Water Wine Travel™

I probably own as many cookbooks as I do medical texts.  I started cooking during my residency training.  I was living in Cleveland, Ohio at the time. I really love Cleveland.  Its one of those great American cities where everyone seems to know everyone.   People are genuinely nice.   A real down home nice.  (I know there are lots of nice cities.  When I go down South, everyone seems sweet as pie, then I remember it was the hotbed of segregation – deep down, how nice can it really be?)

Cleveland has a great art museum (no dinosaur up against a Monet!), fantastic orchestra and fab restaurants downtown.  But alas, the weather is horrible.  It is cold by October and it can snow like nobody’s business several times in a week.  I had a great social life in Cleveland.   A lot of social activities revolved around food and small dinner parties.

For me cooking is relaxing.  Unfortunately, I do less of it now.  Big P is retired and does all of the cooking during the week.  On the weekends, I get my kitchen back.  Recently, I  bought a bottle of Wölffer Estate Big Apple Wine ($11).   Big Apple Wine is made from a blend of seven different varieties of apples (Braeburn, Gold Rush, Pink Lady, Fuji, Ida Red, Jonagold and Mutsu) from the White Cap Farm in Bridgehampton.  I thought this light and refreshing seasonal wine would go well with pork chops.

6 pork chops

1 tablespoon curry powder

1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic

1 tablespoon mesquite seasoning

Medium onion sliced

1/2 tablespoon black pepper

1/2 tablespoon crushed red pepper

Dash sea salt

I wash and marinate all meats (preferably overnite).   Wash chops with cold water, mixture of 2 tablespoons of lemon and splash of vinegar.  Rinse again with cold water, pat excess water off with clean paper towel.  Sprinkle chops with curry powder, garlic, onion, black pepper, crushed red pepper.  Marinate overnite or for at least 1 hour in refrigerator.

Heat cast iron skillet with cooking oil over medium heat.  Brown pork chops in skillet, approximately 5 minutes each side.

The kids have a small vegetable garden which provided  potatoes and carrots for a side dish.  Bok choy sauteed with minced onion and garlic, crushed red pepper and diced smoked bacon complimented our plates.  This was great with a glass of the Big Apple Wine… a nice subtle sweet contrast to our pork.