Mustard Balsamic Pork Chops with Gorgonzola Celery Salad

One of the other days we spent in Germany we traveled out to see Dachau Concentration Camp.  As you could assume this was a very intense day, we spent close to 3 hours there slowly taking in what we could.  Below are some pictures from the camp including the gate into the camp, one of the crematoriums, and the gas chambers.  It was very important to us that we sought out this part of history in order to pay respects and further understand the complexity of it all.  Once we left we really needed a pick me up and we realized we were starving so we went to this little hole in the wall pizza place.  Did you know that pizza is everywhere?  It seems like that is the one thing that every country has, and this was good pizza too.  We both got the beer pictured below and ate our pizza until we were ready to take the 40 min. train ride back to our home.  That night we decided to stay in and made our own dinner in the adorable little kitchen.  Now let's talk recipes, I made and adapted these two recipes the other night and it was such a filling and tasty meal.  I will definitely make this salad a lot, so refreshing and a good way to use up celery! Also don't mind the messy plate in this picture I forgot to wipe the edges ;)

Serves 4

The Ingredients

For pork chops:

4 pork chops

¼ cup olive oil

2 tbsp grainy mustard, I used Dijon 

¼ cup balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp dry or fresh rosemary, coarsely chopped

salt and pepper to taste

For salad:

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley

6 cups celery, thinly sliced

 to taste salt and pepper

The Process

1.  Add all the pork ingredients (minus pork chops) to a bowl and whisk until the mixture begins to emulsify.

2.  Add the pork chops to the same casserole dish you'll use to bake them and pour the marinade over the pork chops. Make sure you rub all it all over them. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour to overnight (I did 1 hour and they tasted great).

3.  While these are marinating make the salad.  Whisk together olive oil, Gorgonzola, vinegar and parsley in large bowl.  Add sliced celery and mix well.  Season with salt and pepper, to taste.  Chill.

4.  When pork is done marinating preheat oven to 425 F degrees.  Remove plastic wrap from casserole dish and bake them for about 30 minutes or until done.