Rosemary-Roasted Potatoes with Goat Cheese

Attempted on: June 22, 2008
Source: Cooking Light [link] and [link]

Well, tonight’s dinner started out well, but ended less so. I decided to try the Rosemary-Roasted Potatoes with Goat Cheese, since I had some goat cheese in the fridge. I used regular baking potatoes, but I assume I could use red potatoes as well, which I might try next time. I also wasn’t sure if they should be peeled, as the recipe didn’t say, but I decided to go that route.

Because I went to the nursery yesterday, I now have a happy rosemary plant, so I used that instead of the organic dried stuff in my spice rack. I’m thinking that I really should invest in something like this – mincing rosemary by hand is somewhat tedious, but really, I’m concerned next time I’ll end up chopping part of a finger off. Which would definitely not fall under “good.” I also used bottled minced garlic instead of fresh, because that’s what was in the fridge.

I was going to make this with grilled pork chops, but decided on a whim to make the Pork Tenderloin with Pomegranate Glaze again. The recipe’s pretty easy, and I had an open bottle of the Rose’s pomegranate martini mix in the fridge (which I tried making martinis with, but didn’t like, so I was looking to get rid of it, plus, I had that theory about it being easier to turn into glaze).

Last time I made the pomegranate glaze, it was definitely way too much like juice, so I thought I’d let it boil the whole time. (The recipe says to bring the juice and sugar to a boil and then to let it cook for 8 minutes, but it doesn’t say if “cook” means “keep at a boil” or “simmer” or anything. Since it didn’t reduce last time, I thought maybe I’d done it wrong last time – didn’t let it boil.) I let it boil for about 15 minutes, since it didn’t seem to be reducing again (it’s supposed to be about a 1/2 cup when it’s done). When I went to put it on the pork before putting the pork in the toaster oven to cook, it basically congealed as soon as it touched the pork. Definitely a bad sign. (The pot that I used to make the “glaze” in is currently sitting in the sink, soaking, which I’m sure it will be for a while.)

While the pork was cooking, I put some goat cheese in the freezer to make it a little easier to crumble over the potatoes. The cheese was a little squishy, and I think it was because of the incident the other day, when I somehow left my fridge door open for a little while, and the fridge light screwed with stuff. (Hopefully, it’s still okay and won’t make me sick, because that would suck. A lot.) Either my kitchen was really warm between the weather and the oven having been on, or the cheese is not okay, because I took it out of the freezer, and it became very soft (with little bits of frozen cheese in the middle), and wasn’t crumble-able at all. Because it was mixed in with the potatoes, it didn’t really matter, but it’s a little disconcerting that it got that soft that quickly.

When I took the pork out of the toaster oven, I cut it to make sure it cooked all way through, and it looked a little pink. It also smelled kind of weird. I can’t place the smell, but it wasn’t the usual smell of cooked pork. So my dinner consisted of the potatoes and some nice Sutter Home white zinfandel. I was going to make chocolate-dipped fruit for dessert, but I don’t have the energy right now, and it’s kind of late. Maybe tomorrow.

Addendum (June 23, 2008): By the way, I forgot to mention that I left the balsamic vinegar out of the potato recipe for one very simple reason: I don’t like it. (Okay, two reasons: I also didn’t have any in the fridge/cabinet anymore.)