Happy Easter

Geez, sorry I've been away so long. No excuse really, just haven't had the energy or time to write much lately. Seems I was pretty drained by taking care of the children while Michele went' back to the US for a week. It was a lot of fun, actually, getting to observe the children in their natural habitat and all, but I barely sat down from 6:15 in the morning until about 8:30 at night.

I did get a bit of time to myself later in the week - even spent a few hours in a suny park reading a book. Don't think I've done that since college, and back then I only went outside when I couldn't take the smell of whatver it was that had died under my pile of 6 weeks' worth of laundry.

So glad that Michele was back, I went back to work just in time to pack all of my stuff for the move to a new building. I say "new" only in the sense that it's not the building I've been in since moving here. In fact, it's about 20 years old, and shows it. The wallpaper is vaguely reminiscent of a set of kitchen chairs I had in the early 1990's, with colorful spongue painting effects on them. Very leg warmers and big hair.

The view is no great shakes, either. In the first building we were on the top floor, with panoramic views upriver to the City, and all of iconic London spread out below us - Tower Bridge, St. Paul's, the Gherkin, the Eye and, with a bit of a squint and a favorable wind, Big Ben. We shared the clouds with the gods.

Now, from my new 5th floor vantage, I can see the roof of my building and the tube station. Yeah, it's still London, and so by definition, even the new view is more interesting than the view from my office in Conshohocken, which was of the hotel next door, but still...

Caroline lost her first tooth the other day. Most kids would be happy to just stick the tooth under their pillow and get a dime in return for their trouble. Not my daughter. She had to leave a note for the tooth fairy, expressing her undying affection, and requesting a self-portrait. Fortunately, Michele took care of this, as she is, as has been previously noted, the artist in the family.

Having realized on Saturday that not only was I completely unprepared for any sort of Easter dinner on Sunday (except maybe ordering a curry), but also that everything was likely to be closed on Easter, I called a local butcher, who not only had a beautiful 2kilo pork loin in stock, but also delivered it within about 15 minutes! Who says service in England is bad?

What I hadn't really thought about, since I was fully expecting the butcher to be closed on Saturday, was just how much pork is 2kilos. A kilo is 2.2 pounds, for the metrically challenged among you. In short, it's a lotta pork. What to do with this gigantic slab of pig? So, pork loin in hand (er, fridge), I set out to find an interesting recipie.

One of the most wonderful things about the Internet is its ability to find things. Life would really be perfect if I could Google for, say, "where's my remote"? (In fact, I just tried this, and received this list of helpful suggestions). The fact that one can search by a bunch of arbitrary key words is incredibly useful. Finding recipies this way is a breeze. For example, I wanted to do something involving pork, mustard and rosemary (we have a rosemary bush). Rather than needing to know the name of a dish involving each of these ingredients, I just searched for "'pork loin' rosemary mustard".

One of the other downsides about the searching on the Internet is that search engines are generally kind of dumb. While a human of even modest intelligence would realize from those keywords that I was after one recipie containing all three ingredients, Google isn't that smart, at least not yet (the notion of intelligence in searching is part of what's loosely called Web 2.0). So while the results contained mostly recipies with the three ingredients, all three weren't necessarily all in the same dish. This actually turned out to be a good thing, else I'd never have found this: Roasted Pork Loin with Apples and Rosemary. I won't bother repeating the recipie here, but will note that I did this with just the two halves of the pork loin, butterflied, and that I added 3-4 large shallots, finely chopped, to the stuffing. It was delicious. If I did it again, I might lower the oven temp to 350 and plan to let it roast for about 1.75 hours.

In addition, I made a really good batch of Brussels Sprouts. Now, I realize that most of you are turning up your noses, but these are unlike any Brussels Sprouts you're likely to have had. I made a similar dish for Thanksgiving, but I think this one is much improved. The beauty of this is that you can get everything cooked ahead of time, and then at the last minute just heat it all up just before serving. The key to successful Brussels Sprouts is to not cook them too long - overcooked, they become most unpleasant, but done just right, they are crunchy, sweet and a little bit sharp. These went really well with the pork.

Totally Edible Bacon Brussels Sprouts
1 lb fresh Brussels Sprouts
1/2 lb bacon, diced
2 large shallots, finely diced
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp white sugar (might be good with brown sugar, come to think of it)
Tabasco sauce
1/4c cider vinegar
Salt
Fresh ground pepper

Prep (You can do all of this on the day well in advance of serving): wash sprouts and trim off the stems and outer leaves. In a large pan (I use a wok, but that's just my style...), heat olive oil over medium heat, and when hot, drop all of the bacon in and stir it to break it up. Reduce heat to low and let the bacon simmer until it starts to brown. Add the shallots, salt and pepper to taste, a few drops of Tobasco, stir well and continue to cook over low heat until the bacon is dark brown and crisp. Remove from heat and set the whole pan aside.

In the meantime, cook the sprouts by bringing a pot of salted water to the boil and dropping the sprouts in. Cook for 5 minutes (the water will eventually start to boil again, but start counting the 5 minutes as soon as you drop the sprouts in. I happen to like mine pretty crisp; if you prefer them a little less al dente, you can cook them slightly longer, but in any case, no more than 7 minutes or you might as well just throw them away). Drain and put them back into the pot, filling it with cold water. Run cold water over them continuously for about 3 minutes, or until they no longer feel warm. Drain again and set aside.

Finish (just before serving): Heat the bacon mixture over medium-high heat until it starts to sizzle. Add the cider vinegar and stir for a few minutes to deglaze the pan. Then add the sprouts, turn them to coat with the sauce, and heat until hot (1-2 minutes) stirring occasionally. Adjust seasoning if needed.

I hope you all had a happy Easter...