Food Friday: Sauteed Pork Chops with Thyme and Apples!

With the weather getting colder and the leaves falling, nothing smells better than cinnamon and apples cooking from the kitchen and warming up the house with a holiday fragrance. Now throw in some Pork Chops and you have a tasty, filling Fall meal.

I found this recipe, Sauteed Pork Chops with Thyme and Sliced Apples, in an old, used herb cook book that I found at a book sale. I wanted to learn how to cook with herbs and The Herb and Spice Cookbook: A Seasoning Celebration, seemed like a great find. This book not only has some great home-cooked recipes but explains how to plant, care, and harvest your herbs. Among discovering this recipe, I learned how to freeze fresh herbs from the garden and store them to use in the winter.

So get out your leftover apples from the orchard and some defrosted Pork Chops from the freezer on a cold Fall evening. Get your grilling pan, turn on the stove, and find your cinnamon and dried thyme to make this yummy, winter-filling dinner. Add some rice pilaf, oven-baked winter squash, and some steamed green beans for an overall inviting meal.

4 lean loin pork chops, dredged in flour
1/8 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp butter, divided
1 tbsp olive oil
8 sprigs of fresh thyme or 1 tbsp dried thyme
1 tart apple, unpeeled, cored, and cut in slices
pinch of ground cinnamon

Dredge chops lightly in flour and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon of butter and oil in a large skillet. Add chops, and saute for 5 minutes on each side over medium-high heat. While they are cooking, place thyme under each chops so that they stick to the meat. Remove chops to a serving dish, and keep warm. Using the same skillet, melt remaining tablespoon of butter with some cinnamon. Add apples, and saute for 4 to 5 minutes, or until soft but not mushy. Spoon apple slices around pork and serve hot.