This pork recipe was pulled in haste. My teen saw the curly noodles and we just had to make it. We were all surprised to find how good it was. This Saucy Twist Pork Dish from the Betty Crocker Recipe Card Library (1971), Budget Casseroles is great, with some minor adjustments.
First, the pork recipe calls for a canned pork meat, you know, Spam. I am not a big Spam fan. We decided to use pork chops instead. We seasoned the chops with a little salt and pepper and browned them in a large fry pan.
While the chops were browning, we cooked the tri-color spiral pasta. The teen thought this would be better pasta than the plain corkscrew macaroni the recipe called for.
Once the pork was cooked through we cubed it and prepared to put the casserole together.
This is what the Saucy Twist Pork Dish looked like when it came out of the oven. The aroma was amazing.
I think our idea to tweak this pork recipe prior to cooking it was superb. The flavor was excellent. Everyone liked the dish and we will be making it again.
This recipe go around we chose Crown Roast of Spareribs. Pork has been on sale and I have been taking advantage of spectacular deals. We have never, ever, cooked ribs in the oven, they usually go on the smoker. My husband about fell out of his chair when I told him what we were going to do with the spareribs defrosting on the counter. This recipe is from McCall's Great American Recipe Card Collection (1973), The Midwest.
When we embarked on this recipe, I felt it might be too complicated for my daughter. However, she is a trooper and really managed it well.
The first obstacle was trimming the spareribs. I thought sure we need a hacksaw to cut through them. To my surprise they trimmed up beautifully. Forming the crown was surprisingly easy as well.
We opted to cook our crown roast in a large tall lidded casserole rather than wrapped in foil on a shallow pan. I figured this way more juices would be retained. I think I was correct.
We popped the spareribs in the oven and moved on to preparing the stuffing. This came together quite easily and the aroma was spectacular.
Once the crown roast recipe called for us to stuff the center of the spareribs we discovered we had more stuffing than the crown would hold. We just put the remainder in a smaller lidded casserole for cooking.
From start to finish this recipe was ready in about 2 1/2 hours. The end result was way beyond my expectations. And, my husband was astonished we could produce ribs as tender as these cooking them in the oven for such a short amount of time.
I think this would make a wonderful dish for any occasion. Here's how ours turned out:
One note I would like to add: The recipe calls for you to form your crown with the meaty side facing out. I believe they faced the meaty side in for the McCall's version. See how their spareribs have a different sway outward:
You can also see the membrane. I did not notice this until I saw our finished product. Next time we prepare this recipe I will be reversing the crown to see if it makes a difference.
This week we were looking for something we could do with leftovers. Earlier in the week we grilled pork fajitas I bought on sale and had a ton of meat leftover. Well this Piggybank Pork Bake seemingly just dropped from the Heavens. This recipe is from The Betty Crocker Recipe Card Library (1971), Budget Casseroles.
This pork recipe was so easy the teen put it together herself. I could not believe how well she did chopping the green pepper. I wanted to take a video but the camera fouled up on me. I was lucky to get a image of the finished product:
We used Fideo for the "uncooked fine noodles" and we substituted Pam spray for the shortening. This recipe was a great guide for us to use up some leftover pork and it tasted really good. I'm thinking I might prefer a different cheese and cream soup, maybe Mozzarella or Pepper Jack for the cheese and cream of celery or mushroom. I might also like it spiced up a bit, perhaps use rotel instead of Pimento.
We came across this easy Pork Chop Scallop recipe and decided we just had to try it. Pork chops and pork in general has been on sale a lot lately. Having a variety of pork recipes will keep the family from getting burned out on pork chop a la surprise.
This pork chop scallop recipe was so easy the teen could manage it all on her own. Just look, all you need is pork chops, salt, pepper, pimentos, and boxed scallop potatoes. From The Betty Crocker Recipe Card Library (1971), American Classics.
For this one we opted to bake the pork chop scallop in the oven instead of cooking it on the stove top. It worked out really well this way. The chops were not as tender as I would have liked them but everyone seemed to like the dish overall.
For a quick and easy pork chop dish, you may want to try it. Here's the results of our efforts:
