Giant Ginger Cookies

From the recipe - "These irresistible cookies are giant in size and huge in snappy ginger flavor.  To create the chewy texture, be sure to make them with shortening, not butter or margarine."  Mom has always used butter and they've always tasted great.

Ingredients

• 4.5 c. all-purpose flour
• 4 tsp. ground ginger
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1.5 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground cloves
• .25 tsp. salt
• 1.5 cups shortening (or butter)
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• .5 c. molasses
• .75 c. coarse sugar or granulated sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Cream sugar and butter
3. Mix in eggs and molasses
4. Mix dry ingredients separately
5. Add dry ingredients to the cream sugars
6. Roll into balls (golf-ball size for giant cookies)
7. Roll balls in coarse or granulated sugar
8. Place on cookie sheet 2.5 in. apart
9. Bake for 12-14 min
10. Once done, let stand for 2 min before transferring to rack

Yields: 25 - 4 in. cookies

Mexican Baked Hake Loins

Costco has Wild Caught Hake Loins on sale this month, and we were looking for a little variation on our typical recipe (oven baked with Great American seasoning).  I searched for a Mexican recipe and hit the jackpot with the following super easy and delectable recipe.

Ingredients

• 3 Hake Loins
• 1 c. Salsa
• 1 c. broken corn tortilla chips
• 1 c. Shredded/Grated cheese (cheddar tastes great)
• 1 Avocado
• Sour cream (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 deg. Fahrenheit
2. Defrost and pat dry Hake loins (try to extract as much water as possible without breaking them)
3. Place in lightly greased baking dish
4. Pour salsa over Hake loins, sprinkle cheese and broken tortilla chips
5. Bake on middle rack (uncovered) for 15-18 min (or until fish flakes apart)
6. Serve with sliced avocado and sour cream on top

Yields: 3 servings

Perfect Pork Chops

We were frustrated with tough pork, so looked for an alternative way of preparing it.  We came across the following recipe and were quite pleased with the results (inspired from thekitchn.com).  This should work for 2-4 < 1 in. pork chops.  We used boneless pork chops and because they were > 1 in. we just cut them in half so they were only about 3/4 in. thick.

Ingredients

• 3 c. cold water
• 3 T. salt
• garlic cloves or powder
• peppercorns (optional)
• bay leaf (optional)
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Directions

1. Boil 1 c. of water with 3 T. salt, garlic, peppercorns, and bay leaf until salt is dissolved.
2. Add remaining cold water to brine to lower the temperature
3. Place pork chops in baking dish and pour brine over the top (pork chops should be completely submerged).
4. Cover dish and refrigerate for 30 min. to 4 hours (when we let it sit for 2-3 hours the meat was almost too salty; we also tried it for 30 min and it was perfect for our taste)
5. Remove pork chops and pat dry with paper towel/napkin
6. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit with roasting pan/skillet inside oven (oven rack in the middle)
7. Rub chops with olive oil and add salt and pepper; set on stove to warm up
8. Once stove and skillet are preheated, remove skillet and place on med-high burner and sear first side of chops for about 3 min (turn on oven vent to catch smoke!)
9. Flip chops over and place pan in oven for 6-10 min (until cooked, meat should be about 140 degrees, but we can never get an accurate read)
10. Remove from skillet and tent with foil, let rest for 5 minutes
11. Eat up!  Throw some rice and vegetables in your rice cooker and you'll have a complete meal!

Yields: 2-4 pork chops