Obscenely Coated Pork Loin

With Emily now safely embedded in the second trimester of pregnancy, meals at the Barwacz household have been slowly returning to a somewhat normal status. While before in the first trimester Emily was unable to eat anything other than carbs, red meat, and salt with a side of corn chips, items like vegetables and fruits, thought once to no longer exist, have become rediscovered.

Last weekend we decided that we could probably viably invite someone over for dinner without having to subject them to these abnormal eating habits. Thus, we had the pleasure of having over our first official dinner guest at our new place in North Liberty. Paula, a surgeon that Chris works with from time to time in his fellowship, and a chef afficianodo in her own right, joined us for what probably was more of a fall meal than a summer one in the middle of July, nonetheless it was wonderfully tasty.

Paula supplied the pork loin recipe and wine(Emily did not partake), and we took care of the rest. The recipe called for a pork loin first coated in "obscene" amounts of dijon mustard, followed by a coating of bread crumbs and rosemary. This was roasted in the oven along with some vegetables and yellow potatoes turned in olive oil. The flavors of both the meat and the vegetables were amazing. For desert we made some homemade, fresh-vanilla bean ice cream with whole milk and cream (low cal, we realize) in our ice cream maker, and topped it off with warm blueberries. The great part of it all, was that all the dishes seemed to agree with Emily and Flip, so everyone was happy.