July 19, 2013

Adorable Minion Cupcakes


What better way to celebrate the return of the Twinkie and Disney's new movie Despicable Me 2 than with Minion cupcakes!

The other day a good friend posted this on my Facebook page which was a share from a page called Recipes Galore. They were so cute that I had to make them tonight for the kids as they watched the first Despicable Me flick.

Note: If you cannot find Twinkies per say, here in the northeast we have the Tastycake version called Dreamies.



Wishing you all a great weekend!!!
XO

Sharing over at these super blog parties...



ADORABLE MINION CUPCAKES

July 15, 2013

Baked Pork Chops with a Savory Blueberry Sauce


OK I was a bit skeptical myself, but this sauce is so savory despite the 4 tablespoons of brown sugar that it takes on a life of it's own!!! I used a combination of some fresh and dried herbs. The pork chops are given a quick browning in the pan and then finishes cooking in the oven


Ingredients:

4 boneless pork chops
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. fresh cracked pepper
a dash of cayenne pepper
flour for dredging

1 cup fresh blueberries
4 T brown sugar
1 tsp. fresh parsley, minced
1 tsp. fresh sage, minced
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. Balsamic vinegar

Season the chops with the garlic powder, pepper and cayenne pepper and then dredged the chops in the flour. Set aside. Heat olive oil in an oven safe pan, (I used olive oil infused with garlic and rosemary but plain is fine too) and add the chops, cooking about 4 minutes on each side until they turn brown. Place the entire pan in the oven heated to 350 degrees F. Cook for roughly 10 minutes or until the inner temperature of the chops reached 170 degrees F. 


In the meantime mix together the next six ingredients. Once the pan is removed from the oven move the chops to a plate and cover them with tin foil. Add the blueberry mixture to the hot pan and heat on the stove top. Cook until he blueberries begin to break down. Take any juice that has drained from the pork chops on the plate and pour into the blueberry mixture. Cook for about 3 more minutes. Remove from the heat and serve immediately with your chops!!!


 Enjoy!!!
XO


BAKED PORK CHOPS WITH A SAVORY BLUEBERRY SAUCE