Pioneer Woman Pork Chops

So tonight I made one of the most delicious meals I have ever made. It is all thanks to this recipe from The Pioneer Woman. You know you want to see the pictures.

First, my husband drank a glass of wine (the same I used to cook the dish) while I cooked.  I thought this was fair, since he had to corral a very fussy baby to give me time to prepare this delicious feast.

 

And after a little while, this was the result:

 

Aaaaand another just to capture the sheer deliciousity (no, it's not a word--at least, not one that spell check recognizes...):

 

I'm actually not the biggest fan of pork chops--but it turns out that I'm just not a fan of pork chops that aren't covered in a garlic wine sauce. Yum, yum, yum. 

Reviving this Blog

I'm reviving this blog because I find that I need a place to talk about things that don't really fit on the blog about my baby, nor do they fit well...anywhere else, really.  It feels a little self-indulgent...but I'm going to do it anyway.

I'm going to do a quick run-through of all the things I've been thinking about/doing lately that I've felt compelled to write about:

1. My father was diagnosed with a rather aggressive and rare form of cancer late last year. He's fighting very hard every day, and he has a lot of fighting left to do--but I firmly believe that he can do it.
2. My mother, who works in a prison, was made a sergeant.  She hasn't worked there very long, but she has already accomplished so much, and I am very proud of her for that.
3. I will start taking classes this summer at the local community college to get my postbaccalaureate diploma in paralegal studies.  While I do like my current job and my coworkers, I am not sure that I can see myself doing this sort of work for the rest of my life.  I think that in the right setting, a position as a paralegal would be well-suited to my temperament and strengths, and I think it is also important in this particular economy to make yourself marketable in many areas, if possible.
4. I have started a "diet" that is more of a lifestyle change--I eat like a French woman, which is to say, I watch my portions, eat three full meals a day, and I don't pay attention to things like calories or whether something is whole-wheat or whatever. It's awesome, and has resulted in a slow but steady weight loss for me (I need to lose my baby weight).
5. I write stuff.  I know that you're thinking, "Of course you do--I'm reading the blog you wrote" but what I mean to say is that I write fiction.  I write stuff that other people read, and I have a really hard time letting people I know in real life (which is an absurd distinction, because my online writer friends are people I know in real life--they just aren't physically present) read this stuff.  I'm going to write a post about it someday, but if you ever stumble across my stuff and you aren't one of my many online friends who are already reading my stuff--don't talk to me about it. I can't talk to you about it. Not yet. 
6. I had the weirdest dream last night which featured a horrific mishap with a very strange steam-powered machine that sliced, buttered, and toasted french bread in mass quantities.  When I say horrific mishap, I mean that the machine somehow exploded, causing a person to be thrown out the kitchen window and burned with machine shrapnel all at the same time. I have absolutely no idea why I would have such a dream. 
7. This week I'm making this recipe, and I plan to blog about how it turns out.

OK, so that should do it for now!