Mennonite Monday - Pork Chop Oven Dinner

Mennonite Monday started because I wanted to make recipes from the Bethesda Mennonite Church Cookbooks (both the yellow and the white cookbook for those of you who own them). I also wanted to take pictures of each recipe that I made, so I would know for future reference what the recipe should look like. I am by no means a great cook, but I think it will be fun to try new and different recipes each week. Not all of these recipes are for ethnic Mennonite food, but the women from Henderson know how to cook, so I can safely say that these recipes will be good. Check back each Monday for a new recipe and feel free to leave a comment if you have a favorite recipe from these cookbooks, or if you have some tips on what I should make and how I should make it.

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I will be the first to admit that I don't like to cook pork. I grew up on a farm with beef, so I am much more comfortable cooking any kind of beef. Nothing against the pork industry, I like the taste of pork, but I'm not sure how to make pork. However, I am building confidence will my pork cooking abilities and the recipe for this week, Pork Chop Oven Dinner, reassured me that pork is not that hard to cook after all. This recipe is found on page 153 of the white church cookbook for those of you planning to make it.

I will mention, this is a great recipe for Sunday lunch. I put the casserole together in the morning before church, set the bake and hold feature on my oven, and we had a hot meal ready when we got home. The best part about this recipe is even if you don't have bake and hold on your oven, you can pop it in the oven before you leave and it will be ready when you get home because it takes 2 1/2 hours to bake.

Pork Chop Oven Dinner
4 medium pork chops
1 can cream of mushroom soup
4 medium potatoes
1 soup can milk

Brown the chops in a skillet. Peel and slice potatoes and cut in 1/4" slices. Place potatoes in 9 x 13" pan. Cover potatoes with 1 can cream of mushroom soup mixed with the milk. Place browned chops on top of soup mixture. Cover with foil and bake for 2 to 2 1/2 hours at 300 degrees.

I started my pork chops in the skillet.

While the pork chops were browning I started peeling and slicing the potatoes.

The browned pork chops.

I used a pan slightly smaller than a 9x13, so I had two layers of potatoes.

I mixed the soup and milk together and then poured it over the potatoes.

and put the browned pork chops on top.

Covered with foil.

After 2 1/2 hours everything is ready.

I am definitely taking this meal to the field during harvest next fall, because it is so easy and the guys love meat and potato meals.

Mike definitely gave his approval of this meal and said it was very good and the meat was really tender. We didn't even need knives to cut the meat. I assumed I would get this type of response from him because his mother was the one that submitted the recipe.

Adventure

Mike and I were on an adventure this weekend.
We knew that taking 9 jr. highers to South Dakota (a 4 hour drive) would be interesting, but we had no idea what we were in store for.

We left after school on Friday.

Everyone was all smiles.

And full of sugar.

I love candy more than the next person, but I was very surprised at the bags of candy these girls packed. It was impressive.

On Saturday, Mike and I volunteered at camp. He worked on making bunk beds for new cabins and I worked in the kitchen.

We made Stromboli, which was really good.

Cooking for 50+ people was an interesting process. We started an assembly line with all of the ingredients lined up down the counter.

First the dough was rolled out into a rectangle.

Then we added several kinds of meat (sausage, turkey, salami and pepperoni) and two kinds of cheese.

Then we rolled them up and sprinkled them with seasoning.

It was a great meal, which I'm planning to try on my own in the future.

On Saturday afternoon, my college roommate and her husband picked me up and we went to Sioux Falls for the evening. It was so much fun to see their house, where they work, and what life is like for them now that they are married. Mike drove up to Sioux Falls for supper that evening. Dan and Tina took us to a great restaurant, Grille 26. We also ate with Evan and Mindy Kindt. Mike went to Swan Lake Camp with Mindy back in the day, so it was kind of a reunion.

Sorry no pictures of this part. I don't know what I was thinking.

We had planned to spend the majority of the evening in Sioux Falls, but the weather was deteriorating, so we thought it would be smart to head back to camp.

Our drive to camp was fine, but we did encounter blowing snow and a few drifts. Little did we know this was just a warm up for the drive home.

