Labor Day Food

So, since I’m going to a culinary school, I may as well talk about food.

This weekend was quite impressive by my standards.

On Friday we had a family dinner so that everyone could check out the new kitchen and all of that jazz. I was, of course, in charge of the meal. I had to idea what to do until my sister suggested some kind of roasted chicken. Since this would be my first time trying this, I decided on the classic roast chicken and vegetables.

For this, I got two whole chickens along with red skin potatoes, carrot, onion(yellow), and brussels. A pretty solid combination if you ask me.  I seasoned the chicken with salt, pepper, lemons and rosemary. Given that it was my first try, I ran into a few problems. The chickens ended up taking a little longer than expected to cook. After awhile I bumped up the temperature to get it done. After two more temperature checks it was done, about 30 minutes later than I had wanted. Oh well.

Here are the results: It was nearly perfect, like seriously restaurant quality. There was only two things I could have done better: Added thyme and more oil for the vegetables. It was fucking awesome.

Next was Monday’s dinner. My father asked if I would grill something for Labor Day, so I gave it a few minutes thought and decided that a pork tender loin was a must. I served a smoked pork tender loin along with red skin mashed potatoes, green beans, and a form of apple chutney.

The pork was rubbed with brown sugar, salt, pepper, and rosemary. Inside the grill I used apple juice and a couple of sticks of cinnamon to keep everything moist. The pork smoked for a couple of hours with apple, alder, and hickory wood chips. Everything else was pretty standard, the potatoes were nothing fancy, just delicious, as were the green beans. The apples were sautéed with onions, pepper, and some nutmeg. If you don’t already know, pork with apples is one of the best combinations possible.

This dish was probably one of the best things I’ve ever done with pork, if not ever. It was more restaurant quality than Friday’s dinner. The pork was so tender you probably could have cut with a chopstick. To sum it up, “that shit was on point”.

These pictures don’t do any justice. I’m incredibly pleased with my performance this weekend. This pretty much set in stone why I’m going to a culinary school. It definitely was very reassuring for me.

At any rate, I think I’m going to talk more about food than some of the mindless bullshit I need to blog about. I figure it’s more productive this way.

Feel free to leave me some feedback on anything you would have done differently. Or any suggestions on what to cook next.