A Sweet Supper

I've gone back and forth on whether or not to post last night's dinner. The differing components were good... but they didn't belong together. Completely poor planning on my part, I guess. Yesterday I had a prok tenderloin thawed out, and had intended on making a Cider-pecan pork tenderloin. until I realized I didn't have apple cider. Plus I wanted to try something different, so I headed to the internet to find something. Honeybutter Pork Tenderloin got fantastic reviews on Recipezaar, and was incredibly simple to boot. So I whipped that up, and it was very good, almost decadent really. The honey and butter completely transformed the pork. It was extravagent. This would be the place to use an unusual honey, I think. I used a wildflower honey, and it was perfect. I would think that another honey like an orange blossom or a lavender honey would be equally excellent.

But it would have been better had it been accompanied by something not-sweet. A rice pilaf and some refrigerator pickles would have made a perfect meal. Instead, I decided that I needed to bake up some beets that I'd bought at the farmstand. I baked them dry in the oven (in a dish) for 70 minutes. Then I let them cool for about 30 minutes before peeling and slicing them up. Meanwhile, I'd put a cup of half & half in a saucepan with a clove of garlic and gently infused the cream with flavor. After the beets were sliced, they got a healthy seasoning of salt and pepper, and then the cream was strained and poured over the top. I set this on the stove and simmered for about 20 more minutes. The beets were very good- even Andy really liked them, and he's not a huge beet fan. My only problem with this dish was that the cream turned into an unappealing salmon pink color. And of course, all the baking really brought out the natural sugars in the beets, and they really didn't compliment the pork at all.

So, two new dishes last night. Both of them keepers, just not to be served at the same time. Today I have a gift of tomatoes to do something with. My biggest bowl is brimming from the generosity of a friend, and I just need to decide what to do with them. Part of me thinks I should just process them and can them- I think I easily have 4 or 5 quarts here. But then part of me is trying to decide if I should make a run back to the farmstand to pick up some jalapenos, habaneros, onions, and green peppers and make a batch of salsa. Decisions, decisions. I guess the first step will be to weigh my tomatoes and see if I have the 10 pounds needed for a batch of salsa- it will be close.