The Steps to the Porch by Frances Robson

Good evening. Ya'll come on in and have a coke with me and visit for awhile. I have been to choir practice tonight and look forward with great anticipation to Sunday morning worship. It is Easter! We are going to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior and our music is awesome. Music is food for the soul and though I do not have a solo voice I enjoy being a part of the choir.

We have a great time at choir practice for our director, Chad Todd, is a wonderful director. He loves what he does and leads us to love it too. We have learned so much with Chad and one of the most important is to how to lead our congregation into worship of our God. As you can tell, I love choir. Hw also loves to laugh and we have a joyous practice each week even though we work hard to have the best sound we can for leading in worship is important and we want to give God the best we have.

Again it has been a wonderfully warm, sunny, spring day. We walked out to the pond and fed the little fish which I have not seen yet but we fed them anyway. I tell you what we do have is a jillion tadpoles. It sounds like a huge choir of frogs at night and they all have a billion little babies which will make the choir even larger. I'm not kidding, they were thick as fleas on a hound dog. It was amazing and I'll be glad when the fish get large enough to use them for food. We really don't need any more members for the "Frog Choir."

I cooked another good meal today using some pork steaks I found in the freezer. Realizing I needed to use them I looked for a recipe that also used rice so I would have a meal in 1 pot. I also wanted a recipe which would freeze well for I seem to find it impossible to cook for 2 and usually have leftovers. This can be great to save time later so I try to find ingredients which don't loose their texture when frozen and I like to use rice. It freezes really well and tastes good when reheated. I also wanted to use the new dutch oven I bought to see if it was a good as I hoped it would be and it is.

My recipe books didn't have exactly what I wanted so I took 2 recipes and made them mine. Tweaking recipes are fun and I enjoy it most of the time. Occasionally it is terrible but those you'll never see. :)

I hope you like this one and let me know what you think by using the comment at the close of the posting.

Braised Pork Steak with Rice

Ingredients :

1 1/2 lb. Shoulder steak (you could also use large pork chops)
1 onion - chopped
2 Cloves Garlic- chopped finely (you can use less or more)
1/2 cup chopped celery
2 cups beef stock or vegetable stock
1 tsp salt
creole seasoning and black pepper, to taste
1 tsp paprika
1 cup uncooked rice (I used brown rice mixed with wild rice)

Instructions:

Trim fat edging the steaks.

Season the steaks with the salt, pepper, paprika and creole seasoning
Brown meat slowly on both sides. Use a cast iron skillet or heavy Dutch oven. No added fat is necessary.

When steaks are browned, remove and keep warm.
Add the vegetables to the pan and saute until soft. Add the steaks back to the pan and add the stock. Cover pan. Cook 30 minutes on low heat.

Add rice (regular, NOT instant or converted rice) and simmer, covered, 30 to 40 minutes longer, until meat and rice are tender.

I usually remove the meat and put the rice into the liquid, then put the meat on top.

Be sure and taste it after adding the stock to see if the seasonings are alright. I served with a garden salad and fruit compote for dessert.

____________________________________________________________________
I froze 2 portions to use later. This is an inexpensive dish and serves 4 - 6.

We are going up to Eufala, Al tomorrow to Lakepoint State Park to enjoy the dawning of spring in this lovely park. They have a nice lodge where we stay and the restaurant has delicious food. I am looking forward to taking lots of pictures to share with you.

Have a good night's sleep and ya'll come back to see us and sit a spell. Try the recipe and let me know what you think.

Nuff said,

The Georgia Peach

*************************************************************************************