Something to do with this journal anyways :-D I phail at blogging.

Not many people know this, among my accomplishments in life...I'm a certified chef, even got the paper to prove it. We're talking a piddly little community college certification program, hardly a Cordon Bleu graduation (heck, it's not even a Rotisserie Chicken graduation), but...I might've become a chef in a restaurant. If I hadn't learned that I hate the assembly-line, rigidly-proportioned type of cooking that generally goes on in your average restaurant anyway. I like to experiment, explore...and while I'll look at recipes to lovingly kype ideas, follow 'em to the letter? Nah...so, this is neither a rigidly-defined recipe nor one in which I insist you do things My Way, I encourage y'all to do your own experiments, and I'll give some suggestions along the way for variations on the theme.

With that in mind...just invented today, in fact:

Baked Apple Stuffing Pork Chops

General list of ingredients:

4-6 boneless lean pork chops, depending on size, butterfly cut a must (boneless pork loin chops can be used and cut butterfly-fashion, what I did in fact, more on that later)

Breading (Shake and Bake works well, seasoned breadcrumbs will do fine)

Stuffing (from scratch, Stove Top, your preference here)

Around 1/4 cup dehydrated apples (soft, not apple chips)

1/2 cup sliced mushrooms (if canned, drain first)

One can cream of mushroom soup (or equivalent)

Seasonings to taste

Prep and cooking time, around 2 hours.

Making the stuffing is the first part...what I used was Stove Top's 'Savory Herb' flavor, but that's neither here nor there. Any variety of stuffing that tastes good with pork will work. Rice could be substituted for the stuffing for a somewhat less heavy recipe (I considered using Rice-a-Roni in fact). Prepare stuffing, set it aside (no, I'm not gonna walk people through following the directions on a box of Stove Top, if you can boil water without burning it you can make that stuff), then chop up the apples until they're pieces perhaps 1/4 to 1/2 inch in size (no need to be exact), and mix them in with the stuffing. You thought it was gonna be hard to make this part, huh? Set aside while you prepare the pork chops. The apples will cook fine when they're in the oven, and unlike the pork are perfectly good raw in any case, so I saw no need to put them in the stuffing while it cooked. The goal is soft bits of apple in the stuffing, moist, not hard bits of fruit that'll break your teeth.

The pan you use will depend...on what you've got, of course, I used a roasting pan, probably 12" by 18". What is wanted is one that the chops will fit into fairly snugly, with a little room for what stuffing doesn't go into the chops. Too big a pan and I fear the soup will run off and get too far away from the food, flavor wasted when it could be doing some good.

Up to you whether you line the pan with aluminum foil (I did), I recommend however lightly greasing the bottom, and sides if the food will touch those, Pam spray works quite well for this. Don't want the things swimming in oil, but you do want them to come out of the pan without sticking to it. Once the pan is prepared, this is a good time to preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, no idea what it would be Celsius

If needed, cut the chops as required...I found some big honkin' (like, over an inch thick) pork loin chops, which I cut butterfly-fashion--brief explanation, what we want is the ability to fold the chop around the stuffing, imagine the chop as composed of two halves resembling a butterfly's wings, still connected in the middle, that's what we're after.

It's not really difficult, just need a sharp (serrated, preferably) knife and steady hands; if there's a bit of fat on one edge of the chop, like what I had, it's easiest to stand the chop up on that edge just because trying to cut through the fatty layer sucks muchly, hold the chop (carefully, no cutting the fingers! There's enough protein in this recipe without adding your own) and slice vertically until you've got maybe a half-inch of uncut meat holding the two parts together. Kinda looks like a butterfly, like I said. Sometimes you can find butterfly pork chops in the store, and miss all this excitement with sharp knives near your precious digits, sometimes...just gotta make your own. Pork loin chops tend to be a little cheaper per pound than butterfly ones, from what I've seen.

Yes, if you're really patient (and picky!) you could cut little pockets out of the chops, but I personally think little pork hot dog buns filled with stuffing is quite acceptable. And look rather nice once cooked. To each their own, eh?

Breading them is easy...particularly if you cheat and use Shake 'n Bake, the Extra Crispy recipe worked quite well...I like being able to just moisten them with water, toss 'em in a plastic bag with the breading mixture of choice in it, shake it madly so they're coated well, and put them in the pan, folded over (close the 'wings' of the butterfly, basically).

