Okay, this is seriously the best thing I have done with a pork tenderloin in like, years. Oh my god. Make this now. It was so good in fact, that I didn’t even get a decent picture of it for the title shot here. I just took it to the table and that was the end of that. So, above is a shot of the wine that we had for dinner. A zinfandel. It was good too.

The original recipe used bone-in pork chops but I substituted a pork tenderloin. I also did this indoors as opposed to outside on the grill, mainly because I was lazy. No matter, jwa & I were still rewarded with a delicious pork meal! I don’t really know what else to say about this except, uh, use fresh sage in the vinaigrette and get a spoon. Because you will be tempted to slurp that all up before the pork is even done.

Roasted Fennel-Spiced Pork Tenderloin with Sage-Lemon Vinaigrette
Adapted from the cookbook, “Grilling for Life” by Bobby Flay
Sage-Lemon Vinaigrette
3 tbsp chopped fresh sage leaves
1/4 c fresh lemon juice
2 tsp grated lemon zest
1/2 shallot, coarsely chopped
1 tsp honey
1 clove garlic
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup olive oil

Fennel-Spiced Pork Tenderloin
2 tbsp fennel seeds
2 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp whole black peppercorns
1 pork tenderloin, about 1 pound
1 tsp olive oil

For Vinaigrette: Combine the sage, lemon juice, zest, shallot, honey, salt and pepper in a blender and blend until smooth. With the motor running, slowly drizzle in oil and blend until emulsified. Set aside until needed.

For Pork: Heat your grill to medium-high. You can also sear this in a pan and then finish cooking in the oven. If you are going to do that, then preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.

Place the fennel seeds, salt, and peppercorns in a spice mill and process until finely ground. Alternatively, combine the spices on a cutting board and crush them with the bottom of a heavy pot.

Brush pork with oil and season on both sides with fennel mixture. I used about 3/4 of the mixture, next time I will probably just rub it all on.

Grill the pork until slightly charred on both sides and cooked to medium-well, 4-5 min per side. If using a stovetop/oven approach, sear the pork on all sides (about 5-6 minutes total), then finish cooking in the oven for about 10-15 minutes. You are looking to pull the pork out of the oven with an internal temperature of about 150 degrees F. Transfer pork to a place, tent with foil and let rest about 10 minutes.

To serve: slice pork on a bias and drizzle with some of the sage-lemon vinaigrette, serving the remaining vinaigrette on the side. We had this with some goat cheese polenta and roasted carrots, fennel and garlic.

I can imagine drizzling this Sage-Lemon Vinaigrette on all manner of things — chicken, fish, pasta, yourself. Anything really.

This is a meal inspired by a dinner that jwa had at his parents house a little while ago. He had gone down there to help them with some things and returned with tales of steak with garlic in it. Mmmmm…garlic in steak. I was intrigued. Such a great idea!

So, we grilled some up, with the addition of chimichurri sauce and some grilled veggies.

This was also a great opportunity to use out new outdoor grill — I still love it!

For the Argentinian Chimichurri Sauce:
Adapted from a recipe from Bob Blumer, The Surreal Gourmet
1/2 cup lightly packed chopped flat leaf parsley
1/2 cup lightly packed cilantro leaves
3 to 5 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp chili pepper flakes
2 tbsp shallot or onion, minced
3/4 cup olive oil
3 tbsp sherry wine vinegar, or red wine vinegar
1-2 tbsp lemon juice

Steak:
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
3 tbsp kosher salt
2 1/2 pounds rib-eye, New York strip, or sirloin steak, 1 1/2 inches thick
3 cloves of garlic, cut into slivers

Preheat your grill. You could also do this inside on a grill pan. If you cook on a grill pan, omit the salted water/cayenne mixture. Just salt the steak before cooking.

Place all chimichurri sauce ingredients in a blender or food processor and pulse until well chopped, but not pureed. Reserve.

