New York Strip w/Baby Portabellas in Russian Marinade

Today's Joy: Culinary Therapy

Do you find as I do, Reader, that getting in the kitchen, rolling up your sleeves and whipping up something delicious is probably the best thing you can do with stress or negative energy? I love the idea of making something tender & mouth-watering out of my own frustration.

Tonight, Aunt came home in need of a little venting. As she told me about her day, I defrosted two of our own delectable, farm-raised steaks (each about 2 1/2 inches thick), sliced & sauteed fresh baby portabella mushrooms & garlic in rich butter, then marinated both in Russian dressing (couldn't find any red wine). Then I sliced up leftover potatoes and threw them on the griddle to soak up some of the marinade and steamed a package of chopped spinach (we must have something healthy, after all). In about 20 minutes, we were in steak lover's heaven. All the cares of the day seemed to vanish in a wave of flavor.

Why is it, Reader, that cooking with butter, bacon or chocolate always makes us feel better? It's one of the great mysteries of the universe. Right up there with black holes and the search for extraterrestrial life. Yup, aliens and bacon. Butter and pulsars. Chocolate and the space/time continuum. But, I digress...

Peach-stuffed Pork Loin

Peach-stuffed Pork Loin ready to go in the oven.

Today's Joy: Culinary Success!
Reader, as you can see from the photos, my peach-inspired summer dinner was a raging success! A lot of work went into it, but oh, it was fun! And I learned several new skills. I butterflied a piece of meat and stuffed, rolled & tied it for roasting--all for the first time ever! Thanks to the easy instructions in my July, 2010 issue of Martha Stewart Living, I was very pleased with the results.


Right out of the oven.

As promised yesterday, here is the Peach-stuffed Pork recipe I used. While pretty labor-intensive, it was totally delicious and well worth the effort. I found it much more manageable to break the prep up over a couple days. Please note: I did alter the recipe a tad from the original posted in MSL. I added ground ginger to the seasoning mix and increased some of the ingredient quantities to accommodate a more generously-sized pork loin.

Peach-stuffed Pork (courtesy of Martha Stewart Living: July, 2010)
For instructions on how to dry fresh peaches or make your own quick & easy peach glaze, click here.

1 cup water
9 peaches, dried, or 6 ounces store-bought dried peaches
1 boneless pork loin (2 1/2 lbs.), trimmed
coarse salt & freshly ground pepper
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1 tbl. all-purpose flour (for dusting)

#1 Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Bring water to a boil in small saucepan.
Coarsely chop dried peaches and add to water.
Return to a boil.
Remove from heat and let stand 20 minutes.
Remove peaches using a slotted spoon and squeeze; reserve liquid (can be added to your pre-made glaze).

#2 Butterfly pork loin: starting 3/4 inch from top of loin, make a horizontal cut into side, slicing through meat in short strokes and leaving about 1 inch intact at outer edge.
Unfold meat as if opening a book.
Cut a vertical slit 3/4-inch deep at seam, and repeat to make a horizontal cut in the opposite direction.
Pound to an even thickness with meat mallet.

#3 Stir together a seasoning mix of salt, pepper, ginger & clove and sprinkle over pork loin.
Spread drained peaches over pork, leaving a 1-inch border on one short end.
Roll up pork from short end to enclose filling.
Tie together with kitchen twine to shape and hold in filling.
Sprinkle with seasoning mixture; dust with flour.
Place in a roasting pan, seam side down.

#4 Roast pork for 20 minutes.
Reduce oven temp to 350 degrees and roast until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center reaches 138 degrees, about 25 minutes more.
Brush with glaze and roast for 5 more minutes.
Transfer pork to a platter and let rest for 10 minutes.
Brush with glaze again.
Untie pork; cut into 1-inch-thick slices.
Serve with extra glaze on side.

This dish appeals to a wide range of palettes, from the meat & potatoes crowd to our fastidious foodies. It also gave me some ideas for how to adapt summer fruits like peaches, mangoes & papayas to dishes involving chicken or fish. Will keep you posted on those results too.


A lovely summer meal: peach-stuffed pork loin, oregano roasted potatoes & fresh steamed asparagus.

For Oregano Roasted Potatoes recipe, click here.

First patio dinner of the season.

Thank you, my dear family, for being such a joy to cook for!

Peach Glaze & Drying Fresh Peaches

Drying Peaches for Peach-stuffed Pork Tenderloin


Today's Joy: Actively Producing.
Off again today, Reader. What a gorgeous June day! Blue sky, tons of sunshine and a good breeze is blowing, keeping it from being too hot while sending the scent of newly-opened lilies through the house. Aunt too, is home and has spent the afternoon scrubbing her lovely sun room top to bottom. While she is busy being industrious outdoors, I've been laundering linens and cleaning a bit. But mostly, I've been cooking.

Got the July issue of Martha Stewart Living yesterday and inside are the most delish looking peach recipes! Just looking at the Peach-stuffed Pork Tenderloin made my tummy grumble. Just so happens, we have some pork loin hanging out in the freezer, just waiting for a fabulous occasion. While the family is already booked this evening, I figured if I do all the meal prep today, I can simply pop it in the oven tomorrow. So, I invited the clan over on Thursday night for a gourmet dinner. In addition to the succulent pork, we'll be having fresh asparagus, oregano roasted potatoes and for dessert, grilled mango with vanilla ice cream. YUM!

For the pork, I need dried peaches. Of course, you can buy them at the store. But if you're feeling adventurous, you can also dry your own. MSL instructs us to slice pitted peaches into 1/8 inch thick slices and arrange them in a single layer on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. Bake at 150 degrees for 3 hours. Or, you can shave an hour off that by baking them at 200 degrees for 2 hours. That's what I did with mine and they came out perfect (see above). These also make tasty and healthy homemade snacks. Mix 'em up with granola and you're all set! Stay tuned tomorrow for specifics on making the sauce & stuffing the pork.

