Foodie Friday

 On Sunday night, we had Gill family dinner at Dottie's house and I was responsible for dessert.  I had some apples in the fridge so I decided to try the Upside-Down Caramelized Apple Cake from Southern Living.  It doesn't get much more Southern than an upside-down cake baked in a cast iron skillet!  So good!  However, I recommend serving it warm straight out of the oven.  The caramelized topping gets chewy as it sits.  Sorry for the cell phone pic.  I didn't think to take a picture until we were already at Dottie's.

We have decided to try "Meatless Monday" and see how it goes.  Surprisingly enough, the idea came from my meat-loving husband.  Our first attempt was this week with vegetable stir-fry.  It's something we have done before, but this time we left out the chicken and doubled the veggies.  This does not however fall under my recipe attempts as Cameron usually makes it.  No complaints here!  He used a stir-fry seasoning packet and mixed in the veggies and cooked Asian noodles.  Who needs takeout?

This next meal will certainly never win any awards for most attractive, but it was decent.  I made Smothered Pork Chops (from Food Network Magazine) with Paula's Sweet Potato Biscuits (also from Food Network Magazine), added some steamfresh broccoli and called it a night.  The pork chops are browned then cooked in a sauce of cajun seasoning (we always use Tony's), onions, thyme, chicken broth, & buttermilk.  They were good, but I can't say I'm dying to have them again, which is my rule for keeping a recipe.  The biscuits were very good, but didn't have quite the sweet potato flavor I was hoping for.  I did, however, finish them off for breakfast, so I think I may try this one again!

The last recipe we tried this week was one I found on Pinterest - Balsamic Onion Pot Roast.  In my opinion, it wasn't much different from the typical pot roast recipe.  Maybe a little more flavor to the meat?  I did not however, boil down the sauce to make a gravy.  I was starving when I got home and not really interested in doing anything extra.  So that may have been the game-changer, but I doubt it.  So all around not bad, but not worth the extra effort when you compare it to the good ole' Lipton soup recipe.

That's it for this week!

~Heather