Pork, Pork, Pork!

There was a time, once, when pork was not something I liked... at all. Needless to say, those days are gone. In fact, after I went through the menu for this week I realized 3 out of 4 dishes included pork. The thing is, pork comes in so many forms it's hard to keep track! Between prosciutto and pancetta and pork chops and loin.... The thing about pork, though, is that it can have a lot of different flavors and that makes it enjoyably versatile.

So far, the two recipes I've made out of the Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook are really good and will be made again. Our favorite of the two was definitely Fettuccine With Vegetables and Prosciutto. It had a very mild flavor and tasted very fresh. I have to wonder if these recipes made it into the newer edition of the cookbook. The great thing about this cookbook is that it tells you whether the meal is fast, low fat (and includes nutritional counts) and the instructions are quite concise and easy to follow. Plus there is an abundance of photos, which we all know quickly converts me to a cookbook.

Last night, we had Rosemary Porkchop Skillet which was surprisingly quick and easy, though I think that the pork was a bit over-done. (Most likely due to my ridiculous stovetop that knows only two settings -- hot as hell and off) Then later in the night I had some friends coming over for dessert and a chat. I didn't want to go buy a dessert so I figured I would make something I had all the ingredients for. I chose this Crockpot Chocolate Mud Cake recipe. It was a real winner - simple to make, and perfectly hot and delicious when it came time to eat. I served it up with vanilla bean ice cream and it was a big success. I did have to do some research on Dutch-processed Cocoa versus Unsweetened Cocoa and luckily I was able to substitute Unsweetened Cocoa for the Dutch-processed. I imagine it also helped the mellow sweetness that I used milk chocolate instead of semi-sweet. The cake was floating on a sea of melty chocolate sauce. This recipe will definitely be going into my favorite-recipes cookbook. If you decide to make this recipe - put a papertowel under the glass lid of your crock pot before you start cooking. It doesn't affect the cake at all but prevents the condensation from dripping onto your cake as you remove the lid or check to see if the cake is ready.


In other news, my garden is growing! Here is a photo of my first "harvest" (though I did already have my other head of lettuce). My green beans got too much rain and a lot of the nitrogen was flushed out of the soil, so I'm trying to nurse them back to health with some Miracle-gro. I think it's working, but it's hard to say. Luckily I took the "don't put all your eggs in one basket" approach this year and I also have a green bean plant in my in-ground garden as well as my container garden. That one is quite healthy but needs a trellis to grow on.


And take a look at my herbs! The basil plant is a new one, though I am please to say that the one I had written off as dead and decrepit has now made a full recovery and has been re-potted. It's quite persistent! (the one in the small pot on the side) Also growing in my garden this year are strawberries, bellpeppers, green onions, and roma and cherry tomatoes. We've also made a planter in the front yard filled with Impatients and Begonias, and dressed up the side of the driveway with some Day Lillies and ..some other perennial I don't remember the name of. And we've planted and mulched the flower beds and trimmed all the bushes. We're actively trying to intimidate our neighbors by our yard. It's awesome. The only bad thing is that the birch tree in our front yard consistently loses leaves almost as soon as it starts making them. We don't know what's up with this thing but it drives us crazy. It's like perpetual Fall here.


We're happy with our yard this year and so happy to have the "birch circle" as we call it, finished. It's been haunting us with its unfinished-ness since March.

Here's the recipe for Fettuccine with Vegetables and Prosciutto - it was quick, mild and delightful. It's fast and low fat.

Fettuccine with Vegetables and Prosciutto

• 8 Oz. dried fettuccine, broken in half
• 1 Pound fresh asparagus, bias-sliced into 1 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 4 Roma tomatoes, de-seeded and chopped
• 3 Oz (a little less than 1/4th a pound) of Prosciutto cut into thin strips
• 1/3 C. grated parmesan cheese

1. Cook fettuccine according to package directions. Drain and keep warm.
2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook and stir asparagus in hot oil for 4 minutes or until nearly tender. Sprinkle asparagus liberally with salt. Add tomatoes and prosciutto and cook about 2 minutes more or until heated through.
3. Add asparagus mixture to fettuccine and stir gently to combine. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
   

What's on the Menu...

As usual, work has been insane. This humorous article on Why Your Used Book Store Clerk Hates You only scratches the surface of why I REALLY have some rough days at work sometimes. Among the non-mentioned is that you would assume that people coming into book stores could read - read signs, read price tags, read signs saying what is down what aisle.... But Alas, A surprising number of customers who seem to be shopping at my book store are merely buying for pretense because it is QUITE CLEAR that they are illiterate and dumb and GOD FORBID we move something in the store because using your EYES to look ten feet is more effort than you can put in. We know, we know.

But my days aren't filled entirely with wacky customers and their inane questions...they're also filled with the fun of unpacking and shelving and ordering books. And that's the part I love. However, sometimes I need a break. And next week is going to be a nice 40-ish hour week where I get out early enough to cook dinner not just once but FOUR NIGHTS next week! That feels nearly impossible right now, but it is written (so it shall be done).

