Parsnip and Apple Has with Pork Chops or Monday Night

One of the joys of this project is that sometimes on a Monday night, after working all day, you just end up with a home cooked meal that looks like this. It might be at 9pm, but this is the kind of meal you can expect if you are a nice uncle who takes his nephew on adventures so his mom can work in peace.

I found this recipe for Parsnip-Apple Hash that I cut out of the newspaper way before I could identify a parsnip in a root vegetable line-up. I was digging through my box of recipes looking for a carrot bread recipe to make use of the glut of carrots we keep accumulating when I stumbled on this one. I also happened to have some parsnips from our Farm Box, so this seemed like a great idea.

1/2 cup diced bacon (I know! I've been meaning to make more bacon, but I want to get the pork belly from this new butcher shop in Los Feliz, and I haven't been over there, and it takes a week, and all that. Not to mention that it is mainly salted meat, and we decided a long time ago that salt doesn't count if it is the only ingredient. Anyway, I bought 4 slices of bacon at my local butcher. Sue me.) 
3 Tbs unsalted butter
1 small onion, cut into 1/4 dice (about 1 cup)
3 parsnips, peeled and cut into 1/2 dice (This is supposed to equal 2 2/3 cups. Apparently these are parsnips from the land of Gigantor. I had six, petite parsnips and it added up to about 1.5 cups. I was worried, but it all worked out fine.)
1 apple, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2-inch dice (about 1 1/4 cups)
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped into 1/4 inch dice (about 1 cup)
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme (I didn't have this. Oh well)
Coarse Salt
Freshly ground pepper

Brown the bacon until crisp in large skillet over medium-high heat, about 5 minutes. Remove the bacon and set aside leaving the bacon fat in the pan.

Add the butter to the bacon fat. (That's right, I said add the fat to the fat) and onions and cook, stirring until translucent, about 2 minutes. Add the parsnips, cover and cook, stirring frequently, until soft, about 10 minutes. Uncover and continue to cook until golden brown, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.

 Add the apple, bell pepper and thyme (if you have it) and continue to cook, stirring until they carmelize a bit, about five minutes. 

Stir in the reserved bacon. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve with medium rare pork chops that were cooked by your handsome husband with butter, Pasta Seasoning (Ingredients: Onion, Garlic, Basil, Lemon Peel, Paprika, Fennel, Oregano, Black Pepper, Ginger, Thyme & Lemon Oil) and Season All (Ingredients: Salt, Spices (Including Chili Pepper, Black Pepper, Celery Seed, Nutmeg and Coriander) Onion, Paprika, Maltodextrin, Garlic, Silicon Dioxide (added to make free flowing) and Annatto for color) on the broiler for about 90 seconds per side, and a salad left over from Saturday night's dinner.

If you are really lucky, your handsome husband will also make his Grandmother's Hot Chocolate Pudding for dessert. And maybe someday he will write a post about it for you.

Brother's Bacon for Christmas Brunch

This post was posted by my older brother PBC:

For the Do it your self Christmas meal my assignment was bacon for the morning brunch.
Now I had not given a lot of thought to where bacon comes from prior to this project, earlier in my life when I was more curious and slightly more gullible had I asked my Grandpa Barrett, "I get ham and pork come from parts of a pig but where does bacon come from?" and he told me it was from the curly tail of the pig I took that at face value (i mean it is curly after you fry it) so I never really thought of the origin of bacon again, untill now. 
I am not much for the Internet research on activities such as this, I usually like to do things my own way and hope they turn out, however in this case I did need some kind of direction as I did not even know what cut of meat to ask the butcher for.  Luckily my sister colleen provided me with a couple of recipes and the main ingredient called for was pork belly.  I went to the local independent grocery store, they have an excellent butcher shop.  I told them of my plan for making bacon and they were all quite impressed but did not have pork belly so I had to special order it.  The recipe called for 2 1/2 lbs skin on, but i thought I would need more for the large group and left overs (the recipe said the uncooked should keep for two weeks) I ordered 4 lbs at $3.99 a pound it was about 16 dollars however they did not have "skin on"  I dont know if that affected the overall product very much or not.  The butcher said it would be in a few days, so I picked it up and then went to a Creighton Bluejays game with Brother John after the game John and I made a dry rub in the coffee grinder using

5 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons peppercorns
3 bay leaves
1 large clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoon fennel seed
2 teaspoon caraway seed
2 teaspoon dried rosemary
2 teaspoon dried thyme

This is used to "brine" the meat.  we cut the pork belly in two and rubbed it down generously with the rub, then put it in the plastic bag to begin the brineing process.  The instructions called for 7 days turning daily but we only had six, I don't think that was a big issue.  Also on the last day I was to wash the meat and cover for 24 more hours however I on cleaned it off the brine with a clean towel and covered it for 12 hours (this may account for the "extra salty" taste).  On Christmas eve morning the plan was to get the smoker going outside and smoke the bellys for 2 to 2 1/2  hours, unfortunately mother nature and my flu symptoms did not allow for that plan so I had to cook in the oven at 200 for 2 hours.  Brother John picked up the cooked meat took it back to the local butcher where it was sliced into "real Bacon"  The family enjoyed it Christmas morning, unfortunatly i was unable to enjoy but there were good reviews from the not sick and not quite so sick.

The bacon did keep for two weeks and I was able to cook up the leftovers this weekend all in all it was a tasty adventure!