Funny thing happened the other day. I was talking to my mother-in-law on the phone, helping to plan our Christmas Eve dinner. She has a pork loin roast in the freezer and wants to make it on Friday. So she picked out a recipe, and was reading it to me. And it sounded really familiar.
“Where did you get this recipe?” I asked. “It sounds really familiar.” I thought maybe it was one I developed.
“The Food magazine,” she said.
I’ve never created recipes for anything called the Food magazine, so I shrugged and said, “Hmmm. Oh well.”
She continued reading. “Two and a half pounds small red potatoes,” she said, “cut into half-inch wedges…”
Potatoes cut into half-inch wedges? That sounded really familiar. Not like no one ever included half-inch potato wedges in a recipe – but the way it was worded. So I asked again. “Where did you say you got this recipe?”
“The Food Network magazine,” she said. “You know, the magazine from the Food Network on TV.”
And then a light bulb went off. I asked, “Does the recipe say anywhere that it’s from the National Pork Board?”
“No,” she said, “it just says theotherwhitemeat.com at the bottom.”
Aha!
It was my recipe – one I’d developed for The National Pork Board. It lives on their recipe web site, theotherwhitemeat.com, along with others I’ve developed, and others that others have developed. But I know they do their best to have the recipes picked up by magazines and newspapers, thereby promoting pork usage. So The Food Network magazine had obviously picked it up, and my mother-in-law saw it and thought my husband and I would like it.
Like it? I invented it! After all these years, I guess she knows me pretty well.
You’d like it, too. The recipe is Balsamic Rosemary Pork Loin with Roasted Potatoes. It’s just a simple wet rub – rosemary, tons of garlic, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar buzzed together in the food processor – that gets slathered all over the pork. You save a little bit to toss with the potatoes, then roast it all.
It’d be great for Christmas, Christmas Eve, New Years, or any time you want a delicious, easy-yet-impressive special-occasion meal.
I did other holiday roasts for the Pork Board as well, also appropriate for special occasions:
Pork Loin with Prosciutto, Fontina, and Sage
Herb-Crusted Pork Rib Roast with Red Wine Sauce
And, as my final holiday gift to you, here are a couple more roasts worth raising your glass to, from Bon Appetit’s December Christmas Dinner Spectacular, recipes also invented by moi:
Lemon-and Prosciutto-Stuffed Pork Loin Roast with Broccolini
Mustard-Seed-Crusted Prime Rib Roast with Roasted Balsamic Onions
Rosemary-Rubbed Side of Salmon with Roasted Potatoes, Parsnips, and Mushrooms
Here’s to a delicious holiday!
