First Things Second

Who am I? Why do I blog?

So.....I impulsively started this blog last night, and I skipped right over the whole intro portion.

I'm Jenny McGuire and there was a time in the not-so-distant past when when my idea of "dining in" was to stay and eat in California Tortilla rather than carry my BBQ chicken burrito and large chips + queso back to my condo across the street.*

*Alternate usage: Clydes.

Example: "Are we dining in the bar or should we get a table in the dining room?"

You think I exaggerate? Just ask one of my many roommates over the past five years living in Chinatown, DC. This is no joke, people.

Fast forward to September 2010 and here I sit in the most adorable little cottage in the center of Charlottesville, VA.

My husband (Mr. Domestikhated) is in school here for the next year. What do I do? Well, having just moved town a month ago, I job hunt. I cook. I clean. I volunteer. I drink wine. I hang with girlfriends. I use my sleepy puppy as an excuse to sit and watch TV for inexcusably long periods of time. I craft. I daydream. I beautify my home. I relish being a new wife. I love my husband, my dog, my family.

Dear readers (this is a little nod to my audience of one...me!), expect this blog to vacillate between too much and not enough. I'm a Gemini and a Padden, I was destined to be this way celestially and genetically. I spent my entire life avoiding cooking and now I love to do it--adding too much of every flavor, every time, without fail. I love to decorate my environment, but again, do not know when to say when. Mr. Domestikhated and I have been in our current house for approximately one month, and every room already looks like Joseph ate his technicolor dreamcoat and ralphed all over everything.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

(colors muted by cool sepia effect thanks to Hipstamatic app for iphone)

I'm thinking that I'll write about various things that inspire me in my daily life. From photos of yummy meals and our yummy puppy to craft ideas and more...I'll see where the blog leads me.

Thanks for stopping by...

~JM

Swooning For Swine

Tonight Mr. Domestik and I tackled pork loin. And by we tackled, I clearly mean that he tackled it while I juggled the taxing dual roles of sous-chef and wine drinker (I may no longer be a domestik hater, but I'm certainly no domestik goddess yet either).

Disclaimer about the pork dish: I've never been a huge fan of the swine in any of its edible permutations. Don't like bacon, don't like ham, don't like...well that's not true, do like prosciutto, but I refuse to let a cured meat that I have to google in order to spell correctly mar my otherwise pristine list of loathsome pork products.

The results of tonight's experiment, however, were UH-mazing. Like, to die for. Way to go Mr. D.! You make domesticity so yummy and fun, and continue to expand my horizons, both culinary and otherwise.

A generous heap of butter hit the pan, and my skepticism about the recipe began to melt right along with it

Pecans floating in a pool of butter...yessir, we're definitely on the right path here...

Mr. D. using his beloved new carving knife to butterfly the pork. Pardon me while I slip out to watch Bravo and skip this portion of the cooking program

PS--the irony of my watching "The Real Housewives of DC" while the hubby cooked was not lost on me

Domestic Dog Tater looks on with disdain. He wonders why we are cooking pork when he caught us a perfectly good fox...

The pecan paste is being laid, not unlike cement (and I mean this is the BEST, most gluttonous way possible)

Tyin' her up...

Stuffed and bound (this looks like how I felt in my wedding gown the end of the night...)

Voila! The final product. It was an amazing meal and we'll def tackle again during one of our Wednesday night dinners