pork chop

A small break from the New Zealand posts (and still many more to come, I assure you) to mention dinner. You see, I'm all alone tonight. Conrad is in Honolulu. I have Tyra, Simon, and a night of reality television to keep me company. Bless all those Americans out there desperate to make fools of themselves on national television.

I got home a little late from work tonight, not badly so, but too late for the start of swimming. Lazy me, I decided against showing up after practice had started and began work on dinner instead.

Two thick cut pork chops. Tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper, and thyme.

A tomato, a bit of fresh fennel, some little black olives (nicoise?), a bit of white onion. Diced, tossed with olive oil, coarse salt seasoned with fennel, and coarse black pepper.

I placed the pork chops in a hot pan. Seared them on each side, then the pan went into the oven to roast.

Once roasted, the pork chops went onto a plate to rest and keep warm in the oven. I put the pan on a hot burner, brought the drippings to a boil, then added in sherry and then chicken broth. I reduced this, then swirled in a chunk of unsalted butter.

For plating, the pork chop went down, the fennel-olive-tomato on the side. I laid a few asparagus spears, then drizzled the sauce over it.

Wine? A cheap and cheerful (I love that expression) Chianti. Dessert? A bit too much of the cookie dough that turned into the batch of chocolate chip and walnut cookies that are still cooling on racks nearby.