Post-Hawaii pork dinner
After overdosing on various combinations of tropical fruits and fish in Hawaii (see previous post), I arrived home craving something warm, cozy and comforting. I decided to go grocery shopping and eventually succumbed to the siren call of the San Anselmo Andronico's, a repository of overpriced gourmet treats that boasts such luxuries as an exotic olive bar, an English food shelf and a small selection of Le Creuset items. Who ever heard of selling Le Creuset in a supermarket, I ask you? Only in Marin.
I dropped $62 on a handheld basket of items that should have cost nowhere near $62, but let's not linger on that. I didn't know what I was going to do with any of it, but when I laid it all out on the check-out belt the guy in front of me bellowed, "That looks like it will turn into a delicious dinner!", which made me feel very validated.
I lugged it all home, then decided that I felt a little wiped out and opened a can of Spaghettios for lunch. This is my dirty little secret: I obsess about quality food all day long - in this blog, with my friends, with my parents, at work - and yet sometimes I still choose to wolf down a can of Campbell's or make a pot of ramen when I'm left to my own devices. Please don't hate me for my hypocrisy. Anyway, didn't Emerson say, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds"? Everybody benefits from variety, even if it comes in the form of extremely salty and highly processed canned goods with negligible nutritional value.
I got my act together as the afternoon wore on (maybe my cells were so engorged with salt that my heart rate sped up) and prepared a lovely little dinner. It included:
Arugula with grape tomatoes and Cypress Grove Humboldt Fog goat cheese. The arugula appeared to have been at the end of its short lifespan, but it still tasted okay. The goat cheese was excellent: creamy, tangy and surrounded by a delightfully gooey inner rind.
For my entree, I pan-fried some pork loin medallions and then whipped up a little cider-herb reduction. This was satisfying because it allowed me to utilize two products that have been languishing in my cupboard: a bottle of black cherry balsamic vinegar that I got for free from Ramekins, and a bottle of Martinelli's Sparkling Cider that I won at a bingo game at my sister's house (don't you wish your Saturday nights were this wild?). I dumped a lot of the cider and a little of the vinegar in the pan, added a ton of garlic, scallions, butter and a wad of herbs (rosemary, sage and marjoram, I believe) and boiled it down to a syrupy consistency. In the meantime, I mashed some Yukon Golds with butter, sauteed garlic, scallions and half and half. Here is the humble result:
I know it's not spectacular to look at, but it sure tasted good. The pork was particularly nice; Andronico's charged me $7 for three little medallions, but they were definitely worth it - juicy, thick and full of porky goodness, not like the hockey puck pig that is usually available at big chain supermarkets.
I dropped $62 on a handheld basket of items that should have cost nowhere near $62, but let's not linger on that. I didn't know what I was going to do with any of it, but when I laid it all out on the check-out belt the guy in front of me bellowed, "That looks like it will turn into a delicious dinner!", which made me feel very validated.
I lugged it all home, then decided that I felt a little wiped out and opened a can of Spaghettios for lunch. This is my dirty little secret: I obsess about quality food all day long - in this blog, with my friends, with my parents, at work - and yet sometimes I still choose to wolf down a can of Campbell's or make a pot of ramen when I'm left to my own devices. Please don't hate me for my hypocrisy. Anyway, didn't Emerson say, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds"? Everybody benefits from variety, even if it comes in the form of extremely salty and highly processed canned goods with negligible nutritional value.
I got my act together as the afternoon wore on (maybe my cells were so engorged with salt that my heart rate sped up) and prepared a lovely little dinner. It included:
Arugula with grape tomatoes and Cypress Grove Humboldt Fog goat cheese. The arugula appeared to have been at the end of its short lifespan, but it still tasted okay. The goat cheese was excellent: creamy, tangy and surrounded by a delightfully gooey inner rind.
For my entree, I pan-fried some pork loin medallions and then whipped up a little cider-herb reduction. This was satisfying because it allowed me to utilize two products that have been languishing in my cupboard: a bottle of black cherry balsamic vinegar that I got for free from Ramekins, and a bottle of Martinelli's Sparkling Cider that I won at a bingo game at my sister's house (don't you wish your Saturday nights were this wild?). I dumped a lot of the cider and a little of the vinegar in the pan, added a ton of garlic, scallions, butter and a wad of herbs (rosemary, sage and marjoram, I believe) and boiled it down to a syrupy consistency. In the meantime, I mashed some Yukon Golds with butter, sauteed garlic, scallions and half and half. Here is the humble result:
I know it's not spectacular to look at, but it sure tasted good. The pork was particularly nice; Andronico's charged me $7 for three little medallions, but they were definitely worth it - juicy, thick and full of porky goodness, not like the hockey puck pig that is usually available at big chain supermarkets.
posted by cindym at 10:59 PM
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