Rachael Ray's Pork Chops with Plums and Red Onions and Sesame Rice

I have a bit of a Rachael Ray obsession. While I have to admit I find her slightly annoying on her show, I love her recipes and I love trying to make new types of food. I've picked up on some of her techniques, tips and tricks and I've learned a lot about cooking and various cooking tools that have made my kitchen adventures better and easier. I have yet to make one of her recipes and be disappointed. I can guarantee you'll see a lot of her recipes along with my feedback on this blog. Tonight I made a recipe that I've made three or four times in the past couple of months because it's absolutely delicious: Pork Chops with Plums and Red Onions and Sesame Rice. I follow this recipe quite strictly (why mess with perfection?!); you can find it here.

My thoughts after preparing this several times:

• I toast my own sesame seeds by putting a single layer in a pie plate and putting it under the broiler in my oven for a minute or two. Watch closely! They brown quickly and burn even faster.
• You can use green onions instead of chives in the rice, but it's not quite the same. And dried chives won't cut it.
• I'd never even heard of Chinese Five Spice before I made this recipe. If you have, I'm impressed by your spice savvy. If you haven't, go get some and try it. And don't even bother making this recipe without it. It makes the pork chops.
• Once I couldn't find any fresh plums at the store, so I used apricot preserves (jam) instead and it was still good. The plums are better, though.
• I prefer the boneless loin pork chops that are cut really thick. I buy my pork chops from Costco and they're awesome. The key is to cook them a bit longer at a slightly lower temperature so they cook through but stay nice and juicy.
• Tamari is a type of soy sauce - it's darker and more flavourful than regular soy sauce. It's worth the added expense to get some; regular soy sauce won't do this recipe justice.
• Use actual ginger root - the powdered stuff doesn't taste the same. I just run a piece of peeled ginger root over a small handheld grater to get it minced up quickly and easily.

Overall, while this dish seems like a lot of work, it really isn't, and regardless, it's worth the time and energy.