Turn pork chops into juicy "carnitas" tacos

These are my original recipes, created by slightly modifying one of my cookbook's pork chop recipes and then majorly modifying another cookbook's recipe for carnitas. You will get at least two nights of meals from this. Since we are a family of two, we started with eight pork chops and were able to stretch the second night's meal into leftovers on a third night. If you eat light, make side dishes, or start with more than eight pork chops (or larger pork chops) you can feed more people, or have leftover pork chops before you move on to the "carnitas" tacos. You also can make a two-for-one meal by roasting pork according to your favorite pork roast recipe, then using the taco recipe here.

Spicy Pork Chops with apricots

8 pork chops

2 teaspoon each ground cumin seed, coriander and ginger

1 tablespoon olive oil

3/4 cup slivered dried apricots

3/4 cup orange juice

Mix the spices and coat each pork chop with the mixture

Heat the olive oil in a 12" skillet. Fry four of the chops for five to seven minutes on each side. They need to be not just brown on both sides but in the middle too. If you fry them on too high of heat they will not be moist on the sides, or they will not be done in the middle. The thicker they are, the lower the heat needs to be.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, combine the apricots and orange juice. Bring to boil, then simmer for about five minutes. You will have a thin syrup. Remove the pork chops, and place four them on up to four plates. Leave the pork chop fat in the pan, and mix in the juice/apricot mixture. Boil for one minute, then pour it over the plated pork chops.

Do not wash or rinse the pan before moving onto Step 1 of the next recipe. You will be refrigerating the four remaining pork chops after they're cooked unless you plan to eat both dishes at the same meal.

Orange carnitas

Fry the four remaining pork chops. You can grate some orange peel or add a little more cumin. You can also add orange juice to the pan if you wish, or more olive oil.

Slice the cooled pork chops.

Slice a small onion and fry them in olive oil until translucent.

Add the sliced onions and pork chops to a can of black beans and 3/4 cup of orange juice. Boil the mixture until the pork chops are fully heated, and the entire mixture is the desired consistency.

Place the mixture into up to eight warmed tortillas.

Add toppings. I added green onions, salsa, cheddar cheese, sour cream and radishes. Lettuce, carrots and black olives - whatever you like on tacos - would be good.