Valentine's Day - Dinner for One

And an awesome dinner it was! Lemon Garlic Pork Loin with wild long grain rice and steamed asparagus followed by a chocolate mousse with raspberries on top. The most amazing part of the whole thing was that for the first time in my life EVERYTHING WAS READY AT THE SAME TIME!!!! It has never happened before and there was no one here to appreciate it (or vouch for it - since Lord knows it might never happen again). I managed to cook all of this and clean up the nail polish explosion in the bathroom and it was pretty awesome!

The pork loin was a pre-marinated thing I bought on a whim at the grocery store. I was a little intimidated by it because I don't do a lot of actual cooking (more baking) and because there is a theory amongst some that women in my family are genetically incapable of cooking pork of any kind without making it dry enough to choke you. So I cooked it according to the instructions (40-45 minutes in the oven at 350). While that was going on I set up the wild long grain rice on the stove. That took 2 1/4 cups of chicken stock with a tbs of butter and the rice which needed to be brought to a boil and then simmer on a low heat until the rice absorbs the liquid, so that was left to it's own devices and I was off to clean up the nail polish genocide in the bathroom (long story short - one bottle shattered and it looked like I murdered a shiny green alien in my bathroom). When the pork was done I tested the internal temp (which I normally never do, but with pork it seems like a good idea), and it wasn't quite high enough so I popped it back into the oven while I stirred the rice and set the tea kettle up to make the asparagus.

My boss taught me how to make the asparagus and it's the only way I really like to eat it. You heat water in the tea kettle and when it boils, you pour the water over the asparagus and set the kettle on top of it. Wait five minutes and drain it. Then toss the whole lot with a little olive oil and salt and pepper and it's perfect. And in this case it was the perfect amount of extra time for the pork loin to be in the oven and it was perfectly moist. The rice was excellent and the chicken stock made it so you don't even have to add salt or anything.

For dessert I made my mother's chocolate mousse - okay, full disclosure, I actually made this on the same day I made the mushrooms, but at least we know it keeps. I had some trouble with getting it to set - and I'm not sure why. At the moment, I'm assuming it was because it was just too hot in the apartment, but I also added an extra half cup of cream, so who knows. On that Saturday, I couldn't get it to stick, so I just stuck it in the fridge and one of those things appears to have worked. Pull it out, whip a little air into it, dish it into a bowl and add some raspberries an Voila!

That was my perfect Valentine's Day dinner for one. If nothing else I got some really excellent practice in actually cooking for people since my big mouth keeps offering to do it even though I don't have a lot of experience...sweet!