Quick, Easy and Delicious

Today is KITCHEN TIP TUESDAY and you can read LOTS of other kitchen tips at the Tammy's Recipes Blog. I am always amazed that its only 6:00 A.M. and there are already 30 tips on there!!!

My tip of the week is that there really are always new things to try. No matter how long you've been cooking or how bad the cooking rut you are in, out of the blue something different will come to your attention.

This past week I made two more new dishes, at least they are new to me.

My husband played in a golf tournament sponsored by his job, called "The Greater Goodness Grows Open" a couple of weeks ago. It was put on by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and the motto for the items grown or manufactured in North Carolina is "GOODNESS GROWS". He brought home all kinds of things that are made in North Carolina, like Lance products, House Autry Mills products, Carolina Treet BBQ sauce, etc.


One of the items was "In Your Oven Pork" by House Autry Mills. The box comes with two shaker bags and two packets of the coating mix. I purchased a package of pork chops and used one of the bags and a packet of coating mix. All you do is bake the coated chops on a cookie sheet in your oven for 20 minutes!!! These were the BEST pork chops I have ever eaten! Not only did it go together fast, all I had to do was come up with a couple of easy sides and we had a great meal. This is a Southern thing, but we had the pork chops, banana sandwiches and baked beans. YUM!!!

You might not be able to find this exact product in your area, but there may be a similar product in the stores. I would love to make my own if I could come up with the right ingredients and spices. I also think you could sprinkle Ms. Dash on both sides of the chop and dip it in crushed bread crumbs or some combination like that and get good results. The amazing thing to me is that the chops cook so fast in the oven.

The other new to me recipe I made Sunday afternoon was Butterscotch Brownies. I was rummaging around in my cabinets trying to come up with an easy "sweet" recipe. I didn't want to get into a big mess like making cookies and didn't have the ingredients on hand anyway. I came across this recipe in my Betty Crocker Cookbook and it was very good! It makes a small 8 X 8 pan, which is good since we don't need to eat brownies all week and usually you would have all the ingredients on hand. My husband and I loved it. Here's the recipe:

Butterscotch Brownies

1/4 cup shortening
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I threw in a small packet of peanuts we had laying around)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

(If using self rising flour, omit the baking powder and salt)

Heat oven to 350. Grease bottom and sides of square pan, 8 X 8 X 2 inches, with shortening. Melt shortening in 1 1/2 quart saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat. Stir in brown sugar, vanilla and egg. Stir in remaining ingredients. Spread in pan. Bake 25 minutes. Cool slightly in pan on wire rack. Cut into about 2 inch squares while warm.

(Note to MLJW, is the same recipe that you call Blondies?)

Any recipes that are as good as these two, definitely earn many repeats at my house!