Pigs and Pears

I have said too many times to count that I will never cook pork for dinner again, and I keep going back and trying. Why? For one, nobody likes a quitter, and two, I'm stubborn as a mule.

My efforts have (mostly) paid off, and this dish is one to repeat. This pork loin recipe was sweet and savory (plus, Matt raved, so I was thrilled).



I loosely followed this recipe from Epicurious.com, along with this one from Girl Cooks World. Modifications as follows:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Heat 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil over med-high heat in an overnproof sauté pan.
Mix 1 Tablespoon EVOO, 1 Tablespoon dried thyme, 1 Tablespoon minced garlic (if you love garlic as much as me), 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste in a small bowl. Rub mixture all over pork loin.
Brown pork loin in pan on all sides until golden brown. Remove pork from pan and set aside.
Add quartered red onion and quartered unpeeled pears to the same pan, sprinkle with thyme, salt, pepper, and a few splashes of balsamic vinegar, cooking for about 5 minutes over medium heat, or until pears are golden brown.
Place your pork loin back in the skillet and drizzle with 3 Tablespoons honey.
Add 3/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth to the pan, and roast in your preheated oven for 15-20 minutes.
Notes:
I used dried herbs, because whenever I buy them fresh, they sit around and rot and so I basically buy them for my garbage can. If you don't have this same issue, go ahead and use fresh!
I only had 2 pears. This actually ended up being enough, since Matt's not too keen on fruity meat.
I omitted the pear nectar since I was using honey, again, no overly-fruity meat.



When I cut into the pork, it was juicy and slightly pink. I served alongside the pears and onions, and drizzled the delicious juices from the pan over top. We gobbled this up faster than you can say, "Gangbusters", along with green beans and of course, a crusty dinner roll. Yum!