Secret Pork Chop

For reasons that remain largely unexplained to me, I am not allowed to make pork chops for dinner for my husband. Lucky for me, he goes on business trips every once in a while and then I get to pull out a single, secretly stashed pork chop from the freezer. I have developed this easy recipe that brings me so much enjoyment I’d like to share it.

In a frying pan that has a lid, heat up 2 tsps olive oil over medium-high heat.
Add ½ small onion, finely chopped. Cook until soft and translucent.
Add 1 clove of garlic, minced, and cook a few more seconds.
Push the onion to the sides of the pan, and put in a single-loin center-cut boneless pork chop, about ¾ inch thick (aka half of a butterfly chop. I prefer these because they tend to be leaner than a bone-in chop, but you could use either.) Quickly brown both sides of the chop to sear in juices.
Throw in 1 red apple, chopped into chunks (can be a MacIntosh, or an empire, or anything really, I just don’t think that a Granny Smith would work).
Pour in some marsala wine -- enough to cover the bottom of the pan and go up the sides a bit.
Grind some fresh black pepper over all of it.
Put the lid on the pan, turn the heat down, and let it braise for a bit. Maybe seven minutes.
In the meantime, wash and prep a large handful of spinach. Stick the spinach into the pan, and turn over the chop. Let it braise a bit more. Check for doneness (pork chops can have a “hint of pink”). The apple chunks should be soft and coming apart, and the spinach should be all wilted but not overdone.
Dump the whole delicious mess onto a plate.
Serve with brown rice or texmati/wild rice, or baked or mashed sweet potato (If you cut a sweet potato into bite-size chunks, you can throw it into the pan along with the apple and cook it there, too).

Yum!