Maple Mustard Barbecued Pork Chops

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup dark amber maple syrup
• 4 tablespoons, 1/4 cup, spicy brown mustard
• 1/4 cup apple cider
• 1/4 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice, eyeball it in your hand
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 1/3 palm full
• 8 center cut boneless pork loin chops, 1-inch thick
• Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
• Grill seasoning blend or salt and pepper (preferred brand McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning)
• 3 golden delicious apples, sliced across into 1/2-thick inch disks

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat grill pan or nonstick griddle pan over medium high heat. Preheat electric table top grills to high. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine maple syrup, mustard, cider, onion, allspice and cumin in a small saucepan and cook together over moderate heat for 5 minutes until sauce begins to thicken a bit.
3. Coat chops lightly in oil and season with salt and pepper. Cook chops on hot grill pan or indoor grill 3 minutes on each side. Baste chops liberally with sauce, cook 2 or 3 minutes more. Transfer chops to a baking sheet. Baste again with sauce and transfer to a hot oven to finish cooking them. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, until your apples are ready to come off the grill pan.
4. Wash apples but do not core or peel. Coat apple slices with a drizzle of oil. Season with grill seasoning or salt and pepper. Cover grill pan or indoor tabletop grill with as many pieces of apple as possible. As the apples get tender, pull them off and replace with more slices. Apples should cook 3 minutes on each side, you don’t want them too soft, just tender.
5. Platter chops with apples along side and serve.

We went to Costco this weekend and stocked up on some meat to freeze and use for dinners over the next month or so. I picked up some absolutely GIGANTIC filet mignon steaks for $6.00 each, and with a couple fresh veggies and other items on hand, I threw together this delicious dinner for the 2 of us for under $18.

Filet Mignon with Rich Balsamic Glaze

INGREDIENTS

• 2 filet mignon steaks
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper to taste
• salt to taste
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup dry red wine

DIRECTIONS

1. Sprinkle freshly ground pepper over both sides of each steak, and sprinkle with salt to taste.
2. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Place steaks in hot pan, and cook for 1 minute on each side, or until browned. Reduce heat to medium-low, and add balsamic vinegar and red wine. Cover, and cook for 5 minutes on each side, basting with sauce when you turn the meat over.
3. Remove steaks to two warmed plates, spoon one tablespoon of glaze over each, and serve immediately.

Baked Asparagus

INGREDIENTS

• 1 bunch asparagus
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 Tbsp olive oil

DIRECTIONS

1. Break the asparagus from the weak point on the stem.
2. Place the asparagus in a plastic bag with the olive oil and toss to coat.
3. Arrange asparagus in a single layer on a baking sheet and cook at 400°F for 12-16min to desired tenderness.

Garlic Smashed Potatoes

INGREDIENTS

• 4 large russet potatoes, cleaned & sliced, skin on
• 1 Tbsp butter
• splash of milk
• 1 glove garlic minced
• a bit of fresh dill

DIRECTIONS

1. Boil the potatoes for 15-20mins or until tender.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and smash the potatoes in the pot.

If Myspace is the internet’s official popularity measurement, I must be the coolest dude on earth. Paul Oakenfold sent me a friend request.
Should I say yes?

I have awesome friends.
Thanks to Shauna for bringing this to my attention…

As I was sipping an Ice Mountain (owned by Nestle) bottled water today at a staff meeting, my colleague informed me that ice mountain is bottled in Northern Michigan and is depleting our natural resources at an alarming rate of something like a BILLION gallons of water a day. Anyways, it’s bad news! River’s are lower, fish are sad, squirrels are thirsty, birds are confused, etc etc no bueno no bueno. I’m sure some of you already have ‘cut it out’ (thanks uncle joey) with the whole drinking bottled water thing, applause for u. For the rest of you and myself included, let’s keep it old skool and use our faucets, it’s just as good for you, studies show.

Best,
Shauna

Click here for more information.

I wasn’t alive to see Michelangelo paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. I wasn’t born yet when The Beatles toured. And I probably won’t ever get out to see that Japanese dude eat all them hot dogs. But goddamn, history has been made here in the US, and it feels good.

A big thanks for saving me a shit-ton of time goes out to Emil Haukeland and his post about configuring lighttpd for wordpress. Lighttpd is a very lightweight open-source web server emphasizing high-performance with low system resources. I had been using the industry standard apache web server, but I was interested in fine-tuning my host-box like a good little dork.

Anyway mostly for my own reference here’s the code:

url.rewrite-final = (
        # Exclude some directories from rewriting #
        "^/(wp-admin|wp-includes|wp-content)/(.*)" => "$0",
        # Exclude .php files at root from rewriting #
        "^/(.*\.php)" => "$0",
        # Handle permalinks and feeds #
        "^/(.*)$" => "/index.php/$1"
)

Best part is near the end:
Palin: If I ran as a Democrat you would have seen a completely different Sarah Palin.
Stewart: And all you would have to do is change everything you think.

It’s cold in the Ferndizzy, ball chillingly cold, so I made C some nice winter comfort food – Shepherd’s Pie modified from a Rachael Ray recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients
* 2 pounds potatoes, such as russet, peeled and cubed
* 2 tablespoons sour cream
* 1 large egg yolk
* 1/2 cup chicken broth
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the pan
* 1 3/4 pounds ground turkey
* 1 onion, chopped
* 2 tablespoons butter
* 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 1 cup chicken broth
* 2 teaspoons Worcestershire, eyeball it
* 1/2 cup frozen peas, a couple of handfuls
* 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
* 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

Directions

Boil potatoes in salted water until tender, about 12 minutes. Drain potatoes and pour them into a bowl. Combine sour cream, egg yolk and broth. Add the cream mixture into potatoes and mash until potatoes are almost smooth.

While potatoes boil, preheat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add oil to hot pan, season meat with salt and pepper, and brown and crumble meat for 5 minutes. Add chopped onion to the meat and continue cooking another 5 minutes, stirring frequently. In a second small skillet over medium heat cook butter and flour together 2 minutes. Whisk in broth and Worcestershire sauce. Thicken gravy 1 minute. Add gravy to meat and vegetables. Stir in peas.

Preheat broiler to high. Fill a small rectangular casserole with meat and vegetable mixture. Spoon potatoes over meat evenly. Top potatoes with paprika and broil 6 to 8 inches from the heat until potatoes are evenly browned. Top casserole dish with chopped parsley and serve.

“There is the theory of the mobius, a twist in the fabric of space where time becomes a loop.”

Weeeeeee’re baaaaaaack!

Another New Year and I feel like we’ve been here before. Time is a loop and we’re doomed to repeat it every 365ish days. The holidays have come and gone, and it’s back to waxing poetic at work 5 days a week instead of having those lovely long weekends for 5 weeks in a row.

I dub this year’s holiday theme as “Yule Tide and Cross Eyed” as I get crossed eyed even thinking about everything we did and what we drank. So many people, events, bars, cities, and parties that I could not possibly recap it all coherently. Thus I leave it up to the reader’s imagination as I bask in the afterglow of a crazy month.

We wish everyone a Happy New Year!