Wrangling Mealtime. . .

It's a somewhat chilly spring day, rain soaking the ground in a constant blatter, and you've been working since early in the morning, stopping only for a cup of coffee when your brain became conscious enough of the time.  We've all been there.  For me, working today meant finishing up some woodworking projects and trying to make a little more progress on the workshop, itself.  It's spring break, so the kids have been helping me--there's nothing that keeps you apprised of mealtimes so much as four kids asking "what's for dinner" in quadraphonic stereo.

In situations like these, you find yourself wanting to take the easy way out, because cooking a full meal means more work.  Well, that's usually the case, but today I had my mind on some "cowboy" pork chops that I had recently acquired and wanted to be creative with.  Despite what one would think, pork is probably one of the easiest things to cook, especially if you pair it with simple items.  Tonight, we baked potatoes and garnished with sauteed onions and mushrooms, but I'm getting ahead of myself. . .

A "cowboy" cut is, simply, a rib-eye style pork chop, cut straight off the rack with the bone left in.  It is usually thicker than your average pork chop, and very well marbled.  They are excellent grilled or fried, but when you want to take the easy route, baking is the way to go.

Now, the guidelines on what is "done" have changed a bit for pork, but they are pretty straightforward.  As I mentioned in "Cooking for Adventurers", it is impossible to tell by sight alone whether or not your protein has been thoroughly cooked; for that, you need a meat thermometer.  For pork, it must be cooked to an internal temperature of 145° and allowed to rest for three minutes.  You might prefer to cook it to a higher temperature, as this could still leave a bit of a pinkish cast to the meat, but that is entirely your call.  Pork chops usually are done within 20 minutes if baked at 450°, but these chops are quite large, and I have allotted more cook time.

Tonight's meal also calls for the use of a dry rub.  I used a grilling blend that I normally reserve for red meats but, as I said, I wanted to get creative.  Here's what I did tonight:

COWBOY PORK CHOPS

• 1 Cowboy chop for everyone in your group
• 1 Large onion, cut into petals
• 6 oz. fresh mushrooms (or 1 can, drained)
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• Seasoned pepper (to taste)
• Dry rub of your choice (try 1 Tbsp. each of Garlic powder, Onion powder, and  Black pepper with 2 Tsp. Cayenne and Sea salt)
• Barbeque sauce (approx. 1/4 to 1/3 cup)
• 6-8 oz. any type of beer

Heat oven to 450°.  Rub chops with one Tbsp. olive oil, then massage in a generous amount of dry rub.  Arrange on a baking sheet and cook for 20 minutes.

Heat 1 Tbsp. olive oil in a saute pan, then cook onions, stirring constantly, until they just start to become tender.  Add the mushrooms and continue to saute for about another two minutes.  Add beer to the pan and sprinkle with seasoned pepper.  Reduce heat just enough to keep the beer simmering, energetically.  The goal is to just about cook off all the juices.  If you're really good, you'll time this just so as to finish the garnish at the same time as the pork chops!

Take the chops out of the oven at the 20 minute mark, but leave the oven on.  Coat chops on the top and sides with barbecue sauce and put them back in the oven to cook for 12 minutes more.

And that's basically it!  Like I said, we went with baked potatoes to go along with them, but the plate could just as easily be finished out with baked or sauteed veg.  How complex you want to be is entirely your choice.

Meals fit for adventurers do not have to be complex, nor do they have to take up your entire day in the preparation.  Don't forget to subscribe to the email list (the link is off to the right) so you don't miss any of my frequently infrequent posts.  While you're at it, you can visit the Cooking for Adventurers FB fan page here, and you can even pop over to the store at Copper Island Makerspace's website and buy my book!  You will help feed the starving author, obtain a valuable learning tool, and help pave the way for my next couple of books, "With Great Food Comes Great Responsibility"

and "AAAAAIIIGGGH! and Other Noises your Electrician Shouldn't Make".

