From the category archives:

Pork

Chinese Black Bean Butter Sauce

Thumbnail image for Chinese Black Bean Butter Sauce April 7, 2016

The other day I was looking around my pantry and fridge for something to make for dinner that didn’t take hours and would use up what I had on hand. I started with a bunch of celery from which I had taken one stalk for another dish. I had no plans for the rest of […]

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Hawaiian SPAM Musubi

Thumbnail image for Hawaiian SPAM Musubi August 9, 2015

I am now in my 70th year and this is the first can of SPAM that I have purchased in my entire life. My Mom never fed it to me as a child growing up in Minnesota in the 1950s, even though I was born in 1945, the year World War 2 ended. It was […]

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Shrimp & Cheesy Grits with Bacon & Tomatoes

Thumbnail image for Shrimp & Cheesy Grits with Bacon & Tomatoes April 29, 2015

It was once again time to go through the pantry and check all the expiration dates, resulting in a number of Bob’s Red Mill grains that I need to use up pretty soon. White rice flour, spelt berries, semolina flour, wheat germ and corn grits. Don’t you just love Bob’s Red Mill products? I decided […]

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Picadillo with Green Olives and Raisins

Thumbnail image for Picadillo with Green Olives and Raisins March 3, 2015

The first time I ate Picadillo was in 1972. I had some neighbors from Costa Rica who invited me over for dinner, and served a diced potato and minced steak picadillo, sort of like hash. I didn’t know much about cooking back in those days, so my memory of dinner isn’t crystal clear. It was […]

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Arepas ~ Venezuelan Corn Flour Flatbreads

Thumbnail image for Arepas ~ Venezuelan Corn Flour Flatbreads February 13, 2015

All of us, at one time or another, have had food made from ground corn, be it cornbread, corn tortillas, tortilla chips, tamales or polenta. In my pantry there is a new kid on the block called pre-cooked white maize meal or “harina de maiz blanco precocida”, which is what I used to make my […]

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Gamjatang ~ Korean Pork Bone & Potato Soup

Thumbnail image for Gamjatang ~ Korean Pork Bone & Potato Soup October 29, 2014

I have really been enjoying cooking and eating Korean food lately. I am totally smitten with the red pepper powder (gochugaru) and red pepper paste (gochujang), and Dak Galbi is one of my most favorite recipes of all time. Recently I decided to make my Dak Galbi even more authentic by adding Perilla leaves; however, […]

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Korean Dak Galbi ~ Chicken Stir-Fry in Spicy Red Pepper Sauce with Gochugaru and Gochujang

Thumbnail image for Korean Dak Galbi ~ Chicken Stir-Fry in Spicy Red Pepper Sauce with Gochugaru and Gochujang August 18, 2014

Before we jump into the recipe in this post, I have some fist-pumping news. My little blog, Cook & Be Merry, launched in January of 2010, recently hit one million pageviews. That’s 1,000,000. If you had told me when I first started that I would hit that number in my lifetime, I would have fallen […]

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Scotch Eggs with Garlic Butter Parmesan Fries

Thumbnail image for Scotch Eggs with Garlic Butter Parmesan Fries June 29, 2014

The signature or national dish of a country or state or city can be counted on to be interesting and delicious, because it has been around for ages and has been perfected by numerous cooks. A whole country can’t be wrong, can it? Unfortunately I am not going to be able to visit every country, […]

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Chile Verde with Pork & Ancho Chile Sauce

Thumbnail image for Chile Verde with Pork & Ancho Chile Sauce June 4, 2014

If you have been following along with my story, you know I moved into an apartment last January. I looked at several in the area I wanted to live, but fell in love with mine immediately. It’s interesting how you just know when it is a match. You walk from room to room and it […]

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Pork Pot-Stickers with Lemon Soy Ginger Sauce

Thumbnail image for Pork Pot-Stickers with Lemon Soy Ginger Sauce April 30, 2014

About a month ago I showed you how to make your own gyoza wrappers, and then I left you hanging. You were probably thinking to yourself… but, but, but…what about filling and cooking them? Well, truly, I wouldn’t leave you in the lurch like that, but after I made them it was dark outside, so […]

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DIY Gyoza Wrappers + My New Apartment

Thumbnail image for DIY Gyoza Wrappers + My New Apartment March 25, 2014

Isn’t it amazing what you can do with a little flour and water? I wanted to make pot-stickers, but I’m not that big a fan of factory-made wonton and gyoza wrappers, so I decided to make my own. They turn out great and are really worth the time and effort. To me, wonton wrappers are […]

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Huevos Rancheros

Thumbnail image for Huevos Rancheros August 21, 2013

Ok, let’s face it, I’m culturally deprived. Here I am, I’ve lived in Los Angeles since 1972, where there are more Mexican restaurants per capita second only to Mexico itself and I have never eaten Huevos Rancheros. Can you believe it? Everyone I know has eaten it, if not made it themselves and every blogger […]

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Spring Rolls with 8 Dipping Sauces

Thumbnail image for Spring Rolls with 8 Dipping Sauces August 13, 2013

When I returned from my son’s wedding in May, after having my new daughter-in-law show me how to make spring rolls, I was totally enthralled with them. I made spring rolls every day for about two weeks with a variety of fillings, and I went on a quest for interesting dipping sauces to go with […]

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Vietnamese Happy Pancakes with a Killer Dipping Sauce

Thumbnail image for Vietnamese Happy Pancakes with a Killer Dipping Sauce June 17, 2013

The March 2013 issue of Food and Wine Magazine had a great article called 20 Best-Ever Recipes. The Best Vietnamese recipe was this one for Happy Pancakes and I wanted to cook it immediately as soon as I saw it. Two months later, at Camp Blogaway, I was lucky to get a sample of Bob’s […]

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Grilled Pork & Pineapple Burger

Thumbnail image for Grilled Pork & Pineapple Burger May 21, 2013

I am a cooking magazine junkie. If I am ever missing, just look for me in front of the magazine section at the market. I have to check out every specialty food magazine that comes out each month, reading each page by page, especially now when they are all about grilling. This recipe comes from […]

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