Mope or blog? No contest. I tried moping for a while; wearing drab clothing, washing dishes that could have gone into the dishwasher, nearly forgetting our 37th wedding anniversary, reading Jane Austen for the nth time, cooking and eating mechanically. I was starting to get on my own nerves! Then last night my husband told me about a conversation he had with his colleagues. That and My Dad’s Lunch http://mydadslunch.wordpress.com/ cheered me right up 🙂
1rst woman: I’ve got a huge spider in my apartment. I’ve got to catch it and kill it!
2nd woman: You shouldn’t do that, it could be your cousin or a relative come back as a spider.
My husband: Better to kill him and move him on to his next life. Probably hates being a spider.
While I was in Sens, here in Stuttgart my husband became friendly with the butcher at the Real Supermarket. Real is an okay supermarket with a real butcher, pun, and local fruits and vegetables. Anyway, the butcher has been very helpful to my husband who was, frankly, starving to death because before I left, I warned him about the dangers of buying food from the military commissary; high fructose syrup, fake honey, bizarre chemicals in prepared meats and who knows what else! But no horse meat, no worries there 😉 Yesterday, he made a visit to his butcher and brought home some very thin, boneless pork chops and ground steak. He watched him grind it.
On Saturday I visited Waiblingen’s farmers’ market and unenthusiastically bought a mix of white and brown mushrooms. They seemed a little careworn and dry to me but okay for when you’re moping 😀
Shallot, thyme and butter saw them right and I enthusiastically ate some for lunch.
Normally, I either grill my pork chops or bake them in the oven, but these were quite thin and I didn’t want to cook them dry, so I gave them a quick saute in the pan with thyme, rosemary, butter and olive oil. That worked.
Herbed, Pan Fried Pork Chops
6 thin, center cut, boneless pork chops
Salt and pepper
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 sprig thyme
1 sprig rosemary
Season the pork chops with salt and pepper. Heat the butter and olive oil in a saute pan, add the herbs and pork chops, then cook the chops on both sides until brown and just cooked.
Buttery Mushrooms with Thyme
2 shallots, thinly sliced
2 tbsp butter
1 lb mixed white and brown mushrooms, sliced
Leaves from 3-4 sprigs of thyme
Saute the shallots in the butter until soft. Add the thyme leaves and mushrooms and continue to saute until the mushrooms began to release their liquid.
Wine suggestion: Provence Rose
Cooking in Sens 
Oh my! Those buttery mushrooms with thyme? You are singing my song. I am so glad fall is on its way. Mushrooms! Then, of course, over pork chops, heavenly.
Butter, like the color black, goes with everything 🙂 I’m glad about Fall too.
Mope and then blog! 😀
An excellent suggestion Cath, but I cook better when I’m happy 🙂
Me too. I was being silly 😀 . Your dish is always an inspiration to me and I’m sure to many. Have a good day (? I’m in the Philippines) to you.
Thank you Cath. I love the food of the Philippines!
Your writing is always so engaging, the photos wonderful and the recipes simply mouth-watering 🙂
Thank you Brenda 🙂
You read Austen when you’re moping, and then you eat butter to get out of the funk? I think we’re doppelgängers! What a great person you are 🙂 and what a great blog!
Thank you 🙂 You have a gorgeous blog.
Well, as a fan of horsemeat… anyway your mushrooms and pork chops look wonderful. How to mope when you’re rocking over a stove. Ken
Thank you. I’ve never had horsemeat but it’s definitely on my list. There is a stall in Sens that sells gourmet horse flesh and after getting some recommendations for recipes, I’ll try it. It depends on which stove you’re rocking over, Ken 🙂
After a while moping becomes rather hard work – much easier ot pretend to smile, then eventually it becomes a real one (promise, I speak frome experience!). Love the mushrooms and chops – just the sort of thing I should be making right now for lunch 🙂
It is hard work Chica and that’s why I chose blog!
Divine! I am so trying this out for dinner.
Thank you. Good luck with dinner!
I too find that moping = lack of culinary enthusiasm. Still, a lovely dish resulted!
Thank you. That’s because I stopped moping 😀
A nice horse steak would cheer you up – the good stuff is better than beef!
Apparently the Belgians are the largest consumers of horse flesh in Europe. I’ve read that they even cook their fries in in horse fat, with delicious results 😉
I’ll have to make sure that I get a good recipe or eat it in an upscale restaurant like Chez Madeleine.
Pork and mushrooms are always good with each other. I like the thyme bit cos the flavour can just accompany pork so well. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you Adelaide. I like mushrooms, pork and herbs. So that’s why 😀
As always great pics and a great recipe…might not like being a spider but very useful for getting flies and other unwanted creatures😉
I honestly believe that spiders need to be moved on 🙂
This looks absolutely amazing! 😀
Thank you lord.
You make beautiful meals when you mope. I hope that you smile soon.
Thank you Tessa.
I adore your husbands logic! Sound thinking. I’d bet he hates being a spider too. Had to laugh!
I think he was thinking about how he’d feel 😀
Everything looks so good!!! Gonna try it definitely!!!
Thank you Bettina. Good luck with it.
Love the spider story.
I did too 🙂
Delicious dish! And I’m sitting here alone in the office giggling about the spider joke 🙂
That was a real conversation Marie 🙂
Makes it even better! 🙂 And… giggling again
I like your husband’s logical response 🙂 The pork chops look delicious. By the way, I re-watched the BBC adaption of Pride and Prejudice recently – perfect casting and very close to the book.
Thank you. I love all the BBC adaptations of the classics. Try Sense and Sensibility.
I have watched and read them all 🙂 I can almost recite Pride and Prejudice 🙂
Me too 🙂 I’ve had to move on to other BBC classics and I think I’ve exhausted the list; Middlemarch was great, Jane Eyre, North and South, Bleak House, I could go on. Any recommendations?
The Charles Dickens BBC Collection DVD (1977)
Thank you Bassa but I’ve read many times and seen all of Charles Dickens. Unfortunately. I did like the latest 2012 Great Expectations.
I’m sorry but it’s nice to hear you mope about a bit. I’m moping a bit today myself, so thanks for a little humor and food inspiration. And thank you for turning me on to My Dad’s Lunch – what a wonderfully fun site!
You are welcome Lola. Moping is okay, I just don’t like to do it for a long time. My Dad’s Lunch will get me through those moping periods 🙂
🙂
Yummy dish! Since I don’t eat pork, I will try it with goat meat.
Hi Mama Ba! It will be great with goat meat.
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Love your story. I had a friend who had a little gadget to vacuum spiders in the house and then “shoot” them outside. I hope they saved an important friend or relative 🙂
I need that vacuum!
I find I have to keep reincarnating in this life, never mind the next. x
Not necessarily a bad thing and at least in this life you have a choice.
Looking forward to doing this recipe today. Ill comment when it’s done.
Great! Looking forward to it.
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