A Dueling Combination...

Well, dinner last night was a joint effort by two of our week's favorites:

That's right!  After almost an entire week's worth of dedication: Curtis AND Bethenny both came together to create our dinner last night;) hahahahahahhaa

And it was quite a colorful dinner, if I do say so myself!  You know what they say about 'eating the rainbow'...

We started with Curtis Stone's Pork Tenderloin with Apple Compote.  Anddddd since we didn't have an hour to cook a pork tenderloin, we just used 'chops:)  Scott coated them in minced garlic, salt, pepper & marjoram (love any excuse to use that often neglected bottle on our spice rack;)

And to kick em up a notch, they were topped with the apple compote.  Scott cooked 2 peeled, cored & quartered apples coated in ground cloves for about 7-8 minutes on medium heat (*Careful!  The cloves burn quickly!  Stir them often.)  He mashed those up and we added a scoop of frozen apple juice concentrate.  The recipe called for apple brandy, which-darn it-we were out of:)  I figured the leftover concentrate I had in the freezer would make a flavorful swap...

And it did:)  This was like a "fancied up" version of pork chops and applesauce:)  Loved the savory, garlicky pork with the sweet & clove scented apples...

Next up was Bethenny's Sweet Potato Mash.  Now, I KNOW you don't necessarily need a BOOK to tell you how to make sweet potato mash...but I loved her ingredients list, so I thought I'd try it out....

• 2 tablespoons Smart Balance
• 2 tablespoons Unsweetened Coconut Milk (it was what we had in the fridge)
• 1 tablespoon honey
• Vanilla Powder (or beans...or extract....whatever you got)
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg

Yum!  So flavorful!  I have been on a nutmeg KICK lately, so I think that's why I gravitated towards this recipe:)  Is nutmeg good for anything?????  (appetite suppressant...anything??)  Cause I like adding it to EVERYTHING lately;)

And finally, back to Curtis for stir-fried sugar snap peas.  Confession:  Not really a fan of these, but figured I'd like anything cooked in garlic....

4 cloves to be exact:)  Plus a few tablespoons of water & rice vinegar to steam these up and we were good to go.  They took...maybe...10 minutes TOPS!  I can't lie and say they're were my FAVORITE VEGETABLE SIDE EVER, but they rounded out the meal nicely:)

And if nothing else, this was one of the best SCENTED meals ever:)  The cloves, nutmeg, apples, sweet potatoes and garlic were one delicious combination:)  Really!  You'd want to dab this dinner behind your ears:) hahahahahahahahah....

ANYWAY in other news:  Much like the shock that blueberry goat cheese was delicious....so was Agave in coffee!  I realllllly didn't think my taste buds were going to agree with that one, but it actually was none too shabby!  It's 60 calories a tablespoon, and I used about 2 teaspoons and that was WAY too much.  (even for MY Super Sweet Tooth:)  So that's not too bad in the calorie department in the grand scheme of things:)  So try it out, if you're looking to get away from those little packets of fake sugar.  I know I'm trying my damnedest and it's not easy, but we can try, right?? 

Right! :)

And in MORE "other" news, I've joined Miz Helen's New Full Plate Thursday this week!  Stop by her blog...her blog AND Miz Helen are both adorable:)

OK...that's all I got for today!  No, I lied:)  Follow me on Facebook or Twitter if you'd like!  I have links on the left hand side of the page for both:)

NOW I'm done:  HAPPY THURSDAY! :)