Dissolve cayenne pepper and salt in 1 cup hot water. Transfer to a squeeze container (or transfer to a bowl and use a basting brush.

Using a small knife, make slits in each steak and push the garlic slivers into the slits. Brush a little olive oil on the steaks.

Place the steak directly over a hot grill (oil the rack first), and cook for 6-7 minutes per side for medium rare. Baste 1-2 times with the salt/cayenne mixture. This will also help keep flare-ups under control. (But you’ll still get a nice crust).

When you turn the steak, that’s a good time to add your veggies. We did bell pepper, zucchini and portobello mushrooms.

Spoon chimichurri sauce over steak. Serve with the grilled veggies and baguette.

It’s really good!

And if you are really lucky, there will be some leftovers to put on a baguette from Little T’s and make a steak sandwich!

Be sure to slather a little chimichurri on there and perhaps even some horseradish mayo!

I think a good alternative title for this recipe would be, “here, piggy, piggy!” Pork three ways — pork chops, prosciutto and pancetta. Delicious! I pretty much followed the recipe as is, except I brined my chops and I crisped the potatoes up in a pan before placing the chops on top for the oven.

I thought this was wonderful, but then I’ve really come to expect that from any Jaime Oliver recipe. Even the picture in the cookbook makes you want to just reach through the page and grab a chop. Sadly, that doesn’t really work, so just make the recipe instead!

Basic Pork Chop Brine
4 cups cold water
1/4 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
4 peppercorns
3 cloves garlic, chopped
4-6 sage leaves, torn

Mix all the above together, stirring until the salt and sugar dissolves. If it’s not already, transfer it to a container (that has a lid) that’s big enough to also hold the pork chops. Submerge the chops, weighing them down with a small dish if needed. Cover and refrigerate for about 2 hours.

Pork Chops with Sage or Costolette di Maiale con Salvia
From the cookbook, Jamie’s Italy…I halved this recipe as there were only 2 of us.
2-1/2 lb. all-purpose potatoes, peeled and diced
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 thick pork chops, on the bone
24 fresh sage leaves
1 bulb of garlic
4 slices of prosciutto
4 tablespoons butter, finely diced
4 dried apricots
extra virgin olive oil
flour
6 thick strips of pancetta or bacon (1/2 inch thick, if possible), or an 8-oz. package of pancetta lardons

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Put your potatoes into a pot of salted water and bring to a boil. Give them 3 or 4 minutes - you only want to parboil them - then drain them and allow them to dry.

If you brined your chops, dry them off. Then, lay your pork chops on a board and insert a small paring knife horizontally into the side of each chop to make a hidden pocket. Make sure the tip of your knife stays in the middle of the chop, as you don’t want to cut through the meat to either side. Be careful - watch your fingers!

Set aside 8 of the largest sage leaves. Add 8 more leaves to your food processor with a peeled clove of garlic, the prosciutto, butter, apricots, and a pinch of salt and pepper and process. This is now a beautifully flavored butter that can be divided between the pork chops and pushed into the pockets.

Dress the 8 large sage leaves that you set aside with a little oil and press one side of them into some flour. Press a leaf, flour side down, onto each side of the chops (so you have 2 leaves on each chop). Leave the chops on a plate, covered with plastic wrap, to come to room temperature while you get your potatoes ready.

If you’re using thick strips of pancetta, slice them into matchsticks, as thick as a pencil. Then, I transferred the pancetta to a large roasting pan, with the potatoes, the remaining sage leaves, and the rest of your whole unpeeled garlic cloves.

Drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and put the pan into the preheated oven.

After 10 minutes, put a frying pan on the burner and get it very hot. Add a touch of olive oil and put in your seasoned pork chops. Fry for 10 minutes, until golden and crisp on both sides, then remove the pan of potatoes from the oven - they should be nice and light golden by now - and place the chops on top. If they are not, and mine weren’t, transfer the potatoes and pancetta to the pan you just cooked the pork chops in and give them a few minutes over medium-high heat to get some good color on them. Then, return them to the baking dish and put the pork chops on top of the potatoes.

