Billy Jack Chops

Tonight's dinner is to honor Billy Jack Gaither, please read about him after the recipe. Wanted to make this a comfort meal. When you start with thick pork chops and cook them low and slow, you get the closest to a hug a main dish can be!

 

Really thick cut pork, brined for 2 hours then simmered in a creamy fresh spinach sauce with mustard! This will cure your spots! 

 

Ingredients

For The meat:

2 lbs thick pork chops

3 slices bacon

Brine:

3 Tbs brown sugar

3 Tbs salt

For The Sauce:

2 Tbs butter

1 onion chopped

1 Tbs minced garlic

1 Tbs chopped parsley

1 teaspoon each of dried thyme and dried rosemary

½ cup low-sodium chicken stock

1½ cups non fat evaporated milk

2 Tbs honey mustard

½ tsp pepper, to taste

¼ cup Parmesan cheese

2 cups baby spinach leaves

Instructions

Mix the brine with hot tap water, just enough to cover the pork. Cover and place in refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

While that works, do your cutting: chop the onion and mince the garlic. Chop the parsley, cut stems from spinach.

Remove the chops, rinse and pat dry.

Season pork with salt and pepper.

Heat 2 tablespoon of oil a large pan or skillet over medium-high heat and brown the chops for about about 4 minutes each side. This is just to brown. Transfer to a plate; cover with foil and set aside.

To the same pan or skillet, add the bacon and fry until crispy. Transfer to plate, set aside. Drain some of the bacon fat, leaving about

2 tablespoons.

Add butter in the pan and sauté onion until transparent. (about 5 minutes) Sauté garlic, parsley, thyme and rosemary for about 1 minute until fragrant.

Add in the chicken stock to deglaze the pan while scraping up any bits from the bottom of the pan; simmer for 3-4 minutes.

Pour in evaporated milk and mustard, mix through and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat and cook gently for a further minute to allow the sauce to thicken.

Add the Parmesan and allow to melt through the sauce. Season with pepper, to taste.

Add the spinach by handfuls and allow to wilt down. 

Return chops to the skillet. Cover and let simmer for 15 minutes.

 

Top with the crispy bacon. 

 

Serve over a bed of white rice. If you wish, heat some brown and serve rolls.

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socialslave

To satisfy and restore.

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Murder of Billy Jack Gaither 

 

Twenty years ago in a small Sylacauga, Alabama, a horrible murder was discovered. It shocked the whole state. The burned body of Billy Jack Gaither was found on a smoldering pile of tires. He died because he was gay! It had not been 4 months since the nation had heard of the savage killing of Mathew Shepard. That young student had been beaten, tied to a fence, and left to die.

Much was made of the Shepard case, but after twenty years many have forgotten Billy Jack. You might not think of him as a hero but he did not deserve to die and in such a brutal way.

On February 19, 1999, Billy Jack went to The Tavern, a Sylacauga, Alabama nightclub, where he had been friends with the owner, Marion Hammond, for twenty years. Gaither was a regular there. Hammond remembered that he was nonchalant about his sexuality. ” If they walked over to Billy Jack and they say, ‘Are you gay?’ he’d say, ‘Yes, and I love it.’ Everyone liked him.”

The 39-year-old was one of four sons. He lived with his ailing parents and faithfully provided for their care. Although neither of them knew that their son was gay, they figured that he was an adult and that was his business.

“He was a good person. He didn’t deserve this,” said Donna McKee, a waitress at a bar Gaither frequented on weekends.

Steven Mullins, 25, and Charles Butler Jr., 21, were arrested and charged with murder. The two apparently knew Gaither from going to the same bars, claimed the textile mill worker made a pass at them in early February. They then plotted his murder, according to court records.

Mullins telephoned Gaither and the two picked up Butler at a nightclub where he was participating in a pool tournament.

The men went to a secluded boat ramp, where Gaither was beaten and thrown in the trunk of his own car. Gaither was taken to the banks of Peckerwood Creek.

Bradley said they poured kerosene on the tires and set them ablaze. Then the two pulled Gaither out of the trunk of his car. He tried to stand up and they beat him with the ax handle, cut his throat, and threw him onto the pile of burning tires.

Gaither’s burned-out car was found the next day on a country road.

Butler’s stepmother testified that Butler had told family members he was involved in the killing. But Butler placed much of the blame on Mullins,

saying he believed they were only going to beat up Gaither, Terry Butler said.

Butler went to police to tell them about the murder,claiming the gay panic defense. He told the police, “Well, sir, he started talking, you know, queer stuff, you know, and I just didn’t want no part of it.” Mullins also confessed, with the two blaming each other for taking the lead in the killing, but neither expressing remorse. In June, Mullins pled guilty to capital murder to avoid the death penalty and agreed to testify against Butler, who was also found guilty.

Friends of Gaither’s said they did not believe he would make a sexual advance on the men.

Marion Hammond, the bar owner described the affect Gaither’s death had on both herself and her small town:

“Well, I think the loss of Billy Jack has opened a lot of people’s eyes. Any town you live in, there is a gay person here, there, and yonder. And they didn’t realize it. It’s like there was no gays nowhere but in the big cities. They’re everywhere. They’re all over this country. And until then, I don’t think it was ever realized that they were in a small town.

I have two sons. I remember thinking whenever they was so little, “Please, never be gay.” But now it’s like a part of nature. . . . He taught me that it just happens. It’s nothing you do. It’s nobody’s fault. It’s just the way you are.”

When news first broke, 300 people attended a Birmingham, Alabama vigil for the gay-bashing murder victim.

Gaither's death also sparked a candlelight march by about 200 people far from Alabama in West Hollywood, California that March. California Governor Gray Davis said: "Today, I am deeply grieved by the senseless murder of Billy Jack Gaither because it strikes at the very heart of what it means to be an American," said the governor. "Our nation was built on a foundation of inalienable rights and freedoms. If any man or woman cannot walk safely down our streets for fear of violence simply because of his or her sexual orientation, then none of us are truly free.... I join my fellow Californians and Americans in expressing outrage for this act of cowardice. And I reaffirm my commitment to keeping California a zero-tolerance state for crimes of hate based on sexual orientation."

For the past 20 years there has been an annual vigil to celebrate Billy Jack Gaither’s life, mourn his death, and remember all the victims of hate & violence on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol.