I bought some beautiful T-bone chops from my friendly pork farmers, and cooked 'em up for the family tonight. I had 4 of them, and decided to brine them in this:

4 cups water
1/4 cup sea salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp chili powder

Here they are after their 6 hour bath, with some contorni prepped for the grill...




Here they are after the grill...










Look nice, huh? Well, I overcooked them a little. The tenderloin side was tender, the other, not so much. At least the brine kept them moist. They were perfectly salty, and not at all sweet.





Besides, Anthony had made this yummy vintage cake, his Aunt Mildred's recipe from 1958. We used our Meyer Lemons, of course.

Lemon Buttermilk Pound Cake

1 cup vegetable shortening
1 stick butter
2.5 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp lemon extract
1/2 tsp baking soda, dissolved in 1 tbsp hot water

Lemon Sauce

1/4 cup hot water
Juice and rind of 2 lemons
1 cup sugar

Directions:
Cream shortening, butter, and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift flour and salt together, then add alternately with buttermilk, mixing well. Add lemon extract and beat at low speed, then add soda dissolved in hot water. Pour batter into angel food pan and bake at 325 for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes.

Mix lemon sauce ingredients in small saucepan and bring to a boil. When the cake is done baking, immediately remove from pan. Poke holes all over with a skewer and slowly pour the lemon sauce over the hot cake, letting it slowly soak in.

Sweet, tart, and tender....