Sunday's Dinner...

Can't remember if I told you or not that Poppy has herself a new smoker. She bought this with the gift card that the Donner-Mae's gave her. Last night, she smoked pork chops! INFINITY NOM!!!



First I made a brine of in 2 cups of chicken stock, 1/4c salt, 1/4c brown sugar, a big splash of cider vinegar, two bay leaves and a hand full of peppercorns. Heated that until the salt and sugar dissolved, then added two cups of ice water; then added the pork chops. Those brined for about 3 hours.

Poppy put them to the smoker. I believe she used cherry wood. I made a sauce of plum preserves made by friend, Jeanette. The plums were from her Mom's tree. To that I added some red wine vinegar, a little balsamic, a little salt and some crushed red pepper flakes.

For the veg, I made some Euro greens. I sauteed an onion in pig fat, added a cup of chicken stock flavored w/Kecky's Southwest Seasoning and some vinegar; added the greens and cooked them down.

I also sliced two russet potatoes into thick chips, coated them with olive oil, salt, pepper and a little of the Kecky's Southwest Seasoning and cooked them at 425 until they were crispy and brown. NOM!

I also made some chicken stock yesterday. I cracked and roasted the bones first before making the stock.



Of course, Sunday wouldn't be complete without a house project. This project was very exciting too. First, the fence along neighbor-Chan's yard has that bamboo stuff stapled to it. I suppose this is to give some privacy from Neighbor-Chan's backyard which is filled to the brim with all kinds of construction stuff...yep, even a kitchen sink. So I took that off the fence. No easy task since the stairs that Neighbor-Chan built hug that fence pretty tight.



Once I got the fence off, Poppy took over. Her part of the project was to seal the bottom wood parts of the stairs to keep the water off. Dad told Poppy about this caulking product that can be used as a water proofer and sealer. Same stuff you put in driveway cracks. Anyway, Poppy went to town and spend the next 4 hours sealing the wood. It's very neat and pretty:



Happy Monday!