Pork: It's what's for Breakfast

Who said meat was just for dinner?

If you're a woman that is married, or dating, you most likely have come to understand that most guys in general like meat. They will eat it any time of day. Heck, you looking this up means you were thinking about it too. If you're a guy, then you already know you're a carnivore. If not, you would not be reading this article. This is not a vegetarian friendly recipe.

Steak and eggs rings a bell... Why stop at steak?

There are several ways you can go about doing this. I'll leave the heat application up to you, but I'll tell you how I've done things.

Non-Edibles you'll need:

Deep fryer

If you do not have a deep fryer a frying pan big enough to get the job done works as well

oil (I like canola, but what ever your preference)

paper towels
serving plate
tongs

Ingredients:
Flour or Panko crumbs
Season all
salt & pepper
old bay (optional)
boneless pork chops thin cut (or get the thick cut and very carefully cut them in half long ways)

To start:

If you have a deep fryer, now is the time to turn it on and get it heating up. 350 does nicely for this project.

Frying pan users: Do not heat up your pan yet. It will be too hot. Heat it up after you're done trimming and seasoning the pork chops.

Now that you're done turning the deep fryer on, let's get to work!

Trim the little bits off fat off of the pork chop. Leave the large strip of fat on the back of the pork chop alone. You'll thank me later. Turn your water on very cold, and lightly rinse the pork chops. Pat them dry with the paper towels.

This part is a little messy, but you can recover easy if you do this over a plate.

Season both sides of the pork chop. I use a little season all. If you do not have season all, or do not like it, use some salt and pepper. Both sides of the pork chop needs seasoning regardless of your spice preference. Sit them on the plate you were just using. Apparently getting trimmed and seasoned is a lot of work for a pork chop to endure, so let them rest.

Wash your hands. You do not want to cross contaminate your flour, spice cans etc.

Now frying pan users can heat up your oil.

This is what you are going to need:

Flour
all purpose works fine. Whatever you have on you is great. Gluten free flour works too
Old bay
Salt & pepper

Plate or wide bowl
a separate plate for setting floured pork chops

****

Making the flour concoction. I put about 1 cup of flour in a wide bowl or deep plate and mix in 2 tbsp of Old bay. It looks like a lot, but trust me it's not. I mix it up with either my fingers or a fork till it looks good and blended.

****

Now, I do the "dry hand, wet hand" method. I line up my items.

Left to right:
Meat waiting to be floured.
The flour
meat waiting to be fried plate

Left hand grabs a non-floured pork chop, I place it in the flour and then start putting the flour on the pork chop with my right hand. Get it nicely coated patting the flour on it making sure its sticking, Flip it over and repeat coating it in flour. Then tap a excess off gently, then sit it on the new plate.

Try not to stack the floured meat. They do not like it when you do that.

If you're using the deep fryer make sure its hot enough. I was taught to get my fingers wet, shake the excess off then "flick" a drop into the fryer. If it sizzles immediately its ready. A drop of water will not hurt it, or start a fire. But do not flick more than a drop in. If it takes a little to sizzle, its not ready yet. Give it a few more minutes then test again till you get the sizzle. If you are not comfortable doing this, get a frying/candy thermometer and check the temperature. You can also look at the little indicator light on the temperature dial of the unit. If it is hot enough usually there is a little light that goes off. That's not always reliable.

Fry till golden brown like in my picture.

For pan users:

After you get enough of the pork chops to line your pan, go ahead and place them in. Do not over crowd the pan or you will have mushy breading that comes off the pork chops. Meat steams when it cooks (the juices cooking) if they are too close together in the pan they steam each other's breading off. Leave an inch or two between the chops. While those are cooking one the first side, flour some more of them, if you have any left. Flip only once. Fry them till they look like my picture.

If you would like to make the potatoes

6-8 Potatoes (number of potatoes variant on size of potatoes)
butter/margarine
salt & pepper
1/2 Onion (or onion powder, to taste)
2-3 Garlic cloves (or garlic powder, to taste)
Season all

I usually cut my onions into 1/4 inch rings. You don't have to measure, but the thinner the better. The garlic, crush it or finely cut it. You can mince it if you prefer. That's up to you. When you're done prepping those, put them aside.

Peeling or no peeling is up to you. I have had it both ways. You get more nutritionally out of leaving the peels on. Either way, you may take a mandolin or grater, slicing them scalloped or cut them into chunks. It's whatever cut you are comfortable with. I usually cut mine into 1/4-1/2 inch thick potato slices.

Trick to keeping your potatoes from turning that weird color while you're still working on them:

While you are peeling and cutting the potatoes, keep the ones waiting to be cut (after peeling) in a bowl full of cold water, completely submerged. That will keep them from turning colors on you. When you cut them up, re-submerge them again in cold water. When you're done peeling and cutting, carefully drain out the water, and give the potatoes a little rinse in the bowl, or put them in a strainer and give them a run under the faucet.

Put them back into the bowl you were just working with (or if you used the same bowl to rinse them that's fine) liberally toss some salt onto them and re-submerge them in cold water.

Now, throw them in the microwave for 4-6 minutes depending how you cut them. Allow more time for thicker potatoes, less time for thinner. That will help speed up cooking so you're not cooking all day.

When the potatoes are half done in the microwave, heat your skillet up with some butter/margarine. Put the onions and garlic in and get them going.

Season your potatoes with the salt and pepper. Use some season all if you want to. I do occasionally. Give them a good stir to mix the seasoning through the potatoes. You may find you need to add more seasoning. After you're done your initial stirring you notice the onions are nice and mixed through out the potatoes. put a little more butter on the top in a few spots, then put the lid on.

Cook them on medium heat. To make sure they cook through evenly, use a lid on the skillet.

You want to cook them till they are soft in the center, and semi-crunchy on the outside. or cook them till they are done like you like them. I like a little crunch.

Home made gravy is not as daunting as it looks. After this you may wonder why you ever used a packet mix.

What you will need:

Flour
Bacon drippings (optional if you have it)
Butter/margarine if you don't have bacon drippings
Milk/half & half or cream

When you're done with the potatoes, use that skillet. Don't worry about scraping the pan or anything use it as is (unless you burned something ^_^*).

Use bacon drippings if you have them. Put about 2 tbsp in the skillet and let that start melting. At this point I put about a tsp of butter in there with it. Hey.. I did not say this was healthy ^_~

After the butter and/or the bacon dripping melt, get out your whisk and flour. Fresh flour... It's dangerous to use the left over flour from the pork chops.

Constantly whisking start adding flour. A Tbsp at a time. Whisking each tbsp in thoroughly first. after 3 tbsp, add in a cup of milk/cream/ Half half whatever you're using. Continue whisking, and turn the heat down till the mixture just bubbles. You can stop whisking for a second or two to see if the gravy is bubbling. If it is, great, keep whisking but you can slow down a little. You may find you need to change arms. Salt and pepper the gravy. Give a little taste here an there and teek the seasoning as needed. After a few minutes if the gravy seems too thin, add more flour a little at a time, if its too thick, put in more milk. Remember it thickens as it sits waiting to be eaten.

Tada! You just made home made from scratch gravy! Yay you!

Toast is a little self explanatory. You can also serve biscuits etc. This particular day I was craving some gravy over toast, so I made toast.

Let me know how things turned out in the comments below ^_^

Good luck... and go get your cook on ^_~