Leek Soup with Meatballs

Meatballs:
20 oz ground turkey
1 egg
1 t dry sage
1 t poultry seasoning
3 cloves garlic, minced finely
olive oil to fry

Soup:
Olive oil
3 leeks, washed and thinly sliced
1 celery root, peeled and diced
3 celery stalks, chopped
1 lb mushrooms (white ones might make the soup a nicer color than crimini), cleaned and diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 t dry sage
1 c smoked turkey stock
4 c water
about 4 T "better than bouillon" (or enough bouillon cubes for 4 c water)
black pepper
1/2 c-1 c cream (optional)

Mix the meatball ingredients.  Make small meatballs, and fry them in olive oil in a soup pot or dutch oven.  Set them aside.
Add a little more olive oil if needed.  Saute the vegetables.  Add the stock and seasonings.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and let simmer a couple of hours.
Blend with an immersion blender.  Add the cream and meatballs.

Baked Pork Chops with Mushroom Sauce

This turned out really well.  Both my husband and I enjoyed it a lot.

olive oil--about 2 T
1 onion, sliced in 1/2 circles (I used a good sized sweet onion)
3 cloves of garlic, minced
salt, pepper, dry thyme

olive oil--about 2 T
3/4-1 lb mushrooms (I had white button mushrooms this time, but I usually have crimini)
salt, pepper, dry thyme

olive oil--about 2-3 T
4 large pork chops
salt and pepper

1/2 c "cooking" marsala wine
1/4 c all purpose flour
1 c milk (I used 2%)
1/2 c heavy cream (could have used less)
salt, pepper, dry thyme

Warm some olive oil in a large skillet (I used my 12" AllClad) over medium heat.  Add the onion, and break up the rings, and try to coat all the pieces with oil, stirring occasionally after that.  You may need to reduce the heat to low so it doesn't burn.  Add the garlic when you're done mincing it.  Continue to cook until the onions are very soft, and much smaller volume than they started.  You could even caramelize them if you have more patience than I do.  Add salt and pepper to taste when they are almost done, and about 1/4 t thyme.  In the mean time, clean and slice the mushrooms.

Set the onion aside in a mixing bowl, trying to leave as much olive oil in the pan as you can.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Add another 2 T or so of olive oil to the pan, and warm it over medium heat.  Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until they are soft and browned, and have released liquid and cooked it off.  Add salt and pepper to taste, and about 1/4 t thyme once they are browning.

Add the mushrooms to the mixing bowl with the onion.

Pour olive oil into the skillet, and brown the pork chops.  I seasoned each side with salt and pepper as I was browning them.  I had to do the 4 chops in 3 batches, because two of them were so big.  Put the chops into a casserole dish.

Put the casserole with the pork chops in the oven, and set a timer for an hour (45 minutes is probably plenty).

De-glaze the skillet with the marsala, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom and sides of the pan.  Be smarter than I was, and mix the flour and milk before adding them to the pan, so you don't have lumps, and cook, stirring pretty constantly, until it is nice and thick.  Add the onion and mushrooms.  I recommend tasting the sauce to see how much more salt, pepper, and thyme it needs.  The sauce seemed excessively thick at this point, and I added 1/2 c heavy cream.  It probably didn't need it, but it was ok.

Pull the pork chops out of the oven, and pour the sauce over them.  If any are stacked, move them around so the sauce gets between.  Return to the oven until the timer goes off.  Check the internal temperature with an instant read thermometer, but mine was well over the minimum (I got 170-180).

Lots of protein soup

2-3 T olive oil
1 onion
1 kielbasa (12-16 oz, I think)
3 celery stocks
3 carrots
several cloves of garlic
1 chicken breast
1 c quinoa
1 (15 oz) can of white beans
rosemary
marjoram
8-10 c chicken broth
parsley