Ay, There's the Rub: On Ham-let and Other Midsummer's Night's Meals

Sunday, we had roast pork loin with a dry rub along with the summer squash recipe. A word to the wise: make sure the ratio of summer squash doesn't overwhelm the rest of the vegetables in the recipe. It's tempting to do this because chances are you have a ton of squash to get through, but it tends to make the recipe less appealing. For the record, I'm also finding that using a few canned Italian plum tomatoes in the recipe really works a lot better than some less-than-juicy nearly-in-season tomatoes from the supermarket.

The pork was easy to prepare (since "Bob" did it all). He says the nearly 2-pound pork tenderloin was rubbed down with kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, and dry mustard and roasted for 2 hours at 350 degrees.

Monday we had a special guest (Iz!) and a new cole slaw recipe. I made paper-thin panini: a slice and a half of Swiss cheese, a few very thinly sliced pieces of pork, and grainy mustard on rye bread. I slathered the olive oil on the press and the pan, warmed both of them over a medium flame, then added the sandwiches to the pan. In a matter of 10 minutes (don't forget to flip the sandwich once and apply pressure to the press every so often) I had a pair of delicious sandwiches. "Bob" meanwhile prefered to have his cheese and meat on dry toast--his British DNA wins out over every once in while.

The cole slaw recipe we used was from this page of the Seasonal Chef web site. I've copied it below, but I would suggest that you perhaps halve the sugar amount. It was pretty sweet. Yes I know that "sweet" is in the recipe's name, but still, exercise some caution. The vegetable oil was not gross, which I had feared it would be.

Tonight we skipped ahead: hot dogs, cole slaw, and some leftover summer squash. Tomorrow we'll have the pork with a side of green beans..

Sweet and Tangy Cole Slaw

1 cabbage, finely shredded
1 medium red onion, quartered and thinly sliced
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 cup vinegar
2/3 cup vegetable oil

Directions
1. Combine shredded cabbage with sliced onion.
2. Combine remaining ingredients and bring to boil.
3. Pour over cabbage and toss.
4. Cool, then refrigerate.