Capping Off a Weekend

. . .And we find ourselves here at the end of another week, hungry no more, overjoyed by the prospects that met with our collective will and were overcome.

First off, I am kinda sick, so things weren't quite up to par this weekend. We did pizza night on Friday, see the last pizza post for the details. This pizza was half mine, half Misty's, and thus, half sausage, cheddar, tomato sauce, mozzarella, jalapenos, and orange and green peppers. The other half was pesto, mozz, and orange and green peppers. We again added fresh tomatoes after the pie came outta the oven as we have many, many tomatoes left to eat. A salsa will be fashioned from these fine red globes and soon.

Today saw a fine festival of meats: I decided this afternoon that I should eat the steak that was sitting in my fridge after I pulled it out of the freezer. A pan fried ribeye makes the perfect mid-afternoon snack for a slightly cold- or flu-ridden dude. Put steak on plate, add salt, cracked black pepper. Heat pan, add butter, add steak. Cook to desired doneness, today, the medium side of medium rare.

How, you ask, do you follow up a ribeye at 5pm? Pork loin, of course. Tonight, I pulled out a Cory special as it was my task to prepare dinner tonight. Take a pork loin, grab a sharp knife. Take your knife and cut up an apple into small pieces. The size of your pork loin determines how big your apple slices will be. Cut up some garlic into slightly smaller pieces than the apples. Using your sharp knife, make as many pockets in the pork loin as you can fashion. Be sure not to cut through either the side or bottom of your fine loin while doing this. Fill your pockets with apple and garlic. I generally put the garlic in first. Now, the important part: wrap your loin, apples and all, with bacon. Your average pork loin will take 4 slices of bacon. You now have achieved harmony in your life; the use of 2 or more pork products in any one meal constitutes a superlative use of your time on this planet.

Bake the loin at 375 until it is 155 degrees inside. This can be anywhere from 40 - 60 minutes, depending. Before you complain about my cooking directions, go buy a meat thermometer. Beef will be giving you cooking times in degrees Fahrenheit as well, so follow my (Robot's) advice and spend the dough. MOST IMPORTANTLY: let your meat rest for about 10-15 minutes under a tent of foil before you dare cut it.

I dump the liquid left from the meat and add 1/2 cup of white wine. Bring to a slow boil while your meat rests. Add to top of meat. Mmm.

Dessert tonight was a pomegranate. The pom is a delightful fruit - and when you get it ready to eat, it looks like a bowl of red corn. This may serve any number of scary looking Halloween food needs. To get your pomegranate to an edible form, do the following: (1) quarter it; (2) drop these into a bowl of cold agua for 5 minutes; (3) peel the nubbins from the flesh of the fruit. This is not a clean process, and you will certainly accomplish a blood spatter pattern on your shirt. Act accordingly, as pom stains just like red wine.


This reminds me, I didn't tell you about the wine pairing with the pork. Tonight was a 2006 Michael Lynch White Bordeaux, which is sauvignon blanc. This particular wine is really coming into its own - we had it a while back and it was very gravelly, almost chemically so, especially on the aftertaste, without much fruit. Tonight, I felt it was quite fruity, with a wonderful melon flavor dancing around the edges all the way through. Misty still thought it was a little chemical tasting on the finish, and I can see that, but tend to think it is more a preference against the white Bordeaux than anything. If you don't like it, you just don't like it, nothing wrong with that. We bought this at Best Cellars - not sure if they have these in your city yet - I know they're in Houston. This place is great for having a small but high quality collection of well-priced wines. Also, they deliver for free.

Time for some rest - got a long week of Halloween party prep to do.

Robot Out!