Football Blues

Don’t talk to me. I’m in a bad mood. My Broncos lost their first game ofthis season and I’m not happy about it. I guess pretty much everyone in Colorado is crabby today. For one thing, we got to bed late.

Well, actually, I didn’t get to bed late. I got to bed on time. In fact, I have to sort of shamefully admit that I didn’t even watch the second half of the game. I couldn’t stand myself and decided I would be better off upstairs tucked into my bed with my book in hand. I was reminding myself of my mother.

I loved my mother (still do, though she died too young in 1995 and I miss her every single day), but I absolutely HATED watching a football game with her. To begin with, she went into it with a bad attitude. “Well, we are going to lose this game for sure,” she would invariably predict, even if her team (which was either the Nebraska Cornhuskers or the Denver Broncos) was playing St. Bridget’s Girl School for Quilting.

And then, during the game, well, oh my heavens. The refereeing was bad, the announcers were biased, the opposing players were cheating, her own players were stinking it up, and on and on and on until you wanted to take a walk instead of watching the game. Which is what my father often did. Watching his team (also either the Huskers or the Broncos) play a close game drove him nuts. I don’t think he ever saw the end of a Nebraska/Oklahoma game because he was either walking or in the kitchen playing solitaire.

Anyway, I heard my mother’s words coming out of my mouth and I empathized with poor Bill who was simply trying to enjoy the game. So I went upstairs, figuring the Broncos would win or lose whether or not I was paying attention.

And what they did was lose, and the world hasn’t ended. Next week we play the Washington Redskins and I’m sure we’re going to lose that game because RGIII seems to be coming on strong. (Mom, you would be proud of me.)

This week I’m going to provide a few recipes for dishes that I have been making for many years. What they have in common is that all of them are dishes that my husband has been asking me to make lately. Bill tends to eat dinner so that he can then have dessert. The main meal is simply a path to what he really enjoys – a chocolate something-or-other. But there are a few dishes he enjoys a lot. These tender pork chops are his personal favorite, and a snap to make on a weekend night.

The recipe comes from a book my husband bought many years ago at a political fundraiser. It is called The Congressional Club Cookbook, and was a compilation of recipes from Congressmen and Congresswomen serving at that time (which was 1998).

Golden Pork Chops

Ingredients
4 thick pork chops
Lemon pepper
Salt
Cooking oil
1 10-3/4 oz. can Golden Mushroom Soup
White wine
Fresh mushrooms

Process
Sprinkle chops with salt and lemon pepper, then brown slightly in oil. Put chops in covered casserole. Cover with soup and a little white wine (or chicken broth). Top with sliced fresh mushrooms. Bake at 300 for 3 hours or longer.

Nana's Note: The recipe doesn't call for an amount of white wine, but put more than you think since it cooks in the oven so long. The resulting gravy is delicious on potatoes, rice, or noodles. And this time I didn't have any white wine on hand, so I used chicken broth instead and it was still good.