Pork-Wrapped Pork is Always a Winner

We made plans for a couple of friends to come over for dinner on Saturday night, so I really saw it as an opportunity to stretch my culinary wings. The fear I decided to confront on this particular occasion was my fear of cooking meat.

I blame my parents for this fear. I don’t blame them in the way that some people blame their parents for all their problems in adulthood. I blame them only because, for a large portion of my childhood, we were a vegetarian family. I have absolutely no regrets or sad memories of this. In fact, I think my parents did a bang-up job of raising me (if I do say so myself). However, if a finger must be pointed, then I point it at them: J’accuse!

All that healthy living early on prevented me from learning how to properly handle and cook meat products. The first time I can recall cooking chicken on my own was well into my college years, when a friend came to visit me in Boston. He grudgingly showed me the intricacies of cutting the tendon from the tenderloin, and properly washing all surfaces after coming in contact with the raw meat. All very new to me. Sure, I had no problem eating chicken fingers in a bar, but to actually prepare meat myself was just otherworldly.

After meeting and then moving in with my now husband, Erik, I got a little more adept at cooking chicken, but I never really caught on to preparing other types of meats. Ground beef I could handle, but not burgers or chops or steaks. Any time I tried something new, I would get overwhelmed and frazzled, and do something wrong at some point, and end up with an overcooked burger or burnt pork chops (hypothetically speaking, of course). Then I’d be frustrated and give up on cooking for a long while.

So it’s only natural that, in this new adventurous cooking phase of my life, I would start it off by confronting my fear of raw meat head-on. I found a good-looking recipe for something that sounded tasty, and followed the recipe to a “t.” The result was only slightly dry, and only because we had to wait a while for our company to arrive, and I probably shouldn’t have kept the pork loin in a warm oven the whole time. Lesson learned. It was still delicious.

I wasn’t sure what to pair the pork with, and I think this is another place where I get overwhelmed. I obsess about the perfect sides, and then I bite off more than I can comfortably chew, and get overwhelmed with prepping and cooking elaborate accompaniments. This time, I decided to let the pork speak for itself, and just threw together a simple salad with ingredients I already had in the fridge. I didn’t hear a single complaint. Our guests brought over a loaf of bread and BAM—we had ourselves a lovely meal.

Bacon-Wrapped Maple Pork Loin