Can you answer this super-fast? Pork side dish

Oh, good! I'm glad your gathering was a success, soz. I take it that the pork dish worked out wonderfully, too?

(Actually, I was quietly worried that I might have recommended something that might not have worked as well as you'd hoped. Phew! )

With regard to quantities: I always cook more! I don't trust those tasteful recipes with the correct quantities & prefer to have some food left over (to then eat for days after! ) rather than not enough!

Mashed? Never thought of that! Actually they're nice cold, too, would you believe? I know, from over-catering & having left-overs in the fridge for a couple of days!

How's the timing work when you do more? That's why I wanted to keep it low, so I could know what to expect, timing-wise. Do you just do it in two batches, or do Noddy's times for 1.5 lbs sound about right?

Soz

I'd just use a slightly bigger pot, add a bit more time to the cooking. Then test for done-ness, stir the potatoes around a bit more, so the outside ones & the inside of the pot ones change places ... Then add a bit more time to the cooking, when needed. Potatoes are so easy & so forgiving! There's not much you can do to actually destroy them, apart from drastic over-cooking. Oh, & I've been known to use up to 10 garlic cloves if the ones I'm using lack a little oomph!

Sounds good.

We looooove garlic around here. :-D

Ah, a garlic-friendly household! (The sozlet, even?) That is a happy home!

Oh, she loves it. Loves how it tastes, but especially loves peeling it. (Nimble little fingers, she's good at it.)

The pork went pretty well too, I really like the recipe and I think I'll ace it next time. The cuts were a bit too thick and took way too long to cook through, but the thickness was variable and so some of it was overdone and a bit dry. But the taste was good, and I gave the thickest cuts to the guests and hopefully theirs were less dry. (They said it was good but guests pretty much always do, don't they? Until we know them really well, anyway.)

Sozlet the garlic muncher! A girl of my own heart!

Yes, guests do tend to be polite (as we do when we're their guests) but then the hostess (or host) tend to be quite critical of their own efforts, don't they? Perhaps the truth is in the middle, there, somewhere? :wink: The main thing, really, is that everyone had a great time, yes? And that someone made this effort, in their own home, to feed you, & offer their hospitality to you.



(I had to laugh, soz. I did a spellcheck before sending this. And was told sozlet should be "sozzled"! )

I just read this whole thread and gained five pounds.

Very funny!

We did have a really nice time. This family is eerily parallel to us in a lot of ways -- husbands are professors together, wives are both stay-at-home moms who are not quite your typical soccer mom, one kid each, the kids are within a couple of years of each other (1.5 I think) age-wise, the wives and husbands are each (respectively) within a few months of each other, all moved here at a similar time (they moved here a bit more recently), etc., etc.

The one monkeywrench in the gears is that the little boy in their family is just learning to speak English (not their native language, though the adults are fluent) and is a bit of an imp and a bit of a yeller -- sozlet gets impatient with him. (We asked her after he left if she'd like to have a little brother like him and she answered, NO, quite emphatically.) I think having an annoying little brother presence can be a good thing, though, especially long-term. (We all plan to be here in Columbus for a good long while.)

Funny about "sozzled"! :-)

Nice, soz! A very good reason to entertain! New friends!
But (if it was the first time they've been to your home, I can understand how you'd be a bit anxious that everything be "right"!) I get anxious when I'm entertaining close friends, even, for heaven's sake! Remember my neurotic "apprehensive hostess" thread?

Sozlet's world is certainly expanding at quite a pace right now! Soon, a puppy. Next, a new "annoying little brother presence"! And, before you know it, school! Life is such an adventure when you're little & everything is so new! <sigh>

We've gotten together maybe hmmm 8 times? so far; not the first time, no.

It was actually pretty laid-back, tho.

The "soon, a puppy" part is just HOPEFUL. I still don't know if it will happen. <fingers crossed>

Oh, one of many meals together then? This can only get easier!

I have my fingers crossed, soz, that the puppy becomes a certainty. Soon. The sozlet would just adore it!