Sunday was the last day of camp and everyone was dismissed after lunch. Since the wind was blowing very hard and visibility was horrible, we decided to wait to see what the weather did before we left camp.

In the middle of the afternoon, our decision was made for us because Highway 81 was closed.

It was so windy the windows completely filled up with snow. We spent the afternoon reading, finishing a puzzle, and checking the weather conditions. The teenagers spent the afternoon watching tv, playing hide-and-seek and running all over the building, since there were only 12 kids at camp.

Around 10 pm the girls decided they were hungry for cookie dough. They were given the green light to make cookie dough if they could find someone to help them in the kitchen, so we made a batch of chocolate chip cookies. I know cookie dough is bad for you, but I only let them have two scoops each and we baked the rest.

I also learned that a convection oven bakes cookies much faster than my oven, so our cookies were on the brown side that night. In the morning the cookies were as hard as a rock, luckily we had enjoyed a good portion of them while they were fresh the night before.

The next morning we hung out waiting for the roads to open. Highway 81 never did open, so we decided to choose an alternate route and head west and then south down highway 14.

Luckily the lack of sleep from the night before meant we had tired campers on the ride home.
It was only for an hour, but they slept through the worst weather and roads, which helped us concentrate on the road.

Mike was a good driver. I had offered to drive if the roads were good on the way home, but that didn't happen.

This is what the roads looked like through South Dakota with blowing snow at ground level. Once in a while it was difficult to see because of blowing snow, but that usually didn't last long.

Once we crossed the boarder into Nebraska, the roads were much clearer.

We were happy to be home at 5:30 on Monday afternoon.

The campers were happy they missed a day of school.

Bad News

There will not be a Mennonite Monday post tomorrow :(

I had fully intended to get the post up tonight, but Mike and I are snowed in at Swan Lake Christian Camp in Viborg, South Dakota for the rest of today and will not be making the 4 hour drive back (with 9 jr. highers) until tomorrow morning.

Pray that we have safe travels tomorrow as we are incharge of very valuable cargo.

Liver Sausage

Today's post is dedicated to a pork delicacy so to speak. Liverwurst or Liver Sausage. This is one of the items that is made during butchering.

You need boiled liver

It looks like large mushrooms if you ask me.

The liver is cut into pieces and mixed with pork fat and meat.

You need a recipe which is naturally kept on the door of the spice cabinet.

It's a pretty simple recipe, which ground once all the ingredients are mixed together.

These are the casings, which you put the sausage into. You don't eat the casing.

Then you pump or crank the sausage into the casing.

Then the rings are boiled again.

I have tried liver sausage a few times. The best way to eat it is on a cracker with salt and pepper. If you are interested in trying liver sausage let me know we have a lot of it.

Butchering

WARNING: This is not a post for someone with a weak stomach. You will see blood and guts in this post, so if you can't handle please to not read any farther and come back on Monday when you can read about cooking and less messy things.

Last weekend was a butchering weekend in Stockham. Which is where a group of men and women get together and butcher hogs.

I'm not talking a few hogs.

There were 14 hogs.

This is a two day project, starting with live hogs on Friday afternoon and finishing up the butchering process on Saturday by evening.

I won't explain the little details, but I will lightly cover what happens during butchering.
The goal of Friday is to strip the hog down to nothing but meat and bones.

At this point the hog is split into two halves.

Then the hogs hang over night, so they can be processed in the morning.
That is quiet a line up.

Various parts of the pig soaking in water.

The meat is then cut into sections. Can you see the ribs?

Each family has a different way of processing the meat. Some make brats, some make breakfast sausage, pork chops and any other type of pork cut or product you can think of.

They render the lard in a big kettle to make cracklings.

In the beginning it doesn't look very good.

But after hours of stirring, the little pieces of meat can be sifted out and the lard can be saved for cooking or discarded. I got some lard, which I plan to use for some Mennonite Monday recipes in the future.

Check back on Friday, to see how liver sausage is made.

