Recipe: Panko-Parmesan Pork Chops

I'm on fire! Not literal fire, but look at all these recipes coming your way. Hope you're finding a little time to give 'em a try. But before you get too far into this blog today...WARNING: This blog contains graphic photos of a pig. And its parts. So if that freaks you out, come on back another day or go here to skip the pics and go straight to the recipe.

Today, our recipe is Panko Parmesan Pork Chops. Let's start at the beginning. This is my friend Josh:

Josh is the meat manager at The Common Market, and he's pretty cool.

Josh and I decided that we should buy a pig and break it down together into all of its bits and bobs. We're hoping to offer a pig class during the winter at The Kitchen Studio for those folks interested in basic meat cutting, so Josh and I headed to Thurmont to pick-up our pig at a local butcher and give ourselves a little refresher. It was a little...odd.

We headed down to TKS and Josh unloaded the sucker (even cut into halves, it was pretty heavy) and got it prepped on a few cutting boards.

Truthfully, Josh did most of the work, which was awesome for me!

That's a lot of pig:

We shared our lovely porcine friend with friends and fellow pork lovers, and I tucked a few cuts in the freezer. In my attempt to dodge the grocery last week, I hit the freezer and snagged a loin. A few quick cuts and I had a few boneless chops, each about an 1 1/2" thick. A quick dredge in panko, freshly grated Parm, a few herbs, and a quick saute in a hot pan and voila!

If you look carefully, you'll see that our entire dinner that night was unintentionally devoted to the letter "P". Pork chops, potatoes, peas, and yup...popovers. Sure, there's a little arugula too, but come on...isn't that fun? It all felt slightly Sesame Street-esque.

For the recipe, you'll of course need to click here to my Chesapeake Family blog, but I promise, it's worth the click. It comes together super fast and you don't need to cook it forever. Don't forget that pork loins and chops only need to be cooked to 145 degrees. No need to make this like leather...'k?

My piggy friend was delicious, and truly, you can taste the difference between local pork and that mass-produced junk you're going to get elsewhere. It makes a difference and I'm looking forward to tasting more of this guy (or gal).