The Needs of the Many. . .

While writing "Cooking for Adventurers", I came to a realization--I no longer find cooking for a few easy.  Normally, it is just the opposite.  Normal people can cook for themselves and one or two people easily, yet have difficulty cooking for large groups.  I have been cooking for a houseful for so long that I have difficulty scaling things down.

Our weeks are, like most families', ridiculously hectic.  The kids have school and after-school activities, Kim has her girl scouts, and I work, literally, all over the place.  At least once a week we make something that generates huge amounts of excess servings, in order to accommodate the need for lunches and quickie meals when making something new isn't an option.  Large pots of chili, Brunswick stews, or burgoo usually fit the bill well.  In fact, burgoo will generate more than you can handle with storage containers and reused butter bowls alone, so you have to invite friends and family over when you make it (I'm pretty sure the word, "burgoo", is probably an old, Native American word for "you are going home with leftovers").

Today, we took advantage of the excellent weather and drove to a favorite spot of ours, up north.  Though there is still an abundant pile of snow on the landscape, many places that were buried have begun to open up, thanks to some unseasonably warm weather over the last couple of weeks, including one of my favorite fishing holes.  It was getting pretty late by the time we made our way home and my father, who is diabetic, had to eat pretty soon after we arrived, so I needed a fairly simple solution.  We had been discussing the absence of salmon in our recent diet, so the decision was made:  Salmon patties!

Now, don't get too put off by the size of this recipe.  I was cooking for four adults and four kids tonight.  I'll tell you how to cut it down, also.

SALMON PATTIES

4 Cans Salmon (14.75 oz.)
1 Cup bread crumbs
1 Medium onion, diced
4 eggs
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp. Olive oil
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
Salt & Pepper to taste

Dice the entire onion and saute in olive oil until they become soft and semi-translucent.  Set aside to cool.

Mix Salmon with bread crumbs, eggs, and Worcestershire Sauce, then mix in the onions.  Form into patties,  This amount of ingredients will yield approximately 20 hamburger-sized patties ( 2.5" diameter x .5" thick)

Melt butter in a saute pan over medium heat and cook patties until done throughout (they will be a golden brown on both sides)--this usually takes 3-4 minutes on each side.  Adjust your heat if they are browning too quickly.

IF YOU'RE NOT COOKING FOR A SMALL ARMY. . .

1 Can Salmon
1/4 Cup bread crumbs
1 Smallish onion, diced
1 Egg
2 Tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp. Olive oil
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter

Follow the directions above!

Don't be disappointed if they don't want to stay together the first time or two you make them.  There are several factors that will affect the mixture, including the natural juices in the salmon and even the absorbency of the bread crumbs.  Once you become skilled at making the patties, you can actually make little salmon loaves out of this mix (or one big one, if you use the larger recipe).

Those of you with large families will understand the struggle of downsizing what you would normally cook.  For us, I'm not entirely certain what we are going to do when the kids are all grown and out of the house; we'll probably have friends over for dinner more often.  If you get an invite from us, bring your own empty butter bowls. . .

Breaking a Few Eggs. . .

Admittedly, I get lazy sometimes.  The whole reason I wrote a cookbook was because of the idea to organize all of my recipes into one well-ordered location.  On that note, this has been a difficult week--work has been especially demanding, some sort of alien space plague has been circulating through the members of the household, and in situations like this, cooking complex meals is sort of a low-priority interest.  It's times like these when the adventurer falls back on simpler times.  Thoughts of ramen-fueled college nights and your fondness for fried bologna start to pop into your head when you come home after a 12 hour shift and have to make certain everyone is still alive.  It's times like these when you remember how good "breakfast for dinner" can be.

