The Perfect Bloody Mary

5 1/2 oz. V8 hot & spicy tomato juice
1 1/2 oz. gin or vodka
1/2 oz. lemon juice
1/2 oz. worcestershire
fresh ground black pepper
celery salt
olive or pickle juice
tobasco sauce

Combine tomato juice, gin (or vodka), lemon juice and worcestershire in a glass with ice. Add a few twists of pepper, a few shakes of celery salt, a dash of olive or pickle juice, and a dash of tobasco. Stir. Adjust to taste. Garnish with pickle, lemon, salami, cheeses and olives.

This can easily be made non-alcoholic by omitting the gin.

Slow-Roasted Orange Pork

1 (6-7 pound) boneless pork shoulder or Boston butt, well marbles
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp  ground allspice
1 tsp ground corriander
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 Tbs salt
6 cloves garlic, thinnly sliced
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1-1/3 cups orange juice, divided
1.5 cups dry red wine, divided

2 Tbs fresh rosemary leaves
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbs olive oil
2 thin-skinned oranges, thinly sliced

Three days before cooking, make deep cuts into the roast. Combine cloves, allspice, coriander, pepper, cinnamon, salt, garlic, oil, 2/3 cup orange juice and 1/2 cup of wine. Smear mixture all over roast, stuffing spices and garlic into the cuts. Put in a bag or container with extra marinade and refrigerate for 3 days, turning several times.

Day of cooking:
Remove meat from fridge and preheat oven to 400 F. Puree rosemary, onion, oil and salt. Spread over meat, stuffing into cuts. Put the roast into a shalow pan (such as a 9x13x2 or a half sheet pan) with the fat side up and scrape any remaining marinade over the meat. Lay orange slices over the roast and roast for 30 min.

Pour the remaining wine and orange juice over the roast, reduce temp to 325 F and roast 90 min, basting over 20-30 min. Once meat reaches 145-150 F, reduce heat to 200 F for another 30 min, or until internal temperature is 155-160 F. Remove from oven and let rest for 10-15 min before slicing.

Thinly slice pork and drizzle with pan juices. Serve along side roasted potatoes and salad.

Endive, Apple and Goat Cheese Salad

Salad:3 large endives, unblemished
1 medium Honey Crisp or Braeburn apple
3/4 cup walnut halves, toasted and roughly chopped
3oz goat cheese, crumbled

Apple-Cider Vinaigrette:
1/2 apple, cored and chopped
2 Tbs apple cider vinegar
2 tsp mustard
2 tsp honey
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup parsley leaves
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tsp lemon juice

For Salad, slice the endive in 1/2-1" pieces and put in a bowl of ice water for 5 min. Drain, sprin and throughly air-dry. Quater, core and thinly slice apple. Toss with lemon juice to prevent browning.

For vinegairette, put all ingredients except for the oil and lemon juice into a food processor or blender. Puree. Add oil slowly and allow to throughly blend. Just before serving, mix in lemon juice.

Toss endive, apple, goat cheese and walnuts with 4-6 Tbs of the dressing (or to taste) in a bowl.

{notes} This salad serves 4-6 people as a side. You can double the endive and apple to make it go further (with no need to increase the other ingredients). Add more dressing if you do that. The dressing makes a boat-load; several times what you actually need, so feel free to scale down. The recipe says you can keep the dressing up to 8 hours in the fridge, but I'd give it a week, probably.

Cranberry Orange Ice Cream

1.5 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
4T orange juice concentrate
2 T water
2T brown sugar

1T vanilla
1 cup cream
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar

Heat cranberries through brown sugar in a sauce pan over medium-high heat. Simmer for 5 minutes, squishing the cranberries as you stir. Cool completely (to speed cooling, pour into a shallow pan and place in fridge for 30 min).

Mix vanilla-sugar in a bowl until sugar is mostly dissolved. Pour into ice cream maker along with the cranberry mixture. Freeze according to manufacturer's directions.

Mango Chicken Curry with Coconut Rice

This takes a little planning ahead. The meat should marinate at least a couple hours, or overnight. The rice takes about an hour and fifteen minutes to prepare. It's worth the effort, though. If you want to save on calories or groeries, the curry would be good over plain rice as well. {Thanks to my friend, Laura, for the base of this recipe}

Serves 4.

For the chicken curry:

2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks

2-3 Tbsp. hot curry paste

Veg. oil

Cider vinegar

1 onion, chopped

1-2 bell peppers, sliced and cut into 1" pieces

Fresh cilantro, chopped

2 mangos, chopped

Coconut rice (see below)

Make a marinade with the curry paste, a little oil, some cider vinegar, and a little water.  Add the chicken and let it marinade for a few hours.

Cook the onion and peppers in a little oil.  When done, add the chicken with marinade.  When the chicken is cooked, add the cilantro and mango chunks.  Stir over heat a few more minutes.  Serve over rice.

For the rice:

1 1/2 cups brown jasmine or basmati rice
2 cups good-quality coconut milk (preferably regular, not 'lite')
2 cups water

1/2 tsp. salt

2 1/2 Tbsp. dry shredded coconut (optional)

1 Tbsp. coconut oil, or other vegetable oil

Rub the oil over the bottom of a large saucepan. Add the rice, coconut milk, water, salt, and shredded coconut. Stir and set over high heat. Bring to a bubbling (but not rolling) boil. Immediately reduce heat to low and cover. Cook for 1 hour, or until the coconut-water has been absorbed by the rice. Remove from heat and allow to sit for 10 min. Fluff with a fork.