I have to be honest, I went almost two whole weeks living on rice pasta (in a variety of formats  – mac & cheese, with one pot tomato sauce, in a casserole), gluten free pizza and b.good. This does not lead to very creative cooking measures and as such, I haven’t had much to blog about lately. Until last night.

It’s cold in Boston now and I spent the earlier part of the day outside, so my afternoon was dedicated to warming up and catching up on blogs. And you know how blog reading goes. Sometimes you just keep going back and back and back in someone’s blog posts until you’re in like May and it’s been many months and you can’t believe you missed a KEY recipe. (Or maybe this is just me) Anyway, I had a few pork chops in the fridge and I could cook them all boring, as usual, but then I stumbled on PaleOMG’s “Blackberry Glazed Grilled Pork Chops.” Hello. I modified a bit – mostly because I have no gas for my grill, nor blackberries, but it was to die for.

Here’s what you need –

• 3 – 4 1-inch thick pork chops
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground thyme
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/3 cup of frozen or fresh blueberries
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• pinch of salt

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Combine the cinnamon, thyme, salt and pepper on a plate. Rinse pork chops and pat dry. Coat with cinnamon stuff on each side. Meanwhile, in a small sauce pan, add the blueberries, vinegar, salt and about 1 – 2 tbsp of water. Set on medium to high heat and let come to a boil, then bring the heat down to medium low.

Heat up a cast iron skillet on the stove on high. Once hot, bring down to medium heat and place your pork chops in it. While you’re establishing your crust on the chops, remove the blueberry sauce from the stove. It should have had about 5 minutes to boil up and simmer. Strain the sauce into a small bowl and reserve the blueberries.

Flip your chops after about 1 – 2 minutes, and using a pastry brush, coat the cooked side in blueberry sauce. Let cook for another 1 – 2 minutes, then flip and repeat with the blueberry sauce. Bring your heat down to medium low. Continue to flip and cook for one minute on each side while spreading the blueberry sauce over it. Remove from the heat, dump the rest of the sauce on top of the chops and then pop them in the oven for 5 minutes. (Must do this in a cast iron skillet if you want to put it from pan to oven)

While this was cooking, I popped a sweet potato in the microwave, and reheated some of Trader Joe’s frozen grilled asparagus.

Plate by spooning some of the blueberries on top of the chop, then drizzle juice from the pans over it. Nom.