Lemon Pork Medallions

Dinner the other night:  Pork Medallions with Lemon and Parsley.  Recipe courtesy of Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" cookbook.

OK.  I love pork.  I love lemon.  Pork and lemon go well together.  However, this was very.....lemon-y.  Almost pucker-y which I'm not crazy about.  The recipe called for quite a bit of lemon juice, I don't remember exact measurements because I wasn't the one cooking.  It also said to slice a lemon, for passing around at the table.  Let me tell you....there was no "passing lemon at the table" because not only would it be redundant, it would've possibly made the meal inedible.  While there is no such thing as too much garlic, there is such a thing as too much lemon!

Kids had the same meal, minus the lemon-parsley sauce.  Unfortunately, the only thing that went over well was the pasta.  Scratch that....Will loves pasta and Sean is going through a phase (a really LONG phase) where he cries before even trying anything in front of him.  We went through this with Will though, so I know that there's a light at end of that tunnel.  Will is game to try anything nowadays, and has even gotten to be polite about saying that he doesn't like something.  And the rule in our house is that if someone tries something and doesn't like it, there are alternates.  Let's just say....the kids eat a lot of peanut butter and jelly, or Cheerios and milk.  But we keep trying!!

Un-Stuffed Chicken Breasts

This is a beauty from America's Test Kitchen.  And by "beauty" I mean that it was so good and I'm looking forward to lunch tomorrow!  Ham, swiss cheese, crushed Ritz crackers, some heavy cream.....all wonderful things went into this dish.  :)

Evolution of Taste

I've always said that I like most food, that there is a very short list of things that I won't eat.  A few of those things that have made the list:  chickpeas, olives, lima beans, mint, lamb, conch fish, venison, beer and cilantro.

As I grow older, things change.  For example, I may not like chickpeas whole, but if it's garlic or red pepper hummus, I dip chips and veggies like there's no tomorrow.  It turns out that I don't care for dried cilantro, but fresh is delicious in a homemade salsa.  And I even appreciate a cold beer on occasion.

I can stand the occasional black olive in a salad or on a pizza.  Not much else though, I adore Greek salads on Wednesday nights at knit night at the local Panera but I always pick out the olives.  (Because I never, ever remember that I can order the salad without them!)  Last month however, Brian made a chicken dish from "50 Shades of Chicken that featured garlic and kalamata olives.  I thought I'd hate it, but I didn't.  Turns out I like the FLAVOR of olives, but not whole and the having to pit them.  And if they're canned.....blech.  As a side note, the "50 Shades of Chicken" is a parody cookbook of the E.L. James "50 Shades of Grey" book series.  I don't believe that it was well-received, as Brian found it on the bargain bookshelf at Barnes and Noble when it first came out.  Which is a travesty....every recipe in there is a hit so far!

Even Brian has to admit that his tastes have changed.  The man that insists that he hates Mexican food suggested making enchiladas this past weekend.  Enchiladas!  I love Mexican food, so this sounded great to me!  A friend of ours used to make them but they were vegetarian, using refried beans as the protein source.  No wonder Brian didn't like them....but I thought they were OK.  Anyway....his enchiladas came out fantastically on Sunday night!  He took a recipe from ATK's "Simple Dishes" cookbook that called for ground turkey and subbed ground beef and mushrooms.  Not only were they delectable, they made scads of leftovers for this week.  It also turns out that, like lasagna, the leftovers taste even better!