6 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 bulb roasted garlic, peeled
1/2 cup warmed buttermilk
1/4 cup parmesan, grated
salt and pepper
water

1. Place potatoes in a pot with enough water to cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, reduce heat and continue cooking until easily pierced with a fork, about 20 minutes.
2. Drain potatoes, return to the pot and mash with a fork or hand masher.
3. Stir in olive oil and garlic and season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Gradually stir in buttermilk until the potatoes have a creamy consistency. Stir in parmesan and serve immediately.

Makes 4 large servings

1 pound pork tenderloin, butterflied
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium leek, chopped
3 cups baby spinach, chopped
6 scallions, chopped
6 ounces goat cheese
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped
salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Melt butter with 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Sauté leek until tender, then add the spinach and scallions, stirring until spinach has wilted. Remove from heat.
3. Add goat cheese, thyme and dill to the spinach mixture and season with salt and pepper.
4. Pound the pork flat with a mallet. Spread the spinach mixture over the surface of the pork, leaving about a 1/2" edge.
5. Tightly roll the pork up to form a cylinder, enclosing the spinach. Tie to secure with twine.
6. Heat a separate skillet over medium-high heat and add the remaining tablespoon of oil. Brown the pork loin on all sides and transfer to the oven to finish cooking. Allow to rest for at least 10 minutes before slicing.

Makes 4 servings

I suppose I'm about due for a serious kitchen disaster at this point. To be honest, I thought it would be food poisoning. With continued honesty, I almost wish that something seriously bad would happen that would hospitalize me and I could write about hospital food for a week. Except the seriously bad thing that would have to happen to hospitalize me, being able to lie in bed and be spoon-fed for a bit doesn't really sound so bad. I'd just need a laptop.

Anyhow, I was preparing Goat Cheese and Spinach Stuffed Pork Tenderloin and since the tenderloin itself was larger than my frying pans or skillet, I figured I'd heat up a casserole dish to sear it and then throw it into the oven. I can also swear that not only have I done this before, but I have seen it called for in at least 1 recipe. I also thought that Pyrex was absolutely invincible. Well, I can now say that this is indeed a horrible idea, because shortly after turning my half-browned pork loin, the casserole dish burst right before my eyes, sending chunks of shrapnel into rooms not even adjacent to my kitchen. Obviously the pork itself had large chunks of Pyrex sticking out of it, but somehow bits had managed to fly into the air and into everything else I was preparing as well.

Shannon quickly ran into the bedroom and put on her slippers and started sweeping the place up, telling me not to move. My heart nearly stopped from the unexpected explosion, so I didn't really feel up for doing much of anything, anyway. We found fibers embedded in the most unimaginable places and even now, several days after the incident as I write this, I'm still finding little bits of dish in nooks and crannies throughout the kitchen and dining room. After the initial clean up, Shannon went on a solo trip to get more pork and leeks and I recreated everything, putting dinner over half an hour behind schedule, but giving me something interesting to write about. I ended up using less goat cheese the second time around, and it just wasn't really cheesy enough. Still tasty, though.

If I haven't already emphasized this, the Greek Mashed Potatoes the other night were really good — phenomenally good, even. They were good in one of the ways that I'm left craving them afterwards and wish I had more leftovers. Thankfully they're just a side dish, so it's easy to make variations on the same theme. Tonight, after all the mayhem ensued and after throwing out another pot, we had Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes. I used a similar process, substituting olive oil for butter and buttermilk for cream, only with the addition of parmesan and roasted garlic. The other side was simply Zucchini and Mushrooms, no different than the previous time I made them back in February.