Haste Makes Waste: Fried Pork Chop Vegetable Soup, A Cautionary Tale

Hi Girls and Boys!

Thank you for letting me chat a bit about my
book-in-progress called:


Haste Makes Waste;
Fried Pork Chop Vegetable Soup,
A Cautionary Tale


Oh? You're excited to know more about it?
Okay then, I will share the picture book with you.

One day
a woman named Angie was possessed she was going to make

The Neely's
Grandma Neely's
Fried Pork Chop Vegetable Soup.

---

Now this woman, Angie, doesn't even like pork much,
which is why she rarely makes dishes containing pork.

But she had a hankering for pork chops
that day.


So Angie went to the grocery store and bought everything she needed to make this delicious meal.

This picture shows the ingredients.

Except this picture doesn't show that Angie actually doubled this recipe...see those four pork chops, kids?

4x2 = 8. 
That's 8 pork chops she actually made.

---

Now Angie diced up her onions and her celery and her carrots.

Girls and Boys, never use a knife without parental supervision. and never buy a new set of Rachael Ray knives and think you're an expert and proceed to have a bloodbath on your first chop.

---

Just sayin' Girls and Boys, just sayin'.

The lady Angie, melted butter in the pan and threw the vegetables in and sauteed them.

She then added the flour into the sauteed vegetables. She did this as a thickening agent.
Now kids, never eat flour by itself. The lady in this story was never very bright and she used to do that...
eat flour as a kid.
And thought somehow, each time, the flour would miraculously taste different.

---

But it never did.
















Anyway,


back to the Pork Chop story, Angie added the tomato paste and chicken stock into the pot.

And then Angie added the diced tomatoes.

---

And then the lady added the sweet potatoes.

The recipe calls for regular potatoes but Angie used sweet potatoes.

The lady in this story, Angie, she's a rebel, kids.
A real
color-outside-the-lines rebel.

---

While the soup was simmering, Angie added seasoning salt and
salt and pepper to the flour.

Now kids, what have we learned about flour today so far?
Number one: it is a thickening agent.
Number two: don't eat flour by itself. It's gross.

Back to the story, Angie set up the work station with the pork chops and flour.

---

Now kids, the lady used 1/2 inch thick chops instead of an inch.
Cause she was in a hurry and wanted them to cook faster.

Angie pan fried the pork chops until they were done.

The recipe says to DEEP FRY them but kids, really,

we save the deep fat frying for french fries don't we?

---

The lady took the chops out of the pan when they were fully cooked and let them rest on a paper towel lined plate.

---

Now Girls and Boys, this is where the story picks up.

Angie put all the pork chops in the soup like the recipe calls for.

Isn't that silly? Pork chops in soup?

---

But this picture looks tasty, doesn't it?


Well Angie let it simmer 30 minutes.

---

The last ten minutes the lady added the corn and beans.

Kids, you should always eat your vegetables!

Don't they look pretty?!!!!
No???
Well, they will when you're old like me and get a kick out of colorful vegetables you little

---

Anyway,

when the soup was all done simmering
Girls and Boys,

Angie ladled some up into a bowl and made sure to include a yummy pork chop.

---

And Angie and her husband Tim ate the soup for supper and really enjoyed it.

The soup did not pack a huge punch of flavor but is enjoyable. Both kids and adults would like it and you can add any seasonings as you see fit.

---

Isn't that nice kids?  Eating good healthy soup with a
pork chop in it? Nice and silly, huh?
Yes? 
Good.


Okay, so let me continue on with this story Girls and Boys.

Well remember when Angie doubled the recipe?

Well it actually didn't fit all into one pan, she had to use two pans but never pictured both.

So the lady had
A LOT of soup left over, a huge pan full.

---

And this is the part of the story Girls and Boys, where Angie recreates the events. Okay?
So Angie is reenacting, right kids?
Okay.

Angie went to put the soup away to store it in the refrigerator so as not to waste any of this relatively expensive soup.


Pork chops aren't cheap kids.

---

So she opened up her super old crapola fridge but there was no room.

---

But that was okay.
See, Angie has a summer kitchen and the night time temps were very low, so setting food out there would be like keeping it in a fridge, almost too cold, but just about right. Isn't that nice, kids?
Angie was very, very relieved.

So
Angie put the lid on this heavy cast iron pot.

---

And she walked it carefully...

---

....out the back door to the summer kitchen.

---

Angie thought to herself...

thank goodness the summer kitchen door is propped open,

it makes it easier to carry this big pot inside.

---

Angie looked around.

Because the pot was hot, Angie didn't want to put it on the antique commode there.

And it was FREEZING out there, Angie was cold and wanted to get inside!

---

Angie
didn't want to put the hot pot on the plastic tub.

Even though the pot wasn't super hot,

Angie didn't need a melting mess to deal with.

---

And Angie was smart enough not to put the pot on any of the chairs. Duh, kids, duh.

---

So the lady who was, uh,
ingenious enough to routinely eat flour when she was a kid,
well......

...she set the pot on the floor.

The covered pot was a heavy cast iron pot

and therefore
very safe there on the floor.

She reasoned.

---

And then Angie went back into the house and because it was late
and cold
and because she was soooo tired,
she went right to bed,
dreaming of pork chop soup for lunch the next day.














So the next morning, Angie wakes up and the first thing she does is clean out her refrigerator.

And then she goes to collect her pot of pork chop soup.

Angie realized the summer kitchen door was left

propped open all night.



Huh,

she thought to herself.

---

So Angie went into the summer kitchen...

...and this is how she found the pot.

Something (NOT HER PETS)  had gotten into the HEAVY COVERED CAST IRON POT,
pushed the lid aside,

and had eaten most of the pork chops, there were bones everywhere.

---

And Angie went through her stages of grief.....

and

Yeah, that was about it Girls and Boys,
just two stages of grief for Angie.


Remember, this is the girl who ate flour.

So thank you Girls and Boys,
for letting me share my story. 
I really appreciate it!


I hope you can learn something from
my mistakes.


NO! I don't mean the eating flour thing!!
Lordy, GIVE.IT.A.REST!

I mean from being in too much of a hurry and pretty much just inviting critters into your summer kitchen for a nice, late night snack.


Here's the link to Neely's recipe...it's pretty good by the way!
You just need to improvise on some additional seasonings!
Grandma Neely's Fried Pork Chop Vegetable Soup.




Okay, that's all I have for today guys....have a good weekend, stay warm and we'll
talk at ya soon!
:):):):):)