Sunday Dinner

Sean and I discovered a great cooking magazine, Cook's Illustrated. It's very bare-bones and straightforward, and is heavy on instruction and advice. We got one for free in the mail and have been using it a lot. I made the best brownies ever from that, and there's also a recipe for green beans that's better than anything I've ever had before. Tonight, I used their recipe for pork chops with mustard and dill sauce. Their secret to juicy pork chops: Start them on a cold pan, and put a tiny dusting of sugar on one side to get good browning action. It was delicious. Juiciest chops I've ever made, period. On the side, I served brussel sprouts (rosakal). I know, most people hate them, but Sean and I have really come to love eating them. The secret: Blanch them in chicken stock first, then throw them into a skillet with shallots, olive oil, salt and pepper and give them a good cooking. They become soft and super tasty. Finally, dinner was completed with a nice spinach salad with carrots, scallions and toasted pecans. Very balanced, and lots of veggies and herbs.

Last night, we had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Lauriol Plaza. The occasion was that my good friends Andrea and Brjann were making a 3-day stop in Washington on their way to Hawaii to get married. It was really nice to see them and we had a fun time, complete with margaritas and that most American of pastries for dessert: Krispy Kreme donuts! They fly to the 50th state on Tuesday, via San Francisco. I hope they'll have a great time, and I can't see how they could not!

I continued my "tradition" of going to see a movie during my free afternoon at Elderhostel. This week I saw The Namesake, based on Jhumpa Lahiri's novel. I really enjoyed it, and had actually been looking forward to seeing it for a while. Also saw Stranger Than Fiction on Netflix. That was pretty good.

I finished my book, Mayflower, at the hotel last week and didn't bring another, so I was "forced" to go to Barnes & Noble to get a new one. I had intended to get Cormac McCarthy's The Road, but apparently that bitch Oprah just chose it for her book club, so the only available version has her frakking name and logo all over it. No way in hell am I buying that! Instead, I bought McCarthy's last novel before that one, No Country For Old Men. I really enjoyed that one - in fact, I finished it yesterday. Tonight I get to indulge in one of my favorite things to do: Choosing a new book to read. I know. I'm a nerd. I've learned to live with it, and suggest you do the same. :-)