. This Door-in-Door™ feature allows you to place approved snacks in the first door and they don’t even have to get their grubby hands inside the main refrigerator. Again, brilliant!

Want a chance to win one of these babies? Visit the LG Door-in-Door™ Facebook page for the Life is Good in the Kitchen, “Caption This” contest for a chance to win a LG Door-in-Door™ Refrigerator of your very own!

One of my favorite recipes that I would love to keep in the LG Door-in-Door™ Refrigerator is my recipe for The BEST chicken salad EVER!!

Seriously beyond good! This is recipe is what makes life good in MY kitchen. It’s one of those summer comfort salads that you can keep stocked in the fridge all summer and your family will LOVE you!

Classic Chicken Salad Recipe

3 large chicken breasts

1 tablespoons dried onion

1 teaspoon salt

2 bay leaves

6 whole all-spice berries

1/2 teaspoon whole cumin

1 1/2 cups of diced celery including the leaves

1 1/2 red grapes – halved

1 large apple – diced

1/2 of a small red onion – diced

1/2 cup cornichion pickles – diced (small dill pickles if you can’t find the cornichion)

2 tablespoons pickle juice

1 1/2 cups mayonnaise

salt & pepper

Place chicken, dried onion, salt, bay leaves, all-spice and cumin in a medium sauce pan and cover with water. Place over high heat until it comes to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium high and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until the chicken is completely cooked through. Remove the chicken from the water and place in a Ziploc bag and refrigerate until the chicken has been thoroughly chilled.

In a large bowl add your diced celery, onion, apple, grapes and pickles. Cut your chicken into small bite-sized pieces and add to the bowl. Add the mayonnaise and pickle juice and combine the mixture thoroughly. Add salt & pepper to taste.

Serve with crackers or make into chicken salad sandwiches with your favorite bread or croissants.

So… what makes life good in your kitchen? Do you have some fun kitchen memories? Or, a favorite recipe? Make sure you head over to the LG Facebook page to enter to win the new LG Door-in-Door™ Refrigerator!

LG Home Appliances are your partner in creating memorable cooking experiences and “Life’s Good” moments in the kitchen.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of LG. The opinions and text are all mine.

Ladies Fiesta Dinner Party

4 · Jun 30, 2014 · 6 Comments

+ This Ladies Fiesta Dinner Party brought to you by Pepcid® +

As you all know… I LOVE to entertain! The idea of spending time coming up with a menu and cooking all day makes me happy… Seriously I love it! Recently, I had the chance to throw a fun Ladies Fiesta for a few friends for a fun Girls Night IN at my place. SUPER FUN!! Some of you may have followed along on Instagram while I was prepping for the night. Here’s the menu…

Frozen Shirley Temples

Spicy Scallop and Shrimp Cocktail

Creamy Avocado Gazpacho

Light Tacos

Creamy Corn Cups

Fiesta Summer Salad

Dirty Diet Coke

ChocoFlan

Many of the recipes are from or inspired by one of my favorite Food Network Chef’s Marcela Valladolid from Mexican Made Easy. When I decided to have a girls night, I thought a classy fiesta would be super fun and Marcela was the perfect chef to turn to for all kinds of classy fiesta recipes. I didn’t want a night full of chips and guacamole followed with a pan full of enchiladas. I wanted it to be light, fresh and refined. This menu was perfect… Except for one thing.

Here’s a little known fact about me… I have struggled for years with mild heartburn. Over the years, I have learned what foods trigger this condition in me and you would be surprised that even a relatively fresh and light fiesta menu like the one above could cause all kinds of issues with my sensitive stomach. You would think that the typical fiesta fair like heavy burritos and enchiladas would be the only culprits, but it’s not. Everyone is different but even fresh food, if they are high in acid like tomatoes, can trigger a rough night. That’s why when it comes to nights like this, I turn to Pepcid® to help me enjoy the food that I so lovely prepared for my friends! Wouldn’t it be a shame to go to all that work just to suffer in the end? If you are like me at all, you should visit the Pepcid® Facebook page for all kinds of ways to help keep your stomach happy!

Here’s how the night went… I prepped food all day, and while I was doing that I watched as the clouds rolled in. The plan was to eat outside and enjoy a nice summer evening and a rain storm was NOT on the menu. Sure enough, about an hour before the ladies were to arrive, the clouds opened up and DUMPED a ton of rain. YAY! Not to worry, I kept working on party prep and when my friends arrived I put them to work, drying of the table and chairs, no worries there. The rest of the night was perfect, so we didn’t let that little bump create issues for this fiesta! We set the table with fun mismatched plates and dressed it with some simple greenery, lanterns and candles. It looked lovely!

Cocktail + Frozen Shirley Temple +

Once everything was dry, we had my version of a frozen Shirley Temple.

How fun is that? I made a cherry popsicle in my Zoku with all the tasty cherries that are in season right now and then paired it with some coconut La Croix seltzer water to make a fun “cocktail” to start off the night (we aren’t big cocktail drinkers here.) You can get the recipe here!

Appetizer + Scallop & Shrimp Cocktail +

For an appetizer I served a scrumptious scallop and shrimp cocktail…

I kicked this up a notch with some doctored cocktail sauce and then added pan seared, chilled scallops to the shrimp and it was divine. To make it even easier I removed the tail on the shrimp and added it right to the cocktail sauce. It’s much easier to eat with a fork and you don’t have to deal with messy hands… perfect! You can get this recipe here.

Soup + Creamy Avocado Gazpacho with Spicy Croutons +

Next, for the soup course… I served a creamy avocado gazpacho that really hit the spot.

When it comes to cooking for a dinner party, you want simple, yet tasty. Especially in the summer, when you have access to all kinds of fresh veggies, gazpacho is perfect. It’s a chilled soup that is perfect for a classy fiesta. You can find this recipe here.

Main Course + Light Tacos, Fiesta Summer Salad & Creamy Corn Cups +

Since this was a fresh summer take on a fiesta, I decided to go with a lighten-up version of tacos. I found this fun recipe from Marcela for a light taco that used butter lettuce for the shell rather than your traditional corn tortilla. It was super tasty and you can find Marcela’s recipe here.

With the light tacos I served the most amazing salad…

It is a mexican take on a panzanella salad full of tomatoes, olives, spicy croutons and few more tasty surprises. You can find that recipe here.

The last side dish was a little more decadent than the other lighter recipes that we had enjoyed throughout the night. Creamy corn cups are an iconic Mexican treat full of all kinds of creamy goodness. I took that recipe straight from Marcela and you can find that recipe here.

Dessert + CocoFlan & Dirty Diet Coke +

Get ready… this dessert will ROCK YOUR WORLD! Yea, not kidding…

If you are a chocolate cake lover and a flan lover (which apparently I am) This recipe will knock your socks off. It’s chocolate cake and flan together. Again this is one of Marcela’s recipes and it is for sure a show stopper. I will have to say, your guest may beat down your door the following day to get access to the leftovers (if you have any!) Surprisingly enough, this actually pairs nicely with a dirty Diet Coke! You can get the recipe for the ChocoFlan here and the dirty Diet Coke here.

All in all the night was SUPER fun, a total flavor festival and thanks to Pepcid I wasn’t regretting it afterward.

Disclaimer // I have received information, product and materials from McNeil Consumer Pharmaceuticals C0., the makers of PEPCID®. The opinions stated are my own. This is a sponsored post.