July Date Night In: "It Gets Him"

Menu:

·         Pineapple Rosarita

·         Avocado Salad with Fresh Herbs and Pepitas

·         Braised Pork Chilaquiles with Roasted Tomatillo Salsa and Pickled Red Onions

·         Mexican Chocolate Sorbet with Red Wine-Poached Cherries

First off, whenever you see the word “with” in a listed menu item, that means at least two recipes. In the case of the chilaquiles, it means four. So this DNI took a considerable amount of advanced preparation. Owen has been running a high fever all week, so we crossed our fingers that he would stay asleep and allow us to enjoy a grown-up meal. (He did.)

While Roy spent some much needed one-on-one time with James, I assembled the avocado salad. We’ve grown accustomed to Ashley’s palate by now, so I wasn’t as surprised by the combination of herbs and toasted seeds. It was a good salad, and it was a pretty salad, but it didn’t steal any thunder from the main course.

 

Nice presentation, eh? ;)

Roy smashed together a couple of pineapple rosaritas after James finally went to bed. He muddled the pineapple with a muddler. I encouraged him to muddle a lot, largely because I just like the word muddle. “Muddle harder Roy! I want mine super-muddled! Is your muddler muddling well enough?” He must find me obnoxious. So much for a grown-up evening.

We were both surprised that this cocktail wasn’t sweeter. (He muddled half a pineapple between our two drinks, after all!) It was good, but it didn’t blow me away like some of the other drinks in this book. I wouldn’t have to have it again. The fresh rosemary was a smart addition, adding a nice complexity to an otherwise straightforward drink.

 

What a muddledly muddled delight.

I added up all the ingredients for the entrée. Among the pork marinade, roasting, salsa, pickled onions, and condiments, it totaled close to 40 ingredients! And MAN was it good. We ate a couple of bites and immediately exclaimed, “Oliver and Kylie would be FREAKING OUT right now.” The pork was out of this world and combined with melted cheese and smashed tortilla chips with fresh green salsa and caramelized onions…all in a hot skillet. Dang. The recipe says it serves four…we kind of didn’t believe you could eat an entire quarter-skillet in one sitting. I wouldn’t recommend it if you plan on sleeping that night. But it was entirely addicting and our solemn vows to not eat the leftovers the next day…well…

 

This would have been good enough just like this...

...but look at all the condiment fun! Cilantro, sour cream, pickled jalapenos, pickled red onions, cojita cheese, and lime wedges. 

Dessert was chocolate sorbet, which was made Mexican with the addition of spices. My opinion was -that it tasted like my pumpkin chocolate chip muffins in sorbet form, minus the pumpkin (which you really can’t taste in the muffin anyway). The cherries added a nice sweet fruity punch to accompany the bittersweet chocolate. It was yum. Ashley claimed it was just as good as ice cream, but…I’ll still take ice cream over sorbet. J

 

Tasted pretty refreshing on a 90 degree day.

I think this was probably one of our favorite date night in menus. We have enough of a handle on some of the new flavors and ingredients in this cookbook that we are getting better at anticipating the flavor of the final product. We were excited about this menu before we started and it still blew us away. Thailand last month, Mexico this. What a thrilling world tour!

Marriage isn’t about working to change the other person; it’s about knowing them fully and loving them because of and in spite of your differences. Through that we are changed. –Ashley Rodriguez, DNI, p. 119.

To the newly married couples in my world, she’s spot on.

Today’s 1%: I reclaimed my beloved tongs after a 6 week separation after being left behind at a Memorial Day picnic. The temporary owner sheepishly returned them, admitting s/he only used them “a couple of times, because they are so much nicer than the three pairs they already own.” I get it. I missed the tongs too. They are awesome tongs.

ALSO. Olympic trials this weekend. Predicted team: Biles, Douglas, Raisman, Hernandez, Kocian (I would take Locklear over Kocian, but that’s just me).