Let's eat: burnt pizza (nay!), and pork with apricot sauce (yay!)

Some things went better than others over the weekend. In the food department, we tried a new pizza dough that the boys looked like they enjoyed choosing their own toppings more than eating the pizza itself when it was done, and that was because the cheese got quite burnt, and so did the crust!







The winter melon soup that we had along with the pizza, (albeit an odd combination, I know), saved the meal. Either the soup must have been really yummy, or the pizza really bad, Jon said if there were awards for soups, he would gladly give one to me! Hahaha! And we did make a note to stick to refrigerated dough for the pizza.

We also had pork with apricot sauce, from a recipe in a magazine. It was my first time making it, and it turned out tasting a bit like plum sauce, and more sweet than sour with a hint of the mustard that had gone into making the sauce. Quite refreshing!


The recipe had specified pork chops, but it worked nicely too for our centre cut pork steaks (the pork on sale at the supermarket, and like every other person here, I buy whatever meat is on sale for the week, too, because the sale and non-sale prices can be so alarmingly different).

Vern, Jon and I will love to eat the apricot pork again, but Ben, maybe only, because he has something against all jams (I don't know why), and decided even before trying it that "I hate mustard.".

The recipe goes like this, and I like it that the preparation is straightforward and follows a logical sequence. Maybe you would like to give it a try, too?

Recipe for Pork with Apricot Sauce
Adapted from: "All You" magazine

• Season the pork with salt and pepper. Quantity for ingredients below is based on 4 pieces of pork chops (we used centre cut pork steaks).
• Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a skillet and brown the pork, about 3 min per side (I used a deep saucepan instead, just so the oil wouldn't splatter on me, if not, I recommend wearing oven gloves).
• Transfer the pork to a pan, to bake at 375 deg for 7 t0 10 min (I left ours in there for longer, because it's not a good idea to have medium-rare pork).
• Meanwhile, prepare the sauce, by bringing 1/2 cup of chicken stock to boil till half the amount, then add 1/2 cup apricot jam and stir till syrupy, and finally, 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard (I used honeyed mustard which was the only mustard we had), just before adding the pork to the sauce along with the drippings from the pan.
• Under medium heat, flip the pork a few times till it's coated with the sauce, and drizzle more sauce over the pork to serve (and eat, and enjoy!).

If you have some fresh herbs like rosemary and thyme, they would add more flavour. I simply threw in some dried Italian seasoning, that worked pretty well, too.