Making Tuesday Tasty-Stuffed Pork Chops

I took a base recipe from epicurious.com and then made it my own. My pork chops weren't quite an inch thick so I had to adjust the cooking time(or should say should have adjusted the cooking time). This stuffing was amazing! It was salty, creamy, sweet, and tangy. My whole family loved it and they don't love mushrooms and onions. I did a very fine chop on the onion and mushroom. Delicious!

Ingredients

6 1/2 to 1-inch-thick pork rib chops or boneless pork loin chops

3 tablespoons butter

1 1/2 cups small cubes of French bread

1 cup chopped mushrooms

2 tablespoons minced onion

1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary, finely crumbled

1/2 cup shredded smoked Gouda (about 2 ounces)-or to your liking

1/2 of a medium apple(I used Gala or you could use a granny smith)

2 to 3 strips of bacon cut up

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F. Cut each pork chop horizontally in half to bone (or almost through if using boneless chops), making pocket for stuffing.
In medium skillet, cook your cut up bacon until crisp. Set aside and drain. You can either keep the bacon grease or drain and melt 1 tablespoon butter in same skillet over medium heat. Add bread and sauté until golden, about 10 minutes. Transfer to medium bowl. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in same skillet. Add mushrooms, onion, apple and rosemary and sauté until onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Add to bread. Refrigerate until mixture is completely cool, about 15 minutes.

Mix Gouda into bread mixture; season with salt and pepper. Insert stuffing into pockets in pork, dividing equally. Skewer pockets closed with toothpicks if necessary. Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper.
Melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter in heavy large ovenproof skillet over high heat. Add pork to skillet; sauté until brown, about 2 minutes per side. Place skillet in oven. Bake pork until cooked through, about 25 minutes.

Making Tuesday Tasty-Pork Loin Italian Style

Well, I don't know how "authentically" Italian this is but, it's tasty and I make a version of it anyways. I mostly wing it when it comes to seasoning, etc. so I'm gonna try and get close to what the measurements are.

4 to 6 center cut pork loin

fresh or dried basil

salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder

1/4 to 1/2 C flour

1 egg

Meat mallet or hammer(if you use a household hammer make sure to place your meat in a Ziploc style bag, leaving about 1/8 in opening for air to escape. Then gently but firmly pound the meat flat to your desired thickness.

I washed and pat dried the pork loin and put it on a cutting board. I pounded the meat flat to a desired thickness of about 1/8 in or so. In a bowl, I cracked and mixed the egg up, put it to the side. On another plate, I put the flour down and spread it out a bit setting it next to the egg mixture. I heated a large skillet to Med/Med high heat(depends on how hot your stove gets) with 2 Tbsp of olive oil. I seasoned the meat liberally with ALL of the seasonings including the basil. If you use fresh basil, mince finely. When I've used fresh basil in my dishes it gets bitter if you heat too high, so I used dried.

Dredge the seasoned meat in egg, let the excess drip off. Then lay in the flour, dusting both sides, shake excess off and place in the skillet. Continue process until you run out of room. Cook until browned on each side (ended up being about 6 to 9 mins on each side). Place on serving dish or paper towel to drain for a few minutes and then serve. If you temp your meat, you want it to be 160 to 170 degrees internally.

*sorry guys I didn't take a pic of finished product*