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I woke up full of sadness and apathy today. All my attempts to do work since 6 AM have since failed and so, I thought maybe I'd try to write some of my feelings away. I may be in this state because my mind went to sleep while tumbling down the depression drain last night during a particularly intense episode of work ethic paralysis, but it is also likely that these feelings stand separately on their own. At least I know the cause. I am glad I know the trigger. It's always good to know your triggers. At around 6 PM yesterday, I received some unfortunate news from school that sent me into another tizzy of despair, mostly regarding my grades but also the behavior of my peers. I was having a good day at the time too, which is what made it so much worse. I suppose the moral of the story is, its best to be constantly unhappy and to always expect some major downers during the day. Minimize the fall, one might say.

The recipe featured today is what I called a "redo." "Redo" is not a very elegant word but I can't seem to think of an appropriate synonym, so "redo" it is. Redos are my attempt to clear out the clutter here on this blog, to try and organize my life outside of my career into something more presentable. Old recipes that have fallen by the wayside that need to be shown again, but in a better light. Though, if taken literally, I've been having a lot of problems taking photographs in my "light-less" near windowless kitchen, so perhaps the issue isn't that my photos are becoming "more presentable," but rather, "less terrible but still kind of terrible." 

I made this recipe during a particularly emotionally rollercoastery part of my life, briefly after I found out that the physical image of a person I loved did not quite match up with reality. Appropriate for the subject matter in this post. I haven't made this dish since then, perhaps because of the strong associations it has with unpleasant surprises that send you into pits of sadness, but it is a tasty recipe. Also, I worked through those unpleasant surprises in the past, so here's to hoping for the future. 

Creamy pork chops are very filling. Very rich, You'll probably eat one serving and be set for a few years. Happy eating.

Creamy Pork Chops
4 servings

8 boneless pork chops
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 TB olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 C whole milk
2 C cream of mushroom and broccoli soup*
8 oz (1 pkg) cream cheese, cut into chunks
4 ribs of celery, chopped
1 packet ranch dressing mix (optional)**
salt
freshly ground black pepper

*You can use 1 can of condensed cream of mushroom soup + 1 cup of water
**The ranch powder gives the sauce tanginess, but if you don't have this on hand, feel free to use buttermilk or add a bit of Greek yogurt or sour cream to the sauce. Or you can omit it entirely.

Mix the olive oil, minced garlic, and salt together. Then apply this dressing all over the pork chops and let the pork chops marinate for 15 minutes.

Heat a large pot on med-high heat, then quickly sear the pork chops. Once browned, remove the pork chops from the pot and let cool. Nestle the seared pork chops in the bottom of a large slow cooker.

In the pot on the stove, add the milk, cream of mushroom and broccoli soup, and ranch dressing mix (optional),. Stir with a rubber spatula and scrape up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Bring this mixture to a simmer (really, you can get away with it just being warm), then add in the cream cheese chunks, stirring gently until all the cream cheese has melted. Once melted, taste and season more with salt. Then pour the mixture into the slow cooker on top of the pork chops, adding more water to the slow cooker if necessary so that the liquid completely covers the pork. Then turn the setting onto low.

Slow cook the pork chops for 2-3 hours, or until the sauce has thickened and the pork is easy to shred with a fork. About 20 minutes before you are ready to serve, stir in the chopped celery and heat until celery is slightly softened but still bright green in color. If you want to pork chops to stay together, be gentle when transferring from slow cooker to plate. Season with freshly ground black pepper and serve atop rice or egg noodles.