July Date Night In: Preparations

We are forced to have this DNI early in the month since we’ll be out of town the latter half of July. Oh darn. Roy has been home this week so we’ve already collaborated on a number of preparatory steps. Here’s what’s been completed thus far:

·         Marinated pork shoulder (Pork is pretty cheap! I’m not usually a huge fan, but I have a feeling this long, slow braise is going to retain all of the juice and tenderness and convert me.)

·         Braised pork shoulder (in process even as I type)

·         Pickled red onions (Roy did this. The man is getting obsessed with pickling.)

·         Made tomatillo salsa (Have you ever used tomatillos? I hadn’t until the other day. You get to peel the husk off and rinse the slightly sticky residue off. They smelled good and the sample of salsa tasted mild, yet flavorful.)

·         Made chocolate sorbet base (I’m not even going to miss the cream with all that chocolate. And glad we purchased the ice cream attachment last month! Getting another DNI use out of it.)

·         Made red wine-poached cherries (My first adventure with lemon peel. To use the entire peel or not? To just use the yellow part seems zesty to me, but lots of contradictory opinions on whether to throw the white part in as well.)

Owen has been sick-ish/teething this week and it’s been a challenge to find time to get things accomplished without holding him or hearing him scream. So far he seems to be doing a little better this morning, although it came at the expense of little sleep for Mom last night. Time for a cup of coffee. 4 hours until nap time…for all of us. We'll eat tonight with a full review soon! :)