Meal No. 371: Smothered Pork Chops with Onion-Thyme Gravy

It's taken me forever to make it happen, but this evening I finally followed through on a promise to have my cousin Betsy Pierce and her husband Jim over. I've been in this house for almost exactly eight years and they just live in Greensboro, the next city over. It's pretty bad I've been so slack about this.

Betsy and my mother were very, very fond of one another, and they were close. Over the years, Betsy has mentioned Mother's excitement about the house. I'm glad she and Jim have now come and spent an evening here.

We had a great time. They are a wonderful couple and I absolutely enjoyed the visit. I was also too focused on my hosting duties (and the shortcomings therein!) and forgot to snap any shots of our meal. But I do have a photo of the spiced pecan and blue cheese salad that we used to start off dinner.

The meal was smothered pork chops with onion-thyme gravy. I realized too late that I should have submerged the chops down into the juices and onions and broth...they did turn out a bit dry. The green bean casserole (recipe from my sister Allison) was creamy and they particularly enjoyed my instant mashed potatoes.

I made up for it, in part, by serving up some chocolate fudge with walnuts (recipe from my sister Janice) and decaf coffee in the famous Roediger House mugs. We hung out in the North Parlour and caught up on family while our dinners settled.

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"Braised Smothered Pork Chops with Onion-Thyme Gravy" from Cook's Country [April/May 2011], p. 22-23.