“Are you still going to do it?” I ask.
It’s obvious he can see the uncertainty on my face. “You don’t want me to, do you?”
I shrug. “It’s not that, Adam. I just know how terrified a lot of people are of you. You saw it yourself with me. I was sick with worry that you would give my restaurant a bad rating and it’d shut me down.”
He looks away, his expression pained. “That’s what kills me. I never wanted anyone to go out of business. It’s weighed heavily on my soul since you told me. All I did was give my opinion.”
I squeeze his hands. “And it’s obvious thousands and thousands of people value your opinion. It just breaks my heart because I know restaurants can have good and bad days, depending on what’s going on. I know I’m not perfect.”
A small smile spreads across his face when he looks at me. “Actually, you are.” He takes a deep breath and kisses my hand. “If I could go back and change things, I still don’t know if it would’ve been smart to tell you the truth. At least, not before you fell in love with me again.”
“Why?”
He shrugs. “Because I could hear the disdain in your voice when you told me about those other restaurants closing down because of my reviews. If you knew that August was me, I feel like you wouldn’t have given me a second chance. The more time I spent with you, the more I wanted to be just me.”
Sliding my hands away from his, I cup his cheeks. “I love you, Adam. And just so you know, I trust you. The review can stay. I might as well use you for something.” I wink and it feels good to see him smile.
“I think it’s time August Cahill retires. He’s caused way more harm than good. Besides, I don’t need him anymore.”
Hopping out of the chair, I wrap my arms around his neck. “Oh yeah? Why’s that?”
He holds me around the waist. “Because all that I need is standing right here in front of me.”
“You sure?” I ask, grinning mischievously.
His lips close down on mine. “Positive. Now all we need to do is discuss our future. I moved back to Chicago to be with you. We can take things as slow or as fast as you want. I’m ready to be with you no matter what. But what I want to know is if you can see me in your future?”
Looking into his bright blue eyes, I smile. “You are my future, Adam. Of that, I’m certain.”
He rests his forehead to mine. “I love you so much. One day, if you’ll have me, I’d love to make you my wife.”
I close my eyes. “And one day, when you ask, I might just say yes.”
THE END
Do you know what goes really well with festival food? Fair food! We are waiting for you at the Fair!
Balsamic Glazed Pork Chops
By L.P. Dover
Hey everybody, L.P. Dover here! I’m a HUGE foodie and I LOVE to cook. The pork chops I make are absolute heaven. They’re a favorite amongst my family. You’re going to see something called a sous vide in my recipe, but it’s perfectly fine if you don’t have one. If you don’t, I highly recommend you get one, especially if you like tender meat.
Sous Vide - a method of cooking food, especially meat or fish, by vacuum-sealing and immersing in warm water.
You will also need a vacuum sealer to seal up your meats. All you do is vacuum seal the meat you want to cook, hook the sous vide up to a large pot
Again, this method is not needed to cook some amazing pork chops, but it does help tremendously. It keeps the pork chops MOIST and JUICY. - Yes, I used those words … lol.
Okay, let’s move on to the recipe!
First, you’re going to want some THICK cut pork chops. I’m talking one inch or bigger. The thicker, the better. If you are able to vacuum seal them, put one Tablespoon of minced garlic inside the bag before you seal them. Once they’re vacuum sealed, place them in the pot with the sous vide at 140 degrees for 2 to 4 hours. Personally, I keep them in the sous vide all day until I’m ready to cook them. So basically, they are in the water bath for 6 to 8 hours.
Once the pork chops are done in the sous vide, open up the sealed bags and pat each pork chop dry with paper towels. Since they’ve been cooking at 140 degrees for hours, they are pretty much done. All that’s left is to pan sear them in a cast iron skillet in butter. YUM!
Heat up 4 Tablespoons of butter in a skillet/frying pan on the stove. (Medium – High Heat)
Once the butter has turned brown around the edges of the pan it’s time to get cooking! Sear the pork chops for three minutes on each side. When that’s been done on both sides, add half of the glaze mixture over top of the pork chops. The glaze will start to thicken. When it does, flip the pork chops over and add the rest of the glaze mixture. Allow it to thicken and form a nice coating on the pork chops. After that, they are ready to serve!
THINGS YOU WILL NEED:
4 TBSP Butter – for pan searing (Or more, depending on how many pork chops are being cooked. I’m usually cooking 4 pork chops.)
GLAZE:
4 TBSP Balsamic Vinegar
4 TBSP Brown Sugar
2 TBSP Course Ground Dijon Mustard
Orange Dreamsicle Floatini
You will need:
• vanilla ice cream
• Cake Vodka
• orange
