I am back from vacation, adjusting to life on land. I am getting used to cooking again and trying to lose the weight I gained from the food-fest cruise. Dinner this week included pork roast with mangoes (page 278) from Around My French Table. The pork is cooked with onion, garlic, red wine vinegar, white wine (I substituted chicken broth), soy sauce, lime juice, honey, chili powder, bay leaf, thyme and mangoes.
I did not notice the recipe called for a pork loin roast, I bought a pork tenderloin. This would not be the first time I made a mistake buying meat, and it won’t be the last. Even though we over cooked it, it still came out great. The flavors were wonderful. I was not able to find lychees and I did not have time to go to an Asian market so we just left them out, seemed to work with just the mango flavors. I love Dorie’s serving suggestions so we made cardamom rice (page 382) to go with it. When my son asked about dinner he said “we eating cardboard rice?” Unfortunately he did not like the cardamom rice, he prefers plain white rice but we now have a new name for the rice:)
I did a make up this week with waffles and cream (page 416). These are dessert waffles but I served them for breakfast anyway. This recipe did not work well for us. It is a thin batter and made a crepe type waffle which was a miss for our family. We prefer the crisp yeast-raised waffles my husband usually makes. I served them with strawberries and whipped cream which was a hit. We were pressed for time so my photo is rather plain. I am hoping my photography and plate presentation will get better as my brain gets back in gear. I have had a few hiccups this week.
These recipes are part of an international cooking group working our way through Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan.
CafeMomCooks 
Bill wasn't a huge fan of cardboard rice either 😉 Your plate looks wonderful to me, though! And what a wonderful holiday!! Thanks for sharing your photos.
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Welcome back! Looks like a wonderful vacation! And good for you getting two dishes made this week!
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Love your holiday pics. Your waffle looks good, even though it wasn't a hit for you. I liked the pork – I used pork tenderloin medallions!
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Looks like a fun trip…I'm not sure pork roast is a great diet food along with waffles.. FFWD has done nothing for my waistline. Glad the pork was tasty. My waffles came out crisp. I cooked them on a higher temp.
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Nice trip! I, too, always make the mistake of getting pork tenderloin instead of a pork loin roast. Sorry those waffles were a miss. I'm lagging–I didn't make either of these recipes!
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Love your vacation photos! Looks like you had a terrific time! We loved both the waffles and roast pork in our house! However, the recipe for the waffles did have a thin batter…I made it twice because the batter didn’t fill my iron. Mine were pretty crisp…but I did notice as the batter sat, the egg whites deflated and the waffles did not rise as much. I’d love to try your yeasted waffles!
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Welcome back, looks like it was a fun trip. I bought pork loin as well and also didn't like the waffles, so we seem to be on the same page this week.
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We had a misunderstanding about what was in the dinner as well! That rice is one of my favorites and would certainly be good with this! (P.S. I could do without the waffles too! So much bother!)
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It looks like you had a great vacation! I made mine with pork tenderloin too. I cooked it separately, the way I normally do, and just put the sauce over it. I haven't tried the waffles yet. I made a mistake that week. Welcome back to the fold.
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What lovely photos of your vacation! I made up the waffles this week, too. And I made the citrus version of the rice pilaf to go with the roast. Welcome back to dry land!
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What wonderful vacation photos!! It looks like you had a great time. And well done for doing two recipes!! I thought about tenderloin for the roast, but went with the actual loin roast because I was able to find a small one. I thought it was a very good preparation, though I think I'd like to adjust the seasonings. I did like the waffles, but not something I'd make often/again. It was a fun experiment – your husband's sound delicious!!!
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I love your photos from your vacation, looks like you had a wonderful time. Bothof your recipes looks delicious, we loved the pork and mango recipe. Tricia foundthe lychees so it worked well.
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That looks like a wonderful and exciting and educational trip, Diane. Yeah, restraint on cruises is not easy although I'm betting, knowing you, it's was 2 or 3 prounds at the very most. This week we seemed to have dealt with leeches and cardboard. Worth a giggle. I haven't made the waffles yet – no waffle iron, will have to borrow. So cannot comment but I do know the batter was thin. I also used a tenderloin. Didn't braise it as long but longer than most of the gals who also used tenderloins and it tasted delicious. Glad you're back safely and it appears as if all three of you had a good, good vacation.
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Great job getting two recipes completed right after vacation. We enjoyed both but I still have about 37 makeups to do – LOL maybe I should just got to Puerto Rico/St. Kitts !! Lovely photos- fun to see the area. So sorry you missed Adriana- she is delightful.
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Love your vacation photos, Diane, and I definitely laughed at the \”cardboard rice.\” Hee hee! Glad the pork was good, despite the wrong cut and the lack of lychees! Welcome home and good luck recovering from vacation. 😉
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LOL we prefer the thicker waffles too, I think these were too bothersome in their cooking for us, but they were tasty in the end! 🙂 Your pork roast looks great! Here I can only get one kind of pork roast so I have to watch my temperatures like a hawk but a good sauce seems to makeup for slightly drier pork in my opinion. 🙂
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Diane – looks like you enjoyed an absolute stellar vacation – fabulous pictures! The waffles must have benn a hit with the fresh strawberries and cream and your pork tenderloin with the lovely sauce and rice looks delightful!Have a nice week,Andrea
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It's always hard coming back from vacation! We enjoyed the pork roast too, even without lychees.
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