Food, still the best thing going.

See that? That's Paul's first try at cooking a dinner he's never cooked before. It came out as totally delicious.

The deal is, I was tired of cooking every night just because I know how. I mean, how does he think I learned? Some of it was, of course, hanging around the kitchen with my mom and aunts and other family members while they cooked stuff, but the rest of it was that I practiced. Cooking actually makes Paul nervous, and I decided for my sanity and pocketbook, he needed to get over that. So we made a deal that he has to cook once a week. And since I've never made a good pork dish, I narrowed it down and said he needed to cook something with pork as the protein.

This is a pork tenderloin recipe modified from this website. He used blood oranges instead of regular oranges (which is why the sauce is pink), an extra clove of garlic (because we love garlic), and whole-grain dijon instead of regular (hence the darker flecks in the sauce). The recipe, either way, is recommended.

We also went out with friends here on Saturday night. It was our second time eating at Topolo, and man, is it great. Greatgreatgreat. Paul had the Celebration tasting menu (though it had a different dessert, a blackberry-chocolate cake), and I had the Winter tasting menu; you can see both menus here. A perfect treat for the whole party.

Then yesterday we ate my first-ever try at white beans with ham hocks, which came out just like I remember my mom's, so I was really happy with that.

Thank goodness I'm over my cold so that I can start running again--I was putting on weight, and no wonder!