Pork chop ma façon

Eastside Road, April 1, 2012—

DEAR MARY JO came to dinner today — a good old-fashioned Sunday dinner, taken about three in the afternoon — and we had a feast. I made pork chops as we like them: grind up a couple of cloves of garlic, the right amount of salt, and fennel seeds with a mortar and pestle, moisten with lemon juice and olive oil, and spread it on the surface of the chops.

I seared them on the griddle on top of the stove, turning them once, then finished them in the oven, where the girls had already roasted carrots, potatoes, and a few cloves of garlic.

Mary Jo brought some crêpe batter, an Oro blanco, a blood orange, a tangerine and some kumquats, and whipped up our dessert. Nothing like having two first-rate pastry chefs in the house.

Arneis, Tintero (Langhe), 2009;Rosso di Sicilia, Piccolo Fiore, 2009