Put the baking dish back into the oven for 10-15 minutes, depending on how thick the chops are, then remove the pan from the oven and serve.

This was part of our new vegetarian Saturday night schedule! We’ve actually followed this for about 2 months — uh, except last Saturday when we went to Country Cat after a movie and I had duck legs. Oops. But other than that, it’s been vegetarian Saturdays! Woo!

This was good. It’s from one of my most beloved cookbook’s ever — The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. It’s pretty easy to make too. The only slightly intimidating part is the flip. And you really don’t have to do that if you don’t want to. But, you should live a little and give it a try.

Worst thing? You have vegetable upside-down cake on your floor and you order a pizza.

Vegetable Upside-Down Cake
adapted from Enchanted Broccoli Forest, by Mollie Katzen
Olive oil & non-stick spray
1 onion, chopped
1 head broccoli, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 medium zucchini , chopped
1 cup corn (frozen/defrosted)
5 cloves garlic, minced
Black Pepper + Cayenne pepper
bunch of scallions, chopped
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated (or other cheeses work well too, I used sliced, smoked Fontina)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray canola oil into an 8″-ish baking dish (mine was — I think — 7″ X 9″) and set aside. Now, rather than boiling some of the vegetables in water, I just heated them all in one pan.

Heat about 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet and sauté the onion for 4-5 minutes. Add the broccoli, zucchini, carrot and cover. Cook for 7-8 minutes, until the vegetables are barely tender. Add the bell pepper, corn and garlic, stir and cook for a minute or two more. Season with salt, black pepper, and a pinch of cayenne. Stir in the scallions.

Spread the hot vegetables in the baking dish and allow them to rest while you make the quick bread.

For the Cake:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 tbsp fresh dill
1 egg
1 cup yogurt or buttermilk (I used low-fat yogurt)
2 tbsp melted butter

Stir the flours, baking powder & soda, and salt in a large bowl. Add the sugar and herbs. Make an indentation in the center.

In a separate medium-sized bowl, beat the egg, buttermilk or yogurt and melted butter. Pour the wet ingredients into the well made in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Be sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl.

Spread the batter over the vegetables. You might have to piece it together, taking batter from one part and moving it to another so that the vegetables are covered. Also, I think that using sliced cheese helped me a little here as I had a nice, flat surface to spread the dough on.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Then, invert your serving plate or tray over the cake pan and flip it, using well-fitting oven mitts. Do it quickly and confidently — it’ll smell your fear.

Remove the baking dish and serve! Voila!

So, I was planing on making banana bread tonight but then I realized I didn’t have any apple sauce (yes, I’m one of those people that replaces the oil or butter with apple sauce). But then, I thought — hey! why don’t I just make apple sauce?

I hunted around online a bit and combined a couple of recipes together. And then added a rosemary sprig to the mix.

This is the easiest thing ever. Maybe 10-15 minutes prep time and 30 minutes cooking time. You can also skip the rosemary and add a little cinnamon or even a little piece of ginger! I plan on playing with this recipe a lot, and moving it to the crockpot when it gets hot out.

Rosemary-Scented Apple Sauce
Makes about 3 cups
4 apples, peeled, quartered and chopped into pieces (edited to add: I used gala apples)
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 2-inch sprig of rosemary
pinch of salt

In a heavy bottomed pan, combine the water with the lemon juice. As you chop up the apples, put them in the lemon water.

It won’t seem like you have enough water, but you do. When all the apples are in the pot, stir in the brown sugar, salt and the rosemary. Put the pan over medium high heat and bring the water to a boil.

Then, turn the heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally. I was watching a Gilmore Girls rerun while making this, and I got up to stir during commercials.

Let cool for a few minutes and mash with a potato masher (you can also use a stick blender). Remove the rosemary sprig and eat warm or cool in the refrigerator.

Use of freeze within 3-4 days.