Day One

Well, last night I began my quest and I have to say I actually made a decent meal. In just one night I learned a whole lot about cooking, for example:

• If you left chicken in the freezer and didn't take it out hours before you planned on cooking it, you really can't use it (resulting in a little change of plans).
• You really should read the recipe the whole way through before you start cooking. I got this tip yesterday and somehow it slipped my mind-- resulting in total panic in a few moments (what? I should have chopped all of the ingredients before I started cooking??!)
• All ovens are different, and sometimes things don't cook in the exact amount of time that the recipe says. Initially this realization almost gave me a heart attack during my adventure, but flexibility is key!

Now for the main event! I turned to one of my favorite cookbooks for this one, a compilation of recipes that my bffs' mom made for them for college graduation. It has a ton of great ideas and lots of cooking wisdom, and two recipes that caught my eye yesterday.

After figuring out my chicken was a no-go, I decided to go for something I'd never cooked: Pork Tenderloin with Mustard Sauce. I had most of the ingredients and pork is pretty lean so it seemed like the perfect choice. 

Here's what you need for it:

• 2 pork tenderloins (1 1/2 pounds total), trimmed
• 2 T olive oil
• 5 T unsalted butter (yeah-- a whole lot!)
• 1 t minced shallot
• 1/4 cup dry white wine 
• 2/3 cup chicken broth
• 3 T dijon mustard
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 1 t finely chopped fresh basil leaves
• 1 t finely chopped parsley leaves

You're going to preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and rinse the pork and pat it dry. Then heat up 4 of the 5 tablespoons and the olive oil in a "heavy kettel" (I had to google this one-- it basically means a dutch oven) and when it's nice and hotsy totsy, add the pork, brown it, and cook it on there for about ten minutes. 

Browning my pork.

Then transfer it to a baking pan and toss it in the oven. The recipe says it will be cooked in 10-15, but it took a lot longer in my old gas oven.

While your pork is in the oven, you get cracking on the sauce. In the same "kettle" you add the remaining butter and the shallots. Then the wine, broth, and mustard. After it's reduced, add basil and cream, then parsley. It's so easy to write all that, but trust me-- it was stressful! Also, this was the most rewarding part of last night-- best sauce ever.

While this was happening I was cooking up some white rice, which I actually cooked just right! I'm notorious for undercooking rice, but this time was on point.

For my veggie selection, I went with Cherry Tomatoes in Basil Cream. Tomatoes, basil, heavy cream-- why not?!

It's super easy in theory but you have to be careful not to over-cook those little guys! You need:

• 2 cups of cherry tomatoes
• 2 Tablespoons of butter
• 4 tablespoons of heavy cream
• 3 tablespoons of chopped basil
• salt and fresh pepper to taste

You heat the butter in a pan, add the tomatoes and cook for 2 minutes-- make sure you stir so they dont stick. Then add the cream, turn up the heat, and stir some more! This is the point where the recipe says "Do not let the tomatoes burst"-- woops. That definitely happened to mine. Then you add the basil and "serve immediately". This part would be fine, but my timing was all wrong. That pork was taking forever!

And of course,  by the time I take the pork out, it's overcooked. And my tomatoes had burst. After inital heartbreak, I realized that even though my two main dishes were not quite perfect, I learned a ton and ended up with a pretty fantastic result:

And yes, I took that picture on top of the washer in my laundry room. The lighting is so much better in there. 

Have you guys had oven troubles? Any tips??

Can't wait to cook again tonight-- I'm thinking fish tacos!