Ingredients:
2 Pork Loin Chops (bone-in at least 1″ thick)
1 cup Orange Preserves
1/4 cup Soy Sauce
1 tblsp Ground Red Pepper
2 tspn Ground Ginger
2 tblsp Sriracha Chili Sauce
Crushed Sea Salt
Crushed Black Pepper

Directions:
Ready your chops by rinsing them in water and placing on a plate. Dust both sides with salt and pepper and let them hang out while you prepare the rocket fuel.

Start by adding the orange preserves to a (preferably flame-retardant) bowl. Follow up with 1/4 of soy sauce. Add a tablespoon (or more) of ground red pepper. Sprinkle in a teaspoon of ginger. Lastly, add not one, but two tablespoons of the Sriracha*. Mix it all up until you have a nice sinus-clearing concoction.

*I actually doubled this in my version but Shelbi promises that there’s enough heat in the original.

Heat a little oil in a frying pan and add the chops. Cook at high heat until they start to brown.

Drop the heat and pour about half of your sauce over the chops. Cook covered at medium-low heat for about 10 minutes then flip the chops over and drench them with sauce again. 10 more minutes of covered pan-frying and they should be ready to plate. Add more sauce for that extra kick.

Extra
Goes great with the Garlic Ginger Bok Choy recipe I found from Food Wishes (pictured).

Ingredients:
1 cup of Corn Meal
1 cup of Flour
4 tablespoons of Sugar
1/2 teaspoon of Salt
2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 cup of Buttermilk
2 eggs
1/4 cup of Canola Oil
3 tablespoons of Butter (softened)
Cooking Spray

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray pie or 8×8 pan with cooking spray. Combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a medium bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, eggs, canola oil and butter. Quickly stir the buttermilk mix into the cornmeal mix. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the bread comes out clean.

Ingredients:
1.5 – 2lbs kodo meat, cubed small (if out of Kodo, beef stew meat will work)
1 package mushrooms, chopped
2 cups of chopped carrots
1 small onion, chopped into chunks
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 package dehydrated beefy onion soup mix
1 Tbsp soothing spices (use 1 Tbsp fresh or 1 tsp dried thyme and parsley, if out)
1/4c whiskey (dry red wine also works)
flour
salt and pepper to taste
1.5 lbs small Runn Tum Tubers (if out of Tubers, use baby red potatoes or noodles)

Directions:
In a 3 QT slow cooker add the onion soup mix, the condensed mushroom soup (do not reconstitute!) and the whiskey – whisk until blended. Dump in the kodo meat, carrots, onion, mushrooms, and garlic. Stir once, cover, and cook on high for 4-6 hours, low for 8-10 hours. About one hour prior to serving, add a handful of flour to thicken if necessary (about 1/8 cup) and give it a good stir.

Quarter and de-eye the tubers and boil in salted water until fork tender. Serve the stew over the tubers.

One of my favorite things to eat is homemade chicken sandworm n dumplings, but the last time I had them was when my grandmother was still alive. I can’t remember much about the recipe – except using the Pilsbury biscuits – so I had to improvise, but it definitely brought me back.

Ingredients:
6 Chicken Thighs (with Bone and Skin)
2 Cans of Chicken Broth (I would opt for Low Sodium)
1 Can of Cream of Chicken
1 Cup of Water
4 Tablespoons of Butter
2 Teaspoons of Liquid Smoke
1 Teaspoon of Pepper
1/2 Teaspoon of Thyme
1 Can of Pilsbury Buttermilk Biscuits

Directions:
Mix the chicken broth, cream of chicken, water, butter, pepper, thyme and liquid smoke in a large pot. Heat to boiling and stir all ingredients together until the cream of chicken and butter have completely dissolved. Add the chicken thighs and boil at med-high heat for 30 minutes. While this is cooking, break apart each roll into half. When the chicken is cooked, remove from the pot. Add the dumplings and set a timer for 15 minutes. Peel off the meat, discarding the skin and bones. I’m too impatient to wait for it to cool off, so I just used a knife and fork. Leave the soup boiling. Add the meat back whenever you’re finished… it’s ok if the meat is added after the timer for the dumplings has stopped. It’ll need time to cool.

