Fruit and Macadamia Pork with Port Sauce

I've just had a few days visiting my parents.  I really enjoy cooking (as you may have gathered), and especially at this time of year, enjoy being able to do this small thing for my parents.  It was really outrageously summery on Monday and the thought of standing up, let alone cooking, was a bit much.  Chicken and mango salad was the result.  Yummy, but I'm not going to post the recipe here.  Tuesday evening, I made Fruit & Macadamia Pork with Port Sauce, from the first of the Simply Heaven books from Philadelphia Cream Cheese.  I also have this book, but this was the first recipe I've made from it.  I halved the recipe (yes, for everything!) and had to make some substitutions, but was mostly faithful...  I'll put in the full recipe here (not the halved version).

Ingredients:
125g Philadelphia block cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup dried fruit medley (I combined some dried apricots and cranberries)
1/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts
salt & pepper, to taste
4 pork fillets (approx 250g each) - not available, so I used pork loin instead
50g baby spinach leaves (very approximate...)
2 tablespoons oil

1 cup port (thanks Dad for the really nice port!!)
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 teaspoons cornflour, blended with 1 tablespoon water

1 bunch watercress, trimmed, to serve
Steamed baby squash, to serve (or steamed carrot and cabbage, if neither of these is available)

Method:
(Not mentioned here, but preheat oven to 180C)
Combine cream cheese, fruit, nuts, and seasonings. 

 Make a cut lengthways down the centre of each pork fillet, 3/4 of the way through the fillet.  Place spinach leaves down the centre of each open fillet then spoon the cream cheese mixture over spinach.  Fold the fillet over to enclose the filling and secure with toothpicks.

Heat the oil in a large frypan and brown pork fillets on all sides.  Transfer to a baking dish and bake in moderate oven for 20 minutes or until cooked through.
Remove fillets from baking dish, wrap in foil and rest for 10 minutes.  Combine pork juices, port and stock in baking dish (I used the frying pan) and bring to the boil, stirring to loosen all pan juices.  Add blended cornflour and cook for 3-4 minutes or until slightly thickened.  Slice pork and place on serving plates, drizzle with sauce and serve with the vegetables of choice.

Try to resist caving in to puppy-dog eyes throughout the cooking process.

Of course, the nicer the port, the nicer the sauce...

Dog-Sitting

Warning: lots of cute photos in this one...

I have a confession to make (it's been a while): I grew up totally terrified of dogs.  It was only in the last few years, when my parents got a dog, that I learned how to be not terrified.  (I also read a couple of books, narrated by dogs - sounds weird I know - that helped me understand a bit more).  If I'd received the text I received late on Thursday evening 5 years ago, I would have said no.  But I didn't even give it a second thought.  The text ran along the lines of, I'm going away for a few days, the person who said they would look after the dogs has just bailed, would you help me out?  As I'm on holidays and no longer terrified of dogs, I said yes.  Except for one day, and someone else could manage that day.

Some things I learned:
Even an anxious dog, who doesn't recognise you, will recognise a dog lead.  A bit snarly and yappy turns instantly to tail-wagging.

You can't get a lead on without a collar.  (One dog could only get a whole lot of Ball Time and Out-in-the-yard Time because he'd removed his collar and hidden it well). 

I think this was my first time actually putting on a lead and walking a dog.  Thankfully, this is a really small dog.

Dogs attract.  Every walk we had, at least one person would approach - "Oh what a sweet puppy" "I have one just like him" etc.  The second day, a couple of girls (about 8 and 10) hovered a bit, so I asked if they wanted to say hello... They smothered him in kisses and told me all about their lives and their pets and then gave me a flower.

You can train a dog really quickly.  Feeding time the first day, I did what I have to do with my parents' dog: Dog is told to sit and stay; dog must stay until given the okay.  First dog took about 5 'stay's before showing that maybe he realised he shouldn't try to lick the plate while it was still in my hand.  Second day, I told him to sit, and he sat; I told him to stay, and he stayed; and when I said okay, he had his dinner. 

A well-trained dog will let you know if you're doing something wrong.

Even little dogs can run and make the person on the other end of the lead run too. 

The other part of this experience was feeding the chickens.  Once I'd found the jug for the feed (I had absolutely no idea how much grain to feed 5 chickens so was rather thankful for this guide) this was a piece of cake. 

I didn't take my camera the first day, and really regretted it - the light was still good the second day, but not quite as amazing.

Daily Photos Catch Up

Since promising to take a photo a day, I have been very slack in posting a photo a day.  I've still been taking them, I just forget to upload...  So here are the last 8.  Yikes!

