Maple Glazed Pork Medallions with Cheesy Garlic Basil Orzo

Ninja podcasted on Wednesday night, had bowling on Thursday night and hockey Friday night and Saturday night. Needless to say my nights have been… long.

I’m happy to say that it wasn’t HBear this time! 😊 Silver linings Folks! 

This time it was SBean. She did not want to go to bed and with Daddy not home, she totally took advantage of me. I would close the bedroom door and she would lay on the floor putting her face at the crack and SCREAM underneath it, “BAD Mom! Bad Bad BADDDDD Mom! You are THE BADDEST Mommy tonight!” If she knew the words I hate you, I guarantee she would have slung them at me too.

I didn’t actually know how to feel about the whole showdown. The first night I kinda thought it was hilarious. That feeling quickly turned to anger. Why do kids push it at bedtime? Don’t they realize it is the end of the day and Mommy has ZERO patience left? 

On Saturday morning Ninja got up and took the Girls to the pool. I did yoga because I couldn’t even turn my head my neck was so sore. After yoga I sat in the living room looking out the window just thinking.

I miss my Mom. I wish she was here to hear about my hard day. To make jokes about how I can’t/can handle it. To be my cheerleader, to be by soundboard, to be by punching bag.

I know I haven’t mentioned her as much lately, but I think about her all the time. I visit her often but I can talk to her anywhere. She would get a kick out of SBean and her antics. She reminds me so much of me as a kid 😜 and my Mom would laugh her ass off at that fact.

HBear, oh my God, she is questioning everything right now. She is at a real crossroads. She is pondering the meaning of life. She is 7 years old and this weighs so heavily on her, “what should I believe in science or God?” It is truly incredible.

I have a friend, he is a older gentleman, he is a Jehovah Witness. He started coming to our door 7 years ago and the first time he came, I got into a discussion with him and he has continued coming ever since. He brought me white roses when my Mom died and he brought me pink dahlias when I had SBean. I have met his children, who are at least 10 years older than me and we often get into some good “discussions” 😉.

He has been asking Ninja and I to come over for many years, to have more good discussions 😂 I like to talk religion but I am never going to be a Jehovah Witness. That’s all I have to say on that. However, HBear reads her Bible, excuse the pun, religiously. It is a children’s Jehovah Bible because my JW friend gave it to me. In all honesty it was the children’s Bible I grew up with as well. It is just a children’s Bible with pictures and easily understood stories of being a good moral person. You know, David and Goliath, Cain and Abel, the good Samaritan and all the other parables we all know.

On Friday he came over after school for question-and-answer period. HBear has been asking some pretty tough questions and we have been tending to give her answers based on science. She has been watching the series Cosmos at the same time as reading her Bible. She has many questions and I don’t want to tell her what to think but give her the option of exploring different avenues.

He came over for about 45 minutes and I sat at the table with them but let HBear control the conversation. She brought out her notebook where she had 8 questions clearly written out. Her first question was, how did God actually create the earth?

He answered and I have to say he was very tricky about it LOL he said that God has so much energy that he erupted or couldn’t hold his energy in, like a big bang. Get that? You get that? Tricky.

Her next question was how did Satan make Eve be a bad behavior? 😂 he explained that Satan lied. That is why you shouldn’t tell a lie. I could hear some of his Catholic guilt coming out LOL you see, my friend is a Searcher. A Searcher of answers. He was a devout Roman Catholic until his wife began questioning. Together they explored Scientology. After she died of cancer he got heavily involved with the Jehovah Witnesses. My friend… He is a Searcher.

Her third, fourth and fifth questions were about Noah. How did he make the Ark, did the unicorns miss the Ark, and how did Noah die?

He explained that he made the Ark with saws, which she corrected and said, “during that time they did not have saws. He would’ve had to make a saw out of a rock and sharpen it and it would have taken a very long time.” 😂 

He then told her Noah died when he was over 900 years old, she asked “Wasn’t there any cancer back then?”
No there wasn’t.
“Oh that’s how he live that long.”

He also said that while the animals were coming onto the Arc in pairs, which she corrected and said that some came on in sets of 7, which apparently was true LOL, The unicorns and the dinosaurs did not get on the boat.
?????

Later on she explained to me that that did not make sense. We saw the bones of the dinosaurs here in Canada so they had to have survived the flood.

She blew my mind. I didn’t realize how well she knew her Bible and she would quickly flip to the pages that he was talking to her about so she could point out things that did not agree with what he was saying. LOL he spoke to her all about how God picked David to be the King because he was so moral and good. HBear flipped right to the chapter where David cheats on his wife with his sister-in-law and sends his brother to the front lines of the battle so that she will become a widow.

I think we have done our job. 😇

When they were done she turned to him and asked him to come back next Friday to chat some more! HAHAHAHA I think we will wait on that and do some question/answer time of our own.

Later on while SBean screamed and spewed hatred at me from underneath the door HBear cuddled up and talked to me about her inner battle. Science versus God. I told her that’s a whole lifetime journey and that if anybody tells you that they know for sure, they are lying. Nobody knows. You can believe whatever you want to believe. I told her I believe that Jesus of Nazareth was trying to start a inclusive religion that accepted all types of people. He taught people to love one another and treat everybody how you would like to be treated. That is the belief I try to live my life by and I believe all those Bible stories have morals to them. 

I then explained that unlike God, science is not a belief. Experiments and math provide proven facts.  You don’t have to choose which to believe in, you may believe in God because science is fact.

Exhausting!

Like seriously fucking exhausting! 7!

I’m super proud of her but I’m also like, this is been a long long long week. Can I just have a break please?

Oh, did I mention our van got broken into? Not a big deal I don’t keep anything in there but it’s weird that everything was rifled through.

Oh, did I mention that a couple days later someone came right up underneath our bedroom window and used heavy duty bolt cutters to break our bike lock and steel Ninja’s bike? Did I mention that our hitch for the chariot and our attachment for the tailgater was on that bike that got stolen?

Just an emotional week.

When I was watching the Emmys on Sunday Julia Louis-Dreyfus made me have a mini breakdown. LOL

But… Could just be the weather. 😳😊

This week we had a variation of one of our favourite meals. It’s funny, my sister and I were talking at last weeks date night and she said that Chef Michael Smith from PEI has a maple glazed pork recipe. They have been cooking from his cookbook and really liked that one. She said that her hubby had made it with some orzo. I started laughing and read her my weekly menu where I had maple glazed pork chops with cheesy basil orzo and a veggie on the menu. I think it must be the fall air that makes everybody want those savoury comfy hot dishes. It is like boots, jeans and a sweater 😊

Maple Glazed Pork Medallions
Adapted from Creme de la Crumb

1 package fast fry pork medallions
2 tablespoons oil
¼ cup real maple syrup
3 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 cloves garlic, pressed
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
fresh thyme for garnish

Drizzle a large skillet with oil. Add pork medallions and cook over medium-high heat 3-4 minutes on each side until browned.

In a small bowl whisk together maple syrup, ketchup, soy sauce, vinegar, grams and ginger. Add to skillet and cook another 3-5 minutes, spooning sauce over the pork chops and turning to coat.

Garnish with fresh thyme.

Cheesy Garlic Basil Orzo
Adapted from Plain Chicken

2 tablespoons margarine
1 1/2 cups orzo
3 cups chicken broth
2 cloves garlic, pressed

Slowly stir in the broth and bring to a boil. 

So this week we made it through our first full week of school!