Pork Chops with Gravy

Just finished reading Fannie Flagg's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe yesterday, so of course I had to make one of her recipes for dinner. I chose pork chops with gravy.

Sorry there's no picture. We ate them all. I could show you a picture of the leftover gravy, but that would just be weird.

So I'm showing you part of our garden instead. (Actually, to be completely honest, it's my husband's garden. My contribution is basically to eat. And no, to answer your next question, I don't eat the sunflowers. Smart aleck.)

Back to pork chops.

Usually my pork chops end up dried out, like some kind of meat jerky you might be forced to eat on a ten-month moon voyage. I have avoided making them for a while. But they are so cheap at the grocery store. And since this recipe directs you to brown them, then cover and simmer and smother with gravy, Fannie's pork chops are not dry. They are lovely. I will be making Fannie's chops and gravy again.

Enough yakking. (Or is it yacking?) On to the recipe.

PORK CHOPS AND GRAVY

4 slices bacon
1/3 c. flour
salt & pepper
4 large, thick pork chops
1 1/2 c. milk

Fry up bacon in skillet. Remove cooked bacon and allow family to scarf all four pieces down like ravenous wolves. You will not be needing the bacon; you will need only the grease they left behind. Put the flour on a plate, add salt & pepper as desired, and stir around with a fork. Dip both sides of pork chops in flour and put in heated skillet with the bacon grease. (Do not throw away left over flour; you'll be using it later.) Cook over medium high heat until browned (a few minutes), then turn and brown the other side. Turn down the heat, cover, and cook until chops are done, about 30 minutes.

Once the meat is done, you can remove it to a plate to make this next step easier. Stir left over flour into the fat in the pan. Add milk and whisk it around good, cooking until gravy thickens. This should take only a minute or two. And don't worry about lumps; the whisking will get rid of them.

Serve gravy over the chops. Delicious with garlic mashed potatoes.

Thank you to The Bumbles for this book recommendation. Any other good food books to recommend? Anyone?