Peach Glaze Simmering

In addition to stuffing the pork, we need to glaze it while it's roasting. MSL suggests a labor-intensive peach jam recipe (see July, 2010 issue) but I have a simple glaze recipe in mind instead.

Peach Glaze:
3/4 cup sugar

1 peach, pitted & rough chopped

1/2 cup water

1/4 tsp coarse salt

pinch of ground ginger

pinch of black pepper

splash of lemon juice

Simmer all ingredients uncovered in a small sauce pan on low until peaches are soft and mixture is reduced to a syrup.

Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Refrigerate overnight.
Roast pork loin per recipe instructions.

Apply glaze during last 5 minutes of roasting.

Once pork loin is removed from oven and has rested 10 minutes, apply glaze again.

Love these cooking binges, Reader! It's so much fun to surprise everybody with delicious, homemade seasonal dishes. Can't wait to show you what I have in mind for other summer favorites later in the season...BBQ Grilled Sweet Corn, Cranberry Pistachio Chicken Salad and other deliciousness involving fresh blueberries and cherries...

Today's Joy: New Friends.
Was invited to a lovely dinner by a new co-worker. Great food, good conversation. Had a wonderful time! Reader, these days there are few things I love more than an evening spent cooking and gabbing.

Today's Joy: Discovering Something New to Share.

Last night led me to a family revelation, Reader.  I stopped by for dinner with Mom & Brother and the evening turned into an impromptu cooking-fest. 

While Mom and I bond over trips to the flea market, antique shops and local garden centers, it's harder to find a common activity to share with Brother.  He's a kind, wonderful soul with a big heart and a strong sense of fairness.  Unfortunately, our taste in hobbies is pretty different.  He's an online, video game, techno-speak sort of guy, while I'm into artsy stuff, cooking and old jazz.  For several years, I took up the line of fantasy books he read and presented him with a hardcover of each new addition at Christmas.  This gave us something to talk about and it was literary--a win-win for everybody!  Until the author killed off one of Brother's favorite characters and he lost interest in the series.  Dadgum it! 

So I've been on the hunt for something new to share.  Then, last night, Mom says the magic words: Your brother has taken up cooking.  Hallelujah!  So we bought all the stuff to make Cilantro Lime Chicken and got in the kitchen.  What a ball!  I got to spend some quality time with him and he got to experiment with all kinds of new flavor combinations: cilantro, cumin, ginger, adobo, tomatillos and fresh lime.  His favorite, though, was the Mexican fresco crumbling cheese.  I really like this cheese, he said.  I reminded him, as a single guy, that all women love a man who can cook.  He laughed. 

So, we have a new family activity to share.  It works for Mom, too.  She doesn't have to cook but still gets to enjoy all the food.  Another win-win.  What about you, Reader? What does your clan love to do?  If you haven't already, go spend some quality time.  Add some Mexican crumbling cheese.  It just might work magic.

Today's Joy: the Gourmet Cook-a-thon. Reader, one of the biggest perks of being back home in Chicago is being able to attend the monthly(ish) cooking sessions held by a group of family & friends. I've been waiting for that phone call with the magic words: dinner at Todd's. Tonight, it happened.

Todd Evanson, co-owner of Beef Villa (a delish chain of eateries in the northwest suburbs) and a good family friend, has a fabulously-appointed kitchen and usually hosts these over-the-top foodie nights. The gist is, we make dinner. But it's oh so much more than that. This group includes a restaurateur, a chef, a baker and several of us to eat the food and ooh & ahh. My job is to photograph the results.

What I enjoy most about it, is the fearless way these people I love try new dishes. They collaborate and read recipes to each other and put together a game plan. Then they dive in, sharing ideas & techniques, teaching as they go. It's like watching a culinary think-tank at work. When a dish works, they pull it off brilliantly and a delicious array of culinary creations parades across the table. On the rare occasion a dish isn't up to snuff, they sit down and taste it, inspect it and conduct a relaxed post-mortem round-table on how to improve the recipe. There is always laughter, stories to share and a signature cocktail.

I relish every moment of these decadent evenings and feel very blessed to be a part of this unique fellowship. May the love shared always be as good as the food!

Photos: Lemon & Herb Sauce Hand-Written Recipe; Part of the Table Spread.

Today's Joy: Cooking Together. Himself and I squeezed into our tiny kitchen to combine our culinary skills and whip up this fabulous fried chicken. Normally, we both work solo in the kitchen--preferring to wow with grand splashes of culinary sophistication--but lately, we've been splitting the labor and enjoying the easy conversation that flows over the frying pan. (He's also teaching me a thing or two about flavoring.)

I have to admit, I really enjoy watching him get into the throes of culinary passion. Love the way he concentrates when he tastes things. It's also fun to watch him pause before he pronounces a dish edible or not. He delivers judgment in the stern manner of a seasoned critic. And he's usually right.

Feel very blessed that we can share so many things we enjoy...

Today's joy: the renewing, centering of self. Am on a bus from Chicago, where I visited family: now headed for Texas across the frozen snowfields of Iowa. My thoughts are full of all the laughter, amazing cooking and togetherness we shared this week. These glorious cream puffs were the pinnacle of deliciousness as well as a great example of what we can accomplish by sharing recipes and skills, and by diving in to help one another create something richer than we thought possible. Having an overwhelming sense of peace & gratitude for this kind of tangible love--so present, you can breathe it in. Like an innoculation of joy for the soul...and the tummy!