Indeed my shopping list and menu for the week are created and ready for the hated trip to the grocery store tomorrow. At work I picked up yet another cookbook. I'm always telling myself I won't buy more cookbooks but how can I resist Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook with great photos and information on canning and preserving and all kinds of helpful cooking tips for just $1.50! The answer is that I can't. And that's why it's on my kitchen table!

So here's what is on my menu for the week:

Monday: Fettuccine with Vegetables and Prosciutto - Looks simple and delicious! Involves asparagus and Roma tomatoes.
Tuesday: Rosemary Porkchop Skillet - Finally an interesting way to use that butternut squash on my counter....and to use some rosemary from my garden!
Wednesday: Out to dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant.
Thursday: Pork with Fennel and Pancetta - Aj is making this... supposed to be quick and easy, but I have to figure out a way to cut down on the fat.
Friday: Spinach and Feta Quiche - It's been a while since we had this and it makes great leftovers for work on Saturday.

I will hopefully also have time to post the successful recipes! Tomorrow is either salt-crusted grilled trout, or trout amandine. Also let it be known that amandine should not be so close to almondine since it involves almonds it is wholly confusing. Those damn French.

Crockpot Japanese Curry

There are a few absolutely great reasons to break out your crockpot no matter the time of year. The first reason is obviously that it's ridiculously convenient - throw a bunch of things in a pot and end up with a (typically) delicious dish! The second reason is that it's one-pot cleanup. The third reason is that you prep it in the morning and come home to a ready-to-eat meal. The final reason is that it puts off minimal heat. And while you may think that's not a big deal, when you have a 1950s oven that brings your kitchen to a toasty 85 degrees every time you turn it on...well...you start to think "What can I make that DOESN'T involve the oven?"

Now, with life in the South, central air conditioning is a staple of life - just like an ice maker in your fridge. In the South, every drink is iced and every building you enter is literally FREEZING. You take sweaters to the movies and restaurants even though its 100 degrees outside and you'll be damned if you don't take a sweater to the refrigerator section of the grocery store. Here in New England, things are a little different. Central AC is a novelty. Most stores only have it on half heartedly. New Englanders believe in a "comfort" level of acceptable cool. Southerners believe in turning your house/establishment into Antartica during the summer months. Because let's face it - it's HOT outside and the last thing you want is to go inside and be HOT in there too.

The first months of a New England summer are a stragetic battle. How long can you go before you have to install your window-AC units, and do you really need to install ALL of them, or can you just get away with one or two until July? How hot do you let your house get before you muster the energy to install an AC unit you're going to have to take out in 3 months? For Aj and I, we installed the first AC unit in our bedroom when the indoor temperature hit 85 (Without the oven on) and the second unit that goes in our kitchen window? Today. June 20th.

We have 2 window units to cool our entire upstairs of 3 bedrooms, a living room, bathroom, hall and kitchen. Why do we suffer through this, you ask? The answer is simple: old buildings and no choice. Not only does our house have ancient kitchen appliances, it also has old pipes, windows, and no central AC. And since you Southerners all had your houses built with AC in the first place (Because what kind of jackass builds a home in the South with no AC?) you don't have these worries. But tons of the houses up here were built when they were still delivering ice on trucks. And really...there's only a few days in the year where heatstroke can be a real issue up here. The rest of the time Northerners just putt around bitching about how hot it is (which is increasingly irksome as I had to listen to them also bitch about how cold it was, as if the same thing didn't happen every year). Not me, though! I'll bitch when it's 85 in my house but not when it's 101 outside. Because that's just it: I'm OUTSIDE. My house? That's man-made and should be chilled to whatever temperature I want so bitching is fair game.

So naturally with two window units to cool my entire upstairs (and nothing to cool the downstairs), I generally have been trying to NOT use the oven. Or if I must, I try to use the mini bottom oven because it's better insulated and ...well...smaller. So today I decided to try something new: Japanese curry in the crock pot. And it was definitely a good choice! Anyone who knows me knows I am a fan of Japanese curry (Chicken Tatsuya Curry) - it's mild, flavorful and slightly sweet. It's become a real comfort food for Aj and myself. So try this recipe out because it's different, and extremely easy, and extremely yummy!

Crockpot Japanese Curry (Pork)

• 1 Package of boneless porkchops (I used thin-cut) with the fat trimmed off and cut into small 1/4 inch cubes
• Approximately 3/4 lb baby carrots
• 4 Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into large cubes
  
• 1 XL box (about 8 oz) Japanese curry roux. I used TopValu curry which is a store-brand I got when in Japan, so it's unlikely you can find that here, but any Japanese curry roux would be fine. Available now at almost all Wal-Marts and some Market Basket grocery stores, but please support your local Asian market!
• 32 Oz (or slightly less) of chicken broth
• 2 cups cooked rice (I use my rice cooker and set an automatic timer to be finished by the time I want to eat)
  

1. Heat up 1 cup of the chicken broth to near boiling and put it in a measuring cup.
2. Add the curry roux and mix until it dissolves.
3. Put the curry roux mixture, the rest of the chicken broth, the potatoes, carrots and diced porkchop into the crock pot and turn it on low.
4. Cook for about 7 hours.

Whether it's a cold winter night or a hot summer day this stuff is irresistible!