Oven baked pork chops with caramelised parmesan applesauce

I spent three months wanting to cook something more creative than oatmeal with currants and peanut butter (which is a delicious breakfast), but somehow never found the time. When I moved out of my shared house a few days ago, I was faced with finishing the fridge, including a bag of apples, pork chops, and parmesan cheese rinds, the combination of which screamed awesome at me. The result was oven-baked pork chops with caramelised parmesan applesauce.

Fruits

Souvenirs from Spain and Sweden

I took it upon myself to find some really unique souvenirs during my trip in Europe. Among them were a sign saying "WC," the ubiquitous indication of a bathroom (asking for a bathroom likely brought visions of a Roman bath house to the local people, judging from their facial expressions). I also learned that Tove Jansson was not only Finnish, but half Swedish! It brought to mind the charming stories I read as a kid which my mom found in a garage sale or used book store, and also a Finnish store I went into once in Toronto which had a whole mural painted of the characters.

So when we discovered a new fruit (nisperos!) in Barcelona,

I saved the large seeds, and I'm going to use them as beads.

In Stockholm, I found a set of brass buttons which will be perfect to replace the (plastic!) ones on my thrifted black leather jacket. For 30 Swedish Kronor!

Making My First Basket

Over the past few weeks I've had some dates with Meka who is teaching me how to make baskets! I met her through Swapsity, a site where you can swap items and skills based on a rating system of different users. So far I have finished the base and worked around the corner to start making the sides. It's going to be a fruit bowl because right now my fruit bowl is a giant rectangular Pyrex ugly thing! Its hard surface isn't exactly kind on the tender flesh of the fruit. 

View of the interior

View of the exterior