Guess who's back?

Sorry for the hiatus. I am boring when I'm sick, and I was sick until about two days ago. Thanks to the magic of Zithromax, I am finally back in the game. Thanks also to my former roommie Dr. Christina, for all her advice.

Part of being back in the game is that I am cooking up a storm. I am so excited about the dinner I made last night (with help from Hubbyhubs!).

Pork Medallions with Melon Salsa and Grilled Limes

From Good Housekeeping
triple-tested at the Good Housekeeping Research Institute

We spike this cantaloupe and honeydew melon salsa with fresh cilantro and plenty of fresh lime juice to make a showstopping pork tenderloin topper.

INGREDIENTS

conv. chart

U.S.

Metric

1 whole(s)	(1 1/4-pound) pork tenderloin, trimmed of fat
5	limes
1 tablespoon(s)	olive oil
1/2 cup(s)	(loosely packed) fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
1/4 teaspoon(s)	salt
1/8 teaspoon(s)	coarsely ground black pepper
2 cup(s)	chopped cantaloupe
1 cup(s)	chopped honeydew melon
1	jalapeño chile, minced

DIRECTIONS

1. Prepare outdoor grill for direct grilling on medium.
2. Cut pork tenderloin crosswise into 8 equal pieces. With palm of hand, firmly press on cut side of each piece to flatten to about 1-inch-thick medallion.
3. Cut 2 limes in half; reserve for grilling. From remaining limes, grate 1 teaspoon peel and squeeze 1/4 cup juice. In small bowl, combine oil, 1/2 teaspoon lime peel, half of cilantro, 1/8 teaspoon salt, and pepper. Rub cilantro mixture on pork medallions to season both sides.
4. Place pork on hot grill grate and cook 4 minutes. Turn pork over. Add lime halves, cut sides down, to same grill grate and cook 3 to 4 minutes or until lightly browned and warm. Cook pork 4 to 5 minutes longer or until browned on the outside and still slightly pink in the center.
5. Meanwhile, in medium bowl, combine melons, jalapeño, lime juice, 1/8 teaspoon salt, and remaining cilantro and lime peel. Makes about 3 cups salsa.

We followed the recipe almost exactly, with a couple of minor variations. First, I used my Emeril Grill Pan (one of my favorite bridal shower gifts, thanks RM!), instead of a barbecue, because I don't have a barbecue. If you're doing this in an apartment, it's very important to position a large fan in front of your smoke detector, blowing the smoke away. Trust me on that. Also, we only had cantaloupe, no honeydew (long story), but the salsa was just fine without it. I think it's only there to provide color contrast. We also used dried cilantro instead of fresh.

I can't even explain to you how incredibly good this was. The pork was insanely juicy and so tender, and really really lean. We ate the entire recipe. I am happy to say I have another pound of pork tenderloin in the freezer and another cantaloupe. Mom and Dad are talking about coming out this weekend -- I'm totally making this. It was super fast, too.

On Sunday night, I made another Good Housekeeping recipe that I can't find online. It was a Lasagna Toss, meaning you cook up the noodles in a pot and then just mix it together with the sauce and serve. No layering, no baking. Delicious. It was a nice bolognese sauce, topped with some spiced-up ricotta. I had leftovers for lunch yesterday, and will have more today (sorry, Hubbyhubs, I finished it ... ).

Tonight I'm making some sort of chicken wraps. We'll see!

I am fully into my adopted habit of sitting down on Sunday afternoon with my magazines and cookbooks and the Foodtown circular. I send Hubbyhubs to the grocery store (isn't he awesome?) with a long list (divided into sections of the store), and he comes back with everything we need for a week. I type up the weekly menu and clip it to the fridge, along with the recipes if they are torn out of magazines (or a note about which cookbook and which page to find them on), and every night when I get home, I don't have to think about what to make for dinner. It's such a relief. Everything I need is guaranteed to be in the house, and we get to eat a yummy, planned dinner. It's just fantastic.

I'm also trying to get control over other areas of homemaking, where I am SEVERELY lacking -- namely, cleaning. Um, and organizing. I'm just awful. I never had to share my bedroom as a kid, and honestly, I think that's a bad thing. My bad habits were just reinforced over and over again, and I just leave my clothes and my shoes everywhere. It's awful, and it's not fair to my husband, and I need to do better. I started by attacking the linen closet on Sunday. Again, thanks to Good Housekeeping, where I found a little guide to organizing your linen closet. I just needed a little direction! Everything fits beautifully now -- with room to spare! I took it one step further than GH by incorporating another idea I'd come across lately. For each sheet set, I take the fitted sheet, the flat sheet, and one pillow case, fold them up, and insert them inside the other pillow case. That way, sheet sets always stay together! It makes the shelves look just a little bit lumpy, but it's a good tradeoff.

All of that organizing didn't leave too much time for much else, but I did manage to get two loads of laundry done and make the Lasagna Toss, so not a bad night, overall. Also, two weeks ago I had to work from home because I had a doctor's appointment right in the middle of the day. I did get a lot of work done, but I also spent considerable time FINALLY cleaning out my bedroom closet to make room for Hubbyhubs (told you I'm a jerk -- he didn't even have his clothes in the bedroom closet). I totally went to town, putting my off-season and special occasion clothes in the back, adding an additional bar lower down for skirts and shirts, and moving all of Hubbyhubs' stuff into the other half of the closet. In the process, the guest room closet (where HH had previously been relegated) became completely empty. I cannot believe I live in NYC and I have a SPARE ROOM with a SPARE CLOSET. Life does not get any better than this.

We still have a few projects we need to tackle. The closet in the office is a total disaster, and we actually own the shelves that need to be put up in there, so we will get on that soon. Once that's in place, we should be able to move the remaining wedding presents from the guest room into that closet. Then, the guest room will be empty, until my parents show up this weekend with everything else that got sent to their house!

Everything else is going really well. I finally feel like we have a great handle on our spending and our budget, which is a terrific feeling. We do meet at least monthly (if not more) to go over the spreadsheet and see how we are doing. I use mint.com to keep track of everything, and I check in at least once a day. It's sort of a pain, but not really. I like knowing where all our hard-earned money is going!

So now, on day 87 of our marriage, I can say it's totally fabulous and under control. It's been fabulous the whole time, of course ... it's just less chaotic now!