Pan Seared Pork with Potatoes

Everyday I receive an email from Martha Stewart with a recipe for dinner and most of the time they are something that I wouldn't be making at home like Thai rice bowls or some no cook salad or soup. However, this last week I received a recipe for Pan Seared Pork with Potatoes and that sounded easy and quick, so I put it on my list.

After reading the recipe later I discovered that it called for pork tenderloin. Now don't get me wrong, I like pork tenderloin, it's just that it is really expensive. So I decided to use the thin boneless pork chops for this recipe instead. When I went to the store to get them, I forgot to consult my list and did not come home with the scallions the recipe called for. No bother, I added a bit of regular onion and it worked out fine. There are lemons included in this recipe and after cooking I ate the whole lemon slice--peel and all and it was delicious.

I couldn't believe how fast and easy this recipe was. I am always under the impression that potatoes aren't really very easy to make for a week night meal--but this hardly took 30 minutes in total. And, the best part was that my husband gave his stamp of approval on the meal!

So maybe I didn't follow Martha's directions, but let me tell you what I did:

Adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients

4 thin boneless pork chops

3/4 pound of thin-skinned red or white potatoes (I used these cool ones from the market that were purple & white skinned but just white inside), cut into 1 inch cubes

2 T yellow onion diced small

salt & pepper

1 lemon

2 T olive oil

1/2 C water

Directions

1. Heat 1 T olive oil in a large skillet (you will need a lid later) over medium-high heat. Add potatoes, salt & pepper to taste and cook until lightly browned.

2. Add water and cover, cooking for five minutes or so until the potatoes are fork-tender and liquid has evaporated.

3, Add the onion and cook quickly until slightly soft

4. Remove potatoes and onion from pan and keep warm (I placed them in a bowl in the microwave)

5. Heat the remaining 1 T olive oil in the same skillet. Add pork and cook until browned and cooked through--about 2 minutes a side.

6. Meanwhile, slice the lemon into thin slices--about 2 per pork piece. Squeeze the remaining lemon juice in the pan with the pork. Add lemon slices into the pan in the last 2 minutes of cooking.

7. Serve pork, potatoes and lemon