Monday, June 18.  This agave plant is one of many on a nearby street.  I have thought about photographing them on several occasions, so I'm glad I had an excuse.

Tuesday, June 19.  A street near the school at which I teach.  Seeing this tree change over the year is a great joy.

Wednesday, June 20.  These fluff-balls are right by the footpath at home.

Thursday, June 21.  Fete de la Musique, and I was the contact for St John's cathedral.  Most people don't see the wonderful light show that happens in the cathedral - between about 11 and 3 the stained glass produces these wonders.  I hadn't seen this kaleidoscope effect before.

Friday, June 22.  Sunlight in the courtyard catching this new aloe vera flower.

Saturday, June 23.  This is a great guard dog.  Seriously.  When I returned from my run on Saturday, Gracie was mostly inside but with her head outside, keeping tabs on the goings-on outside.

Sunday, June 24.  I had less than an hour at home during the day, in which I ate lunch.  After calling Gracie back from barking at a passing neighbourhood dog - and she came, too - I gave her a little treat.  She stayed for more.  I caved.

Monday, June 25.  After running a practice half marathon on Monday, the weather was quite cool and overcast.  Perfect practice weather.  Standing under the light, the light and shadow visible through the f-holes was striking.

Tuesday, June 26.  A sneak peek of tomorrow's post...  Growing up, my favourite food was green apples.  Apples, generally, but I remember a few bad experiences with red apples so I preferred green for a long time.  Whenever my mum was cooking with apples, I'd hang around for the peel.  An all-in-one peel was a bonus.  When visiting my grandparents, my grandfather (who was born in Scotland) told me that, if you peeled an apple or orange with an unbroken peel, you should throw it with your right hand over your left shoulder (preferably with your back to the fireplace), and the letter it most closely resembled would be the initial of the person you would marry.  (Not surprisingly, 'S' was a common result).  Similarly, twist an apple stalk going through the alphabet and the initial on which it breaks off is the initial of your future spouse.  This is a habit I still have.  Anyway, tonight I managed two unbroken apple peels.

The Muesli Fixings

For at least a year now, I've made my own muesli.  Oats, psyllium husks, goji berries, and nuts.  It's the nut mix that makes each batch different, but today I went really different.  Not just a roast nut mix (depending on if I go to Woolworths or Coles this might be just nuts or it might have dried cranberries or sultanas as well), but I added roast nibble mix as well.  The thing with the mixed nuts is the size of nut - for something like muesli I prefer them all smallish, almonds being at the larger end of the spectrum.  However, this mix has brazil nuts and walnuts as well which are a little bigger.  Anyway, the seedy addition not only has seeds (which I sometimes add myself) but extra roast almonds as well.  I love roast almonds.

So, my muesli recipe - today is the first time I came close to measuring the quantities so I hope you all feel special now - all amounts are approximate though:

3 cups rolled oats (the organic variety are nice and soft)
1/3 cup each psyllium husks and goji berries
1/3 roasted nibble mix
2/3 cup roasted mixed nuts

Stir lots. 

My breakfast (if I'm having muesli) is 1/3 cup muesli, 1/2 cup natural/Greek yoghurt, a tablespoon protein powder, and a generous sprinkling of cardamom and cinnamon, or cinnamon and nutmeg.  And coffee of course, or Vitality Tea if it's a school morning.

And, just because my parents are staying... A doggie photo.  I wouldn't say she is more enthusiastic about being photographed this time - more, I was baking this morning.  Unless something else really exciting was happening, she was sitting either on my left and staring longingly up at me, or right in front of the oven and staring longingly at the oven or at me.  I couldn't get a photo with the tail-wag though.  Every time she rejoined me from another activity, she did a little skid on the cork tiles. 

Outfit #35 - Earthy

Outfit details:
Pants: Hot Options.  Top: Ambra bamboo.  Shoes: Pulp.  Earrings: ?  Dog: Gracie.

On Tuesday I wore pants that were a size larger than what I wanted (when I bought them).  Last week, I bought these pants - back to my normal size and they were even a bit big.  Big smiles here :)

I couldn't get Gracie to go anywhere to be either in a photo or not.  I promise, she does have a head.  She has really been into face-licking recently.  One poor student was trying to unpack but her ears kept getting licked.  Not as much focus has been evident in lessons this week...

Today I achieved a first: only one earring photo required, and only one shoe photo.  Maybe I'm learning.  These earrings are not the greatest for playing - they're just a bit long.  They're also really heavy.  They used to be my cleaning earrings - as you may know, cleaning is not my thing, and sometimes I just need a bit of extra encouragement (like cool earrings) to make me do it.