Roasted Pork Chops with Polenta

Week 4, day 1.

Polenta with gruyere = cheese grits = not scary!

I don't know why, I just always used to see polenta in tubes and assume that it was too difficult to make. Tubed polenta didn't seem like anything I wanted to eat, so I never made it. Actually, it's really simple and quick as long as you pay attention and keep stirring (think: bechamel). The cool thing is that you can serve it right away, and it has more the consistency of cream of wheat, and as it cools it starts to thicken and become like cornmeal mush. Except delicious.

I think chicken could easily be substituted for the pork in this roasted pork chops with polenta recipe, since the pork is really just a vehicle for the cheesy polenta and the sweet roasted tomatoes. Actually, I'd really substitute anything for the pork, because all I wanted to eat was the polenta and tomatoes. Or maybe just polenta :)

Balsamic-glazed Pork with Lentils

Week 3, day 5. Fail.

Have I mentioned that I have trouble with oven thermometers? In my presence they melt, stop or otherwise lose their ability to function. Obviously in awe.

This is really important with something like pork, because how else do you know if it's done? Not by the directions in this recipe... sorry, RS. Oven time for the balsamic-glazed pork with lentils inched closer to 20 minutes, as my oven thermometer and I hesitated over whether it was done. Stomach growling, I wanted so badly to salvage this meal by trying to stay optimistic. Husband: "Huh. I like all of these things individually. I just don't know that I wanted them together."

Boo.

Mushroom and Herb Strata

Week 3, day 4.

Back to my tattered and splattered October 2010 issue of Real Simple. We had this French bistro-style meal sometime in December, using cheddar cheese and the same country bread as the Shrimp with White Beans. It's a classic pairing of cheesy, eggy and crusty with crunchy, light and tangy. It may not have transported us to Paris-- but at least to the Paris hotel in Las Vegas :)

Not really a weeknight meal, though--- there's prep, and then baking for 50-60 minutes. This is where I confess that I don't always read recipes in advance, and when I got home one Friday night around 6:30 with this in mind, I was already pulling ingredients out of the fridge when I realized it was too daunting at the end of the week. We went out for pizza and had it the next night instead. But a better idea-- since this isn't the greatest leftover, save for dinner with vegetarian friends and time for a bottle of white wine.

Stuffed Shells

H: What's for dinner tonight?

Me: Stuffed shells. I'm going to freeze a pan to take over to [friends] in a couple days, since they just had their baby.

H: Didn't you make that right after my sister got out of the hospital?

Me: Yes.

H: Are you concerned about the link between this dish and people going to the hospital?

Me: Re-think the sequencing on that one.

So, yes, I have a need these days to make casseroles for people who, fortunately, are mainly going to the hospital to have babies or otherwise turned out okay. This Martha recipe is nice (albeit a little selfish), because you can make a pan and freeze a plan, giving you one meal as a reward for your hard work (it takes about an hour to prepare, not counting baking time). I take it over in a reusable foil pan, with instructions written on top with a Sharpie, and a bag of salad mix. Although Martha's original version with radicchio is strangely beautiful in red and purple, it seems less creepy to take it over to someone else when I use green swiss chard.

Here is where we interpret, since Martha's recipes are sometimes lofty and/or not explicit: Bacon works great instead of prosciutto. I like a lot of butter, so I use half a stick or so. The red wine vinegar adds the perfect amount of tang, so don't leave it out. 5 cups of tomato sauce is 2 24-oz. jars of Tomato & Basil Classico from Costco, and the recipe works just fine if you dot with butter and cover with sauce prior to baking or freezing.

Mazel tov; get well soon.

Couscous Salad with Grapes and Feta

Dear Real Simple:

You probably already know this, since you know everything, but I basically do everything you tell me to, and it usually works out.

In the April 2011 issue, please tell me to play the lottery, and let it go the same way.

In the meantime, thanks for the couscous salad with grapes and feta recipe. Even though I'm typically a grape-hater, I really like this, with the red holiday grapes from Central Market. I made it for the first time a few weeks ago, ate an entire recipe, and then made it again a few days later. And dash it all, I tried to tinker with the ingredient temperature (warm toasted walnuts/ warm couscous? cool walnuts/ warm couscous? cool everything?) and it turns out that no, warm ingredients don't melt the sturdy feta, and yes, it tastes good all ways. I never want to eat pasta salad at a picnic again.

However, "serves 2" is a lie (1 1/2, maybe), as is "15 minutes hands-on" since coordinating toasting, not burning, the walnuts and cooking the couscous takes a few extra minutes. I still love you.

Sincerely,

J.

Black Bean Chili with Butternut Squash

Sometimes it's best to start at the very beginning...

Other times, you realize that it's February, and that poison ivy, a broken foot and the holiday season beget procrastination, and procrastination beget anxiety over your overflowing recipe folder/camera memory card. So let's start with something easy: chili for the S[o]uperbowl.

And when I say chili, I mean black bean soup, and not this black bean soup, which I now want you to pretend you never read on my blog. Back then, I had no idea that what I really wanted was black bean soup with butternut squash... with bulgar wheat... with "fire-roasted" tomatoes... with chipotle chiles with adobe sauce.... with heat, with texture, with fullness and with every trend at Trader Joe's thrown in. Because that's how bon appetit rolls, and I just can't help myself from buying in.