Month 1 day 6: Pork Tenderloin with Eggplant Relish

Today I made:

• Pork Tenderloin with Eggplant Relish, Food Network Magazine January/February 2010

As you can see, it's not that much food. In fact, the recipe in the magazine has a huge star that says "Only 297 Calories!"I don't know why that's meant to be a positive thing for your dinner, which should satisfy at least a third of your daily caloric needs. Anyway, normally you would serve this with some sides-- maybe some crusty bread? But as it was, I started cooking this about 45 minutes before I had to leave to lead an exam review, so this was all we had. Peppers, garlic, and eggplant are charred under the broiler and then chopped up. The tenderloin is quickly seasoned and then pan cooked. So this wasn't a very complicated meal, and was pretty fast. I only had five minutes to eat it, so I don't really remember how it tasted. I think it tasted good.

G and I are big tenderloin fans, but we already have a go-to recipe, and G likes that one more. I think he fell in love with it one day when we were in a rush to go to some meetings, but I stayed behind a few minutes to finish cooking. In about 20 minutes total, I cooked pasta topped with tenderloin and sauteed bell peppers in a balsamic sauce, nestled next to some salad. G was surprised to see this array of tasty foods that was whipped together so fast, and everyone else in his meeting was jealous. So I think that's why he has good associations with that particular recipe.

This was the second day in a row cooking with the broiler. It does speed things up a lot! It's like the oven's response to the pressure cooker. I think I'll use it more often in the future.