If anything is capable of making me believe there's such a thing as a weeknight recipe, this might be it. 30-40 minutes max, with nothing prepared in advance. My pork chops were thin so I cut the baking time in half.
They tasted okay despite the mistakes I made. I won't go into details, but let me just mention few choice words like "burned", "over-browned", "cheap Italian bread crumbs", and "quality control" (lack of). But what do you expect for a Tuesday night?
On a sad note, I think I need to rethink things like store brand, pre-seasoned bread crumbs. These tasted and smelled horrid. It would have been better to use plain Panko and add my own seasonings. Am I becoming a gourmet cooking snob?
Didn't the pecan pie teach me a lesson? If a custard pie has already been in the oven for ten minutes longer than the longest time specified in the recipe, it's done. DONE. Don't bother checking whether the "sides are set but the center is slightly jiggly." Just. Stop. Right. There.
The recipe said 35-45 minutes. At 65 minutes, the top was set but the underneath was as jiggly as jello. When I finally gave up, at about 70 minutes, and pulled it out, still the same. But---
On the counter, ten minutes later, hard as a rock.
Okay, that's a slight exaggeration. The center was still liquid; the rest was hard as a rock. A tasty rock; but nothing worth breaking a tooth over.
At least it fulfilled my Valentine's Day commitments. Husband has a birthday coming up--what dessert shall I destroy for it?
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