Dinner with mum.

Normally mom comes over to our house once a week for dinner and to watch 'The Biggest Loser'. Due to some scheduling issues on both sides this hasn't happened in almost a month!! So it was a real pleasure to have her come over last night and resume the usual festivities:

The menu was simple: Rosemary Porkchops, sauteed pears, mashed potatoes, and a nice desert of pudding and strawberries.

 

This was kind of a no-brainer since we recently were given 3 pork loin sections from a friend for free (my favorite price!).

 

So I took one of the sections and cut out 8 thin (1/2 inch) boneless chops from it.

From there I just spiced them with what I had on hand: lots of fresh rosemary, black pepper, salt, garlic and onion powders, and some bread crumbs.

 

After getting to room temperature they went into the heat:

 

 

A few minutes on each side and they are done. Add some pears cooked over low heat with butter (for that rich texture). Prepare mashed potatoes however you normally do so (apparently I like under-cooked potatoes, because I always end up pulling them out of the water too soon, causing lumpy potatoes. Yeah I actually do like them that way).  Battabing: Dinner is ready!

 

Desert was something new for me. Normally I leave the sweet side of things to DaNece (because she is so sweet, get it?) But this time i ventured into the land of sugar, and made my very own strawberry syrup to go over some vanilla pudding.

How you wonder? Really easily actually!:

 

First you have to cut up your strawberries into smallish pieces:

 

Then toss them with some sugar.  Now, a basic simple syrup calls for 2 parts sugar for 1 part water, which is what I used (1 1/2cups of sugar, 3/4 cup water, and about 8 large strawberries). If you are pairing your syrup with anything else sweet through, use slightly less sugar, as it can be a bit overwhelming. My syrup would be well suited to pound cake or waffles:

 

Add your water, stir it around a bit and set on the stove on medium high (stirring occasionally):

 

Cook until reduced to a consistency that you like. You may have to turn it down if it starts to look like it will boil over. I had this going on the stove on a back burner while everything else was working so it was pretty easy to monitor.

 

Combine it with some already made vanilla pudding (if you need help making pudding from a box, I'm afraid that I can't help you), and top with some freshly sliced strawberries. And there you have it, a dessert that turned out a bit too sweet for the pudding, but still very tasty: