At 9:30 Sunday morning, I got a text message from one of my daughters: “Can I stop over for dinner tonight?” Such questions have only one answer: “Yes, of course!”

I have been shopping from my deep freezer lately. I’m a vacuum sealer devotee and have been packing meats in smaller sizes, as it is just my wife and me at home. However, my dad’s intuition told me that one of the kids might stop over, so I thawed another package of pork chops. One pack was in-bone pork chops and the other was boneless. No problem; these are family meals, and my philosophy is to use what you have, and be creative if necessary.

My daughter arrived in the early afternoon, and she, my wife, and I had a delightful time chatting and watching an episode of The Great British Baking Show. We have been addicts of that show since it aired in the US in 2014. It is a competition show, but it isn’t hostile like so many other options. The contestants seem to care about each other, and the hosts (who can be critical) are never cruel. Shows whose goal is to shame or degrade participants have no place in our home.

I have been expanding my pressure cooker recipes and found this one a while back, but I never made it. I can’t claim credit for creating it, but I no longer have any info on who did. That is unfortunate. It is really delicious. Plus, it is incredibly simple to make. Let’s get into it!

I patted my thawed pork chops dry with paper towels and seasoned them with a premade salt-pepper-garlic mix. Feel free to season yours however you like. Patting them dry will reduce spatter when you brown them.

I set my Instant Pot clone to sauté, added a couple of tablespoons of EVOO, and let the pot heat for a few minutes. Feel free to use any cooking oil that you have on hand.

I browned both sides of the pork chops. Do this in batches. If you don’t leave space around your pork chops, they will steam instead of sear. I removed the pork chops after browning.

I poured in 1 cup of beef broth and used a utensil to scrape the delicious brown bits off the bottom. I’m using Better Than Bouillon for the broth and a wooden spatula I bought for $1 when I was a very poor resident doctor. The spatula isn’t very fancy, but it does the job.

I dumped in the sliced mushrooms. To be honest, I didn’t measure them; I just cut up a carton and tossed them in.

On top of the mushrooms, I dumped in a very coarsely chopped onion.

Now the browned pork chops.

Finally, an undiluted can of cream of mushroom soup and some chopped-up parsley. You could use dried parsley or leave it out. Don’t mix everything together; we are using layers to prevent the electric pressure cooker from triggering a burn warning.

I closed my electric pressure cooker (an Instant Pot clone) and set the release valve to sealing. I set the pressure cook time to 15 minutes and let the machine do its thing. It took about 10 minutes to reach pressure, then 15 minutes to cook. I then allowed the cooker to rest for 15 more minutes before releasing the pressure. I removed the pork chops from the liquid. Always follow your manufacturer’s safety instructions when using a pressure cooker. Note: bone-in and boneless pork chops cook at slightly different times. However, I didn’t have time to fool around and cooked them both for the same 15 minutes: they were delicious. If I just had boneless pork chops I would have cooked them for around 10 minutes with a 15 minute rest period.

I turned off the cooker’s keep-warm function and set the machine back to sauté. I mixed the cornstarch into the remaining 1/4 cup of beef broth. I added a small amount of gravy colorant (Gravy Master) for aesthetics, but it’s optional. I stirred this mixture into the cooking liquid until it was nicely thickened.

Here are the pork chops, served with homemade mashed potatoes and broccoli. My wife and daughter said it was delicious, and my daughter went back for seconds. This is a very easy recipe that tastes like you spent the day in the kitchen.

My wife and I had tickets to a carved pumpkin exhibit, and when we returned, our daughter surprised us with a homemade baked treat: pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. My daughter knows I love cream cheese frosting (especially when it is chilled), so she went overboard on mine. Yum! And yes, she is an expert baker.

Driving to the pumpkin exhibit, I saw that gas prices in our area are over $5 again. Grocery prices seem to increase every week. Experts say that because of the war in Iran and tariffs, prices will keep rising. Dear reader, if you can afford it, do some reasonable stocking up now. Two of the best investments I ever made were a vacuum sealer and a basic freezer (mine is over 30 years old). The freezer lets me shop the sales, and the vacuum sealer ensures that my frozen food is freezer burn free.

I know that we are all feeling the pinch of insane inflation. Cooking at home and using what you have can ease the burden.

Peace

Mike