One Pan Whiskey-Flavored Pork Chops

Today I worked from home so I'd be all set to cook my "thank you for picking me" dinner for Kurt tonight. Since I had already grocery shopped, I was pretty well-prepared, so I went for an early evening jog along the Hudson River Park. What fun! It's just a few blocks west of my apartment. I stopped to read a sign and learned it's the largest park to undergo construction in Manhattan since Central Park is greated.

It was great to be able to jog along looking at the Hudson and the Statue of Liberty. I didn't make it all the way down to Battery Park, but maybe I will set that as a goal for a longer weekend jog. I'd probably have to rent a bike to get to the starting point on 59th Street and back.

When I got back, the sun was starting to go down, so this was the view from our west-facing kitchen.

For my first cooking adventure in my new home, I decided to make Kurt a recipe I made ages ago but always remembered fondly: One Pan Whiskey-Flavored Pork Chops. It was from a Cooking Light recipe by a man who'd discovered how to make some lower-fat but still seemingly decadent dishes.

I'm too tired to type out the whole recipe, and you can easily find it online, but here are the highlights. You sear bone-in pork chops in a skillet (5 minutes on each side until golden brown) and then remove the chops and saute onions and mushrooms in the pan.

Add 1/2 cup of whiskey (I got Makers Mark in honor of my friend Anne) and let it bubble until the whiskey almost evaporates.

Add to the pan a cream sauce of 2/3 cup fat-free sour cream (I never use fat-free dairy products, but I thought I'd followed the directions the last time I made it and recalled it turned out okay), 1/2 tsp dried sage, 1/2 cup water, salt and pepper, and 2 tbsp flour.

Return the pork chops to the pan, cover and bake at 300 for one hour. I served it with mashed potatoes. I also made us a salad with spinach, grapefruit, apple, red onion and poppy seed dressing.

For dessert: toasted pecans sprinkled with sea salt and served over dulce de leche ice cream. We ate our dinner while watching the Australian movie Animal Kingdom. So nice to have someone to cook for and eat with! We agreed that the dirty dishes could wait until tomorrow.