Halloween Risotto and Pork Chops

This year, Halloween was a quiet and intimate affair at the CHF household, as I just had a few friends over for dinner and to watch a movie. For the record, we watched Paranormal Activity and it was jaw-droppingly terrible. Run, don't walk, to see another movie if you're ever presented with the opportunity to see this one.

Thankfully, the rest of the night went great, with lots of food and wine to cushion the stinging blow of over-hyped bad cinema. Not wanting to go to a huge amount of trouble, I decided to make a quick saffron risotto along with some fried pork chops. My friend Kate added a salad made from ingredients scavenged from the depths of my refrigerator and with a few bottles of wine, we were all set.

The risotto was basically the same one as I made in this post, only I used a regular yellow onion instead of shallots. I'd have preferred shallots, but I more preferred not having the leave the house, so there we are.

The pork chops were pretty simple. I mixed a cup of flour with some cayenne pepper, ground red pepper, cumin, sea salt, and ground black pepper to dredge the raw pork chops in. I then fried them on a cast iron skillet using vegetable oil until nicely browned on each side.

I don't really know what was in the salad, but it was pretty good. Maybe Kate will comment and let us know what magicks she unleashed? Time will tell.