Good food and good friends

Here's a great recipe that my mom gave me a couple of years ago, and I think before that it came from allrecipes.com.  Either way, it's the best pork chop recipe I have.  I think if you asked David what he would want me to make him as a "last meal," he would choose this.  This is great news for me because it's incredibly easy and requires very few ingredients.  Another little bonus, it will fill your home with THE most incredible aroma.  So make sure you take the time to breathe in deeply while cooking.  

Pork Chops with Raspberry Sauce 
Ingredients: 

• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp. dried sage
• Salt and pepper
• 4 (4-5 oz) boneless pork loin chops
• 1 Tbs. butter
• 1 Tbs. olive oil
• 1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam
• 2 Tbs. orange juice
• 2 Tbs. white wine vinegar

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.  in a small bowl, combine thyme, sage, salt and pepper.  rub evenly over pork chops.
2. Melt butter and olive oil in a nonstick skillet.  cook pork chops for 4-5 minutes on each side, turning once.  Remove from skillet and keep warm in preheated oven.
3. In the skillet, combine raspberry jam, orange juice, and vinegar.  bring to a boil, and cook for 2-3 minutes, or until sauce is reduced.  Spoon sauce onto the pork chops.  Enjoy!

On a side note, we traveled down to Austin this past weekend because David had a couple of job interviews to attend (more on that another time).  While we were there, we were able to spend time with several great friends, which was such a blast.  There were even several rounds of Taboo that were played that contained unspeakable fits of laughter on all accounts.  Every time I am able to see old friends it's always such an encouragement to me.  It's so wonderful to be able to talk and reminisce and laugh (and laugh and laugh and laugh).  God has blessed me so much with amazing friends, close and far away.  So thanks to everyone in my life, ya'll make my days better and my smiles bigger :)  Hope everyone has a great week ahead!


*Sorry there are no pictures with this post, I failed in that department this weekend*

New year, new blog!

Welcome to my new blog home!  I'm very happy and cozy here and think i'll stay put.  I feel kind of bad for not posting more often on the old site.  It's not for lack of subject, but lack of time.  Applying to seven graduate schools, taking the GRE, and working full time has kept me busy to say the least.  But most of that is over now and one of my new year resolutions is to update my blog more frequently.  So I hope that you will follow me over here :)