Notes:
This is a fairly quick recipe – great for nights when you want a home cooked meal, but are short on time. You can purchase boneless, skinless chicken instead, but the flavor is better when you cook bone-in. Chicken breast would also be a good option for people who do not like dark meat. Throw in a bag of mixed veggies for added nutrition.

Ingredients:
Beef – Chateaubriand. I used grass fed beef, which is less sweet than corn fed, and helps bring out the spicy flavour of the sauce. Cooking Chateaubriand generally calls for broiling (25-30 min) and turning frequently (about every 3-4 minutes.) You can substitute a sirloin.

2 Serrano Peppers
1 Tomato
4 tablespoons olive oil
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 cup chicken stock (broth works)
1 cup beef stock (broth works)
2 cups dry red wine (use the good stuff, and round up.)
2 tablespoons of butter
1/2 teaspoon minced rosemary (fresh)

Directions:
Place both peppers and the tomato in medium sized pan. Toast over medium-high heat until the peppers are fragrant and deepen in color and tomato blisters in spots, turning occasionally, about 5 minutes.
Remove from heat. Dice up the tomato and the Peppers. Place the peppers, tomato, and a cup of water into a small saucepan. Bring it all to boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for a while (10-15 mins.) After that, strain the sucker out and throw it in a food processor until it’s looking pretty smooth like.

Heat 3 tablespoons oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add some garlic and sauté for about 1 minute. Add a cup of chicken stock and one of beef stock, then add your wine (I used a 2003 cabernet from the Raymond Reserve in Napa valley); boil until it’s reduced to about a third of what it was, about 20-25 minutes. Stir in chili puree, butter and rosemary; simmer it again for only about a minute or two. Taste it and add pepper and salt as appropriate.

The sauce may require thickening, in which case you should use about a tablespoon of butter mixed with some flour and simmer it in until the sauce is about gravy consistency. it can be brushed on before slicing, and When the Chateaubriand is sliced, it should be poured over.

This isn’t a particularly spicy sauce, surprisingly enough. If you want it to be spicier you should probably add another Serrano.

Gooey Ingredients:
2 tablespoons of butter
1/2 Onion (chopped)
4 Cloves of Garlic (finely chopped)
Jar of Marinated Artichoke Hearts (chopped)
8oz of Sour Cream
8oz of Cream Cheese
1 package of Spinach (thawed)
1 cup of Parmesan/Romano Cheese
1 cup of Mozzarella + enough for sprinkling

Spider Cake Ingredients:
12oz of Lump Crab Meat
1 1/2 packages of Saltine Crackers
3 Green Onion Stalks (chopped)
1 egg
1 teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper
1 teaspoon of Baking Powder
1 teaspooon of Lemon Juice
Pepper to taste

Gooey (Topping/Dip) Directions:
Heat the butter in a frying pan on medium-high heat. Sautee the onion, garlic and artichoke hearts, adding individually in that order, because the onions need a bit longer to cook. While your veggies are cooking, you can thaw your spinach in the microwave, if you haven’t already. Mix together the sour cream and cream cheese in a medium bowl. Stir in the onion, garlic, artichoke hearts and spinach. Add the parmesan and mozzarella cheese and mix well. Set aside.

Spider Cake Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Go through your lump crab for shell pieces and remove if necessary. Break up 1 bag of saltine crackers into tiny pieces and put into a medium mixing bowl. Add remaining ingredients (save 1/2 a bag of saltines) mix together with your hands. Break up the remaining saltines into tiny pieces and pour onto a plate. Make patties with your crab mixture and roll them into the saltines to coat the outside. Place on a baking pan and cook at 375 for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and flip over. Put a layer of the gooey dip on the top of the cake. Sprinkle generously with mozzarella cheese. Place back in the oven for 20 minutes. Enjoy!

Notes:
As you may have guessed, crab meat=spider meat. They’re both creepy-crawly, so naturally it was the best choice. This recipe makes a LOT of dip. You can split the recipe in half, but I know I’ll never end up using that remaining cream cheese in time. So save it for some tortilla chips. It’s essentially a spinach and artichoke dip.. and it’s really tasty!

