Dinner is served

My fella has been wistfully requesting chocolate pudding pie since I've known him. I tried the Jello pudding he remembered from his childhood and it was a dismal failure, several times. Southern Living was a gift from my child last Christmas and I've actually been feeling too poorly to make many of its recipes so far; but this month's issue had this beauty and I've never had a SL recipe fail. Kroger failed me in the search for the chocolate wafers to make a homemade crust, but one Keebler chocolate crust and the rest of the recipe later and, voila. Homemade Chocolate pudding pie that is firm and gorgeous. It's made with eight ounces of Ghirardelli 60% Cacao and sixteen ounces of whipping cream; hard to go wrong with that. It called for rum but not having any I used Jack Daniels and it was stellar. Oh, there was taco soup, too, but after he yummed down two bowls of that the fella yummed down two pieces of this and bemoaned keeping it in his fridge, as he feels it is not safe around him. I'm just relieved to have found a nice, simple, perfect recipe for this favorite thing of his.

Summer awesomeness

It's officially too hot to breathe here, so that means summer. We crept out to the Farmer's Market and got local peaches; made jam out of some of them and cobbler out of the rest. Heavenly. There was a special on strawberries so I got a big box of those and we committed some strawberry jam/preserves as well. Omigosh. Homemade jam is amazing. The peach was beautiful, the strawberry had some pink foam, but both make you happy you need a sandwich. Homemade strawberry jam with Nutella on bread is good enough to make you need to eat it privately because of the humming noises you will make while chewing.

An Herbaceous border

The landscaping I did at OoA#2's house, with the new urn that replaced the Mexican pottery one which didn't survive the superfreezing winter in one piece. Most of the irises, mint, and daylilies are pass-along plants. It's white, yellow, and blue with the azaleas this time of year and smells pretty great.

Pork chop too big for eating

I brined these pork chops and braised them after browning because they were too thick and I didn't think they'd cook. Onion gravy which is a wine and broth reduction, butter and garlic noodles, chipotle sweet potato fries, Sister Schubert's roll, sugar snap peas. I ate less than half a chop and Mister Portion Control sneaked into the kitchen for more noodles and gravy, ending up leaving a fourth of this massive chop on the plate. I have never seen him leave meat. 

Antioxidant deliciousness could photograph better

This is Royal Fish Curry; the tomato curry sauce is orange-y colored, lots of spices and turmeric, healthy yummy stuff; the potatoes were actually kind of purple, and with the green-flecked rice it had a cool, LSU dinner vibe. Too bad the Blackberry doesn't catch color that well... it was yummy. I am trying to cook something super antioxidant every meal. This qualified and was terrific.

New Recipes and Failed Portion Control

Sister Schubert's roll; chicken breast with a new balsamic vinegar and honey glaze instead of OaA's favorite onion gravy; Mark Bittman's pasta cooked like risotto; and the old favorite sauteed broccoli. I ate my, smaller plate and was quite full; the novelty of the new chicken and pasta was too much for his resolve and seconds were spotted. Leftovers were also taken for lunch.  Good stuff.

More Eating of the Christmas Tree

Apology for undue crankiness risotto;

whole-wheat baguette;

roast pork with rosemary that used to be the Christmas tree;

and a big ole chopped Italian salad.

Object of Affection #2 likes risotto and pork roast unduly well. He is trying to exercise portion control and he did not eat seconds tonight. He munched manfully through his salad with another piece of bread instead.  It made him faintly mournful but there was careful refrigerator placement of leftovers.Portion control and lunch may not go together.

Pulled pork is not for dogs

And Stubb's Barbecue Sauce with KFC slaw is not cheating. I have been sick, dammit.

Ridiculously easy: sliced onion and jalapeno, peeled and smashed garlic on bottom of crockpot. Pork roast on top. Cook on high 4 hours. Flip. Cook 2 more hours. Fish out of juice. Peel off fat, discard. Shred meat with forks, stir in Stubb's, heat in saucepan, serve on toasted bun with pickle and KFC slaw. Yum. Go away, dog. Eat your damn chicken.

Overwhelming talent at Thursday night dinner

Whole wheat baguette; wild-caught orange roughy with white-wine reduction and mushroom sauce; crab and cheese cake; crab-stuffed mushrooms; salt and garlic crusted Yukon gold baked potato; salad is romaine with gold cherry tomatoes and home-made balsamic dijon vinaigrette. The mushrooms are a favorite of Object of Affection #1, were deemed successful and the fish spectacular by OoA #2.  He likes my salad dressing and potato awfully well. OoA#1 is DD to most bloggers OoA #2 is boyfriend to most. I like my nomenclature.