Easy Chocolate Sauce

Sometimes I like to make a chocolate sauce that is rich tasting but does not involve melting chocolate because either I don't have the chocolate or I don't feel like chopping chocolate and would rather make something easy without foregoing taste.  This recipe is easily made with pantry staples - sugar, cocoa, and evaporated milk.  It is best used within the week it is made as the sugar becomes granular after a few reheats.  Also, it does not harden with the cold from the ice cream like a ganache does.  
This recipe is from my sister-in-law who uses it as frosting on spice cake, her kids favorite birthday dessert.

Easy Chocolate Sauce
makes 1 cup

1 cup sugar

5 tablespoons cocoa

2 tablespoons butter

1 small can (5 ounces) or 5/8 cup evaporated milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Stir sugar and cocoa over low heat for 30 seconds – do not let sugar melt.

Blend in butter.

Add evaporated milk, stirring constantly.

Turn heat to medium and bring to boil stirring constantly.

Boil for 1 minute.

Remove from heat and add vanilla.

Quick and Delicious Red Sauce

     Growing up, a big pot of spaghetti sauce bubbling away on the stove, as we called it, was a real treat that I looked forward to with great anticipation.  It was an all day event to make spaghetti sauce.  My mother would use the largest pot in the kitchen and, at first, when I was very young she would use supermarket canned tomatoes then she used canned tomatoes that she and my dad put up then they went through  a period of freezing the bountiful tomatoes from the garden.  I don't remember the base but I believe it was onions and garlic without the carrots or celery. My mother put in a lot of spices, meatballs and sausages. The sauce would cook all day on the back burner where it would bubble up like the tar in the tar pits on my favorite show Land of the Lost. The sauce was thin bodied but chunky with tomatoes, onions and meat and always had a little pools of slick fat on top when it hadn't been stirred for a while. My parents always served it with spaghetti, and that shake cheese in the green can. 

    My mother served a spaghetti dinner every other month or so,and even less during the the time period that my Grandmother served her Saturday spaghetti dinners.  Eventually when I was a teenager and the arrival of ready to use pasta sauce on the market the original spaghetti dinner became even more rare. 

    Now, I serve pasta to my family often. Early in my adult life, I relied heavily on jarred sauce with the "special occasion" long cook pasta dinner. With my quest to clean up my family's diet moving away from prepackaged foods, I have found an excellent go to sauce. When I am at a loss over what to make for dinner and I need something quick, easy, nutritious and delicious - this is the sauce recipe I use.  This recipe uses basic ingredients found in any pantry. While fresh basil is best, dried can be substituted for a small downgrade in fresh flavor.  Even on our latest nights I can fire this sauce up and have a meal in 45 minutes or less.

Red Sauce

Makes enough sauce for 1 pound of pasta

1 onion grated on the large hole of a box grater

3 tablespoons of olive oil

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon dried oregano

3 garlic cloves pushed through a press

½ teaspoon natural sugar

28 oz of crushed tomatoes (use chunkier version if you prefer the texture)

3 tablespoons basil leaves cut chiffonade style

salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in medium heavy bottomed pot, add onions and their liquid and saute until soft and lightly browned.

Add salt, oregano and garlic cook until fragrant.

Stir in tomatoes and sugar and cook for 10 minutes.

Salt and Pepper to Taste

Stuffed Pork Chops

I grew up eating pork chops -my parents made them nearly every week.  While I still like pork chops, my family is not so fond of them except when I make this dish.  These pork chops are flavorful with the stuffing though I do not pack mine full of stuffing - just enough to moisten the meat and notch up the flavor of an otherwise bland meat.  The lemon thyme pan sauce is a delicious accompaniment.  As a general rule, I brine all my pork chops as I find supermarket pork lacking in flavor and tenderness.  My simple but effective brine method is a combination of sugar, salt and water.

Stuffed Pork Chops

serves 4

3 tablespoons butter

1 onion chopped fine

1 finely chopped rib of celery

¼ salt

2 tablespoons of chopped parsley

1 teaspoon dried thyme

2 cloves of minced garlic

2 slices or 2 cups of better quality bread cubed (small cubes or rough fresh crumbs) placed in medium bowl

3 tablespoons heavy cream

pepper to taste

4 pork chops (I used center thicker cut boneless and bone in chops - 3-4 pounds)

3 or 4 tablespoons oil for searing

Heat oven to 450°F.

Melt butter in skillet over medium heat.

Add onions, celery and soft cooking until softened.

Stir in the herbs and garlic and cook until fragrant 40 seconds or so.

Remove from heat and toss with bread, cream and pepper pressing until mixture comes together.

Cut a pocket along long edge of chop (I make an incision along edge then use my knife to cut a pocket without disturbing the outer edge in order to hold the bread mixture). Stuff each chop equally.

Heat oil over medium high heat in a sauté pan and brown the chops on both sides until brown (5 minutes).

Transfer to baking dish and bake until center of stuffing reaches 135°F (around 18 minutes depending on your oven).

Turn chops half way through.

You can cook your chops until they reach the internal temperature of 145°F or remove when the stuffing reaches temperature and put the chops on a plate tenting with foil (they will continue to 'cook' under the foil).

Use saute pan to make a pan sauce if desired.

Lemon Thyme Pan Sauce

2 teaspoons oil

1 shallot or ¼ onion minced

1½ cups of chicken broth

1 teaspoon of dried thyme

1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice

3 tablespoons of chilled butter in 3 pieces

Add oil to skillet that you sauteed your chops in and heat to shimmering.

Add shallots or onions and cook until softened.

Stir in thyme until fragrant.

Add broth scraping up the browned bits off the bottom of the pan and simmer until thickened about 5 minutes.

Stir in lemon juice and additional pork juice from the plate of cooked pork chops.

Turn heat low and whisk in 1 at a time the butter pieces.

Do not add a new piece of butter until the one before it mixed in.

Take your time so as not to break the sauce.

Season with salt and pepper.