1 pound brussel sprouts, trimmed
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 ounces almonds, chopped
1 teaspoon olive oil
salt and pepper
water

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook brussel sprouts until just tender. Drain.
3. Toss brussel sprouts with white wine, then drain again and transfer to a casserole dish.
4. Combine mustard and olive oil and toss sprouts. Toss chopped almonds with remaining olive oil and top brussel sprouts and season with salt and pepper. Bake until almonds are golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.

Makes 4 servings

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 pound baby spinach
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
salt

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, then the spinach.
2. Coat spinach with the oil and sauté until it just begins to wilt. Remove from heat, drizzle with balsamic vinegar and season to taste with salt. Serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings

2 pound pork tenderloin, trimmed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon black peppercorns, crushed
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup onion confit

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Rub pork tenderloin with olive oil and press salt and pepper into the flesh. Slice into pieces small enough to fit into a skillet.
3. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and sear all sides of the tenderloin. Transfer to the oven to finish cooking until a meat thermometer can be inserted into the center and register around 160 degrees, about 20-25 minutes.
4. Allow meat to rest before slicing and serve with onion confit. See Dinner Entry for possible recipe!

Makes 8 servings

When I picked up the beef tenderloin for the Steak Bearnaise I also picked up a pork tenderloin for who knows what. I just pick up ingredients hoping I can find a recipe for them that I haven't already tried. I thought Pork Tenderloin with Onion Confit sounded fancy, so I went with that. The pork was rubbed with garlic, salt and pepper and cooked very quickly after being seared and thrown into a hot oven. There's really no way to go wrong with this. I bought the onion confit at a specialty shop because I was too lazy to make it. It was port flavored and tastes like a sweet onion jam, which is so much more delicious than it sounds. There's no doubt that I'd make this again. If you'd like to make your own onion confit, just get some red onions, cook them up like you would for French Onion Soup and add sugar, port, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. That's it. At least, I think that's it…

This is what yesterday's dinner should've turned out as. I mean, the sardines shouldn't have been pork, but everything that made yesterday's dinner not up to par was little slips. There were no little slips in this dinner, it was delicious. I even made brussel sprouts taste good! That's a feat in itself. The Brussel Sprout Almondine are basically tossed in white wine and Dijon mustard and baked with some chopped almonds on top. Somehow, the sourness from the mustard takes away from the horrid bitterness of the sprouts and makes them quite palatable. That or I just picked good brussel sprouts, I can't tell which.

I'm actually quite surprised that there isn't a recipe for Sautéed Spinach somewhere on this site, which makes me think I just named it something else and it's not turning up in a search. That or there's really no reason for a sautéed spinach recipe, since it is little more than spinach sautéed. I also served some of the leftover Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage since it has to go somewhere and seemed fitting.