1. For some reason, when people ask me what I enjoy or how I spend my time in retirement, I almost always say that I like to read and watch old TV shows and movies, travel locally when I can, and other things, but I almost never include cooking in my answer.
But, in fact, whether doing it for myself, for Debbie and me, or for family dinners, I've spent quite a bit of time cooking since I retired.
Back then, Debbie would arrive home from teaching worn out and I enjoyed preparing for her arrival by fixing food for us to enjoy.
I'm back into that groove again of having dinner ready for Debbie after school. Debbie is happy to be working, but working with over twenty-five third graders is demanding and I enjoy helping her relax in the evening by mixing her a cocktail and having dinner ready.
Now, some time ago, I bought a pretty good sized hunk of pork at Costco and cut it up into about half a dozen smaller hunks.
Today I thawed one of these hunks, figuring it was about the perfect size for our dinner with some pork left over for Debbie's lunch on Friday.
I prepared the pork by salt and peppering it. Next I grabbed two jars of spice blends Debbie had purchased at Trader Joe's: Umami, a blend of mushroom seeds and powders along with dried onions, crushed red peppers, black pepper, and thyme and Ajika, a blend of chili peppers, coriander, fenugreek, garlic, and, yes, marigold.
I generously covered the pork with Umami and more lightly seasoned it with Ajika.
I seared both sides of the pork hunk for about five minutes and then covered both sides with fennel seeds and seared both sides another two minutes.
I poured off some of the fat from the Dutch oven and added a roughly chopped white onion and some water in with the pork, put the lid on, and began to braise the meat at about 300 degrees.
I checked the meat periodically and when the meat temperature read about 160 degrees, I lowered the oven temperature to 170 degrees to keep the pork warm and nearly stop it from cooking any more.
I should add that this hunk of pork had quite a bit of fat in it, great for both moisture and flavor.
I was really happy after I cooked a pot of rice and Debbie said she was ready to eat that the pork was juicy and tender. The fennel and the seasoning mixes worked beautifully together and the liquid at the bottom of the Dutch oven with the onion pieces cooked through made a terrific sauce to put on our rice and, if so desired, on our pieces of pork.
I got out the honey dijon salad dressing I made Monday and mixed greens supplemented with purple cabbage for a salad.
So, yeah, this is what makes retirement fun for me: cooking dinners. And having them work!
2. After dinner, I mixed myself a sidecar (cognac, Cointreau, and fresh lemon juice) and Debbie and I settled into a complicated and fascinating episode of Perry Mason featuring a shady land deal and a murder that somehow Perry Mason figured out, succeeding in getting the murderer to confess in court.
By the way, this episode featured a newspaper guy played by Adam West (Batman!) and a small town District Attorney played by Paul Fix, better known as Micah from The Rifleman!
3. We had some time left before Debbie needed to turn in and she wondered if James Carville had anything on YouTube or elsewhere we might watch. We used to get a kick out of him during his appearances on Brian Williams' show The 11th Hour. I replied that I didn't know of any YouTube videos featuring him, but that he is a prominent figure in the 1993 documentary, The War Room, available on the Criterion Channel.
So we watched The War Room, a fascinating documentary, without voice over narration, featuring the behind the scenes workings of Bill Clinton's campaign staff as Clinton marched through the 1992 Democratic primaries and then ran for president. Spearheaded by James Carville and George Stephanapoulos, the young staff running Clinton's campaign were aggressive, agile, and creative and became practiced and adept at extinguishing fires that flared up, thanks to Clinton's behavior.
Stu's limerick today celebrates March 3rd, National Anthem Day.
Pride in your country is grand.
For this day, you strike up the band. Take your hat off and smile,
Watch your flag all the while!
And cover your heart with your hand!
No comments:
Post a Comment