Introducing...Mrs. Gastro

So first of all, a great big apology for being so absent for the last month and a half or so. For anyone not in the know, I was a little preoccupied GETTING MARRIED!!! :) And therefore was too distracted with napkin colors, playlists, seating arrangements and travel itineraries for very much writing, let alone cooking.

And trust me, I have many an exciting gastro-journey to report surrounding the big day itself. I mean, sure, there was the food at the reception, which was good (at least I remember the one or two bites I was able to get down before I was whisked onto the dance floor being nice enough). But around that same general time there were lobster rolls, midnight omelettes, cape cod clam bakes, cheese and champagne al fresco, not to mention bachelorette brunches, bagels and lox with family, and one EPIC SIZED dining table. And I will relate each and every one of these adventures. Later.

But tonight, for my first blog as a married lady, I thought I would relate the particulars of a rather unremarkable meal I cooked a couple weeks back. I know. Boring. But bear with me. Because what makes this particular meal special is the fact that it was exactly how I would have liked to have been cooking throughout the escalating hysteria that is planning a wedding, had my life been anywhere near normal. But nothing had been normal. I'm pretty sure this was the first time I had gone into my kitchen in weeks. I think if you ask most newly married women how much time they had for the simple things like cooking meals during the weeks leading up to their wedding, the vast majority of them would laugh in your face and reach for the nearest takeout menu. Seriously. Things at Chez Gastro had been...a little hectic.

Lucky for me (and Mr. Gastro...and our tummies) one of the first gifts we received when the onslaught of wedding loot began about a month prior to the big day was a gift card to our local surf-hut themed food-o-rama. And this was an excellent gift. It was like someone gave us permission to cook again, just like that. It was like an invitation to get back to normal, if only for a day. So on the first cool crisp day of the season, I got a hankering for some old fashioned comfort food and picked up a couple of lovely french cut pork chops, some apples, and a bottle of wine and went to town. I locked myself in the kitchen and whipped up a marinade with dijon mustard, fresh rosemary, shallots, and a little bit of honey, and let the pork chops hang out in there while I fixed the salad. The beauty of this particular pork chop recipe was that with a little bit of olive oil and a drop or two of balsamic, a tablespoon of leftover marinade made a dandy salad dressing.

I had been thinking about the traditional combo of pork chops and applesauce, and decided to give it a bit of an update. A couple of sliced apples in a pan of hot butter, cinnamon, red wine and a dash of salt and sugar until they were just slightly soft turned out to be a great grown up twist on the old standard. I dropped the apples in a pretty little ramekin, propped the pork chops on a bed of baby arugula with blue cheese and walnuts, placed the whole shebang on our spiffy new china and had...::GASP:: a real meal with my fiancé.

I cannot stress enough what an average night this was. We ate dinner in front of the TV, racing each other to the correct responses on Jeopardy. We ate in our pajamas. But sometimes a meal can come together like magic, where everything is cooked to perfection, and the flavors are the exact right thing for that moment in time. When the kitchen gods are smiling on you. This was one of those nights. We needed that meal. Hanging out on the couch, alternating sweet spicy apples, funky blue cheese, and tangy tender pork chops, just to keep our tongues on high alert--it felt like we had earned that meal, with all of the previous month's planning and stressing, and micro-managing. With all of the pizza. We had earned it. With my feet in his lap and a big glass of red wine in his hand, Mr Gastro let out a big sigh, sank just a little deeper into the couch, and said, "This is perfect baby. This is wonderful."

So I promise, promise, promise, that in the next week or two I will share all of my food related wedding stories, in multiple installments if I have to. But for the time being, please content yourselves with this first meal, and a taste of what I can only hope will be the general flavor of our marriage from here on out. Something undoubtedly laid back, but crafted with a lot of care.