g's little kitchen: French Pork Chops

Goodness! Is it ever hot outside! I am so thankful for air conditioning because we have been living in the world of 90 degree plus heat for the past few weeks. Last week we visited my parents and suffered through 100 degree days. Well, it’s July after all and what I hear is that this type of heat is great for tomatoes. And now I’m daydreaming of winter tomato based soups. Ahhhhh….

One of the challenges I have in this heat is keeping the house cool around dinner time. I finally smartened up in the kitchen with this meal and made something for dinner in the slow cooker. It’s so hard to pull myself away from the stove and oven. I love to chop and stir and season and it’s difficult to stir when you use a slow cooker. But in this heat you really can’t go wrong with a slow cooker.

I found this recipe years ago and tried it out for my then soon to be husband. He loved it. I happily added this to my rotation of meals that we have for dinner. I don’t make it too often since I’m not a huge pork fan, but I know husband loves pork so I like to make it for him a few times a year. And honestly, since I don’t really like pork I don’t want to spend a ton of time making it so this recipe is perfect!

I made very few changes to this recipe. I use fresh carrots instead of frozen since I typically have a huge container of carrots in the fridge for snacking. I slice the mushrooms myself if it’s cheaper to do so (it isn’t always which I find interesting). Usually cannellini beans are expensive, so I usually use great northern beans. Sometimes I use pork chops, sometimes I use boneless pork ribs. I may in the future try more than four cuts of meat as I always end up with lots of veggies at the end of the meal. I’ve also thought about adding some small red potatoes to the slow cooker. The few potatoes you get from the soup just aren’t enough for this potato fiend. The original recipe calls for a bread crumb topping but I omitted it because I don’t like bread crumb toppings.

If you don’t have herbs de Provence in your spice collection try making your own. I normally have to pick up some lavender from World Market but I have everything else that I need in my spice jars. I really believe in making my own spice mixes and making my own HDP helps me use some of my spices I don’t use very often.

Enjoy!