A Whole 30 Birthday (Day 13)

One of the only hesitations we had about doing a January Whole 30 is that E's birthday falls mid-month. Normally we celebrate birthdays with a decadent meal out, but that wouldn't be an option on this eating plan. Before we decided to start the Whole 30, we issued an invitation to some friends to have dinner at our place yesterday as part of the festivities. By the time they accepted, we were on board, and so we faced a challenge: What can you make for company that is Whole 30 compliant?

E and I spent a 2 1/2 hour round trip drive to a remote Minnesota town to pick up 2 hams (long story) discussing this very problem. I wanted to be sure it was food that she would enjoy, since it's her birthday, and that I would be comfortable preparing, since I'm the primary chef. E wanted several courses. Sure, why not? Here's what we landed on:

• Walnut-stuffed dates wrapped in prosciutto as an appetizer. I didn't follow a specific recipe, but sourced my cooking instructions (8 minutes at 350) from a different stuffed date recipe online, and that was perfect. We also served olives, cashews and almonds.
• Warm spinach salad with bacon. As it turned out, this was not with bacon, because neither our co-op nor Whole Foods had sugar-free bacon. I improvised and used cracklings from my recent lard rendering adventure as the porky crunch in this recipe. I had served this at a family gathering this summer; it is indeed smashing with bacon!
• Creamy broccoli soup as a starter. This was pretty simple to throw together, but the leeks make it a bit special. An immersion blender saves mess and danger on the last step. 
• Roasted carrots as a side. Carrots tend to shrink up when roasted, so I made lots of extra to make the serving dish look reasonably bountiful. They took longer than the 20 minutes advertised; closer to 40. A stir partway through was helpful to avoid over-browning on one side.
• And the piece de resistance: a stuffed pork loin roast as the main dish! I took a bit of a chance with this one, as I had never attempted to prepare a pork loin roast before (let alone butterfly it and roll it). My trusty Cook's Illustrated Meat Book maddeningly insisted that I would need to brine the roast to keep it moist, which requires sugar. The Whole 30 friendly recipe I linked above turned out tender and delicious even without brining. I used the video linked in the recipe to learn how to butterfly the roast, and it could not have been easier. Like the carrots, it did take a bit more time to reach the right temp than specified in the recipe.
• We were ready to go with raspberries and slivered almonds for dessert, but we were all too stuffed to contemplate eating more.

I knew we had a pork loin roast in the freezer from the pastured half hog we had purchased this fall, so I pulled that out to thaw on Monday. Imagine my surprise at 2:30 pm yesterday when I finally unwrapped the white paper packaging to find... ribs! The butcher had mislabeled the package, leaving me high and dry. I was saved by the kind meat counter staff at Mississippi Market on West 7th, where they were able to cut me a roast to order within a few minutes. 

All told, the dinner party was a success! If I may say so myself, the food was tasty (and not too overwhelming for the chef), and we had a great time talking and laughing with friends.