Apple-roasted pork steaks with orzo

So I opened up my fridge and found that I had two apples with a couple of bruises, but still usable.  Now, two apples is not enough for a pie, and I was not about to go to the trouble of homemade applesauce with only two, but I remembered this recipe, a traditional fall dinner, and even though I've never cooked it before, I decided to go for it.  Rather than look up a recipe, I just kind of invented one.  I have no idea if this is how you actually make apple-roasted pork, but the result was quite delicious.  That's probably from all the sugar.


First, I got out the leftover pork steaks from this recipe, put them in a glass roasting pan, and set the oven to 400F.  Then, I added some flavor that goes well with apples: I didn't measure any of it, just eyeballed it: 1/4 cup cider vinegar and 1/2 cup brown sugar, sprinkled on top of the frozen chops, and 1/2 cup water (in the pan to keep them moist but not on the chops themselves). I then sliced the two apples (skins and all) and put them on the pork in a layer.




I set the timer for 45 minutes (I figured it would actually take about an hour) and went upstairs to sew the last of my kids' Halloween costumes.  The other two have been done for over a week now but my oldest child's costume still had a ways to go...  When the timer went off, I went back down and began the side dish: "rice".

I thought that rice would go well with this meal.  Only, since I can't eat rice, I made orzo, which is a rice substitute made from wheat.  It costs $1.50 - $2.50 a box, depending on price fluctuations.  I've had this box in my cupboard for a while, so I can't be completely sure, but I think it was $1.79.  To be safe, we'll call it $2.  I put a few cups of water in a pot and set it on high, then added my seasonings: 2 chicken bullion cubes, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, pepper, thyme, basil, rosemary, and just a dash of cayenne pepper.  When the water was at a rolling boil, I added half the box of orzo and turned down the heat.  Orzo only takes a few minutes, and you don't want to overcook it, so even though the box says 9 minutes, I set my timer for 5 minutes.  Sure enough, it was done, and I removed it from the heat, and checked on the pork.  It, too was done, and dinner was served.

We all had root beer to drink with dinner, and though two of us had seconds, nobody wanted dessert.  I'm going to call the root beer dessert, so I can factor in some cost, and because it's certainly got enough sugar in it to qualify.

Even my pickiest eater cleaned his plate.  I was astonished.

So the totals for tonight are: $2.95 worth of pork (I looked up the price from the other recipe), 88 cents apples (the bag was $3.50 and contained 8 apples, I think.  I'm sure about the $3.50, just not so sure whether there were 8 or 9 apples in the bag.) I'm guessing $1 for half a container of orzo, and maybe $1 for the vinegar and brown sugar.  The root beer was generic, $3 for a 12-pack, or 25 cents each.  We had 4, so that's $1, making our extremely-estimated total $6.83.  And in case I haven't said it already, it was delicious.

The Dark Side does not have cookies.