Stuffed, Mashed, Smothered & Roll

On this day, Sous Chef Mike and I decided to have some what of a Thanksgiving feast. We decided to have a Stuffed Pork Chop with Sweet Mashed Potatoes, Smothered Green Beans with Bacon and a Pumpkin Roll for dessert. We had decided to pair this meal with a Caramel Apple Martini and a Pineapple upside down cake martini. We've decided that it was too sweet for this meal and a lighter beer or perhaps a wine would be best.

A friend of mine took the photos. Whom I am thankful for. Thanks Chica! :)

Stuffed Pork Chop

We first put the Pork chops in a brine. No measurements were taken but it consisted of the following.

Water
Apple juice
Salt & Pepper
Sugar
Red Pepper Flakes

It sat in the brine for at least 4 hours. Which added a nice layer of flavor that accompanied the stuffing and decent amount of moisture. It was truly enjoyed.

Then we dumped the brine and seasoned with simple salt and pepper on both sides. I encourage you to have your butcher to prep the chop for you as a thick cut butterflied. Saves you time and also being thicker holds up well with the stuffing.

For the stuffing:

Apples
Cornbread
Parsnips
Carrots
Celery
Onions
Garlic
Sage
Salt & Pepper
Chicken Stock

We just prepared it as you would to any standard stuffing. Then overly stuffed these chops. Then browned on both sides in a pan that was sprayed with cooking spray. On each side for 1 1/2 minutes.

After that the chops were browned, they were transferred to a large oven proof dish and covered with foil. Baked in oven @ 375 for 25-30 minutes. Until internal temp of chops reached 145-150.

Were taken out of oven and rested a few minutes.

To that dish we added Mashed Sweet Potatoes. I do not have a photo of this. You can subtly see in above picture that it was on the plate.

That consisted of....

Sweet Potatoes (Cut in thirds, boiled and skins removed)
Heavy Cream
Butter
Sage
Garlic
Salt & Pepper

We seasoned to our liking and whipped it up in stand up mixer. I love a Kitchen aid mixer. Add any type of potatoes in there and let it mash and whip up for you. These potatoes were a perfect balance of sweet and savory. Yet creamy and whipped and I would have been content just with that. YUMMO!!!!!

Smothered Green Beans with Bacon

Green Beans (Blanched)
1 pkg. Bacon ( chopped and cook..reserve grease)
Garlic
Salt & Pepper
Sliced Almonds for accent

Once green beans were removed from hot water and cooled with cold water, they were drained and added to bacon in grease. Minced garlic was added and tossed with salt and pepper. Very simple and quite enjoyable. Seasoned salt I've tried before and gives it more of a hint of flavor without disguising the natural flavor and essence of the green beans. Red Pepper flakes can be added or diced onion can be cooked down with bacon and added as well for another layer of flavor. Mmmmmmm..yum!

The Pumpkin Roll

Basically for this you can follow a recipe on the side of the a Libby's can of Pumpkin Puree. Haha! I researched the roll and they all call for same measurements for the main characters of Flour, Salt, Sugar, Baking Soda & Powder, Pumpkin. I just changed up the spices. I used Pumpkin Pie spice and Cinnamon. I would want more of a pumpkin flavor so I would want to try to add more pumpkin at another time and see if it will help with flavor but not affect the texture of the cake.

For filling I used cream cheese, vanilla flavored cool whip and sugar. I would like to reinvent that again. It was all great and creamy. The assembly of this baby was tricky for sure. Once out of oven you need to flip over to a linen kitchen towel dusted with powder sugar and roll up gently with towel. It will cool off in this position. Then unroll spread filling roll back up and dust with powdered sugar.

This was the first time I made or ate a pumpkin roll. I was quite impressed that it turned out. I want to perfect it and give it my twist..the "Massi twist". :) Definitely will be making other flavor cakes like this. I think presentation is neat love the combo of the creamy swirl with the fluffy dense cake. Mmmmm...I think White cake with a strawberry kiwi creamed filling would be salivating. Yummy!!!!