Too much, too much...

Wednesday. 29 January

So, apparently, 20 lbs of pork loin is a lot. Like, twice as much as we needed.

Also, if a 3 lb roast takes 1 hour, 2 and a half hours at the same temperature is NOT a good estimate for 20 lbs. However, 2 hours at the normal temperature plus half an hour at "as hot as the oven will go" seems to work pretty well. If you're into charring.

Menu:

Orange and Honey Pork Loin Roast
Orange juice, Honey, Garlic, salt, pepper, pork, and heat. Lots of heat. 350 for two hours in a braising dish, and then 500 on a baking tray for a half hour. A better plan might have been to start with the high temperature and then turn it down. Or maybe 400ish covered for the whole time. The meat was actually cooked perfectly tonight, but the outside was black.

Chickpeas with Garlic and Spinach
Boring! I thought that I added a ton of garlic, but this seemed tasteless to me. Maybe it just needed salt. Or lemon juice. Next time, I would do this with fresh spinach, and pay a little more attention to the dish overall. It could have been good.

Veggie Paella
Onions, Red Peppers, Sweet Potatoes, Fennel, Green Beans, Artichoke Hearts, Rice, and Saffron. Good, not great. next time: cut the artichokes, add some mushrooms and more spices. I almost lost half of this. Must remember that one of the big woks has some thin spots and can get burny!

Bulgur with Vegetables and Paella Spices
A little overkill, perhaps. I was worried that the paella would not be enough. This was false.

Roast Cauliflower
Four trays full, five hundred degrees for just over an hour. Perfect. Thanks, Harold!

Sauteed Cauliflower Greens
Should have been chopped much smaller, and maybe mixed in with the chickpeas.

Tapioca Pudding
Excellent, even with the spinach spicing. Sarah B followed a recipe that she found on the internet, but cut the sugar by half. The only change I'd make next time would be to make more of it. Sarah started with 3 quarts of milk, and there wasn't quite enough.