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.

Fluff it up!

If you think bloggers like to fluff things up, so do a lot of kids in a big way, too, whether it's through pretend play, or when they're giving an exaggerated account of something from their point of view.

Here, Jon and Ben were just letting their (fake, but of course!) hair down... trying to be Abraham Lincoln one moment, and George Washington the next!

[This is the stuffing I used as cushion inserts, a more affordable alternative to ready-stuffed cushions. And the same stuffing that worked to make Ben an adult-size bolster that he asked for (just stash it into a bolster-case), only because Jon has one already.]!

Ben and me

Two weeks after starting school, Ben still doesn't eat any of the snacks provided by the teachers, nor has he painted his first little masterpiece in class. And when Mrs H couldn't persuade him to string some knick-knacks to make a necklace, never mind that every one has done his or hers, he took them back to work on it with me instead.

All because, like the cookies and the paints, "We have them at home!", as was his reply to the teachers always.

There are more examples, and while some, like the snacks, could be better explained away (because Ben had breakfast already and was keeping his stomach for his packed lunch), there were more that sounded like he was associating everything with home.

Well, nothing very wrong with that. Except that given how clingy Ben can be (and it's not completely his fault, because coming here meant I got to stay home with him, the way I wasn't as "conveniently" available to Jon when I was a working mom before that), I understood what my husband was getting at, when he said it might be better for me not to make a habit out of appearing in Ben's class earlier than pick-up time.

But while I'm going to cut down on going early, and the purpose of my popping in was simply to help the boys and girls clean up after lunch, (not to get close to Ben), I didn't want to say no when asked separately, if I could help out in Sunday School for another year. Now I'm not suggesting I am helper material, and only days ago, someone else who asked if I could be an extra pair of hands in another setting, had likened me to "beggar" material when she used the phrase "beggars (referring to herself as one, too) can't be choosers" on me -- implying I wasn't her choice/idea of a helper. I'd tried not to overanalyze the situation, but put the task at hand first.

What I'm trying to say, is that there are decisions like my Sunday School one, small as it was, that we as parents make for ourselves -- thinking it would be a good idea for us to do this or that, but only afterwards, after the decision was made, realised how it would impact on the family. I'm not rescinding my word to the church, knowing especially that it is still short of help. But from a mom's not helper/helper wannabe's point of view, now, it is something I do feel bad about, because in trying to be an extra pair of hands, I forgot about Ben. About Ben and his separation anxiety, and about his non-stop bawling still at Sunday School (that none of the teachers has been able to let him cry it out), because he associates me with it. And logically speaking, I should not be there.

I know, I shouldn't beat myself up over this one. This was a simple enough choice to help, that need not have been so frustrating after the decision was made. Also, because it's just going to be a matter of time when Ben will take off by himself.

But between now and then, I need to know when and how to let go. The way it might have been easier but it wasn't, when I was left with not much of a choice, when Jon right from the first day of school, already decided that he doesn't want me to give him a peck on the cheek, not anymore, just a hug maybe, before he runs off to his classroom!

Yep, when our babies were in diapers, we couldn't wait for them to walk. But now that they start to grow up, we wish they'd slow down some. How do you stay close and yet give them the room they need? How do you keep your distance and yet let them know you are right there beside them?

Picture above taken by our friend Melvin, last month.