I is for Italian Dressing: Pork Chops with Italian Dressing (Jessica)

Dear Readers,

Happy (almost) holidays! I like this time of year. It feels festive and cheery, and there's so much good food to eat! Not to mention the increase in my social calendar because everyone wants to have a holiday party, excellent. I've also been accumulating fun holiday cards which I'm now proudly displaying over my fireplace. So what if the snowmen and snowflakes aren't really happening here in SoCal? Every day this week I've come home with goodies from the office and that's truly festive!

This recipe isn't holiday related. I know. But this is what I wanted to make!  It sounded good and filling and that's what I was looking for.
It could be festive, just dress it up with some little antlers or something....


No? Ok.

On to the recipe!

Pork Chops with Italian Dressing
Made up mostly by me with help from the comments on a recipe I forgot
Serves 4

Ingredients:
5-6 little potatoes, quartered
3 bone-in pork chops
1 large onion, sliced in rings
1 cup Italian dressing
1/8 cup soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make marinade by combining Italian dressing, soy sauce, and pepper in a bowl.

2. Place potatoes in a 8x8 glass baking dish.

Lay onion rings on top.

Add pork chops on top. 
3. Pour marinade into the baking dish, be sure to pour on the meat. If needed, make more marinade and pour that on top too.
4. Bake for 35-50 minutes, depending on thickness of the meat.

Review:
This marinade is great. It's zesty, it's not overpowering, and it has a lovely flavor. It is so easy as well. My challenge with this recipe came with cooking the meat. I have very little meat-cooking experience (just a few chicken posts here and there...) and so I never know how long to cook meat. Luckily, one can buy a meat thermometer for just this problem! Great. Except that parts of the meat seemed to be different temperatures...
Anyway, I cooked mine for about 40 minutes and for the most part, the pork chops were pretty darn good. I'm glad I wasn't serving these at a party though, because, to test for done-ness, I cut into each one! Any advice on improving my skills here?!
Also, if I did this again, I would pre-cook the potatoes in the microwave for a few minutes. They needed longer than the meat and weren't quite as soft as I would have liked!


Next week, I'll be coming to you from a different kitchen! :)


-Jessica


PS. Jen's secret ingredient next week is: Junior Mints!