Pork Chops and Apples in the Crock Pot

In my search to have dinner ready when we get home, I continue to find new crock pot recipes.  My latest find, is this Crock Pot Pork and Apples from Eat, Live, Run.  Her recipes are usually easy to follow and don’t require a lot of ingredients.  These are two of my requirements when following recipes.  Sometimes less is more.

The recipe called for Gala apples and luckily that’s what I had in my fridge.  Crunchy, sweet and juicy.  That’s what I like about them.  Great for snacking and cooking.  The recipe is straight forward: season pork chops with salt and pepper, add sliced apples and onions, add mustard and brown sugar.

Cook on low for six hours.  Not much to it.  The flavor was pretty good.  I think next time I would cook them for less time.   The gravy/sauce was delicious over jasmine rice.

And to round off the colors, we had some roasted kale.  Easiest side dish ever!  Wash and tear, dry and put on baking sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper.  Broil for about 10 minutes.  Crunchy and tasty kale chips to the rescue.

 

What’s your favorite apple?

Do you cook with apples?

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Honeybell Oranges are finally here!

Do you like sweet oranges?  Do you prefer them to drip with juice? Yes, yes.  Then let me introduce you to Honeybell Oranges.  These oranges are a mix of tangerines and pomelos making them the sweetest, juiciest oranges around.  My best advice is eat them over the sink because you’ll have orange juice dripping down your arms.  I’m not kidding.

 

Honeybell Oranges are also known as Minneola Tangelos.  They are about the size of an adult fist and have a “stem neck” giving the fruit it’s distinctive bell shape.  Their skin is fairly thin making it a great orange to peel on the go.  Honeybell Orange season ranges from December to February, but they hit their peak in January.

At our market, we package our Honeybell Oranges in 5 pound bags.  I suggest you buy two bags, keep them in the refrigerator because chances are by the time you come back to our market looking for more they’ll be gone.  I’ve kept them in my fridge for about a month.  They might get a bit “ugly” on the outside, but they’ll be just fine inside.

If you can’t make it to our market, you can still enjoy these at home by ordering from our gift fruit department.  We have a few different packages with Honeybells.  If you like to get a mixed package, you can try the Parkesdale Sampler with Honeybell oranges, Ruby Red Grapefruits and seasonal tangerines for $30.95 (plus $10.95 shipping).

If you prefer just the Honeybells, then our packages start at $37.95 (plus $10.95 shipping) for a 1/4 bushel.  You’ll not be disappointed.  But better hurry, because they’ll be gone before you know it!

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New Year’s Eve Traditions

 

Does your family have special New Year’s Eve traditions?  Living in Plant City, we get a lot of customer requests for black eye peas  for their New Year’s Eve dinner.  That was a new one for me. Apparently, black eye peas must be eaten around midnight or during New Year’s Day for good luck. Check out these links for different ways to prepare your black eye peas:

http://nourishedkitchen.com/black-eyed-pea-cakes/

 

http://steamykitchen.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/black-eyed-peas-ham-recipe-6174.jpg

 

Our other must have item is grapes.  We double up on grapes because those will all be gone come New Years Eve.  Eating the grapes at midnight is something we always did growing up.  Our dinner was always arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas), pernil (roasted pork), and guineitos en escabeche (pickled bananas).  Now that I have my own family, we usually spend New Year’s Eve with friends that we don’t see on a regular basis.  The menu is the least of our worries.  In fact, I think last year we ordered pizza!

We’ve actually planned on cooking dinner this year.  The guys will be grilling.  We’ll be bringing some of our favorite things from our market: 🙂

The Market will be open on New Year’s Eve from 9 am to 3 pm.  We’ll be closed on New Year’s Day and will reopen January 2nd at 9 am.  We hope you have a Happy New Year with your loved ones and Best Wishes for the New Year from our family to yours! Happy New Year!

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