It’s been a long time. I shouldn’t have left you without a dope beat to step to…

Well, I have been in some kind of non-blog mode; a funk, a fog. It is sort of like a cross between writer’s block and jock itch. I don’t know how or why this happens, but every so often, I step back from blogging and wish I was blogging. Maybe that’s the Gemini in me or maybe I should stop rationalizing/philosophizing and realize I just haven’t felt like it.

I can tell you a one thing that has been going on. That is I LOVE MY MAC!!!!!!! Sorry….. I can be loud sometimes. That’s right. I am a convert. I had, what I thought to be the Bentley of laptop computers for a little over three years; you know just long enough to have no more warranty. This was an HP, 17 inch monitor, 2 gig RAM, even a separate numeric keyboard which is unheard of on a laptop. I was liking this thing for the first year, very much.

Then the hard drive crashed. No biggie. After ironing out some small warranty details, we got that figured out. But still, a year for a drive. That had me worried. As it should have. Not more than 8 months later, the entire mother board had to be replaced. Then the thing would overheat and simply shut down while I would be downloading some really good pr0n.

Food pr0n, if you must know. In any case, one day I was doing something that, I felt, was more important than that the need for the laptop to freeze, thus killing any and all of accomplished tasks. So I did what any normal frustrated computer user would do. I beat the livin’ shit out of it!

Yup. Sure did. I literally threw jabs, crosses, and upper-cuts to the monitor with the occasional ‘bow to the keyboard. This felt extremely liberating….

…at the time.

It was destroyed. The LCD was covered in a black mass reminiscent of Lake Pontchartrain. It still boot up and ran as if to taunt me, to give me the proverbial bird only in digit-al. Well I put all that to rest with a brand new MacBook Pro. I absolutely love this machine. I didn’t go for the 17 inch, got the 15 instead and it is still one of the best machines I have ever worked on. I still have 2 high powered Windoze machines in the house, but now my wife has converted as well and she got an iMac. Converts we are!

I am also a long-time-coming convert to pink pork as well. For so long I have eaten and cooked pork to the n-th degree of doneness only to end up with a petrified slab of hot shoe leather. No. Now we do not sweat the small stuff. Today’s swine are raised in much better conditions than than those like the ones who belonged to the laundry man in the T.V. show Deadwood. That would be filthy bad. Now we can cook out pork to 140 degrees-f and be happy.

This dish was one of those that just jumped off the pages of F&W and pleaded with me to make it. I had not issues with obliging. The spices were the main thing for me here. Fennel and mustard seeds with mustard and red pepper flakes? Oh yes. If I remember correctly, I added the red pepper, because.

I have had pork tenderloin seventeen ways from yesterday and this seemed somehow to be different. And, compared to what we have had before, this was a winner.

The mood also called for Creole stewed okra. I’m pretty sure it was the okra that we wanted and I found the pork to accompany it.

No real recipe for the stewed okra; just some okra, onion, bell pepper, tomato, garlic, and a bit of tomato paste. When I get the recipe down, I will be sure and post it.

Oh yeah, it has bacon for garnish.

Follow up:

Spiced Pork Tenderloin with Honey Mustard

Adapted from Food and Wine magazine: March 2009
Recipe by Melissa Rubel

INGREDIENTS:

- 3 tablespoons mustard seeds
- 1 tablespoon fennel seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 2 pork tenderloins, 14 ounces each
- salt, to taste
- pepper, to taste
- 1/2 cup grainy Dijon mustard
- 1/2 cup Dijon mustard
- 1/4 cup Honey

METHOD:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees-f. In a mortar, lightly crush the mustard and fennel seeds with the crushed red pepper. Set the pork tenderloins on a rimmed baking sheet and season them with salt and pepper. Spread the crushed spices on the baking sheet and roll the pork tenderloins in the crushed spices to coat them.

2. Roast the pork tenderloins for about 20 minutes, until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of each tenderloin registers 145 degrees-f. Transfer the pork tenderloins to a cutting board and let them rest for 10 minutes.

3. In a small bowl, mix the mustards with the honey and season with salt and pepper. Slice the pork 1/2 inch thick and serve with the honey mustard.