Mennonite Monday - Chocolate Revel Bars

Mennonite Monday started because I wanted to make recipes from the Bethesda Mennonite Church Cookbooks (both the yellow and the white cookbook for those of you who own them). I also wanted to take pictures of each recipe that I made, so I would know for future reference what the recipe should look like. I am by no means a great cook, but I think it will be fun to try new and different recipes each week. Not all of these recipes are for ethnic Mennonite food, but the women from Henderson know how to cook, so I can safely say that these recipes will be good. Check back each Monday for a new recipe and feel free to leave a comment if you have a favorite recipe from these cookbooks, or if you have some tips on what I should make and how I should make it.

~

This recipe is one of my all time favorites. The recipe for Chocolate Oatmeal Bars or Chocolate Revel Bars is found on page 78 of the white church cookbook.

Chocolate Oatmeal Bars or Chocolate Revel Bars

1 cup margarine
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
3 cups quick rolled oats
12 oz chocolate chips
1 can eagle condensed milk
2 tbl butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts - optional

Cream margarine, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla. Sift together four, soda and salt. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Stir in rolled oats. Spread 2/3 of the mixture in a 10x15" pan. Melt chocolate chips and milk. Add butter, salt and vanilla. Spread over top of first dough. Dot on the remaining dough. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. May add 1 cup chopped nuts to filling mixture.

Mixing the first ingredients.

Adding the dry ingredients.

Adding the oats.

Mixing the filling mixture. I do not use the chopped walnuts.

Pouring the chocolate mixture onto the base.

The dotted dough on the top of the bars.

The final product.

Mennonite Monday - Potato Salad

Mennonite Monday started because I wanted to make recipes from the Bethesda Mennonite Church Cookbooks (both the yellow and the white cookbook for those of you who own them). I also wanted to take pictures of each recipe that I made, so I would know for future reference what the recipe should look like. I am by no means a great cook, but I think it will be fun to try new and different recipes each week. Not all of these recipes are for ethnic Mennonite food, but the women from Henderson know how to cook, so I can safely say that these recipes will be good. Check back each Monday for a new recipe and feel free to leave a comment if you have a favorite recipe from these cookbooks, or if you have some tips on what I should make and how I should make it.

~

This week the winner was Potato Salad, so I chose the recipe on page 200 of the white church cookbook. Since there are three different recipes, I chose the middle one, which I have made before.

Potato Salad

10 red medium potatoes - boiled
6 hard boiled eggs
1 pint mayonnaise
salt and pepper
4 Tbls mustard
4 dill pickles, chopped
2 Tbls oil
celery salt to taste
chives, optional
2 medium onions, chopped

Peel and slice the potatoes; when warm add 6 hard boiled eggs, sliced; mix lightly with the remaining ingredients. Add 4 Tbls mustard.

I have tried several different ways to make hard boiled eggs. Okay I know it is easy to hard boil eggs because all you need is eggs and water, but I have found it is hard to not under cook or over cook the eggs. This time I used some instructions from the Mennonite Country-Style Recipes, which worked very well.

Place eggs in pan and cover with cold water. Cover pan and heat just to the boiling point. Reduce heat to keep eggs just simmering - not a rolling boil. (Bubbles should just break the surface of the water.) Simmer for 18 minutes. Immediately pour off hot water and run cold water over eggs. Peel in just a few minutes for easier peeling. If eggs are cooked at too high a temperature, are cooked too long, or are not cooled immediately, a dark greenish or grayish coating may form on the outside of the yolk. This is not harmful to eat, but spoils the appearance. Overcooking also toughens the white.

I boiled my potatoes with the skin on. Then when the potatoes are done cooking, the peel just falls off.

This is easier than peeling each potato in my opinion, but you do have to work with hot potatoes.

After the potatoes are peeled, I diced them into small pieces.

Dice the eggs.

I almost never cut onions by hand anymore. Chopping onions in a small food processor is so easy, quick and the onions don't burn your eyes, so you don't even cry.

This recipe uses a full pint of mayo. That is a lot, but that is why it is so creamy.

I also use plain dill relish because it is easier to use than to chop my own pickles.

This recipe makes a big batch, so make sure you are planning to feed a good number of people when you make it or be prepared to eat it for a week.