Join The Circus

Apple glazed pork chops are a tried and true recipe. When I found a recipe entitled Caramel Apple Pork Chops, I knew I had another theme dinner going. I went through combinations of carnival and circus phrases with various seasonal vegetables and decided on two: Big Top Turnips and Circus Peanuts Pumpkin.

The pork chops are really easy to make, but I have a word of caution: pay attention to the sauce when you're reducing it. I filled the entire apartment with smoke in a minute after turning my back on it. Sugar burns. Let that be a lesson to you! Don't make the same mistake I did. There was enough sauce coating the apples to give the chops some extra flavor, but it would've been a lot better with some extra glaze.

Turnips are cheap right now, but they're not exactly a tasty vegetable. Even filled with a tasty sausage and currant stuffing, we still pretty much only ate the stuffing itself. The only way I've ever liked turnips is mashed with carrots, but that's not going to stop me from trying new ways. This didn't do it for me, but if you like turnips this is probably quite tasty. If you don't, the stuffing could easily be transferable to maybe a baked apple or some squash.

Shannon absolutely loved the pumpkin. She said whatever I did to it made it amazing. She must really love pumpkin since the recipe is very simple with hardly any other ingredients. I didn't particularly like it that much, so the leftovers are all hers. It was mostly a textural thing, so I probably would have liked it more had it been baked or something. Pumpkin is incredibly filling, which is something I wasn't expecting. I didn't have room to finish my pork chop!