Today, Kent and I cooked a piece of pork and made some fruity couscous with stuff in it I thought he'd like. I'm a huge fan of brining, so I marinated this pork for a couple of hours in orange juice, rice vinegar (we were running low on apple cider vinegar, which is what I normally use), brown sugar, and salt and pepper. I seared it on all sides, then put it in a baking dish, slathered the top with dijon mustard, then had Kent help me put some strips of bacon on top. I know, I know. Bacon on pork. But I can't argue with the results. I baked it until the bacon was done and the pork was cooked through, and it was moist and salty and oh-so-good.

For the couscous, I boiled just under a cup of water, then added 1/2 cup of couscous, a small peeled, diced apple, and a handful of raisins, and I took it off the heat and put a lid on to let it steam. I usually cook couscous for about five minutes, but this particular batch cooked for as long as it took me to get Dean down for a nap... how's that for a helpful gauge? When I came back into the kitchen, I added a handful of cashews, then tossed it with an orange-honey vinaigrette (hoping again to appeal to Kent).

He ate a lot of pork and bacon, and a few pieces of apple, raisins, and nuts, though he was very concerned any time couscous got on something he wanted to put in his mouth. Never the foods shall touch: this is his motto for now. But I did convince him to take a bite with couscous AND raisins together, and he didn't complain. It seemed like he wasn't really into the texture — he never has been any other time we've had couscous — but I keep thinking that if I introduce unfamiliar ingredients along with familiar tastes, he'll get on board at some point. I'm marking today as a success. Plus, I actually liked all of the stuff I cooked, and I thought the sweetness of the couscous was the perfect counterpoint to the saltiness of the pork. I usually say that I like raisins, but I don't like raisins in other stuff, though I discovered today that I really like raisins in couscous. See... moms can try new things, too.

Labels: Kent, kitchen adventures, photography

• posted by erica 8/04/2010 02:45:00 PM
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