Well, second to my Weber grill would be our cast iron pan. I think we bought it about 5 years ago, and it's seen everything in it. Bacon, eggs, steak, chicken, stir frys, and pork. Speaking of pork, that happens to be a little dish I put together for the family for dinner while they were running late after work and daycare. The meal I made was pork loin chops with a mushroom and snow pea side. The salad came later.
I love these one-pan meals. It's easy enough, and if need be, you can throw it all back in the pan and put it on warm in the oven. To start this one, I bought three pasture-raised pork loin chops from our local food cooperative. I drenched both sides in salt and pepper.
I then threw some avocado oil in the pan; don't mind the mess. That happens to be leftovers from a some fried eggs we made the night before. Additional seasoning, as I like to call it.
After letting the pan warm up on medium-high heat for a few minutes, I threw the meat on. The plan was to sear each side four minutes, and then take it off the heat. While the first four minutes were frying away, I went to work on the mushrooms.
I then destemmed the mushrooms and quartered them.
Time for the flip!
Not bad! Looking good, and smelling great. I then rinsed off the snow peas, and let them drain in the sink.
The final four minutes completed and at minute number eight, I transferred the pork to a baking tray and covered it with tin foil.
Now time to "cast iron up" the mushrooms and peas...so I added a bit more oil to the pan.
Threw the mushrooms and peas on, and added more salt and pepper to the mix:
After eight more minutes of stirring and frying, the mix looked as such:
Liza managed to get home while I was grilling up the mushrooms and peas, and whipped up a greens, tomatoes, and feta cheese salad with some vinagrette, and wallah! Dinner was ready to go!
Not a bad mid-week dinner at all. Teamwork at its best. Don't worry, we'll clean that cast iron before the next cast iron extravaganza (maybe, that is). In the meantime, let me know what you think. If you are into pork, I'd recommend this one. Next time, I'd like to switch out the peas for green beans, so that might be a new tweak to try in the future.
Thanks as always for stopping by and giving this a read. Hoping everyone is having a wonderful Thursday night out there!