Quick recipe #1

Jelly + shrimp cocktail sauce + mustard(opt.) = bbq sauce

Chicken fixes

Ever have that little bit of salad dressing left in the bottle? It's not really enough for a salad for several people, but it might be enough for one? Or maybe you have the same problem as me: just a little bit of juice left in the bottle and the expiration date was yesterday. Chicken's an answer to both of these problems. Try marinating the chicken in that leftover oil- or vinegar-based salad dressing before baking, or bake it in the juice. If the two are complimentary, try both!

One of my favorite experimental dishes that was a hit with Jeremy, too, involved simply emptying that last little bit of raspberry vinaigrette into a bag with chicken, leaving it in the fridge while I went to work, and then baking it in a dish with the half glass of cranberry juice that was left. I pretended that I was at a fancy restaurant when I paired that dish with a glass of cheap white wine and a pre-dinner snack of salsa over the rest of the cream cheese with crackers. I'd gotten some peach salsa on sale the week before, but any kind will do.

Hawaiian Treats

After a trip to the store, my boyfriend discovered that, instead of pineapples in juice, he had accidentally grabbed pineapples in heavy syrup. So I decided to cook a little something with it. After thawing the chops, I realized that we didn't have any soy sauce left in the bottle that was still in the fridge. (I'm not sure why it was back in the fridge, maybe it was going to spontaneously re-fill itself.) I did find some soy sauce packets in a drawer from takeout Chinese, which worked nicely.

3-4 porkchops
a small splash of olive oil (or 1 Tbs)
Mix 1:

• 2-3 packets of soy sauce (or 2 Tbs)
• 1 splash of vinegar (1 Tbs)
• a pint glass mostly full of chicken stock (I used a bullion cube) (or a 14.5 oz can of broth)

Mix 2:

• 2 Tbs of cornstarch
• about half the can of pineapple chunks and syrup (or 1/2 cup juice and 2 Tbs sugar [or sweetener equivalent])

You'll need a medium-sized pan with a lid

• Brown the porkchops in the olive oil (~5 min/side). Remove them to a plate.
• Put parts of Mix 1 into the pan, heat to a boil.
• Return the chops, turn down the heat, cover and simmer until cooked (20-25 minutes, depending on the thickness)
• While that's cooking, stir up Mix 2, without the chunks, in a glass or bowl. (From bartending, I have lots of pint glasses, and find that they are just perfect for dissolving cornstarch in, because you can see if there's any stuck to the bottom.)
• Remove the cooked chops to a plate, add the stirred Mix 2 and the pineapple chunks to the pan.
• Heat and stir the sauce until it thickens.
• That's it! It goes well over rice, and you could add other veggies, like broccoli

I found this was tasty for dinner and reheated very well at lunch the next day.