Flaming Tongue Tacos

There is something about Sunday afternoons that just make me crave a little Mexican food. I think its because I’m tired, and Mexican is warm, comforting and just crazy good. Planning ahead I resolved a while ago to make tongue tacos in celebration of Pentecost which was yesterday. At Pentecost we celebrate the birth of the church, anointing of the disciples with ‘divided tongues as of fire’ and the spread of the Gospel across the world. I invite you to read the whole story in Acts 2:1-12. This is an incredible, inspiring and exciting story and I will concede that making spicy tacos is somewhat silly way of celebrating but don’t we all need to be a little silly sometimes?

Pork with Rhubarb and Red Onions

I think rhubarb is one of the greatest things ever. Growing up I always loved spring and the rhubarb sauce mom would make for dinner. It was like stringy pink heaven in a dish! This spring I was determined to try rhubarb in a new way, in a savory dish. We all love rhubarb pies and crisps, but why not as part of the main dish?

Thus I have been on a quest. While I have found many different recipes for rhubarb as part of a main dish, they all seemed pretty blah. The sauce was overly sweet and one dimensional. This could be done better. So I thought and thought about it and decided to give it a go myself. You know, I think it turned out really well. The sauce wasn't overly sweet- or overly tart. Then I added in some rosemary and peppercorns. The peppercorns I think really helped it out a lot. Per Scott's suggestions, I served it with pork.

Polenta with Asparagus, Spicy Butter and a Poached Egg

This weekend, Scott was out of town visiting his mother. I decided to seize the opportunity and make for myself something with polenta which is not one of his favorite foods. I am proud to say that I sort of made up this recipe myself and I think that it worked pretty well. The polenta is crunchy and soft. The asparagus is sweet. The sriracha butter’s spice balances the sweet while the egg makes it gooey and moist. Sadly for the man who doesn’t much care for polenta (but not for me)  after making and photographing the dish I decided that it needed tweaking so I made it again tonight. 

Strawberry Risotto

I fell in love with risotto when I was in seminary. Graduate students are poor, but if there is one thing that even a graduate student can afford, its rice. Really, that's all risotto is, its just that you need to cook the rice just so, then you can mix in just about anything.