Mushroom smothered pork

No photo because quite honestly, this meal is kind of ugly looking.  It's DELICIOUS though, and pretty easy.  I was inspired by this recipe over at All Recipes.
1/2 - 1 lb mushrooms - cleaned and sliced (I had one of those bags of ready to go sliced mushrooms, so however much that is)
1 can (or box) of condensed cream of mushroom soup
garlic - a couple of cloves, minced
1 small onion or a couple of shallots, minced
4 pork chops
salt & pepper
white wine

Season the chops with salt and pepper.  Saute the onions and garlic in a pan over medium heat.  Add the mushrooms and allow to get a little bit browned.  Season with salt and pepper.
While the mushies are doing their thing, sear the chops over medium-high on both sides in a nice big skillet.  Once they're browned, add the mushie mixture, the soup, and a glug or two of white wine to the skillet with them.  Cover, and allow to cook away over lowish for about half an hour or so until the pork hits 160.
Serve with mashed spicy sweet potatoes and Aylene's green beans.  I swear nearly everything we make is served with these two sides.  It's warm, and comforting, and perfect for an early spring evening when you're ready for things to start heating up but the rain hasn't quite given up on you for the season yet.

** Updated to mention that it MUST be good if I'm posting it twice - with the same freaking sides.  I am so predictable.  **

Slow Cooker Pot Roast

I did something wrong here.  5,105 people have given this recipe an average rating of 4.5 stars.  They rave about it!  It's moist, it's delicious, it's AMAZING!!!!

My meat was tough and the gravy thin and flat.  Where did I go wrong?!  I only tweaked the recipe a tiny bit, and in ways the 5,105 reviewers had suggested!  I'm going to have to try this again.  It certainly wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't awesome.

2 cans condensed cream of mushroom soup (I used the low fat ones)
1 package of beefy onion soup mix
1 1/4 cups of water
5 1/2 pound pot roast
baby carrots
pearl onions
baby potatoes (reds, yellows, fingerlings, anything small and waxy so you don't have to worry about peeling)
button mushrooms
flour
salt
pepper
seasoning salt or garli garni
optional: Marsala

Season your flour with salt, pepper and seasoning.  Dredge the roast in the flour to get all sides coated.  Sear in a pan over high heat.
In the meantime, mix the mushroom soup, dry soup mix and water in your crockpot.
Once the meat is seared on all sides, put it in the pot.
Cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 8-9 hours.
One hour before it's done, add your veggies and allow them to cook along with the meat.

This is where I'll try things differently - I cooked my roast for 5 hours on high; next time I'm going to try the 8 hours on low.
My gravy was a bit thin, so I ladled some out into a pan to thicken up.  I added a little bit of a slurry of flour and Marsala to flavor it up a bit as well since it tasted a bit flat to me.

Overall it was good, but not nearly as richly flavored as I had imagined.  What a let down. 

Mushroom Pork Chops

I didn't want to buy much for dinner, and the fella was wanting pork (insert your own dirty joke here).  I found this recipe and thought it couldn't possibly be good, but it was so easy, and had so many rave reviews that I had to give it a whirl.  All I had to buy was three ingredients - score!
Served on a bed of mashed sweet potatoes (with a bit of fake butter & salt mixed in), and my pathetic attempt at Aylene's Green Beans, and it was nomsville.

Mushroom Pork Chops
2 thick cut pork chops, butterflied into 4 thin (the thick cut fresh chops were on sale for about half the price of the pre-packaged thin ones and momma didn't raise no fool)
salt & pepper
garlic powder
1 onion, chopped
1 styrofoam package of sliced mushrooms to make life easy (8 oz.)
1 small can of condensed cream of mushroom soup

Season both sides of pork with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
Sear on each side on for a couple of minutes in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the onion and mushrooms, pour cream of mushroom soup over the top.  Cover and reduce temperature to medium low.  Simmer 20-30 minutes, poking and stirring occasionally.