What’s on the menu tonight? It’s a healthy selection that’s easy to prepare, of course. And it will taste fantastic because if it doesn’t, it’s not worth doing. I’ve recently been reminded just how easy and delicious pork tenderloin can be. I’m not sure why we went through a phase where we didn’t eat much of it, but it was sure fun to discover it again.

I started off by rubbing my pork tenderloin with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, onion and garlic powders, ground coriander, ground cumin and chili powder.  I baked it at 400 degrees until it reached an internal temperature of 140 degrees, about 35 minutes. I chose a higher temperature so the outside would get a bit crusty, since I was far too lazy to sear it before baking.

Then I dug into my freezer and unearthed the rhubarb chipotle sauce I froze when I made an uber-batch this summer. The recipe was designed for ribs, but it’s perfect on pork tenderloin.

When I think pork, I think cabbage. It must be that little bit of German heritage I have, influencing my culinary decisions. Keith adores this recipe for sweet and sour cabbage wedges, so they went along with the pork tonight.

Finally, I roasted root vegetables: sweet potato, carrot, parsnip and onion. I put them on a tray and coated them with olive oil, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and popped the tray in the oven next to the pork. I tossed the veggies halfway through the cooking time and my dinner was ready.

Pork tenderloin — yes or no in your house?

As I’ve written before, those stuck at home with a five-year-old don’t generally party on New Year’s Eve, but that doesn’t stop this household from enjoying a delicious celebratory meal to ring in the New Year. In fact, last night we decided to invite the kid to join us rather than sneaking our meal after his bedtime.

It was the best decision we’ve made: not only did we all have a wonderful, unhurried meal (that was not at 9:00 at night!) but Owen set the dining room table and arranged a festive centerpiece. Since he was so invested in our celebration, he was the best company we could have asked for (other than turning rack of lamb into a finger food, but that’s just a little thing….).

We kept it simple so we wouldn’t be slaving away in the kitchen all evening. White bean dip with sun-dried tomatoes and roasted garlic was the perfect appetizer for munching-while-cooking, and rack of lamb (bought pre-seasoned from Trader Joe’s) is as simple as plopping it on a pan and baking for 25 minutes at 350 degrees. We put a tray of halved Brussels sprouts in with the lamb and turned the oven up to 400 degrees convection bake at the end for a few minutes to roast them all yummy and brown.

Three more things and our meal was complete:

• Edamame and fresh basil risotto … I’ll post the recipe soon!
• A sauce made with shallots, all-fruit preserves (Trader Joe’s Super Fruit Spread), balsamic vinegar and butter, based on this one from Rachael Ray
• a divine Chateauneuf du Pape

We hope you enjoyed your New Year’s eve food as much as we did ours … and that you’ll share what you ate in the comments! Happy New Year!

I posted recently about the crock pot chili recipe I devised, and I’m sitting here enjoying the leftovers for lunch as I type. It has a lovely little kick to it, and the only thing that could really be providing that is the multitude of freshly ground black pepper I added. Chili powder doesn’t really have a hot factor, does it? — Debbie

I had lunch at a Mexican restaurant. They brought out homemade chips and two different salsas before our burritos. One was a smokey red salsa, and the other was a green tomatillo salsa. The first bit of the tomatillo salsa hit me like a ton of bricks. The odd thing is, all future bites were less spicy. I must have gotten a big chuck of hot pepper. — Bob Degon

This summer, we got a miniature (ornamental?) hot pepper plant from our CSA Farm. It’s been wintering at my office, and I needed to prune it this week. Being a curious sort of guy, I decided to try one of the peppers to see how hot they were. I mean, they’re ornamental — how hot could they be? Well, let me just say that unless you are a glutton for punishment, you will not pop one of those little ornamental peppers into your mouth. — Keith

It wasn’t actually something I ate, but rather something I drank. I start each day with a glass of 100% cranberry juice, diluted in water about 1:6 or so. Yep, that’s right — no sugar, no artificial sweeteners, no sweet juices even added. It is cleansing to the system and really gets this non-coffee drinker going. — Debbie

I had a very tart clementine. Usually they’re sweet and delicious, but this was not the best of the bunch. I pride myself on my ability to pick out the best clementines, but even with superhuman orange detection skills like mine, I can’t guarantee every clementine in a crate is going to be worth eating. I didn’t even finish the little orange. Some clementines just aren’t worth eating. — Bob Degon

While I eschew bottled salad dressing whenever possible, I’m kinda lazy about making salad dressing.  When I was dressing my greens today, I tossed them with some olive oil, sherry vinegar, salt and pepper.  I must have been a bit heavy handed with the vinegar, though, because my-oh-my, that salad was so sour — my eyes nearly popped out of my head! — Molly

For me, it had to have been the fried egg that accompanied my banana chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast this morning. There’s just something about an over-easy egg that comforts me. Is the fact that I am eating a healthy protein? Is it the bright contrast of the whites and the school-bus-yellow yolks? I think it is probably the way the yolks ooze out all over the plate, soaking into the pancakes, just asking to be sopped up and devoured. — Debbie

Oatmeal strawberry muffins, made from scratch this morning. You’re getting starch and fruity goodness all in one little package. Alright, well, for me that’d be three tiny packages, but who’s counting? — Keith

Today, it was a slice of the homemade banana bread that I made. I love buying a huge number of bananas, knowing I won’t be able to eat them all. It gives me a chance to make the best banana bread in the world. It was warm, fresh from the oven, with a slightly crispy crust and moist and delicious in the center, with big chunks of banana and bits of pecans. — Bob Degon

Today was the kind of Sunday that didn’t see me out of my pajamas. It’s cold outside and I have no reason to leave the house. It was the perfect time for grilled cheese and tomato soup. It’s the quickest, simplest meal in the world, but there’s something about the familiarity of Campbell’s tomato soup that just makes me happy. The fanciest element of the whole thing was that I used gouda in the grilled cheese. Other than that, it’s the same meal we’ve all probably been eating for most of our lives. — Kona

At my grandparents’, for breakfast:  kołacz (a savory Polish yeast bread with cheese baked inside) with butter, which I hadn’t eaten in years.  It reminded me of visits to my grandparents’ when I was a kid, and we would enjoy slice after slice of Aunt Jennie’s kołacz, which was unlike any bread I had ever tasted. — Molly

What’s the most comforthing thing you ate today? Share it with us in the comments!