I love Julia Child. When I was four years old, I would pretend to be Julia filming her cooking show on my bedroom floor to an audience of Care Bears and Barbies.

It’s still the only impression I can do well to this day.

It’s no surprise that Mastering the Art of French Cooking is my favorite cook book ever.

When Brian and I decided to have our friends Aaron and Claire over for dinner, we knew we wanted to make something delicious and impressive. They’re both huge foodies and pretty good in the kitchen themselves.

I chose Julia Child’s Porc Sylvie.

Porc Sylvie (or Pork Stuffed with Cheese) is a marinated pork loin cut lengthwise in several layers to make a sort of meat book (Mmmmmmn! A book of meat!) wherein layers of swiss cheese are stuffed. The whole thing gets cooked in a covered casserole, and it’s delicious.

Now, I’m not going to share the recipe here as I’m pretty sure it’s illegal or at least highly unethical. However, you can always buy the book (which every home cook should have) or check it out from your local library. Also, I’m prrrrretttty sure there are less ethical bloggers out there who aren’t afraid of waking up one night to Julia dragging chains around their bedroom that you could prrrrrrobably Google.

However, we would be remiss if we didn’t share a few pics/tips of how to make this delicacy, as well as our tasty Creamed Brussels Sprouts and Noodles in Brian’s Cream Sauce!

We went with a $4 pork tenderloin from Aldi, although we should have gone with a larger cut for four people or two of the little loins, as our portions ended up being quite small.

And heeeeere is our delicious final product:

Okay, so Brian and I underestimated how long it would take to prepare this dish, so our guests had already arrived and were hanging out in the kitchen. Being the charming hostess I am, I completely left the rest of dinner to Brian while I chatted with our friends.

Sorry Brian. You can take this blog post from here.

No problem Jillian!  I got this!

So to make the Brussels Sprouts I simply washed the sprouts then par-boiled them for about 5 minutes just to soften them up a bit.  Once out of the water I made sure to dry them off.

The next step was to chop them up and throw them in a pan with some olive oil and salt and pepper for season.  Of course I also threw in some red peeper flake for good measure (I just can’t resist using that stuff!).

Once the sprouts just start to get just a little caramelized, add a little under a cup of heavy cream.  Throw a lid on your pan and let that cook on a low temperature until the cream almost disappears as the sprouts suck up all that creamy goodness.  Once that happens, be sure to taste, and then add more salt or pepper if you feel like they need it.

Cream sauce is crazy easy to make.  I learned this one during my time working in a professional kitchen.  You will only need 6 things: Minced garlic, heavy cream, butter, olive oil, salt and pepper.

First, cook the garlic over medium heat for about 45 seconds in a drizzle of olive oil.  Once the garlic becomes fragrant, add in about a cup to a cup and a half of heavy cream.

As the cream cooks down and starts to thicken, add salt and pepper to taste.  Your sauce is done when it can coat and stick to the back of a spoon.  Before you pour it over your food, remove it from the heat and throw a couple of tablespoons of butter in it and swirl it around.  This adds richness of flavor to your sauce and it even helps make the sauce look shiny and pretty!

One word of warning:  THE CREAM WILL TRY TO BOIL OVER AND/OR BURN!  To prevent this from happening, I like to keep the heat no higher than medium and I also like to move the pan in a circular motion over the flame.  Do those two things and you’ll never have an issue.

This was a fantastic, albeit a bit labor intensive, meal.  Great for a weekend dinner or special occasion!  The cost of the ingredients is very low but the flavor comes in spades.  We really hope you give this one a shot and love it as much as we did!