The notes in my cookbook indicate that I made this recipe for dinner with Carl in September of 2005.  While I recall little about the meal itself, I do remember that evening quite clearly.  I was in a weird place emotionally, coming off a dizzying summer of shows and dancing and heartbreak.  I was starting to feel the ground under my feet professionally and intellectually.  Things were about to shift, and I was feeling at loose ends.  After dinner, we laid on the paint-stained hardwood floors and talked and smoked cigarettes, and when he kissed me goodbye, I felt like a tremendous weight was lifted off my shoulders.

That’s one of the reasons I love cooking – and one of the reasons I’ve liked this project so far: that a note written in a cookbook can bring back so vividly the memories of a meal shared with a friend.  I don’t know that this note will have the same kind of effect several years from now, but that doesn’t change the fact that it was a good dinner.  Shane was a bit put off by the texture and flavor of the rhubarb – when it isn’t used in desserts, rhubarb is tangy and sour – but the pork was flavorful, and I’m kind of blown away by the fact that we roasted pork chops in our toaster oven.  (Yes, you read that correctly.)

Recipe:
Super Pork Fillet Roasted on Rhubarb from Happy Days with the Naked Chef