Author: kevinriley

I'm a writer, a designer, a guitar builder and a workout enthusiast.

Pork Cutlets with Mustard Sauce

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So the first recipe I’m posting on the new site is actually my most recent. We eat a lot of pork because we find it on sale quite often, buy in bulk, and freeze it. This saves us a lot of money and generally means we have something available when we don’t know exactly what we want. Pork is very versatile, and I’ve got a ton of great recipes for it but the other night I wanted to try something a little different, so I came up with Pork Cutlets with Mustard Sauce. This turned out great so I thought I’d share it right away.

This recipe, served with some steamed vegetables and a side of wild rice or pasta, looks very elegant and would definitely impress your girlfriend, or that hot chick you finally worked up the courage to ask out (my wife loved it) but it’s also very quick and simple. There’s not a lot of prep work, and it cooks rather quickly, giving you more time to enjoy your evening.

Pork
4 pork cutlets, about ½” thick
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp garlic powder

Mustard Sauce
1 cup chicken stock (or 1 cube chicken bouillon dissolved in 1 cup water)
1 Tablespoon dijon mustard
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
¼ cup water
1 tsp – 1 tablespoon cornstarch

Bring chicken stock to a boil and cook until reduced by ½ cup

While stock is reducing, preheat grill, season both sides of pork and cook 3-5 minutes per side or until the internal temperature reaches 145°F. Remove the pork from the grill and cover with aluminum foil, allowing the meat to rest for an additional 5 minutes.

Once stock is reduced turn off heat, whisk cornstarch into water (1 tsp will result in a thinner consistency and 1 tablespoon will result in thicker, almost gravy like consistency), then add mixture to stock, whisking thoroughly. Whisk in mustard, salt and pepper, then remove from heat.

Recipes to make while drinking a beer

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One of the books I’ve been working on for some time is not a fiction book like all my others; it’s actually a cook book. But I don’t want the book to just be a collection of recipes that I’ve come up with over the years, I want it to be fun to read. Initially I wanted to have the book done in time to send it with my youngest son when he went off to college but it is taking a lot longer to write so that didn’t happen. Instead, I’ve decided just to post the recipes here as I get them done. These will not be in any particular order on this website, and will not necessarily be the final version that makes it into the book, but they will be very close.

Intro

I’m a guy. And like most guys, I like food. I’m also broke which means I can’t afford to go out and eat all the great food at the fancy restaurants. So that really left me only two options; learn to make do with hot dogs and mac n’ cheese, or learn to cook. I actually enjoy learning new things so the decision was a no brainer.

One of the great things about cooking is that you can use it as an excuse to have a beer, and though it’s not required, I highly recommend it (hence the title). But try to keep it to just one or else the food might end up tasting better to you than to everyone else.

As I present the various recipes I’ve come up with, I’ll also share bits of advice and information that I’ve learned over the years. But I’m not a trained chef, I just watch a lot of them on TV, so feel free to take any advice with a grain of salt.

Welcome to the new site!

kevinriley1 Comment

Welcome to the Keyboard Monkey site, the new place to listen to me blather on about about writing, my books and other literary thoughts. So much has changed in my life over the past few months, and I’ll get to some of it, but one of the biggest changes in my online life is the fact that I decided to compartmentalize my blogging. Several months ago I left the company for which I’d worked for the past 20 years. Doing so lead me to create a new online portfolio (https://krileydesign.wordpress.com/) using the wordpress platform. I really like the customization of the platform so I decided to move my blogging to it as well. But rather than just import everything I’d previously done on blogger, I am using this opportunity to start fresh here. And though there is some crossover, I’m also using this opportunity to separate my design work from my writing. So going forward you can find all my design blogging over at my design site and all my writing thoughts here. I don’t know if this will be beneficial for me or for you, but I like the idea, so we’ll see how it goes. Let me know what you think of the place, and keep checking back for frequent updates!