chicken cordon bleu with kale gratin

This was a lighter, baked version of chicken cordon bleu - still with all the flavorfull goodness of a ham and cheese filling. I also made a gratin of kale (pancetta mixed in with the kale and cream too).

my first time cooking pork belly (and kale chips)

We had enjoyed pork belly at various restaurants, and had been reading about it, so finally decided to try cooking it at home. I found it easiest to locate good cuts at a local Asian market. It took about 6 hours between seasoning, braising, roasting and final glazing - and worth every minute of it for these sweet and spicy glazed nuggets of taste. To cut some of the richness I served it with a lemony kale and chard salad. Just for fun I took some of the kale leaves (stripped off the middle rib), lightly coated with olive oil and roasted at 300 degrees for about 20 minutes to make these wonderful kale chips.

gingerbread luminarias

These are small-scale (about 4" high) individualized luminarias that we made out of gingerbread (and royal icing and sparkly sugar!) to set as placecards at a holiday dinner party. There were holes in the side and back so they actually glowed on the table with a battery votive candle inside. Guests then took their (tasty) placecard home as their gift for the evening.

lamb lettuce wraps; blackberry dessert

I had some ground lamb that I sauteed with Middle Eastern spices for a lettuce wrap filling, with a hummus/tahini sauce and pine nuts atop. Dessert was simply a parfait of Greek yogurt, blackberries and honey (I added some cinnamon sugar crisps as a garnish).

green chile cheeseburger and mexican corn

This is a delicious (open-face) green chile cheeseburger. Yes, I'll admit to putting sprouts on the top. Since I was using the grill we also did grilled corn which was then coated with Mexican cheeses and spices.

figs to start, then shrimp & pasta

When fresh figs are in the market I like to stuff them with blue cheese, wrap them in prosciutto and then roast them for a savory appetizer. Dinner is pasta with shrimp and leeks and a side salad.

grilled shrimp, corn

I grilled some large shrimp (with onions) to serve with some house-made cream of (fresh) corn. The corn is topped with an Indian-spiced butter.