domestic

A question

When a recipe says "Vinegar (Any kind)" which one do you usually reach for? I've had a couple marinade recipes over the past few weeks that call for vinegar like that and I've been going with red wine vinegar because I'm afraid balsamic will be too strong. I'd like to have another good option though. Suggestions?

Balsalmic Pork Loin

Well the Mostly Martha meal didn't happen last night because I didn't like any of Martha's recipes for pork and I really wanted pork last night. So I ended up making balsalmic pork from a reciped I found from another source. The recipe was good (and my execution was good) but the pork didn't turn out wonderfully. It was good, it just wasn't fantastic. I blame the recipe for that. The recipe called for simply drizzleing the vinegar and oil over the meat and rubbing it in a little bit instead of marinating it. Then you cut slits into the meat for crushed garlic, fresh thyme, coarse salt and pepper. The end result is that the finished pork only has barely a hint of vinegar flavor but an abundance of dry spice flavors (particularly the garlic). So next time I make this I'm going to marinate the meat for about 15 minutes to give the vinegar a chance to stand up to the dry spices. Hopefully this will make for a better combination of the wet and dry flavors and create a much better dish overall.

I took a few pictures before I stuck the pork in the oven last night because I thought it looked like it was going to be wonderful.

Diving

Since I started really dipping my toes into the cooking waters a few weeks ago I've been dealing primarily with a couple cookbooks that are designed to be simple. They are meant for novices, newbies if you will, like me. They have been wonderful to me and I plan on using them forever. However I've decided that since it's now officially the birthday jubilee I should be bold and brave and try something completely new and not a little intimidating. So I've decided I'm going to make a Mostly Martha Meal. I'm going to cook dinner with recipes from The Ultimate Martha Stewart cookbook. Heaven help me. When I decided up the exact menu I'll post it here. Look for it soon.

California Chicken Sandwich

I'm off to the grocery in a few minutes to pick up some things for dinner. I came across a recipe for a "California Chicken Sandwich" which is really nothing more than a regular grilled chicken breast sandwich except with a few additional spices and citrus mayonnaise. I'm intrigued by the citrus mayo so it's on the menu for this evening. I don't really have anything good to go with it though so I'm going to get some nice white sweet corn and either potato or macaroni salad. Belinda isn't terribly partial to macaroni salad but I am and just two days ago we had pea salad, which I'm not terribly partial to but she is, so I think macaroni salad it shall be. I would make the really nice dill potato salad that B made last week but we're having that later in the week with out "we're ready for Thanksgiving" chicken and dressing meal.

And a note on dressing. Is it a regional thing where some people say stuffing and others say dressing?

Update: Mayonnaise has a unique texture and consistency. Adding liquid to it just fucks that up. Citrus mayonnaise tastes really, really good but by the time you add 2.5 tablespoons of liquid (in the form of orange juice, lime juice and hot sauce) to a 1/2 cup of mayo that texture is shot to hell and it becomes really, really thin. That's not really a good thing. So the verdict is thumbs up to the flavor of citrus mayo but can anybody tell me how to prevent it from turning into a thin, runny mess. Thanks.