marinated pork chops

I made these pork chops a few weeks ago...but I didn't bother posting the recipe or photo because, to be honest, I've been getting lazy with that. Also, it seems life has been pretty crazy lately, but not in the bad way, we've just been going out of town a lot on the weekends and I started working at another job, in addition to the one I already have. So, I'm sure you can understand why posting has been a little difficult for me lately. I do feel bad that the excitement of having a new food blog is sort of wearing off, but I refuse to continue neglecting it the way I have been.

Annyhowww, As the holidays approach, I hope to bake a lot more. I've always wanted to learn how to make a pumpkin pie from scratch, or any pie for that matter, so that's a recipe I'll be experimenting with...and I think Jose's actually going to be helping me with that. I want to figure out how to make it before Thanksgiving. I even need to figure out how to make a moist turkey in the oven...because I think he and I are going to be in charge of making the turkey this year, that should be exciting... I am a little nervous, though. I've never baked such a large piece of protein like that, but I do know there are tips posted all over the web. Does anyone have any seasoning ideas or turkey basting/baking tips that always seem to work? The good thing is, I used to help my parents put the turkey together a couple of times when I was growing up, so it's not entirely unfamiliar to me--they rubbed a garlic/spice butter blend on their turkey every couple of hours until it finished cooking...but I wonder if olive oil would work? Would it taste funny? Hmm...

Now, getting back to the pork chops... I've recently started making pork chops about once a week, and I've experimented with different ways of marinating them...so far this is my favorite way of making pork chops. They cook really fast, it definitely helps that they are thinly sliced. I don't remember the exact amounts I used, but this is the general idea. When it comes to marinating, it usually doesn't really matter how much of each "sauce" or seasoning you use, as long as the flavor isn't too overwhelming, or so it seems. For these pork chops, I used the following ingredients:

I think this was about 3/4-1 lb of pork chops
1/3-1/2 worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
a pinch of pepper
a pinch of paprika
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
1/2 tbsp Italian seasoning
a sprinkle of salt, or garlic salt
a sprinkle of onion powder

Later, when the pork chops were almost done cooking over a low-medium flame, I added in about
1/3 of a small sweet onion--doesn't matter what kind
1 large roma tomato, diced
about 1/2 cup chopped up mushrooms
I seared these over a high flame with the pork chops until the onions were slightly darker, then I covered the all-purpose pan that held these ingredients and simmered them together for about 7 minutes over a low flame. I think it took about 20-30 minutes to make these--but I marinated the pork chops for about 3 hours ahead of time. If you don't have time to marinate them, they will still taste good--I think they should be seared a little longer, though, because, at least to me, they tend to taste better that way if they weren't able to absorb the flavors of the marinade sauce.

Hopefully I'll post again soon :). Thanks for leaving such nice messages for me to read when I least expect it!