Meal: garlic-butter roasted pork, scalloped potatoes, plus a side salad for me
Cost: about $2.30 per serving, 3 servings all together per person
Time: 50 minutes, 30 of which was active prep time
Leftovers: a serving of pork and a serving of potatoes, which went with Jeff for lunch today
Local ingredients: pork, potatoes, cheese (Ohio), lettuce (mostly local, with some organic greens mixed in), tomatoes, mayonnaise, butter, milk, cream
Organic ingredients: garlic, spices

Our One Local Summer meal for this week was Thursday night, and was garlic-butter roasted pork and scalloped potatoes. Despite having made plenty of combinations of potatoes and cheese, I’d never made scalloped potatoes. I browsed a bunch of recipes online and a few in various cookbooks before I started.

First, pull the pork out of the freezer (our egg farmer sells pork tenderloin split up into 4 smaller pieces per package, so I cut two away from the other two, and get to leave two in the freezer. Nice.) and get it into a bowl of water to thaw. While that’s thawing, slice up a couple of pounds (8 or so medium) of potatoes thinly (1/8 to 1/4 of an inch) and place into shallow skillet of water. Bring to boil on your stove and boil for 3 minutes or so. While that’s boiling, grate your cheese (about a 1 1/4 cup, or more if you like your potatoes extra cheesy). Mix 1/2 cup milk and 1/4 cup cream and butter a 9×13 pan. When the potatoes have boiled, layer them into your pan. Dot them with butter, pour over the cream/milk mixture, and sprinkle with cheese. Put the pan into oven and turn it to 400.

Next, heat a stainless steel frying pan or other oven safe skillet. Melt a bit of butter in it, and while that melts, peel and chop several cloves of garlic (how much is up to you. We like garlic around here.) Pull the pork out of its wrapping and plop it in the pan. Cook the pork briefly on each side, until it is just brown. Dot the pork with more butter (this is not a particularly healthy meal), and sprinkle with thyme and salt and pepper. Coat the pork with garlic and put the pan into oven. Roast 20 minutes or until done. Your potatoes will be done by this point, with a nice crispy brown crust over a creamy cheese mixture. Make yourself a side salad out of some local greens and your dad’s tomatoes, and ranch dressing you made the night before. Feast.