In Which I Resolve To Have Ernie Choose Recipes More Often But Then I Kick Ass Too

The other day I went home early to do some work on my home computer as I had incapacitated my lovely work computer by trying to upgrade to Lion. (Thank you to my wonderful IT person Sarah for saving me the next day.  I love you Sarah....and you didn't even lecture me!)  Ernie had asked if I had an idea for dinner and I yelled "NO" so he went through cookbooks and found something.  You know....I really must make him pick out recipes more often.  It's so easy to get stuck in a rut and I find myself cooking a lot with smoked paprika, cumin and spices, etc.  They are all flavors I love but the meal we ended up making together that night (because I forced my way into the process) was SO wonderful and absolutely perfect for a cold evening.  The flavors just tasted so fresh to me.  Sometimes you just can't beat the Joy of Cooking....and classic combinations like rosemary, mustard and pork....

Pork Shoulder with Rosemary and Mustard
taken from the Joy of Cooking 1997

pork shoulder (about 7 lbs)
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 cup dry white wine (or whatever cheap box of white wine you have of course)

1 medium carrot
1 medium onion (I used two as mine were smallish)
2 chopped cloves of garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons dried rosemary (it would be lovely with fresh of course but my plants have given in to the cold)  I probably used more than it called for---more like 2 teaspoons

4 tablespoons (half a stick) of butter
1/4 cup flour
2-3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

Brown the heck out of the pork shoulder on all sides (in a bit of oil), then salt and pepper it well and put it in the crock pot.  Drain the rendered fat and leave just a bit in the pan.  Toss in the vegetables and cook until softened and slightly browned.  Add to the crock pot, followed by the chicken stock and the white wine.  Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours.

Remove the pork shoulder, which will be falling apart tender.  Set it on a platter and cover with foil.  Skim the fat off of the liquid remaining in the crockpot (I used a fat separator to get as much as possible).  Then melt half a stick of butter in a pan.  Once melted whisk in the flour.  Once is it smoothly mixed, pour in the skimmed liquid.  Add 2-3 (I used 3 and it was perfect) tablespoons of Dijon mustard, and whisk it in, bringing it to a boil, stirring as it thickens.  Serve over egg noodles with the sauce over everything!

O.k., it's not the most photogenic meal in the world.  As Ernie served  it (I always make him serve, I hate dishing the food out) he did note that it kind of looked like lunchroom cafeteria food....  The flavors were so lovely and fresh though---the tang of the mustard and the pininess of the rosemary with the tender pork and noodles.  It was ridiculously good.  It could use a nice sharp green salad with it and since you prepare the pork ahead of time, your house smells great (well, Leo said it smelled disgusting but you know...that's Leo) and it's just a lovely comforting cold weather dinner.

Thanks Ernie!

We used these kinds of noodles which were perfect....

Last night I got home feeling kinda tired for no good reason.  I'm a little stuffed up and scratchy throated but trying to will my way out of a cold.  I kicked Owen off the tv at 5:30 as I wanted to watch the news like a grown up.  I found once I sat down that I couldn't seem to get up again.  Just one of those nights.  After the news Ernie and I indulged in one my newest guilty pleasures:  watching that day's DVR'd episode of The Chew.  Finally I forced myself to get up and think about dinner.  Once we'd realized that the evening was slowing down we'd fed the boys early so it was just for us.  I had Ernie go get a big bunch of lacinato kale from the garden and I cut that into thin strips and blanched it for two minutes or so and dumped it into some ice water and went to watch The New Girl (Owen calls this 'Daddy's show').  Owen chose to watch it with us even though I warned him the topic that night was sex.  I got a few questions but nothing too painful.  Then Ernie took Owen upstairs to get him into bed, I sent Leo up and headed into the kitchen to finish things up.

I had found some left over black olives in the refrigerator so I was thinking pasta....decided to make some kind of pesto.  I threw a chunk of parmesan in the food processor, added a bunch of pecans, a couple of cloves of garlic and the olives.  I ground it all together and then threw in the blanched kale and some nice olive oil.  Grind, grind, grind and then out onto some penne.  W00-hooooo Cynthia!

and yes...that is a lousy picture of it just dumped into a plastic bowl...but honestly...by this point it was almost 9:30 as I'd had to go up and gives kisses etc. and I was damned hungry.  A touch of salt (should have put some in earlier but I was hoping the olives and parmesan would provide enough) and a shaving of parmesan on top (thank you Ernie for having the energy to get up and retrieve the parmesan and salt) and it was heaven.

Two nights in a row.  Yay for us!