Dinner @ Grandma’s

When Lesa announced that Pork & Rice were determined as January’s Improv Challenge ingredients, my mind (& taste buds) immediately flashed back to favorite meals at Grandpa & Grandma Hull’s house. Didn’t matter who or what time someone showed up to their home, everyone was welcomed to the dinner table. Usually dinner was accompanied by Grandma’s fabulous sponge bread.

Anyhow, my most memorable meal there was a dish she fixed quite often: Pork chops baked on a bed of rice and sauerkraut.

I decided to use my every day brown rice blended with a touch of some Lundberg Black Japonica™  rice.The sauerkraut was made from the lacto-fermented cabbage I started a couple weeks ago.Grandma usually baked her meal in a 9x13 casserole… that size would not be appropriate for the appetites seated around my table.

After the rice was cooked on the stove, I browned an onion to blend in with the rice, kraut & some roasted red pepper.The chops were seared in my cast iron skillet, then placed atop the rice mixture.

With the oven heated to 350°, I popped the pan in for about 45 minutes to finish.

(My grandma usually used white rice & canned sauerkraut which would crisp up so nicely while roasting -- a few of us had been known to tussle over the nicely browned bits of tastiness…)What a lovely Sunday dinner!

Click the links below to see what my friends did with their rice & pork:

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

trifling with chocolate

Please Lord, never let anyone institute Chocoholics Anonymous, 'cause I don't wanna be cured!

Because I wished to show off highlight use my trifle bowl for Christmas Day dessert, I started plotting a few weeks prior what lovely ingredients would be showcased that evening. In the past I'd done raspberry & white chocolate, key lime, strawberries & cream -- even, ashamedly, a Twinkie & cherry trifle (gorgeous, by the way...) Selfishly, I decided to please myself and created a chocolate fantasy. It is chocolate cake, chocolate pudding & cocoa-rum whipped cream:

(Well, if I would've truly realized my fantasies, I'd have added chocolate chips 

and chocolate syrup...)

The cake recipe is from the Depression Era. (Can you believe this is the first time I've tried this recipe?!?) It is egg-less & milk-less. It is incredibly moist & chocolaty without being too sweet. It is called "Wacky Cake" because of the ingredients.
Sift the dry ingredients together into an 8x8 pan. (no need to spray or grease)

Make three holes in dry mixture and put vanilla in one, oil in the next, and vinegar in the last.

Pour cold water over all

and stir.

Bake in 350° oven for 25 - 30 minutes.

After the cake cooled, I cut it into squares. I crumbled about a third of them into the bottom of my dish. I topped that with a third of my pudding.

(yes - this package uses a gallon of milk & makes over 4 quarts of pudding
no - I did not make the entire package
and yes - I very much wanted to!)

Onto the pudding went my cocoa-rum layer.

(sift cocoa & XXX sugar, add to cream, whip, add rum & whip until peaks form)

I repeated this to fill the dish, reserving some of the cake for topping.

I'm linking up to Sheryl's Cast Party Wednesday.