Vietnamese Pork Chops w/ Salad, Applesauce Time! Pear Harvest and Crumble Pie

Vietnamese Pork Chops w/ Cucumber Radish Salad-
It's starting to feel a bit like Autumn! Cooler/shorter days, and nights. I ran across this article for some summer-to-fall decorating ideas, 6 Easy Way to Transition From Summer To Fall, fun stuff! It's been fall harvest time here the last 2 weekends, with pesto and marinara sauce to make from our tomatoes still to come! I love cooking pork in the fall, and I recently found this recipe- RachaelRaymag.com  I decided to try it since I already had most of the ingredients. I bought 4 nice chops and went for it. I wasn't sure about eating radish greens, but they were actually good! The result? Excellent, juicy meat and mild veggies. I did use a jalapeno pepper, with no seeds, diced. Next time I would slice them since we didn't get much heat. All in all, a keeper! This could also work for chicken or beef.

Applesauce Time!
We had a moderate harvest of our Pippin apples this year. Between giving our kids apples,and eating them fresh/baked ourselves, we really didn't have a huge amount to can. With my recent back issues I decided to make my thick/chunky applesauce last weekend on the stove and freeze it. Easy peasy! I left the skin on, good fiber, nutrition. I bought four new 3.8 pint, BPA-free freezer containers. I wasn't sure if that would be enough, but I filled all four, making about 1 gallon-

 To process the apples I washed, cored, and cut off the bad spots. I sliced and put in my giant pot, with several inches of water. I started on high, then after 10 minutes reduced to medium high. I kept stirring from the bottom and put the lid on. Keep checking the progress very 10 minutes. Once soft I started with a potato masher, then added water to thin as needed. I then switched to submersible blender, perfect for this application. I added a little sugar, fresh lemon juice, pinch of salt, then cinnamon, and fresh nutmeg to taste. I like spiced applesauce!  You could leave out the spices if you wish. You can use on top of pork chops with garlic, onion and ginger. You could also use in an apple bread/cake.

Pear Harvest and Crumble Pie-
We kept waiting for our organic Bartlett pears to soften up on the tree, but when they started falling off it was time to pick them yesterday. We had about 35 pears, our largest crop yet! We planted the tree about 3 or 4 years ago, so this was a good harvest. The flavor is great! I decided to try this recipe and Dave loves baked pears- Pear Pie Crumble  It's also a keeper!

I used fresh nutmeg instead of cinnamon in the filling, but added both to the topping. The slices were nice and tender but not mushy. I used the ripest pears for this.

I have the rest of the pears slowly ripening on the table-

I'm going to try this recipe as well Autumn Pear Bread and use some of our excellent eggs :)

Are you ready for Autumn?