Had the blue-sky warm summer weather held even one more day, we probably would have gone with the last of summer’s bounty to cook this week, but Sunday felt like fall in Williamsport, so we put on sweatshirts and steamed up the kitchen windows roasting pork with fall veggies.
Ben had been hankering for a “big cook” and honestly, so was I. Phil has done 98% of the cooking since starting sabbatical, and now that my days aren’t pinned down by returning by 5:00 to hang out with Ben and make supper, I’ve been working all the time. I mean, way-out-of-whack all the time. I was ready to cook – ready to lean in.
For lunch when out and about Saturday we tried a new place, Susquehanna Smokehouse, and Phil put it on his top 5 list. (Wow!) All of our dishes were great, but apparently the schnitzel situation was worthy of replication.
We used ideas from Jeff Mauro on The Kitchen along with Phil’s pork and pierogi dish at Susquehanna Smokehouse, and this was what we came up with.
Roasted Pork Tenderloins with Fall Vegetables
Pork Tenderloins:
2 teaspoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons ancho chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
Cayenne to taste (somewhere between zero and six minuscule granules – we just thought about cayenne and it nearly made the dish inedibly hot)
2 pork tenderloins
1 super fancy jar of fig compote from the jelly of the month club (or any jelly, jam, preserve or whatnot)
2 tablespoons whole grain mustard
1/3 up water
Vegetables:
3 fennel bulbs, sliced thinly (reserve and finely chop fronds, if desired, for garnish)
3 apples, cored and sliced thinly
1 1/2 red onions, halved and sliced thinly
20 ounces red cabbage, sliced
20 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon pepper
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
- Mix all tenderloin spices. Pat tenderloins dry with paper towel and rub all over with spice mixture. Refrigerate at least 2 hours.
- Preheat oven to 425º. Remove tenderloins from refrigerator while you prep veggies. Mix all vegetable ingredients except parsley, and spread over two greased sheet pans. Roast 15-25 minutes until tenderloin internal temperature reaches 140º.
- Remove pans from oven and place tenderloins on cutting board to rest. Stir vegetables and roast another 15-20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat fig compote, mustard, and water in a small saucepan until heated through.
- Place vegetable mixture on serving platter with tenderloin slices on top. Drizzle (or plop) fancy fig compote on top of meat and serve with pierogis.
Pierogis in Mushroom Sauce
1 1/2 pounds frozen pierogis
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup milk
1/4 cup finely ground dried shiitake mushrooms
1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Salt, if needed, to taste
Chicken broth, if needed, to thin sauce
- Bring large, salted pot of water to boil and cook pierogis according to package directions.
- Meanwhile, make sauce. Melt butter in large sauté pan, add flour, and heat until thick paste forms. Add milk and stir, pressing with spatula until all lumps are gone and smooth sauce forms. Add mushroom powder, stirring until well combined. Add soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Taste and add salt if needed. If sauce is too thick, add chicken broth (or pasta water or milk) until desired consistency. Remove from heat.
- Add cooked pierogis to sauce in pan and stir until coated.
Last night, Phil was away, so Ben and I sat down to watch a movie over supper. Usually, the only way one can justify eating in front of the tv at our house is by calling it “Family Movie Night,” but it was just the two of us. What could it hurt to eat supper in the living room?
As I watched a great movie I have seen dozens of times, The Art of Racing in the Rain, I kept trying to think about what I would write up about our week. What if I couldn’t find a unifying thread to talk about the change of seasons, trying new restaurants and new dishes at home, cayenne’s tendency to rule the roost? What if I had finally run out of things to say? I thought of all these things, and then I got caught up in the movie and didn’t think about anything else. That, of course, is the story. Over and over and over again, I try to spread myself too thin. I try multi-tasking. I try watching a movie while maybe thinking about how I’m going to grade the stack of papers waiting for me, and how I’m going to process it all in a meta kind of way for the blog. The lesson I seem to be slowly learning, day by day, is that when I’m with Ben, all I need to do is lean in and be fully present. That’s it. Why it is taking me forever to learn this, I don’t know. I could use some remediation, I guess. The older I get (and it’s possible that I’ll be 78 before finishing writing this post) the more I realize the value in giving myself over to whatever I am doing. Lean in. Lean in.