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.