I have these wire shelves in my freezer. I suppose what they’re good for is preventing things from pooling or something. But what they are really good for is getting wrapped around by unfrozen things that are on their way to being frozen.
I toss things in the freezer with reckless abandon and they freeze into weird shapes all the time. That isn’t usually a problem because I do slow-thaws in the fridge rather than quick-thaws in the microwave where the weird shape might affect thaw rates. But I never considered the very real possibility that I would end up with a pork chop that was frozen around the wire rack, requiring that I remove the entire shelf and run it under warm water just to get the bag to release itself.
And now, because I’ve started the thawing process, I have to make pork chops tonight.
What’s your favourite pork chop recipe? And will you come make it?
I accidentally posted the same thing twice. Awesome move for the first post I ever left here on your page. So I am "editing post" on the first comment so it's not super dorky until you see this and delete it.
Also – Love your blog, glad I found it!
Seriously – the funniest frozen meat conundrum I have ever seen. Good luck with that… lol!
This comment is a test for Astrogirl because her computer sucks.
Heh. Sounds like our "what's for supper?" decision making process. "Uh, well, what's going to go bad first? What do we HAVE TO use asap??"
Also, shake and bake is awesome for pork chops.
As is grilling. But grilling is more work.
I've done that with soup before. It was a total bitch to get out – had to remove the whole rack and thaw it like that.
I would like to say that I had done it only once, but that would be a lie.
Pork chops and applesauce. Pan fried. Yummo.
Oh god, soup. Thank you for the reminder.
lol I've done the same thing – only when I did it, the bag of applesauce wrapped and froze around a bar in the door that doesn't come out. So essentially, I had to take everything out of the freezer, turn it off, and clean the whole thing before I could get it off. Fun.
Our favorite recipe for pork chops is to bake them smothered in sauerkraut. Mmmm! But you kinda have to love sauerkraut for that.
I don't like sauerkraut.
Run hot water over the frozen bag of chops til the bag unfreezes from the meat….then dump in about 6oz of Italian salad dressing…let marinate until you are ready to cook. Pan fry, grill…it doesn't matter. Whatever is easier. Perfectly seasoned either way:)
This might be exactly what I do tonight.
Are those Iowa chops? If not, throw them away, get on the Internet, look for flights to Iowa, book one, board it, marvel at the the plains as you fly over, get off the plane, rent a car, stop at the store, ask the butcher for delicious Iowa chops (buy extra and if you swing buy, I'll answer the front door. I don't normally do that, but if you keep knocking or ringing the bell, I'll assume you're one of the neighbor kids, so I'll finally mutter something like "Jesus!" or "For the love of…" and get up and answer it), ask me if you can borrow my grill, toss them on there, grill to perfection, do not make ugly faces at me when you glance up from your plate and notice I'm gnawing on the bone.
p.s. – Bring Dessert. May I suggest brownies?
I didn't ask the pig where he grew up.
The missus likes roasting them with celery, sometimes also adding a can of Campbell's condensed cream of mushroom on top.
Right now in my upright freezer, I have a bag of chili in the same state…I have also accomplished this with hamburger and spaghetti sauce…it's a real pain to empty a shelf to remove one bag that didn't cooperate!
Easy pork chops – brown in frying pan. Dissolve a large beef boullion cube in one cup of boiling water. Pour into pork chops. Put lid on. Simmer for about 45 minutes (less if the pork chops are small).
Wendy
Gorgonzola and apple stuffed pork chops. Mmmm!!! Unfortunately, my husband won't eat gorgonzola… so I save it for myself for those twice yearly golf-trip weeks! Yum :-)
Press one or two sage leaves (depending on size) onto each side of the pork chops, then pan fry them. I saw Jamie Oliver do it on TV, then tried it myself and it was tasty.
I don't take much care in my freezing eithe but have never had that problem. My wife bakes pork chops with a ritz cracker crust. Very good stuff.