As a way of settling back into our life in Haiti, I have been visiting local markets. I love the challenge of putting together meals with my daily market finds. I had a pot of beautiful local white beans soaking at home as I headed out to shop for this weeknight salad. My market haul yielded local cherry tomatoes, kale, green beans and shallots. I made a bold citrus vinaigrette for my Market White Bean Salad, and served it with grilled fish. A fresh hearty salad to round out a meal with new friends. 

Since our last post, Rebecca and I have been in transition mode, moving back to our life here in Haiti from the US. With bags fully unpacked, two kids settled, and a week of work under our belts, it was time to celebrate this weekend. Meat in Haiti is free-range and very flavorful, but also tends to be quite tough. This lends itself to low and slow cooking. This Slow Roasted Ginger Honey Pulled pork is deeply flavored, and easy to make; perfect for weekend sandwiches under the mango tree after the kids are down for the night. It is good to be home again! 

It's 80 degrees in northern Indiana today. The sky is blue, the trees are budding, and our daughter is happily smeared from head to toe in the mud she's dug out of the backyard. To kick off spring, I whipped up these Maple Black Pepper Oven Spareribs. These spareribs are easy to make, don't require a smoker or any complicated equipment, and are absolutely delicious! These ribs forgo the traditional tomato-based sauce, and bring to center stage the fresh maple syrup Rebecca was given a few weeks ago from a local Amish farmer. Celebrate the changing of the seasons with Maple Black Pepper Oven Spareribs. 

Today marks Madeline's first full week outside the womb, and most aspects of our life have irreversibly changed. Cooking and eating together has been the one constant in this topsy turvy new world since we arrived home from the hospital. A food focus persisted during labor as I panted out a list of food requests in between contractions. Paul, both remembered every request and has been cheerfully cooking up a storm this last week. Yesterdays' creation was a yeasty sugar rush of homemade cinnamon rolls, but the vast majority of my requests have been for roasted aromatic meats like this Slow Roasted Mayan Pork with Garlic Salsa. This dish is a Paul invention, which means making use of some extraordinary homemade condiments (Xac spice mix and charred garlic salsa), the end result is transcendent.

A few years ago we traveled to India. India is the place where Paul’s brother and sister-in-law met, and where Paul’s brother lived and worked for a number of years. It is a vibrant country with a huge diversity of cuisine. We learned early on in our travels, how hard it is to recreate dishes in our home kitchen without some hands-on experience of the regional cooking techniques and ingredients. Having struggled to master Indian cooking at home, we signed up for a cooking class in each region we visited, and Goan Vindaloo was at the top of our list. 

Pork Vindaloo is a spicy, garlic and vinegar seasoned pork dish that comes from the South Indian state of Goa, known for its unique blend of Portuguese and Indian cuisine. Vindaloo’ s name comes from the Portuguese words ‘vinho,’ wine (vinegar) and ‘alhos,’ garlic. Introduced to Goa by Portuguese colonists, Vindaloo evolved with the addition of Indian spices and seasonings. Vindaloo is a uniquely pungent stew with a strong punch of garlic, vinegar and mustard, mellowed by rich coconut milk. Madhur Jaffey, an award winning Indian cooking authority, is a wonderful resource if you are looking to make Indian food at home, and our recipe for Pork Vindaloo follows in her style of simplified Indian cooking.

It is a mid-winters day in Pittsburgh. The wind is howling, the sky is grey, and the dogs are curled up napping by the fire. This is classic roast weather. Yucatán Citrus Pulled Pork, Cochinita Pibil, is a vibrant version of pulled pork that takes advantage of citrus season to bring the spicy, fresh, and tangy flavors of the Yucatán to your table. Our non-traditional take on this classic feast dish simplifies the technique for the home cook, forgoing pit-roasting and the often hard-to-find ingredients, including annatto and banana leaves. Yucatán Citrus Pulled Pork is easy to make, and works beautifully on tacos, over rice, with potatoes, or in sandwiches. 

When having someone over, we often find ourselves perseverating on the perfect dish. Our brother-in-law-to-be has a birthday coming up, and we've been obsessing on rib recipes in preparation. After many delicious test batches (it's a hard life), Paul emerged this week from his smoker, charred ribs in hand, triumphant! We devoured these Spicy Maple Glazed Baby Back Ribs with long satisfied silences interspersed with occasional groans of delight. These foolproof sweet and spicy ribs work equally well in the smoker or oven. For other meaty inspiration, check out our Slow Roasted Pork Ribs.

For a time, my family lived on a farm in rural southwest Colorado. My brother was in charge of raising the chickens and ducks, my mom managed the greenhouse and gardens, my dad ran the fields, and I raised the pigs, usually about 3-4 at a time. Seeing the process through, from raising the animals to butchering and packaging the meat, made me passionate about nose-to-tail cooking: minimizing waste and maximizing flavor and value. Sausage is quintessential nose-to-tail cooking, using meat not suitable for the more expensive steaks, roasts, and specialty cuts.

This quick and easy Apple Sage Breakfast Sausage is my take on a classic fall breakfast sausage. It rich and unctuous without being greasy, is packed with apple and sage, and highlighted with generous freshly ground black pepper. If you've never made your own sausage, this is the place to start. The sausage is ready in minutes, and uses free formed patties to avoid the extra complexity of casing your own sausage.

Food is one of the most powerful ways that we connect with people, places, and cultures. This weekend we had a festive gathering of old and new friends: a perfect venue to debut Paul's new sandwich. Our Scratch-Made Cubano starts with mojo marinated pork, slow smoked to moist tenderness.  This citrus and smoke laced pork is then thinly sliced, and piled high on fresh baked sourdough and topped with garlicky pickle slices, Swiss cheese, mustard and our house cilantro sauce. This Scratch-Made Cubano builds on the classic Cuban sandwich, with amped up flavor and unique home-made ingredients. Try this sandwich, and you may never go back.

Ribs, done right, are a beautiful thing to behold: rich, moist, perfectly tender meat pulled from the bone as you eat; deeply flavored smokey salty charred crust; and all the primal pleasure of eating juicy, messy, meaty food with your hands. Barbecue is a topic of passionate opinions and deep traditions. My approach blends what I consider the best of all worlds for a foolproof delicious rib that works for both smoker and oven applications. With a long weekend ahead and the first warm days of spring, I can't think of a better time for Slow Roasted Pork Ribs!  While my recipe gives two days for the dry rub to penetrate and salt the meat, you can also compress this step and have your ribs ready the same day for dinner.

Weekday evenings in the hungry hounds household can be a bit of a slapdash operation.  Take tonight for example.  After hosting an overnight guest for a 6:30am pre-work breakfast, a long day at work, and errands on the way home, we approached the stove with voracious appetites and waning energy.  Chorizo and Feta Pasta is beautiful dish for this situation, it takes 8 minutes to prepare, and hits the spot with the delicious combination of spicy chorizo and briny feta.  We happened to have some of Paul's delicious homemade chorizo on hand, but you can easily use store-bought.  The feta and chorizo not only provide big flavor, but also simplify the dish by eliminating the need for sauce or additional seasonings.