Enough about that....

Let us draw a veil over the tedious repetitivity (?!?) of the previous post and talk about my latest new recipe...

I am trying to challenge myself with new recipes and foods I never cook...why? Why not...Anyway, today's attempt was Pork chops with an onion, mustard, cream and cider sauce. Pork and I have an odd history, I am certain that I have never cooked a pork chop before, roast pork is never on my menu and I don't do goulash...It's not that I'm anti pig, oooh no, bacon is an example of gustatory perfection and ham and especially sausages are an essential part of my culinary repetoire.

When I was small I didn't particularly like roast pork, I have a feeling that this was largely due to the questionable textures associated with the ubiquitious school dinner, with it's hard smooth roast potatoes and glutinous 'gravy'. My dear, long-suffering mother even tried to hoodwink me by telling me I was eating lamb...but no,I guessed it and still said I didn't like it. Thereafter I was released from the obligation of eating roast pork and to this day I still get a little frisson of excitement at actually getting one over on the grown-ups.

{As I type this I keep remembering just how much pig I am actually delighted to consume...spare ribs, spit-roast, stir fry....so basically I really enjoy the flavour of every type of porcine product barring the sunday roast style...so much drama over so little...}

On with the recipe...

Pork Loin Chops - as many you think your guests will enjoy
Sliced onion - I am of the opinion that you can never have too many fried onions in a dish so visualise how much onion you'd be happy to pile onto your plate then times it by the number of guests
Cream (single or double)/creme fraiche
Cider or apple juice about 200ml but go with the flow
Wholegrain mustard
Olive oil
Seasoning

Slosh some olive oil into a large pan and heat it up, season your chops on both sides and pop them in the pan, fry the meat until it is nicely browned - this might take longer than you think...

Remove the chops and put on a plate nearby, slide your sliced onion into the pan and keep frying, at this point I sloshed some of the cider into the pan to de-glaze it, worked like a charm and gave the onions some extra depth of flavour. Cook the onions until they are all sexy and softening but still with that sweet, edgy body, slosh in the cider and keep to a gentle simmer until the liquid has reduced a bit.

Now add how ever much cream you fancy, some mustard - anything from a heaped teaspoon to a tablespoon according to your taste - and stir through, place the chops into the sauce and let it gently cook for 5-10 minutes, check the seasoning - a little salt might be good here - and put the chops on warmed plates, cover with the oniony sauce and add your veg.

I served boiled new potatoes, spinach and sweetcorn and peas with the pork - the freshness complemented the richness of the pork very nicely.

Verdict...still not that interested in 'straight' pork, I'm actually not keen on what feels to me like the coarseness of the meat. However, my husband was enraptured by it and proceeded to tell me just how much he had missed eating pork...poor, poor cruelly deprived man. Even my eldest ate it all and he is the type of person who minutely examines his food just in case I've maliciously placed something he thinks he doesn't like into it... looks like I'll be cooking this again.

The Big 4 0

I was 39 in October last year...to save time I thought I'd start stressing about turning 40 early and so set myself a list of things to do and learn and finish.

Foremost on the list was to loose a considerable amount of weight...Unfortunately I have only been even approaching slim a couple of times in my adult life. The most recent was about 6 years ago, after I discovered the rather exotic and very busy double life my then husband was leading and we parted company. My body's response to this was to stop feeling any hunger at all, I lost any and all interest in food and subsisted on hot, sweet tea and roll-ups... mmm healthy. This went on for 3 months and I lost a stone every month without even thinking about it, nothing like a bit of emotional anguish to kick-start your weight-loss plan. Can't say I'd recommend it.

So that was sort of all well and good, every so often I'd get the big bags of clothes that I'd always kept for 'when I lost weight' and I'd be able to fit into some more, good ego boost etc. Unfortunately 2 bouts of what I thought was extreme food poisoning and a trip to the Dr later I found out that I had gallstones...ouch. This continued the weight loss - after all extreme pain after eating anything fatty is quite a good incentive to avoid fat at all costs.

Life then started to look up, I re-met the man who is now my husband, had surgery to remove the stones and got happy...A few years after that and I had my second son so happiness plus pregnancy over-indulgence and all the weight lost returned, bringing reinforcements... Arsington!

Thing is, I really do not want to spend any more time thinking about being fat, I want to be happy in my skin, I want to have a massive party for my birthday and feel that I have succeeded at this one fundamental thing that has over shadowed so much of my life.

I am determined to make my body healthy...27th October 2011 - Bring It On!!!