Getting down to business over the other white meat.

Last night a couple colleagues of mine, from my real life, where I actually work and don't just do plies and twirls around my kitchen with my spoon as my wand and my apron as my tutu, came over for supper.  I know, most of the time I pretty shocked about it, too.  But, nonetheless, something has to heat my stove, pay my endless grocery bills and ensure I can still look out at my beautiful view of the city.  Outside of being a learning specialist, I am an adjunct instructor at American University and co-director of something called the Nicaragua Project.  Another blog under my name floats around out in cyberspace describing last year's version of said project.  But, friends, again and again and again, I digress.

Point being:  colleagues + 'business talk' + dinner + my house = a new blog entry

Amalie and Stephen came to visit, both bearing gifts of wine, so the night started out great.  I was stuck at the stove while talking about our upcoming project, but that is where I'm comfortable, so perhaps that is also where my best thinking occurs.  It is possible.  Especially since every single time Amalie and I (co-directors) normally meet to discuss important things, we simply make a to do list for the next time we are meeting, when we actually will get something done.  Luckily, last night was a vast improvement in this department!  Work we did, and lots of checks got put on the list, instead of new items.

Menu:

Mustard-crusted Pork Tenderloin (#16) with Thyme Butter Sauce (#17)

String Beans Almondine (my favorite vegetable preparation of all time)

Roasted Rosemary Potatoes

Simple Salad and Dijon Pinot Grigio Vinaigrette

Fly Off the Plate Rolls (#18)

Chocolate Peppermint Crackles (#19) with Vanilla Ice Cream

Phew!  It was ambitious, but it went well.  The pork and thyme sauce came from Donna Hay's web site, in which I simply used substituted pork for beef.  The result was delicious.  I roasted the pork with some fresh thyme in the pot, also, and not having English hot mustard, I combined half dijon and half whole grain dijon.

My friend and fellow blogger, Jenny, wrote about making the dinner rolls on her blog.  The recipe comes from the Praire Breads cookbook, but she found the recipe on yet another blog.  I didn't find them cooked well enough to be flying off any plates at all, I'm sad to say.  But I feel another go at them will come up and perhaps the outcome will be better.  I mean, they were good, but not really good.

They certainly looked yummy, but from our collective experience with men, used cars and bad coffee, I think we all know that looks can be deceiving.  Nonetheless, butter helped them out and order was restored.

I find pork tenderloin to be a really delightful meal, for numerous reasons.  Not limited to, but including its ability to be plated well, lean cut and inclination to imbibe the surrounding herbs and flavors.  I added a pepper crust to the meat about halfway through the cooking.  I lean to towards the spicy end of the food stuffs bell curve of flavor, so I normally add more pepper to dishes.  However, doing this later in the cooking process leaves a bit less time for absorption.

What absolutely pulled the meat together and melded the juices and smoothed the entire dish over was the thyme butter sauce.  Taking only a few minutes to cook, but adding the tinge of garlic and matching the mustard with butter, - delicious! 

After failed attempts to catch my guests smiling at the camera, laughing, eating and drinking makes for a more accurate visual display of our work discussions. 

Some matches, really are made in heaven.  I've yet to find one for myself outside of food, but that is neither here nor there.  Let us just get two things straight:  chocolate and mint, and peanut butter and chocolate are such betrothals.  They will never fall victim to the need to separate estates or family pictures.  In a world without much of a concept of forever, it is comforting to know we at least can fall back on these pairs, n'est-ce pas?  I ended the meal with little mint chocolate cookies, from in Donna Hay's magazine, and ice cream.

They were a bit tricky to make, in that the recipe claimed after a bit of chilling, the mixture would have a dough like texture.  I didn't exactly find that to be true, so I treated the cookies as normal drop-bake cookies.  And, due to a lack of commitment and time, which are recurring issues in my life, I dropped the cookies on the baking sheet and sprinkled them, as opposed to rolling them in the crushed peppermint powder, after tedious cookie number #5.  I found out that both methods work equally well.

Matched with ice cream, the warm cookies really did the trick after a savory supper and lots of talk about work.  Especially on our day off.


And so ended the wonderful three day weekend.

281 to go...