Lamb tenderloin with tomatoes and white wine reduction

Step 1: Travel to another country for a conference. Feel a bit lonely and sorry for yourself, because you miss your fiancé. Meet new people, work hard, and wish the local food were better.

Step 2: During the weekend break between the two weeks of the conference, walk to the local Farmers' Market with one of your new friends. Find a meat stand selling lamb tenderloin, and buy one (about 200g). Spend the afternoon hanging out and talking and having the best day all week.

Step 3: Call your fiancé on Skype. Crush four cloves of garlic and set aside. Slice in half eight plum tomatoes and set aside. Heat 100 ml cheap olive oil (the one the "guest house" stocks in your small shared kitchen) in a small sauté pan.

Step 4: With a sharp knife, trim the tenderloin of its membrane and remove the tendon. Meanwhile, discover that last night both you and your fiancé made whole wheat pasta with mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, fresh basil, crushed garlic, and olive oil. He had access to buffalo mozzarella and expensive olive oil. When the tenderloin is trimmed, add it to the hot pan.

Step 5: The tenderloin should begin to brown quickly. After a few minutes of discussion about bison steaks (your fiancé's dinner tonight, with sweet potato), turn the tenderloin. Pour yourself a glass of very cheap white wine, and a few minutes later add about a glass to the cooking meat (enough to get about 1/3 of the way up the side).

Step 6: The meat will cook quite quickly. Turn it once more, and check it with a knife: you want the meat still a little pink in the middle, but with no dark red. When it is cooked, remove it to a plate to relax. Add the halved tomatoes, skin side down, to the pan, all in a single layer. Sprinkle liberally with salt and white sugar. Cook for a few minutes.

Step 7: Destem some fresh thyme and add it to the garlic. When the tomatoes are starting to cook, turn them onto their faces in the wine-and-jus. Cook the tomatoes a few minutes longer, and then add them to your bowl with the mashed garlic and thyme. Toss to combine, and pour over the tenderloin.

Step 8: Bon appetite! You should eat everything in combination, but leave a pile of tomato skins on the side of your plate: the tomato flesh will separate easily, and the skins toughen with any heat. While writing up everything for your blog (you still miss your fiancé, afterall, and the blog reminds you of him), mop up the remaining juices with the leftover baguette from your bread-and-cheese lunch at the Farmers' Market.