Saturday, April 10, 2010

Disasters and Bad News, Food Revolution, Dinner.

And still the disasters go on; the plane crash in Russia killing a bunch of high ranking Polish officials, including their President, which happened last night, sending shock waves throughout Poland. There are questions about the safety standards of this particular plane and also the pilot landed when he was told to divert. The mining disaster which took place last week in West Virginia - the governor has now declared that there were no survivors at all. The news is really not good to listen to these days. One of the major headlines in the last 24 hours has been about the American woman who returned her adopted Russian son to Russia stating she no longer wished to be his mother and had not been informed of his emotional problems when she adopted him. What puzzles me is why so many Russian children are being put up for adoption and come to that, why are Americans adopting Russians instead of American kids, I am sure there are hundreds to be adopted. Maybe the requirements are not so stringent - this case being a perfect example of why they should be so.
Mentioning West Virginia's governor, we saw him last night on Jamie Oliver's programme where Jamie is working hard to promote a food revolution in West Virginia. Last night the programme showed Jamie having a bet with a local radio host who was very down on the whole programme and figured WV did not need an irritating, jumped up English cook telling them what to eat. The bet was that Jamie could get 1,000 to pass through his cooking store in 5 days. As part of the effort, Jamie took the radio host to a local funeral home to show him a casket which is frequently used these days. It was huge. I worked in a funeral home and we had to order extra sized caskets periodicially, but I have never seen one this big. The directors said they were ordering more and more of them. Jamie also introduced them to his cookery group from West Virginia who talked about overweight and bad health. One morbidly obese young woman having been told she could die in about 5 years if she didn't do something about it. Finally the radio announcer was converted and helped Jamie get his last few hundred potential cooks through the door. The announcer himself was the 1,000th cook. I have just discovered that if you go to http://www.jamieoliver.com/ you can sign a petition supporting his efforts. If you are not from the US you can change the petition to support him world wide. You can also make a donation to the effort. The picture shows supersized caskets in Batesville's production plant, but not one of them is as big as the one on Jamie's show last night which looked square because it was virtually as wide as it was long. It shook both Jamie and the radio host.
Tonight we have friends coming to dinner, daughter and son in law of some close friends of ours. So we will be cooking up our usual storm today. Our main dish is a pork loin stuffed with apples, nuts and celery which came from a Reader's Digest book I bought in the UK some 40 years ago and still use a lot. It is called Cookery Year and is an excellent source of many good recipes. I just scanned the picture and it came out a tad yellow in places.
Roast Pork with Apple and Nut Stuffing
Source: RD Cookery Year
Servings 6
3.5 lb. Loin of Pork original recipe called for Blade of Pork.
1 Sml onion
2 oz pecans
2 oz white crustless bread
1 cooking apple
1 stick celery
1 Desertspoon chopped parsley
1 oz butter
Salt & pepper
1/2 tsp dried summer savory
Lemon Juice
3 Tbs veg oil
1/4 UK pint dry cider (about 5 fl. oz.)
1. Peel and finely chop the onion and roughly chop the nuts. Dice the bread; peel, core and dice the apple. Wash and finely chop celery and parsley. 2. Melt the butter in a small pan over moderate heat and fry the onion and nuts until they are just turning color. Add the bread, apple, celery and parsley and continue cooking until apple softened. Season to taste with salt, pepper, summer savory and lemon juice. 3. Open up the pocket of the roast and spread stuffing evenly. Roll up and tie with string. Roast in a 400 F oven for 20-30 mins then reduce to 350 and cook for a further 1 1/2 hrs or until juice comes out amber coloured when meat pricked. 4. Remove roast and keep warm. Skim off fat in roasting dish. Add the cider and deglaze pan. Season to taste and put in sauce boat to serve.
Have a great day

3 comments:

  1. This is very tasty. I highly recommend it you get the chance to try this.

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  2. Well its where the eaters end up if they are not sensible.

    Its not bad cold either.

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