I think Simply Delicious was aimed at the working-mom demographic primarily–a lot of the recipes focus on easy weeknight meals just as much as the fancy dinner party options. 7-14: Easy-to-Make Pork Casserole is a casserole in the sense of a casserole being a bunch of random stuff thrown together in a vessel and then heated.
Casseroles are typically defined as the traditional green bean or tuna types that we (by that I mean mostly Americans) associate with that word. This dish is a loose mixing of vegetables and pork cubes, and is honestly much more reminiscent of 7-55: Sunday Pork Stew than of “casserole”. My mom seemed to like it though, when she made it back in April of 1992.
I can’t explain the random small Post-it note on the corner of this card. My mom put it there (she always had a million of these mini sticky-notes) and never removed it, and I’ve decided to leave it there as well. There’s nothing on it or underneath it, so I suppose it was for a note she never remembered to go back and write. But I still like it there.
She scratched out “onions” and wrote in “scallions”, which are the same thing as green onions, and what you call them apparently partially depends on where you’re from. My mom is from Chicago, so it makes sense that she calls them that. ?
Ingredients. I’m using some frozen green beans for this (it called for fresh), but I think it’ll be okay. My pork cut is a boneless pork loin from a previously-frozen Costco cut-your-own-chops-and-roast special.
Sliced my pork loin into similarly-sized strips, rotated 90º and sliced them again–instant cubes.
Aforementioned cubes, ready for the pan.
Sliced some celery stalks into strips.
Added in some chopped onion, and most of the mise is complete.
Mixed up some quick beef broth with my on-hand powdered bouillon–easier to scale than cubes, doesn’t take up fridge space like base.
Sautéeing the first of the veggies.
Pulled the softened veggies out and started browning the pork cubes.
Getting there, but it needs a lot more brown and a lot lest pink.
Added the veggies back in to get some color on everything together.
Spices also help add some flavor.
Added in all the green beans–they’ll be an awful frozen ice cube of a mess if I try to put some of them back in the freezer now.
Final bowl of casserole–nothing exciting. I picked a few bites out of it, and Adam liked it, but I wouldn’t make it again, despite my mom’s rave reviews.
Grade: C