I learned a long time ago that, if you needed something good and quick, eggs in the fridge were your best choice.  As a rule, unless you insist on being complicated, eggs cook up quickly and easily; plus, with the myriad of ways they can be prepared, you could eat them every night (or morning) of the week and have something different each time.  Eggs have, on average, 6 grams of protein each, which also make them a good post-workout food.  That being said, eggs have been on both sides of the nutritional fence over the last several decades, due in no small part to the fact that they have, on average, 187 mg of cholesterol each.  The thing is, your body makes its own cholesterol, so it will be in your system whether you eat that egg or not.  Some people have high cholesterol because their bodies do not recognize that they are ingesting it adequately enough through their diet, and it doesn't slow down its own production.  On the other side of the coin, you can also have high cholesterol from eating too much and leading a non-active lifestyle.  Good rule of thumb:  visit your doctor once and a while.

Unless you're making a ridiculously complex frittata, most egg dishes can be cooked in a few minutes with little fuss.  Poached eggs take approximately three minutes, and scrambled generally take a bit less.  When I scramble eggs, I usually mix everything into the container I'm beating the eggs in and pour it all into the pan at once (except sausage--you want to make sure it is thoroughly cooked).

POACHED EGGS-->

• Bring water to a steady simmer in a small saucepan
• Add a dash of vinegar to the water
• Crack the egg into a small cup or bowl (this makes inserting it into the water much easier)
• Stir the water in the pan until you get a steady "whirlpool" motion.  This helps hold the egg together when you pour it in
• Pour the egg into the center of the whirlpool, as close to the surface as you can manage
• Don't stir it, touch it, poke it, or even look at it sternly.  It will cook in three minutes
• Take the egg out of the water with a slotted spoon and drain it for a bit on a paper towel

When done properly, a poached egg will usually be teardrop-shaped with a firm white and runny yolk.  Don't be discouraged if it doesn't turn out well the first dozen times you try this.

If you absolutely insist on trying to poach eggs in the microwave (which can, by the way, cause them to explode), crack an egg into a half-cup of water in a small, microwaveable container and cover it with a plate.  Microwave on high for a minute.  If, after a minute, it still isn't quite right, cook it no more than 15 seconds at a time until it's done.

SCRAMBLED EGGS-->

By far, the easiest method, scrambling an egg consists of cracking your eggs into a bowl or measuring cup, and then beating them to within an inch of their lives before pouring them into a hot pan.  The more vigorously you beat the eggs, the fluffier they will be.

• Beat eggs, adding anything you think that would go well with them.  Salt, pepper, sliced mushrooms, onions, cheese, or even salsa!
• Heat around two tablespoons of butter in a nonstick pan over medium heat (or use cooking spray, if butter gives you the heebie-jeebies)
• Pour in the eggs, folding them as they solidify.  With the flipper inverted, pull them across the pan.  This gives them that fluffy, curd-shape.  Keep folding until they are completely cooked.
• Serve immediately!  I'm not sure what the R-value is on the average egg, but they cool off quickly.

Even in "Cooking for Adventurers" I shied away from getting too in-depth with frying eggs.  The method is simple; you crack an egg into a hot pan and cook it until it stops wiggling enough for you to enjoy eating it.  Whether you flip or not depends on the heat and your liking for "Sunnyside up" vs. "Over Easy".  I have, on occasion, used vegetable rings (onions, peppers, etc.) to better contain and flip the eggs, and I have accidentally fried the eggs I intended to use for my chow mien stir fry, because I got way ahead of myself.

One fun note:  People tend to avoid cooking eggs in cast iron pans, as the eggs will (harmlessly) take on a greenish color.

But, there you go--the rudiments of cooking the simple egg.  They're good for when you want to be fancy, or when you're feeling lazy.  The egg doesn't judge.  I've paired them with bacon, steak, and even the aforementioned fried bologna.  We'll get into some more complex recipes in the near future, including a Finnish dessert that everyone loves, and is ridiculously simple to make.  As a matter of fact, I have this weekend off; maybe I'll show you guys how to make your own bologna. . .