Easy Peasy And Loosey Goosey

I had zero idea that this supper would be blog worthy. So you only get a photo of the leftovers. But sometimes life's surprises are good ones. I made a plate for Daddy-O's lunch tomorrow.  We've been busy this week with house and yard chores so I made something new that sounded super easy. I was only aiming for edible. But this exceeded my goal. Daddy-O said, "Be sure to put this one on the blog so I could make it if I needed to when you are gone." I put boneless pork chops in the slow cooker and topped them with a mix of two ingredients—a can of whole berry cranberry sauce and an envelope of dry onion soup mix. You really can't get much easier.

The rest of the meal of the meal was only canned peas (which Daddy-O loves) and yellow rice from a mix. Remember? I told you that tonight was all about easy. We were focused on the house and the yard. (The house is clean and the grass is cut.) Cooking supper was way down on my list. But it's a happy thing when something that easy turns out to be delicious.

I saw a recipe somewhere in the last week or two that used the cranberry sauce/onion soup concoction. I don't even remember what meat they put it over or how they cooked it. But I have a recipe on the blog that uses cranberry sauce and bottled chili sauce over pork chops. So I kinda sorta followed those directions. I also was trying out a new slow cooker. All slow cookers are different. So I set this one like I usually do. But two hours before it should have been done, I checked it. New slow cooker has a temperature probe. And it was done. So I turned it to "keep warm" until we were ready to eat. I think you could also do this in the oven. The pandemic year has found me getting all loosey-goosey with my cooking methods and recipes (or lack of recipes.) 

For the record I'm also getting all loosey-goosey with my piano playing. Who says I have to play ALL the notes on the page? Don't tell Little Sister who is taking piano lessons and practicing hard, but now I play a song the way I want to. Add notes. Leave out notes. As long as it sounds good, it IS good. There are perks to passing age 70. 

So Daddy-O, here you go! Since it wasn't really a recipe, I had to make up a name for it. Somewhere later I'll try the cranberry/onion soup mixture with other meats.

CRANBERRY PORK CHOPS

4 to 6 boneless pork chops (my pack only had 3 this time)

1 (14-oz) can whole berry cranberry sauce

1 envelope dry onion soup mix

Place chops in a slow cooker. Mix cranberry sauce and onion soup mix. Spread on top of chops. Cook on LOW 5-6 hours. Or until done. (This slow cooker was faster than my other one, where the recipe says LOW for 7-8 hours. I also had less meat. Do it how your slow cooker works.) 

If you are wondering why I bought a new slow cooker, let's just blame it on pandemic brain. I have seen so many people who love the Hamilton Beach slow cooker I had to try it, too. This one has a temperature probe and a locking lid. Like every brand there are so many different models I have no clue if this particular one is even one I read about. I do like the locking lid. Haven't used it enough to have thoughts about cooking in it. I've used the Crock-Pot brand for decades with no complaints. Like I said...pandemic brain and too easy online ordering. Now to figure out where to store it. It will likely end up in Big Sister's apartment kitchen in the fall. Yes. She is that old.