1. Temperatures dipped. I stayed indoors. I thawed a chunk of pork. In the middle of the afternoon, it was ready to cook. First, I salted it and let it sit for a while so the salt could have its impact on the meat. I then sprinkled the meat with a generous amount of Trader Joe's Ajika Georgian Spice Seasoning Blend, a mixture of medium hot red chili peppers, garlic, coriander, fenugreek, and marigold (yes! marigold!). This seasoning blend is more tasty spicy than hot spicy. I'd never tried it before and (spoiler!) it worked. I then complimented the Ajika Blend with a moderate amount of cinnamon. I heated a puddle of olive oil in one of our Dutch ovens and seared the top, bottom, and one side of the pork, each side for five minutes.
In the meantime, I cut half a white onion into slices and chopped the rest.
I removed the pork, poured out the hot oil, returned the pork to the pot, added a moderate amount of water, covered the pork with onion slices, covered the Dutch oven, and put the meat in the oven at 350 degrees.
After about fifty minutes or so, I took the meat out and added carrots, baby Yukon golds, broccoli, and celery to the pot, and returned it to the oven.
I wish I were more exacting about how long the pork cooked, but at some point I checked the vegetables. They were done. Debbie wasn't home from a trip to Yoke's and The Lounge just yet, so I turned the heat down to 220 degrees and returned the meat and vegetables to the oven.
Debbie arrived home, The pork was perfectly cooked: tender, moist, full of flavor. The broccoli was a little mushy, as was the celery, but the potatoes, onions, and carrots were perfect.
Next time, if I remember (ha!), I'll add quicker cooking vegetables to the pot later, but, the thing is, I am almost always winging it in the kitchen, I have a poor memory regarding what I've done before, I am NOT in the habit of making notes, so each time I fix something like I did tonight, it's almost as if I've never cooked it before.
Good thing I'm not a restaurant chef where customers want consistency.
Consistency in the kitchen is not my forte.
But, the food I prepare usually turns out pretty good.
2. I enhanced my enjoyment of cooking tonight's meal by fixing what could be called a Shirley Dickel or a Dickel Temple. I mixed George Dickel Rye Whiskey in a glass with fresh squeezed orange juice and splash of grenadine. I don't know if this cocktail enhanced my cooking skills, but it was a fun and tasty experiment. Next time, if I remember (ha!), I'll add some bitters to this drink.
3. You'd think that since Debbie did not work with antsy third graders all day today and, instead, assembled my new desk, spent chunks of quality time with Gibbs, and held court over a couple gin and tonics at The Lounge that we wouldn't need to fall into our relaxing routine of watching Columbo and Perry Mason this evening.
If you thought this, you were mistaken.
Right as rain, as we dined on our pork and vegetables dinner, we dialed up another episode of Columbo and then watched Perry Mason figure out two murders, one involving the discovery of greenbacks in an old house and the other involving the murder of creepy sexual predator.
We ended our evening on a different note, possibly a unique one.
Today I became interested in the website, The Conversation. It features written articles and a weekly podcast.
To close out our evening, we listened to a discussion of the ecologically sound engineering practiced by beavers and oysters.
Listening to this podcast transported me back to when I read Ben Goldfarb's book, Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter.
They matter because their contributions to ecosystems are restorative.
So are the contributions of oysters.
I wish we, as humans beings, would let these creatures do their work, be the ecological engineers they are by nature and instinct.
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