Pork Chops and Ribs and Loin ... Oh, my!

This was a great week! I love pork! It can go with white or red wine and the flavor is
usually outstanding! I took on the stuffed pork loin. I decided to change the stuffing to a
cranberry-orange stuffing. I thought it had real possibilities. In the end, I wasn’t happy with the
flavor of the pork. I cut myself while trimming the fat off the pork loin and forgot to salt it before
it was seared. The flavor could have been so much better if I had remembered to salt it. The
cranberry-orange stuffing turned out pretty good. Christina actually stopped by my stove and
gave me some advice to change the alcohol in the cranberries to brandy. I wish I hadn’t listened
to her. While I understand why she gave me the advice, I was looking for the orange to come
through more and by using an orange liqueur, I think it would have. That is definitely a recipe I
will try again because I think I can do much better. I have some family recipes involving pork
that are amazing! Bar-B-Que ribs and stuffed pork chops are two of them.

The sweet and sour pork turned out very good. I love Chinese food and every restaurant’s
standardized recipe for sweet and sour sauce is different. This is a good one.

This week WCTC hosted the Internship Fair. I wasn’t going to go at first because I won’t
be doing my internship this summer but Chef and Mr. Grippe convinced me that it was worth it
to have a few conversations. At worst, I’d spend an hour talking to employers and nothing will
come from it. At best, I would find a restaurant who is interested in me with a chef who is
willing to take me from the ground level and teach me. Three employers contacted me from that
day so it was more than worth it. Wine Maniacs was the employer that got my attention the most.
The menu is changed quarterly and is designed with the wine in mind. They are very open to my
level of experience, or lack thereof and are willing to teach me which was important to me. I am
excited to see what the summer has in store for me.

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