February 16, 2012 - Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard



I told Robin I wasn't going to join in on yet another special posting day, as I really prefer my blogs to be impromptu and about whatever subject happens to be on my mind at the time. I even hesitate to join in on Monday Harvest, as I'd prefer to blog about each harvest on the day it takes place.

But.....I *heart* Robin and Daphne, so I will do what I have to do. I think I will change my format a bit this year by blogging daily about the harvests, then doing a condensed version of the entire week on Mondays, and Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard isn't much different than my usual "Garden Dinners" posts, so I'll try to be a good Granny and contribute on occasion. Just don't expect me to be too good!

I usually cook meals that contain something that I've grown and/or preserved. I haven't been very good about photographing my meals through the winter, I just don't have the enthusiasm for it that I do when the garden is in full production. I did, however, remember to photograph one dinner this week....


The too thick pork chops I buy from Costco have to either be butterflied or cooked in the crock pot. This time I chose to crock pot, and used home canned tomatoes and home grown red sweet peppers from the freezer. The broccoli was the last of what was grown and frozen last year, and the parsley buttered noodles were prepared with home grown and dried parsley. Not shown are the frozen (thawed, of course) sweetened strawberries that we had for desert. They taste so much more like real strawberries than those I can buy, and probably have about half the sugar.


Please join Robin's Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard and let everyone know what you are using from your pantry!

28 comments:

  1. I love homegrown broccoli! Yesterday I used up all but one jar of tomatoes. There just weren't enough, really. Come on, summer!

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  2. Stefaneener, I am nearly out of canned tomatoes, running short on sauce, but overloaded with tomato juice. I found I just don't use much juice. I think I should dump it all in a big pot and boil it down to sauce! This year I'm going to try to can more crushed/diced tomatoes.

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  3. Awwh Granny, I *heart* you too! Thanks for doing something you didn't want too :)

    Your dinner looks fabulous! I made the mistake and bought a couple of those too think pork chops a couple of months ago.

    What's with this new word verification???

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  4. I'll be running out of strawberries just in time for the new harvest, just about out of broccoli , running low on taters-but they're all sprouting like fiends now anyway. Your meal looks SO delicioius. I'm surprised the neighbors don't all invade at suppertime. I've got a guy down the road that seems to have figured out I bake on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Want him???
    :D

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  5. I'm so bad with writing up posts that I should. I usually just write what hits me. Today I should have taken a photo of lunch. It was a pizza made with my onions, chard, and basil. But did I? Nope. I just never remember to photograph things. Though I have gotten good at Harvest Monday, but then I've been doing it for a while now.

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  6. Robin, I've taken to butterflying them or cutting them in half. One chop feeds two of us! I do wish they would cut them thinner, the meat is very good.

    Does my comment box have that new word verification thingy too? I thought it depended on what template you were using. I absolutely hate it.

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  7. AG glad to see you here on TKC. I cut my own porkchops and I do like them on the thick side. I usually brown them then bake them with cream soup and stove top stuffing. Both home made naturally.

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  8. Sue, don't you dare! I have a son who has already figured that one out ;-)

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  9. Daphne, I just keep my Monday photos in a special folder, but I think a montage of the week's harvest photos will come on Mondays, and the daily blog will have the main thing.

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  10. Yes Granny, you also have the new word verification. I don't like it one bit!

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  11. Your meals always look so comforting and delicious! I never join in those posts, either, I would say I can't remember or I'm lazy, but I like your explanation of being impromptu, it sounds better LOL.

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  12. Wilderness, I like my chops about 3/4" thick, but the ones from Costco are around 2". They cook up more like a pork roast than a chop!

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  13. Robin, I wish Google would just leave well enough alone! I didn't mind the single verification word, sometimes it was appropriate and funny! Just hate this new one!

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  14. Erin, we artistic types are like that *cough, cough*. ;-)

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  15. It looks delicious! You and Robin are wining 'bout nuthin'. Try typing only the word that is half shaded for verification. I've been ignoring the other word completely, and it works for me.

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  16. Granny - I'm so glad someone else still takes time to set a place setting!

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  17. Jody, really? I have no problem with the one word, it's the one that's all scrunched together on a black and white background that is terribly difficult to decipher. I'll try the one word, thanks!

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  18. David....but there's no salad fork or dessert spoon!

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  19. I love reading everyone's posts for Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard. However, I never think to take photos of my own meals prepared with preserved garden bounty.

    I tend to get stuck in a rut with our meal rotation and like seeing different ideas. I never think of cooking pork chops in a crock pot and I bet it is yummy slow cooked with homegrown tomatoes and peppers.

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  20. Rachel, it wasn't bad. It was a recipe from a website I subscribe to, and it did use some of the home grown ingredients, but I think it needed a bit more flavor to the sauce. If I make it again, I will probably add a bit of tomato paste. It would have been better, I think, simmered on the stove. The crock pot made it a bit too juicy, so I had to thicken the sauce with corn starch.

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  21. Unfortunately Annie, its the one the one that's all scrunched together on a black and white background that you have to decipher. It's hard for me to decipher too. At least you can ignore the other easy to read word.

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  22. I just discovered that, Jody. It would be the word that gives me all the trouble! I had no idea blogger had changed from the simple word verification to Captcha. I hate it, so I disabled it from my blog. Of course, I already had a spam post within minutes. Oh well, I read all comments before publishing them, so we'll see how it goes.

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  23. Last year was the first full year I did harvest Monday and I found my weekend posts morphed into the harvest Monday posts as I usually would do a big post on Sunday evening and don't have the time or energy to do one the very next morning for Harvest Monday. My weekend posts are the ones with the most "meat" of activity so I was losing that for a while. Now I just combine them and that seems to work. I may switch the combination though and put the harvest Monday at the end of the post rather than the top for 2012. I actually have not been able to do Thursday's cupboard because that is the day I do my mid week blog post and (again) I would end up combining it and then I would end up with no posts that are just "mine". I really don't want to blog more often than 2 or 3 times a week as I have a professional job and don't want the blog to become a job too...so I have set the limit of weekly memes to only harvest Monday as a result.

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  24. with all that green stuff, does mr. granny eat that?

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  25. Donna, he's not fond of broccoli (I make him eat it!), but he loves his salads. The parsley really doesn't have that much flavor, and he's never complained about that.

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  26. Kitsap, I hate schedules! I'm kind of the same way with my garden planning/planting. I plan a lot, then when it comes time to follow the plan I usually don't. I just "wing it". I like to do what I want to do when I want to do it!

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