My poor husband has been planning all of these menus and doing the bulk of the shopping for them. I show up and he has already started slicing and dicing. That was the way it was after I went back to work and he was still on Christmas break. Now that he is back in full swing, things are more complicated. I thought I would let everyone know...just in case you were wondering how we were actually doing this whole cooking thing. Yeah, we were doing it because at first both of us were hanging out around the house and then we were doing it because Jerry was only working and not going to class. Now that both of us are back at full schedule, we are making some adjustments. One way to adjust it to suck more people into the madness and this is what I did on Friday.
I took the cookbooks to work on Friday. Before school started, I figured out who my target should be. Easy enough. Carol had already brought me a calendar of cooking classes and said we should cook together. She is commenting on this blog and really into new food. Target acquired.
I waltzed into Carol's classroom and made small talk for about a second and then plopped the books down onto a table and said that we needed to decide what was for dinner. We were off. The only requirement was that it needed to be pork, because Jacob had requested pork that morning. Yeah, the 8 year old has a preference...go figure. Carol and I nailed the menu down in record time and we parted eager to teach and then to cook.
The selections for Friday night were: Honey-Mustard tenderloin, Braised Asparagus with Peppers and Onions, Carol's Spoon Bread, and Fig Habanero Barbeque sauce. The tenderloin was very, very good. The cracked mustard seed and peppercorn crust was simple, but oh so flavorful. The cookbook recommended that we serve it with the fig habanero sauce. Carol was certain that the pork was wonderful without the sauce (she is the queen of snitching little pieces...maybe even better than me!), but I assured her that if the Commander's Palace recommended it, we needed to serve it that way. We were all so very glad that we did!!! The sauce complimented the pork and took it to new heights. So many flavors!!! Lucille and Carol think that the fig habanero sauce would be great on toast. It was that good.
Jerry and I like our pork cooked more than the medium/medium rare that the recipe called for. Carol agreed with the experts at Commander's Palace. I thought that the pork was wonderful (pink or not), but I really like pork more tender than the pan seared version we had this night. We are thinking about pan searing it to make the herb crust and then finishing it in the roaster. I will let you guys know what happens when we get around to circling back to this recipe.
The braised asparagus was good. It was really easy, but next time, we will take the lid off the pot so that the vegetables keep some texture. I bet I overcooked them, but still, they were almost boiled with the lid on the roaster. Better luck next time!
The spoon bread was really good. We let it sit too long, Carol said. This is again what happens when you have no idea when the meal will be ready and have to time things. I thought it was good and was really good with, you guessed it, the fig habanero sauce!
Eat something yummy!!!
PS
Carol reminded me that we also had garlic mashed potatoes. They were really great and very garlicky. I haven't figured out if I love or hate the food mill. It really is a pain to use, but every time I have used it, the results have been wonderful. I must confess that the potatoes had so much butter (2 sticks not counting the stick we fried the garlic in), sour cream (1 cup), and buttermilk (one and a half cups) that I don't think the potatoes were even necessary!
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fun times- the pork was bit bit overcooked- would have been more tender if a bit more pink, BUT the flavor was incredible. The habanero-fig barbecue sauce was to die for, and I might just make some and can it next year, so I can, in fact, eat it on toast, or with chicken, or with crackers, or by itself. I think if we had added one more beer to the sauce, as the recipe called for, it would have been more of a sauce. As it was, which was perfect, it was more of a sweet-hot jam. The spoonbread was not even close to what spoonbread should be- an embarrassment. Next time, I'll use my mother-in-law's recipe- light, fluffy, melt in your mouth spoonbread. Also, Jana didn't mention the garlic-smashed potatoes- they were yummy and the garlic stayed with me through the next day! I think yukon gold potatoes might have worked better than red-skinned new potatoes, because there's a little less starch in them. The overall combination of everything in concert was divine. It was a perfect evening with delicious food and good friends, and I'll be counting the minutes until I'm sucked in again!
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