Celebration!

Pork stewed in red wine 5:00 pm --- OK! I survived the 2nd week of my new part-time job (daytime), and I don’t have to work tonight. So, I ought to celebrate with a special dinner!!! There was a very unfortunate incident in the middle of last month. My aunt gave me some bottles of wine, and I tried to open one of them right away. The tragedy was --- I broke the cork. There was nothing I could do but to push the cork into the wine. It would have been a nice blooper to post, but the cork in the red wine was not visible in the photo, so I gave up. Anyway, when I decided to make a special dinner for tonight, the wine bottle came into my sight, and I thought it’d be nice to bring the wine into the spotlight, taking this opportunity. So, what about big chunks of meat stewed in red wine? That’s something I've never done before and sounds awfully luxurious. OK. Time to do a net search for a recipe. 5:12 pm --- Found a recipe (in Japanese) that looks nice. Gotta go shopping! 6:20 pm --- Started preparation. 6:45 pm (apx.) --- Most of the ingredients (except the carrots and orange sections) are in the pot now, after being properly sautéed. Poured in red wine and soup stock, put a bay leaf, and added rosemary, too, even though it was not in the recipe. The recipe says simmer for at least 1 hour..... OK, if you say so. 7:15 pm --- Sorry. I can’t wait that long. It’s time to put grated orange rind and carrots, because I say so. And I’m not going to wait for 30 more minutes. 7:30 pm --- Time’s up. I’m hungry. So, after taking a photo real quick, my special dinner started. : ) It was GOOD. The orange flavor is the key, I would say. I’m so glad that I gave this recipe a try. It certainly made this meal memorable, and made me feel that I did something special to make up for the stressful week. OK. Now we can see the cork. See the cork? P.S. And please don’t call me a weirdo even though I had cooked rice, lettuce salad and iced oolong tea to accompany the main dish tonight.