Pork Chops with Red Mushroom Cream Gravy

Ingredients:

4 lean pork chops (preferably organic), trimmed of fat
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon real butter
1 can mushroom soup
1/2 cup chopped purple onion
1/2 cup Red Wine
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder
1/2 cup milk

Plum Mustard Garnish:

4 tablespoons hot honey mustard
8 tablespoons plum jam
1 tablespoon thyme

1. Mix to combine.

Serve with buttered asparagus and roasted corn on the cob.

1. Melt butter and olive oil in deep saucepan. Add seasoned (with salt, pepper and garlic powder) pork chops.
2. Slowly brown pork chops on both sides, about 10 minutes per side.

3. Remove pork chops from pan. Add onions and let cook about 2 minutes until soft. Pour in red wine, then scrape browned bits off the bottom of the pan into the sauce.

4. Let wine and onions simmer down for about 8 minutes, then add mushroom soup and milk, stirring to combine. Once the wine and onions have simmered down, the sauce should have reduced to look more like the photo below.

5. Place pork chops in gravy and cover. Let cook  for about 20 minutes, until pork chops have no pink left.

4. Serve with plum mustard garnish.

Buttered Monterey Jack Asparagus

1.After cleaning and trimming stalks,  roast the asparagus in glass pan with 1 tablespoon olive oil and 3 tablespoons butter. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cover in foil. Roast at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.
2.Grate Monterey Jack cheese. This is one of my favorite tools: the Royal Prestige grater, which grips the counter and has removable cup blades.

3. After 15 minutes, remove from oven and sprinkle with grated cheese, then let cook uncovered for 10 more minutes.

Additional Option: Pecan Italian Breadcrumbs to sprinkle over asparagus

I came up with this little mixture because we had some leftover Italian Loaf from my dad's birthday and I didn't want it to go to waste.

First, I tore up the loaf, then put it in open top foil, with som chopped pecans and toasted it at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, checking frequently. I removed it when it looked like this:

I then placed the whole mix into a heavy duty Ziploc bag and pounded it into a bread crumb texture.

You may use something like this to either sprinkle over the roasted asparagus or, if you have only cooked a part of a package of pork chops, to make breaded pork chops for tomorrow night!

Enjoy and let me know what you think!