1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded

1 cup romaine lettuce
4 large brussel sprouts, shredded
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon sesame seeds, toasted
salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Place parmesan cheese on greased tinfoil on top of a baking sheet and bake until just melted.
3. Remove the parmesan from the oven and allow it to cool slightly, then place on top of a small bowl and allow to cool to take the shape of the bowl.
4. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat and add the sprouts and lettuce, sautéing until lettuce slightly wilts.
5. Toss lettuce and sprouts with fresh herbs, season with salt and pepper and place in parmesan bowl topped with sesame seeds.

Makes 1 serving

4 six ounce pork chops
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 large tomato, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ginger puree
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pork chops and brown both sides, about 4 minutes per side.
2. Transfer the pork chops to a warm plate and reserve for later.
3. Add tomato, garlic, ginger, cinnamon and honey to the pan and cook until sauce has reduced by half.
4. Return the pork chops to the pan and reduce heat to a simmer. Allow the pork chops to cook through to the center, about 6 minutes.
5. Cover pork with sesame seeds and serve.

Makes 4 servings

2 cups cooked baby corn (canned or otherwise)
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon chili paste
1 lime
1 tablespoon sesame seeds

1. Combine rice wine vinegar, fish sauce, sugar, garlic, chili paste and lime juice in a blender.
2. Transfer the sauce to a medium sauce pan over medium heat and add the squeezed lime and baby corn.
3. Cook until corn is hot, about 5 minutes. Garnish with sesame seeds to serve.

Makes 4 servings

To be honest, I wasn't very hungry because I ate an entire bowl of ground beef leftover from the Beef Tacos, so I didn't start planning dinner until about 9:30 at night. I was rummaging through the freezer trying to come up with something and realized that I have a whole lot of pork chops. So, onto google I went looking for "pork chop recipes." I'm especially fond of the bone-in pork chops rather than the boneless loin chops. Although I'm not especially fond of the fat, I like the way that it crisps up when fried or baked. I also like that pork can be paired with so many sweet and savoury elements, ranging from apples and cinnamon to rosemary and sage. Tonight I went the sweeter route and made Honey Sesame Pork Chops. Somewhat surprisingly the tomato and cinnamon sauce was actually quite good and the flavor of honey and texture of sesame seeds imparts a nice flavor as well. It's not going to skyrocket to the top of my personal pork recipe charts or anything (if there was such a thing) but it was pretty tasty.

I sort of ran with the sesame seed thing and made it into a theme. I've wanted to make peas with everything lately and every time I look to see if we have any, we don't. This is the reason for the Lima Bean Puree last night because I really wanted to make peas. I wanted peas again to go with the pork, but since I couldn't have them, I went with another green ball; the brussel sprout. I'm still not partial to sprouts in any way other than boiled to nothing with salt and butter, but I found a recipe that was different enough to attempt. Sautéed Sprout Salad shreds the brussel sprouts and mixes it with fried romaine lettuce, parmesan cheese, some fresh herbs and, of course, topped with sesame seeds. There's nothing I can say that will sell you on this if it doesn't already pique your curiosity, but it was surprisingly better than I thought it could be. I made a little parmesan basket to house the salad, but the heat of the sprouts ended up having it pretty much flatten by the time I could take a picture of it.

These dishes were fun to make, but none of them are especially complimentary. The pork chops are maybe some sort of Latin fusion thing (I have no clue) and the brussel sprout salad must be some sort of hoity toity English dish (again, I'm just making that up.) So the Thai Sweet Chili Baby Corn didn't really act as any sort of cohesive element either. I didn't have chili paste, so I used dried chilies in its place. This made for a very runny sauce, but it all soaked into the corn anyway, so I suppose the flavor was still there. It's not something I'm especially fond of, but with the flavors of lime and hot sauce, I'm sure Shannon would've really enjoyed it if she had some.