tonight's supper

sour cream pork chops with caramelised onions

+ potato gratin

the pork was okay - just. the chops were pretty thick, around 1.5inches and the recipe i followed had me brown them, then cook them in a covered pan in sauce for 1 hour. in effect they were steamed. the meat came out pretty tender - for pork chops - but ...G described the meat texture as being too tight. the thick strip of fat on each chop was still intact so their fatty tastiness hadn't really dispersed itself anywhere which was a shame as i'm sure it would have added a great flavour.

my feeling is that the chops were too thick to start with, and perhaps i didn't brown them for long enough (though they were browned for at least 8 mins each side)?

the potato gratin was also disappointing. after interlayering sliced potato with ham, gruyere, beer cheese (a Colorado thing!), cheddar, milk, and cream...and baking it for 2 hours (i told you the oven is crap!) - amazingly the potatoes weren't nearly cooked enough. to me, undercooked potatoes have to be one of the most unappealing things ever. UGH.

i think i have lost my cooking mojo.

on that note, i am going to serve myself a large bowl of praline icecream and watch some tacky tv.