It’s been a while since I mentioned the package that was sent to me by CurrySimple. To be honest, I was on such a curry kick for a while that I burned myself out on the concept of trying any of the three remaining pouches in the box.

When we moved in to the new house, the package went missing for a bit. I ran across it the other day in the “pile of things we haven’t unpacked yet” in my bedroom closet and immediately knew I had to give it another shot. The problem was, I still had three choices and I couldn’t figure out which one I wanted to try first. It took me two days to decide on their Gourmet Yellow Curry Sauce and I’m glad that I did.

This dish is decidedly simple and relies on some pretty simple ingredients and can be whipped up by anyone. It came to be simply because these are the things that I had in my fridge, freezer and pantry. The whole affair took about 30 minutes, including cooking the rice and was happily gobbled down by the adults in the house in near record time.

The cauliflower went incredibly well with the curry, as did the pork. The red, green and yellow bell peppers added just the right combination of sweet, tart and in-betweens to make this a tongue-tingling experience, but to be honest, this curry is only the tiniest bit spicy, and in my mind could have used just a hair more of a bite, even the next day.

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My wife and I have very different methodologies when it comes to cooking. I go out of my way to keep my ingredients simple, to let the flavor of the food shine as much as possible, with only minor ingredients that highlight the flavors of the key components of a dish. My wife goes recipe searching until she finds something that challenges her baker’s sensibilities, usually with a fairly extensive ingredient list and some fairly complicated steps thrown in the mix for fun. She says she does this because I do such a good job of making simple dishes. I think it’s just because her primary cooking influences are Puerto Rican, a culinary style that’s ingredient and method heavy.

I’m not complaining, my wife is an exceptional cook. I almost always have a problem tearing myself away from her dishes, and this one is no exception. As a matter of fact, I believe this is the best thing she’s ever graced my palate with and is a recipe I’ll be begging her to make often in the future.

This pork loin is oven roasted in a spicy-sweet glaze of herbs, cloves and brown sugar that to me embodies the flavors and aromas of late fall and winter. The house filled with a wonderful and heady perfume long before the dish was done, but I’ll go to my grave insisting that it was well worth the torturous wait to get to the finished product. It really doesn’t come any better than this.

Note: My wife adapted this from a recipe on the Food Network Website that was courtesy Le Central French Restaurant. The original recipe was for Pork Loin with Mushroom Fricassee, and called for a few additional steps, though I doubt these would have made an earth-shattering difference in the dish. The fricassee called for several varieties of mushrooms we didn’t have, and was skipped for this meal.

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Let it never be said that I am the only preparer of sustenance in this home, or that my wife does not make a mean dinner. I was given the day off from everything yesterday, and though that always comes with a little guilt on my part, there was no guilt in eating this sinfully delicious bit of porcine savoriness.

There are degrees of greatness in any pork dish, and this particular entrée deserves the medal of honor in tastiness and tenderness. If you’ve got a bit of time to indulge your craving for ¨the other white meat¨, you could do much, much worse than giving this a go, I’m sure it will be the star of the table, no matter what the occasion.

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For this issue of YPOM we delve into the deep dark world of leftovers! One of the things tat struck me about dew’s pantry list was that she had “Several cooked, half consumed pork roasts” lying around in her freezer that she usually uses for sandwiches.

While pork sammiches are definitely on the good side of wonderful (especially if they’re pulled), I thought perhaps I’d dive in and see if we couldn’t pull a double-duty dinner out of what would otherwise be a porcine sacrifice to whole grain bread and a few lucky condiments.

I’m not sure what variety of pork roast lives in dew’s freezer, but for this exercise I used a pork blade roast that weighed in at just a bit over 6 pounds. (It was the smallest they had at the market that day.) Said piece of meat was roasted with nothing but salt and pepper, served up gleefully for one meal, then retired to the fridge for three days before this experiment began.

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It is with great pride that I present you with Your Pantry or Mine No.1, Part one of 3 highlighting the contents of the Computer Diva’s pantry. I know several of you have been looking forward to this entry, so I’ll dive right in.

When I got Jess’s pantry list for Your Pantry or Mine No.1, a few things jumped off the page at both my wife and I right away. Part of the original plan was to create at least one full meal and what could be more homey than pork chops and green beans. It’s a staple in our neck of the woods, usually made battered and fried. I know that a lot of people are against anything deep fried, so my wife and I whipped up this version, which is considerably lighter.

I’ve made a few slight modifications from the original list, but both the main course and the side can easily be made with the ingredients as listed, and in the case that adjustments need to be made, I’ll detail them.

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Mmmmm, Barbecued Pulled Pork Sammiches. Just typing the words gets me all teary-eyed and makes my heart palpitate a little. And to think, it all came about because of a terrible kitchen mishap!

Sometimes even the most horrific kitchen disasters can be recovered from. At least I like to tell myself that they can, and in this case at least, it worked.

The other night I decided to try using our tabletop oven to cook up a pork blade roast. The idea was that the little oven would use less power, since the roast nearly filled it to capacity and I wouldn’t have to heat a large volume of air. It’s also a convection unit, and should have cooked the roast in less time than our regular ol’ apartment oven.

Yeah, whatever! After three hours (a full hour longer than it would have taken in our regular oven), the roast still wasn’t done. In fact, it wasn’t even close. Apparently the oven manufacturer and I differ on the meaning of 350°.

I set the timer for another hour and laid on the couch to watch some TV…

And fell fast asleep.

My wife tried to wake me up, but to be quite honest, I’d had a few beers while I waited for the bloody roast to finish, and the combination of a pretty stressful day with Mr. Seat of his Diaper and a few Shiner Bock’s on an empty stomach, I was history.

I was apparently just awake enough to tell her to leave the roast right where it was. Being the wonderful person she is, she listened to me and didn’t disturb the still undercooked roast…

And I found it right there in the oven when I got up at 5:00 AM.

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My local market sells Montreal seasoned pork, chicken, veal and beef for next to nothing, and I buy it up whenever I can.

“Oh no! Pre-seasoned food, how could you Jerry!”

Simple, because it’s incredible. But that’s not why were here. We’re here so that I can share their secret with you, and you can make this yourself.

I’ve never seen Montreal seasoned anything for sale at a market other than my local Market Street. Being a military spouse pretty much guarantees that we’re not going to be here forever, and if I’m going to keep enjoying these absolutely wonderful chops, I’d have to learn to make them myself.

And I did.

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Breakfast sandwiches are nothing new, but if you want to start your day off with a bit of a kick, I think I may just have something for you, and there’s not an egg in sight!

This quick and simple sammich can be adapted to suit a variety of tastes, and I find that two is just enough to get me up and running until lunch, though they could definitely be made for a snack at any time of day.

A breakfast sandwich without eggs? Yup. Because Mrs. seat of her Pants isn’t the biggest egg fan in the world, I’ve been trying out breakfast recipes that go sans-egg on myself while she’s at work. I’m not sure this is something she’d want just before teaching, but I know it got me going!

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Succulent pork loin with a light tang and just a zing of curry. This is sure to be a hit with your family and friends. To top it off, they’re baked, so they might even be pretty healthy!

This is something I’ve been meaning to try for a while, and the mood struck yesterday. Generally I’ll glaze pork in honey and mustard, but I’ve been trying to get away from the standard, and apricots just seemed like a good way to go. Read more…

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Sometimes the best meals you’ll ever have are those that warm your heart as well as your stomach. Long, slow cooked meals as infused with love as they are with ingredients. The kind of meal that you make with family all standing around the kitchen adding their own touches. These are the meals that create memories you will savor far longer than the food itself.

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