Kitchen Wonders

This week I've tried cooking several new dishes and the results have been excellent both times! Last week, I made pork with a mustard sauce. Doesn't sound like a big deal except here's the thing: I don't eat pork. Bacon, yes, maybe even the occasional ham but I rarely eat pork and I've never made it before. So I made pork tenderloin pieces in a white wine-stone ground mustard sauce with egg noodles (Cooking Light, of course). Accompanied by roasted asparagus and baked apples. Delicious!

Last night I was more adventerous and made chicken tikka masala. Let me back up: when we were at The Fair a couple of weeks ago, Clay Pit (a local Indian restaurant) was there giving a cooking demo and the dish they were making was chicken tikka masala. Now, I love chicken tikka masala. It's really one of the few Indian dishes I've tried but I say stick with what you like. Problem is, it's in this really rich tomato-cream sauce. Not so healthy. But I looked at the recipe they handed out and they said you could substitute the heavy cream with plain, nonfat yogurt. So that's what I did! Granted, it wasn't quite as creamy as in the restaurant but it was still delicious and flavorful (at least, that's what Michael and Stephanie told me)! So really, it was chicken, yogurt, tomato sauce, only 2 T. of butter and spices. The spices were courtesey of Central Market, thank goodness! Did you know that WalMart wants $3.58 for a bottle of ground coriander?? I don't think so! I bought mine at the spice bar section at CM and only paid $0.13 and I still have more than enough for another round of cooking, maybe even two rounds! I bought all my weird spices (tumeric, garam masala, fenugreek) there--it's not so wasteful of money or spices this way!

That's my story for today. Michael's in DC until tomorrow night for work training so it's me and my little fuzzy boy. Cheers!