Dinner in 20 minutes: Pork Chops with Apples

My son is sick today, so I've spent the day at home lounging on the couch trying to make intelligent comments about Pokemon and chipping away at our latest jigsaw puzzle. Something about being home with him brings out the sloth in me.

I had plans for a very nice dinner, with honey-and-orange-glazed pork chops and a cauliflower mash that makes a convincing imitation of mashed potatoes. Alas, after an afternoon of lounging and far too many games of Candy Crush Saga, I realized that I hadn't read the recipe completely and that the Grand Dinner Plan required several hours of marination.

Back to the drawing board.

Because I had very thin-cut chops on hand, this came together ridiculously fast - I think it's going to become an autumn staple, since we always have apples on hand. I served it with steamed broccoli, leftover hot slaw (a recipe that I promise to share soon, since it goes with everything) and the last of the yellow summer squash sauteed with olive oil, salt and pepper, and granulated onion (a staple for those days when I'm just too lazy to actually peel and chop an onion)(there are more of these days than I'd care to admit).

Adapted from the enormously useful How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. If you only buy one cookbook, this is it.

Pork Chops with Apples in Under 20 Minutes 

Olive oil
Some quantity of thin-cut boneless pork chops
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon chopped garlic (I cheat and use the pre-chopped stuff in the jar for this)
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup water or stock
3 apples

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet with a lid. Season the chops with salt and pepper, then brown quickly on both sides. Add the wine and garlic and cook 2-3 minutes, until the wine is mostly cooked away. Add the water or stock, cover the pan, and reduce the heat to low. Cook the chops until done, which should really be a matter of minutes - 5 minutes would probably be fine. If you have thicker chops on hand, it might take as long as 10 minutes, which is just long enough to enjoy a glass from the bottle of white wine you opened for this dish.

While the chops are cooking, peel, core, and slice the apples (if you do this in advance, it makes the wine part much more practical). When the chops are done, remove them from the pan and put them on a plate, covered with aluminum foil. Add the apples and cook, stirring frequently, until the apples are soft (this may vary depending on which variety you use - we had Macintosh on hand and they cooked up very nicely in less than 5 minutes).

Serve the chops with apples on the side. They've been cooked in garlic and olive oil so I wouldn't necessarily recommend serving the leftovers over ice cream....if there are any leftovers, which it seems there never are in our house.