Monday, January 23, 2012

Cooking a birthday dinner

James celebrated his brithday last week so we celebrated Saturday night with a homecooked meal, made by me. I enjoyed making it as much as he enjoyed eating it!

We started the evening with gouda cheese and goat brie cheese - two of my favorites! For dinner I made asparagus (I cooked the stalks perfectly - not too hard or soft), 
pork tenderloin with with balsamic plum reduction and blood orange olive oil cake, all of which were a success! I had never before made the pork tenderloin or the cake, so I was thrilled that they came out well. However, we ate the cake shortly after it came out of the oven and it 1. either needed a lot more time to cool (it tasted far better on Sunday) 2. the honey-blood orange compote to accompany it or 3. different oranges. I'm not sure if the oranges weren't ripe or if they were bad, but the cake was extremely bitter!

Now that I know how to make pork tenderloin, I might be hooked on the meat and this recipe. And, if you've never checked out Smitten Kitchen, check it out ASAP.
I think that I'll just have to make it again to be sure...