Some of my earliest memories are centered around meat and potatoes. Every Sunday my family would pile into the car and head over to my grandmother’s house for dinner. Without fail she’d always serve a roast alongside a mountain of mashed potatoes. My sister was a roast beef kind of girl, but I was in it for the roast pork. I loved that roast pork not because it was brined or smoked to rosy pink perfection. My grandmother wasn’t that kind of cook. She grew up on a farm, fussing was not in her DNA. No, what I loved about her roast pork was the applesauce that accompanied it. It was one of the first times fruit and meat crossed paths on my dinner plate and it was certainly not the last. Today’s Apricot Stuffed Pork Chops are just another by-product of a food obsession hatched in my formative years.
It’s cooled down some since we last spoke. Emphasis on “some” because it’s still summer weather incubated in a vast sea of pavement. So, the best cool we can do is 27°C, which is great. I am not complaining about the weather – for once. But even with the slight cool down, I’m still eating like we’re living that heat wave life. We’re talking quick-cook proteins and fresh greens 24/7 over here! And today’s Chilled Soba Salad with Sake Poached Shrimp is just further evidence of that fact.
