Time for fall! Sweaters, boots, cozy nights by the firepit. Even though it was 80 degrees last Friday night, I was hell bent on making the perfect fall meal. And I had just had the most amazing porkchops at my friend Alex's wedding in the Berkshires. And I had a brand new Cuisinart food processor I wanted to use for everything. And I'd just watched Ina make the most amazing mac & cheese on the food network. It came together pretty nicely; pork with the apples, the apples with the cheese. Bingo.
One of my good friends, Ursula, was in town; rather than spending a ton of money at a fancy downtown dinner with all of our friends, we decided it would be more fun to have dinner at my house. Since I work from home, I usually have more than enough time to grocery shop and prepare everything in advance. If you do not work from home, everything I made can be prepared several days in advance (I had an unexpectedly busy Friday so was glad that I did). If you have a couple of hours after work, make the applesauce in advance (it stays fine for a long time in the fridge), grate the cheese (the most pain in the ass part of the entire meal), marinate the porkchops, and prepare the brussels. By Friday or Saturday or whatever night you decide to make this meal, all you will need to do is quickly assemble and cook. Notes about this dinner: You can make everything without a food processor, I was just desperate to use mine. Unfortunately I got a little trigger happy with the cuisinart on the applesauce and made about 8 cups of baby food. TOO smooth. Remedied by adding 2 extra cooked apples that I just mashed/mixed with a whisk, perfect fix and added just the right amount of texture. I now have applesauce coming out my ears so menus around here might be pork heavy for the next couple of weeks. Everything else was pretty tasty; watch the pork temp because it cooks fast. Our friend Charlotte is an amazing baker so she brought an apple crisp/cobbler which was the perfect dessert for this meal.
I really wanted to set a nice fall table, so I used my friend Kendall's fall tablecloth that was here from a party we had last fall. I went to Crate and Barrel and got 6 napkins, napkin rings, and orange candles for the hurricanes. I sort of hated the flowers that I got from the store but I ended up running out of time and couldn't do a different arrangement. If I could have done it differently, I would have regrouped and done a short arrangement with pumpkins or something else accenting the table. Unfortunately I am not Martha Stewart and had to just let the imperfect table go in favor of my actual job.
Porkchops
Mix Together in a Bowl:
-1/2 cup honey
-1/2 cup apple cider/applejuice (cider was harder to find than I anticipated)
-1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
-1/4 cup olive oil
-2 tbs chopped FRESH oregano (optional)
-1 tbs each salt and pepper
Put in a large ziploc bag with 6 bone-in porkchops (or however many you want- I had one non-pork eater so swapped in a chix breast and just froze the extra chop in some marinade in a ziploc). You can also save any extra marinade to use as salad dressing if you add a touch more olive oil to it (make sure it hasn't been mixed in with the pork). Marinate the chops for a few hours or overnight.
To Cook:
-Oven will be heated to 375 for the macaroni and cheese (which has been baking for about 20 minutes at this point)
-Put a pan on the stove, med/high heat
-Brown each porkchop for about 2 min on each side
-Transfer to a glass, metal, or ceramic baking dish, cover in the rest of the marinade
-Cook for about 15-20 minutes more until pork reaches an internal temp of at least 160-165 or is white when you cut into it
Gruyere Macaroni and Cheese
This is a knockoff of Ina Garten's recipe; I don't put the tomatoes on top and I added/changed a couple of things. If you want to be really fancy, you can put these into individual ramekins for each guest. If you want to serve it as a main dish for a few people, you can buy gratin dishes for about $5 each and serve it in those as well.
Ingredients:
-1 box of cavatappi noodles (you can use elbow mac as well, I think cavatappi are prettier)
-1 quart of milk
-1 stick of butter (save 2 tbs for the top)
-1/2 cup flour
-12 oz gruyere, grated (4 cups)
-8 oz sharp cheddar, grated (2 cups)
-1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
-salt and pepper
-1/4 c grated parmesan
Directions:
-Heat oven to 375
-Cook the macaroni until it is al dente (make sure you salt the water). Put aside.
-Melt 2 tbs of butter and mix into breadcrumbs. Put aside.
-Melt 6 tbs of butter in a saucepan/pot. Add the flour, cook for 1 minute. Add the milk and cook until it is smooth.
-Let milk/butter/flour cool and add the grated cheeses and 1 tsp pepper.
-Mix in the noodles, pour into a large casserole dish and cover with the buttery breadcrumbs. Sprinkle parmesan all over.
-Cook at 375 for 30 minutes or until cheese is bubbling on the sides.
Applesauce
Ingredients:
-3-4 apples (any work, I used honeycrisp)
-1/4 cup sugar
-1 tbs cinnamon
-zest of 1 lemon
-pinch of salt
Directions:
-Peel the apples and cut into 1-2 inch cubes. Boil in a pot of water until they are soft and you can break them apart with a fork (about 15 min)
-Drain water from pot and mash with a whisk or fork. Add lemon zest, sugar, cinnamon, and salt (more of anything if needed).
-Cool and serve with the porkchops.
Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Truffle Oil
I usually make these with regular olive oil and they are delicious. But I found truffle oil at the grocery recently so now I'm trying it out! It gives the vegetables an element of flavor that is subtle but so good.
Ingredients:
-1 bag of brussels sprouts
-1 tbs salt
-1tbs pepper
-1/4 cup truffle oil
-1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
Directions:
-Prepare the brussels sprouts by cutting off the bottoms and then slicing them in half. Place into a large ziploc bag
-Add truffle oil, salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese to the ziploc bag. Toss and set bag aside until ready to roast (I did this days in advance which was fine)
-Spread onto a baking sheet (I line mine with tin foil for easier clean up). Roast in the 375 oven for about 20 minutes (put these in at them same time as you put the pork in, for everything to be ready at about the same time).
Fall Salad
I was pretty ambitious last week and thought that, with the apple theme, I'd do a salad with apples, candied pecans, and blue cheese. This is completely not necessary and I usually just put some arugula on the table tossed with a vinaigrette dressing (recipe somewhere else on this blog). Regardless, it was one of the most delicious salads I have ever made and I would definitely recommend going through the hassle if you have enough time in advance to candy the pecans (they are difficult to find in stores but super easy to candy yourself). Re: Candied Pecans- these are delicious and very easy to make. They are fantastic in a little ramekin on the side of your cheese platter.
Ingredients:
-1 container/box of arugula
-1/2 apple, skin on or off, sliced thinly
-About 1/4 wedge of good blue cheese, chopped or crumbled
-1/4 cup candied pecans
-2 tbs-1/4 cup vinaigrette, or use some of the porkchop marinade which you reserve
Directions:
-To candy pecans- chop pecans. Melt 2 tbs butter and 2 tbs brown sugar in a pan on the stove. Add pecans, toss around and cook for 3-5 mins. Spread on a cookie sheet covered in wax paper, let cool.
-Toss the rest of the ingredients together, add salad dressing last. Do not chop up the apple until you are ready to serve or it will turn brown.
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