For Daniel’s birthday, I wanted to do something special so I decided to bake him a cake and make dinner for the family. If we were in Los Angeles, I would have taken him out to a nice dinner and then join friends for drinks. It’s a little different here, it’s very much about family. So I figured this was a good way to dust off my baking skills. This was a new recipe and I had never baked this cake before. It promised to be moist and delicious. It turned out quite good!
For dinner, I initially wanted to do big bone in beef steaks, but after a trip to the market I settled on pork chops. Beef is extremely expensive here and feeding a family that likes to eat, I had to compromise. The first thing I did was brine the pork. This changes the cell structure of the pork so that it always stays tender. The worst thing is overcooked meat, it’s tough and taste like cardboard. But with pork you need to make sure it cooks through. I added garlic, peppercorns, a few bay leaves and lots of salt. I covered it with cold water and put in the refridgerator for 4 hours. I sautéed some mushrooms and onions to bring out a sweetness to the dish. To cook the pork, I used a heavy stainless steel pan to brown the pork on the outside before putting it in the oven to finish them off.
I whipped up some fast mashed potatoes, gravy and a garden salad made with lettuce, red cabbage, bell peppers, cucumber, tomatoes and onions. Not bad for a Wednesday night. 🙂
No birthday would be complete without presents! This gift of an electric hair trimmer was just a decoy gift. His real gift was two tickets to the Malmö vs. Atletico Madrid Champions League game here in Malmö! He was pretty surprised and excited.