Muffin Ingredients:
2 cups of flour
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of brown sugar
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 eggs (beaten)
1/2 cup of butter (softened)
1 cup of milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/2 cup of raspberries (chopped)
3/4 cup of strawberries (chopped)

Topping Ingredients:
1/3 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of flour
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
2 tablespoons of butter (softened)

Muffin Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix flour, sugars, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. In another bowl, combine eggs, butter, milk and vanilla. Stir the egg mixture into the flour mixture until smooth. Gently fold in the berries. Ladle muffin mix into greased muffin pans (or muffin cups).

Topping/Baking Directions:
Combine sugar, flour and cinnamon. Add butter with fork (or you can do it by hand, like I do). Mixture should be crumbly. Sprinkle topping over each muffin. Bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes. Makes 12-18 muffins.

Notes:
Feel free to add more berries. You can also try using different combinations .. like strawberries and blueberries. The first picture doesn’t include cinnamon because it was a last-minute addition. I do that sometimes. You can also stick a raspberry on the muffin half way through baking, and it’ll stay more on top of the muffin, rather than inside like a buried treasure.

The recipe comes cooked two different ways. For standard dumplings, you will need a Bamboo Steamer. If you’re fresh out of one of those, you can always try the fried version.

Ingredients:
Ground Pork
Carrots
Green Onions
Fresh Ginger
Fresh Garlic
Wonton/Dumpling Wrappers
Wax paper or Cabbage Leaves
4 oz of Soy Sauce
3 drops of Sesame Oil
Dash of Brown Sugar

Directions:
Finely chop all of the veggies. If you’re lucky, you have a food processor.. I don’t.. yet. Combine your veggies and pork in a bowl.
Set out your wrappers and put a drop, about a spoonful, of meat-mix in the center. Wet the edges of the wrapper. This will allow you to shape it.

To Steam:
Heat a pot of boiling water (about 1″ high) that is the same size as your bamboo steamer. Place the steamer on top and line it with the paper/leaves. Gather the edges of the wrapper and pinch. You can also gather the edges and twist them at the top to seal it. Place the wax the dumplings on the paper/leaves. Steam for 20-25 minutes. The wrapper will be semi-clear.

To Fry:
Cover the bottom of a frying pan with cooking oil and heat. Fold over the wrapper in a taco shape and pinch the edges shut. Place the dumplings in the frying pan and heat until browned on all sides.

The Sauce:
Mix soy sauce, sesame oil and brown sugar together. Pour into a bowl and add finely chopped garlic and green onion stalks.

Notes:
I didn’t specify vegetable quantity because it’s really a matter of personal taste. I used 1 carrot, 3 onions, 1 garlic clove and 1 piece of ginger (I wouldn’t recommend any more ginger because it’s very strong). You can also try other ingredients like water chestnuts, cabbage or shrimp. Also, if you purchase the wonton wrappers that are square, you can either use a cookie cutter or a glass (upside down) to shape them.

For a short while, I was a bartender, and I love love love to experiment with different drinks. With Lunar Festival right around the corner, February 5-23 to be exact, this is the perfect time for a strangely glowing alcoholic beverage. Be on the lookout for my Festival Dumplings, coming soon!

Ingredients:
1 shot of Malibu Coconut Rum
Splash of Blue Curacao
Sprite (to fill)
Litecubes, frozen
Shaker & Ice

Directions:
Add a few cubes of ice to your shaker. Pour in Malibu and Blue Curacao. Shake shake shake. Strain over your “ice” into a lowball (short glass). Add sprite to fill the remainder of your glass.

Litecubes come in a variety of colors. I wanted aqua, so I ordered the rainbow which does a rainbow sequence, along with almost every solid color. You could get the plain white ones as well. The drink is a light aqua color without cubes.

Ingredients:
4 cans (15 oz ea) of black beans (drained and rinsed)
1 lb of ham
1 carrot (shredded)
1 celery stalk (chopped)
1/2 onion (chopped)
4 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
1 teaspoon of cumin powder
1 teaspoon of oregano
1/2 teaspoon of chili powder
2 teaspoons of black pepper
2 teaspoons of salt
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1/2 cup of white rice
4 cups of water

Directions:
Set your crockpot on high. Add the water and dissolve the bouillon cubes while you’re chopping your veggies. Mix in all ingredients EXCEPT 2 cans of black beans. Cook for 1.5 hours (but do not turn your crockpot off). Puree the remaining black beans with a few ounces of water and pour into the crockpot. Cook an additional 30 minutes on high. Set to low until you’re ready to serve.