Pork Chops, Pasta and Condo Campinig at Mt. Hood OR

When Ron and I met, we both owned condos, and Ron loves to travel and plan trips, weekend junkets, week long excursions (we drove-I'm not kidding-2300 miles in a car through seven southern states back east and visited eight civil war battlefields in fall 2008), in the US, outside the US-2 trips to Mexico last year and next year-Japan, where he grew up, a military brat.

I love to travel also but don't love planning so much, possibly the consequence of raising three sons and a step-son (from a now-defunct marriage, but I had him for 10 years) all of whom we kept active in sports, scouts, band, karate. You can imagine what a hectic schedule that was to orchestrate, let alone planning vacations for six of us, which was assuredly hellish. Plus feeding them, teenagers are, as you might know, eating and sleeping machines. We had a white board on the kitchen wall with a monthly menu, shopped at Costco, took out left-befores for lunches because they left no leftovers-they didn't eat until they were full, they ate until the food was gone. Actually, they still do that...

So back to Ron and his trip-planning propensity; when we met, we discovered we both have the travel bug in its acute form, so he started planning trips until I had to give him the time-out signal and explain that unlike him, I haven't worked at the same place for over 20 years and have adequate, but not unlimited leave available. I had planned a trip to Seaside Oregon, to sulk, if you will, from yet another failed few-week relationship. Ron invited himself along, half-kidding but also serious, before I had even met him in person. We did meet the week before, on my birthday 2007 and then met up in Seaside.

That was the last trip I planned. He plans 'em now, gives me directions when we're driving, or hands me my boarding pass as we get ready to board a plane. Man, is this the life! Now we're at Welches,Oregon (where??), at Whispering Woods, going to ski Mt. Hood the next few days and have ski-buds joining us Thursday. That brings me to condo camping. I don't camp outdoors, I like that shower in the morning and sleeping indoors, no bugs or dirt  in my food. It helps if we're sleeping indoors in really great places! My ex liked to golf, so my timeshare exchanges were all in beautiful locations on - you got it - golf courses. Tonight we're using Ron's timeshare exchange, which is also always wonderful and ironically, on a golf course.

Ron likes pork; I don't particularly, but I like the price-usually it's the cheapest, so I brought some pork loin chops along and gave him the choice between pork chops or lamb chops. This was dinner tonight:

Pork Chops

Pork Chops or Pork Loin Boneless Chops

1 egg and 1/2 cup milk whisked together
Corn Flake Crumbs-I used the boxed stuff, lazy I know, but easy to transport
Seasoning-make your own-remember we're in travel status-this might have been Montreal seasoning, parsley flakes, garlic powder, I'm not sure. I packed it for Grand Lake, Oklahoma trip this summer, didn't use it, nor for a couple of other trips until now. See the next post on what I pack to travel.
About 1/4 cup grated parmesan.

Dip the pork chops in egg mixture, then corn flake crumb mixture, brown on each side, then cover and simmer until done to your preference. Ron did ask me how I made these and I told him, but I doubt he has most of the stuff at his house!

Pasta Salad-I put roughly 8 things in this-my signature pasta salad, limited only by your imagination:

Pasta-your choice-I used 3/4 lb. cooked multi-gran fettucini tonight
Olive oil
1/4 cup sliced green onion
4 cloves minced garlic
2 tablespoons minced kalamata olives
2 tablespoons capers, drained and rinsed (capers are pickled juniper berries, that plus the olives are little salt bombs)
Chopped parsley (I used dried-packaged tonight because I'm traveling, but usually use fresh Italina
Grated parmesan cheese 

Boil the pasta, drain add other ingredients, chill and add grated parmesan cheese and fresh ground pepper.





Dinner: