Two for Tuesday: Pork Chops with Fruit Stuffing and Cookie Dough Ice Cream

The first recipe is part of a quest to find at least four but preferably six delicious and easy crock pot recipes for the Mondays where we're gone all day at co-op. (I don't see how work-outside-the-home mothers manage dinner every night, I really don't.)

The grown-ups in the house liked this recipe. The kids in the house thought the stuffing was "strange". I don't know yet whether the recipe wants to become part of our regular menu or not.

The original recipe came from Pillsbury Slow Cooker Recipes, which came home with us from the library. I modified it in a vain attempt to better customize it to my family's taste. I also increased the amounts from the original.

Pork Chops with Fruit Stuffing

Ingredients--

• 1 1/2 cup diced dried apples
• 2 cups chicken broth OR 1 1/2 cup no salt added chicken broth plus 1/2 cup water
• !/2 to 1 cup apple juice
• 6 Tbs butter
• 1/4 to 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 (6 oz) pkg low-sodium stuffing mix
• 6 pork chops
• vegetable oil and butter for frying
• Mrs Dash

Directions--

1. In large pot (my biggest saucepan wasn't quite big enough), combine diced dried apples, 1/2 cup apple juice, chicken broth, butter, and cinnamon. Bring to a boil and stir in stuffing mix. Remove from heat. (Add a tiny bit more apple juice if needed to moisten.)
2. Heat a little vegetable oil and a pat of butter in large skillet. When hot and bubbly, but before the butter browns, add pork chops. Fry on high heat for a minute or two on each side, just enough to brown them. Season with Mrs. Dash.
3. Pour 1/4 cup apple juice in slow cooker. (Just enough to cover the bottom). Place pork chops in slow cooker. Top with stuffing.
4. Cover and cook on low 5 to 6 hours.
5. To serve, transfer stuffing to a serving bowl and fluff with a fork.
6. Good with sweet potato fries or baked sweet potatoes as a side dish!

 Cookie Dough Ice Cream

In our house, we make our own ice cream. We make one or two gallons a week. (And when I say "we", I really mean the Jedi does it all.) It's not that much more expensive than store bought. It's certainly more delicious, and we get to experiment with all sorts of flavors!

This came from Toa of Boy's request for chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. I picked up refrigerated cookie dough from the store, thinking that refrigerated cookie dough had been pasteurized and was safe to consume raw. I was wrong. The Jedi noticed all sorts of "do not consume unbaked" warning labels on it. Luckily, I found a great substitute recipe on Allrecipes. (This doesn't include the directions or the ingredients for the ice cream itself, just the mix in!)

I changed nothing from the recipe except to double it for my ice cream loving family. The amounts below are for the family-sized batch!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 5 Tbs brown sugar
• 3 Tbs white sugar
• 4 Tbs softened butter
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 Tbs water
• mini-chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Cream butter with sugars until smooth. 
2. Stir in vanilla and water.
3. Mix in flour until well blended.
4. Stir in mini-chocolate chips. Yeah, I didn't measure. I just poured and stirred until it looked right. You have to use the mini-chips though, because the regular sized chips get way too hard in the ice cream.
5. Turn out onto parchment paper and shape into a rough log.
6. Freeze for 1 to 2 hours then cut into chunks to stir into the ice cream. (We also at that time added extra mini-chocolate chips to the mix-in process.)