You may have noticed that neatness counts for very little in this recipe. I think the finished product could stand up well to scrutiny based on looks as well as taste, putting it on a plate with a nice garnish (parsley, little radish flowers, whatever), but a French chef I ain't. Yes, I can make radish flowers. Do I? Hell no.

Now, put a generous portion of the stuffing into the folded chops--don't worry if you can't close them flat, you don't really want to anyway. Best if the top portion of the chop is sticking up at around a 45 degree angle. Stuffing will squeeze out when you cut them (later when you're eating them, that is), but that's half the fun. Work the rest of the stuffing (you'll probably have some left over) around the chops, no sense in it going to waste.

Season as needed and desired, my preference was fresh-ground pepper and some seasoning from a local place, pepper, garlic, and onion flavor mostly. 'Bob Tallman's Ranch Fixin's' 'Stampede Steak' seasoning, is what I used if anybody's curious, http://www.bobtallman.com/products.htm ...but again, season to taste. Experiment, live a little! Other stuff that could be used includes grated cheese, fine-chopped tomatoes...this recipe could be reworked in a lot of ways I think. Don't want to add TOO much moisture, though, I don't think, might make the stuffing soggy. Dunno about y'all, but stuffing that can slip through a strainer without touching the sides turns me off.

Put your seasoned, breaded and stuffed pork chops in the oven for around half an hour, forty-five minutes, enough to brown the breading a bit. Middle rack seemed to work well for me. No need for a cover over them, I think at least, there was no splattering to decorate the inside of the oven and make a huge mess, and the breading seemed to work well to keep all the flavors inside the meat. Browned, it didn't get soggy in the next steps.

Remove from oven (leave the oven on, you'll be using it again soon!), take your mushrooms (canned are fine, like I said, but drain 'em well, fresh mushrooms would work quite well too I'm sure) and distribute them on top of the chops. By which I mean, dump 'em on there, preferably not with too much of 'em in one place. The mushrooms, I should add, are optional, I like them, those who don't like them so much, leave 'em out. Again a good many things could be substituted (onions come to mind, ditto bell peppers), or even no added fungus or vegetable, up to you. If anybody puts cooked bacon there, hey, it's your arteries. It occurs to me that apple slices (dehydrated or just plain ol' apple) could be used, probably to good effect, for more apple-y goodness.

Haven't forgotten the cream of mushroom soup... Put the stuff in a bowl, no need to cook it ahead of time (unless you're making this recipe with homemade stuff, in which case go you! I'm impressed!), and dilute it slightly if desired (I used canned soup, and put half a can of water in with it), mixing it up pretty good, just whisking with a fork is fine, there's no need to be pretty about it. Pour the soup over the chops and mushrooms. We want to have a bit of a glaze over the chops, and enough extra moisture to keep the stuffing from drying out, so...like the mushrooms, generally an even pour, not too much in any one place.

Return the pan-full of goodness to the oven, bake for probably another half an hour to forty-five minutes--want to make sure the chops are cooked thoroughly, this is pork after all, without getting them tough and hard. If you own a meat thermometer (I don't, but...), the recommended internal temperature for pork chops seems to be around 160 degrees F, just from a general internet search on the subject. I kinda eye-balled them, getting hungrier by the second I swear, until I...couldn't stand it anymore and said, 'Let's eat!' Some of my Unattributed Sources (i.e., recipes I stole ideas from) recommended about 1 1/2 to 2 hours of cooking, total, for baking pork chops to perfection, so that's the rule of thumb I used.

This recipe probably would feed 4-6 hungry people quite well; my two-person household, I'm sure we'll be eating these things for at least one more night, probably two. Suggested side dishes include green beans, 'some damn kinda damn beans' as my granddad used to say, a salad if you're guilty about all this pork goodness (it's at least something with pork, a fairly lean meat I think, though counting calories for this may be a mistake, I dunno. It's quite filling)...probably not too much that's starchy. You'll be eating stuffing, after all. Unless of course you live off of starchy foods, in which case knock yourself out.

That's it. Not a hard recipe, just like I like it, and modular enough that a variety of substitutions could be made. Also not a long prep and cooking time, though one should feel free to go, 'Cripes, I've been cooking all day, *all day*...' Especially if you can guilt somebody else into washing the dishes. Hey, I cooked, why should I be the one cleaning everything up...