(no subject)

So remember how I said I wouldn't cook last night? And I'd just make some condensed cheddar cheese soup out of a can?

Then I was like "you know what would be good in this soup? Roasted garlic." So I roasted some garlic. And while the garlic was roasting I was like "You know what else would be good? If I sauteed some mushrooms in garlic oil and added them to the soup." So I did that while the garlic was roasting. And before I knew it there was ginger in there too, and some crispy fried shallots for texture, and some slices of good strong pickled chorizo, and some curry powder, and...

Yeah. It was pretty delicious, though.

Also I roasted some chestnuts to prep for tonight's dinner, which I think is going to be a pork roast a l'orangeish (I'm using a recipe that 2muchexposition recommended to me for a smoky chipotle orange sauce) with a side of pan-roasted brussels sprouts with chestnut and bacon, and some mashed sweet potatoes (which I was going to put mushrooms in, but see above). But, oh tragedy of tragedies, after roasting came the peeling, when I discovered that all of the chestnuts were rotten! They were mouldy, through and through!

Sigh. Maybe I'll hit Trader Joe's on the way home to see if they've got any chestnuts. Otherwise, I may have to use... I dunno. I could candy some pecans or walnuts with some cayenne pepper in the sugar. Might add an interesting angle to the dish. Necessity is the mother of invention, right? What do y'all think?

Dinner tonight

Pork roast: Delicious. Perfectly cooked, and my seat-of-my-pants brine was awesome. Nice and salty, tang of clove, and the mustard was just a background note that brought it all together.

Orange-chipotle sauce: My lips and tongue are burning, but in a good way. Since I was only cooking for myself, I tripled the hot peppers to made it spicy to my tolerance, not to normal human tolerance, and that was the right move. Clovey, cinnamoney, smoky, with that hint of maple that goes so well with savory. Oh so good.

Roasted brussels sprouts with bacon: After a failed trip to TJ's, where I could not find any chestnuts, I said screw it and decided to go with just brussels sprouts and bacon. Little salt and pepper, a squeeze of lemon and rosemary just for the smell. It's great, but then it's brussels sprouts and bacon. How could it not be great?