Pork Soup w/ Hairy Gourd & Peanuts (and honey dates & black-eyed peas)

My first foccacia — a snack while waiting for pizza dough to rise.

All these good stuff — sharkbone, mung beans, peanuts, dried orange peel, honey dates, dried longans — go into a Chinese pork broth.

Lime Salt, to accompany grilled tilapia & a mango salad.

A ducky twist to Tortellini in Brodo. The final installment in our $5 Duck Series: a total of 5 dishes from ONE duck!

Fried Green Tomatoes: better than the Whistle Stop Cafe?

All manner of dumplings! This one in a “siu mai” shape, more or less. (Also made, potsticker and “huo tyeh” shapes.)

Grilled Corn, no adornments necessary

Mama’s Giniling (ground pork dish), version 5

Duck Fat Potatoes. Need I say more?

Yellow Beans, English Peas, Radish & Dill Salad

Pesto Potato & Green Bean Salad, made from farm market loot

Slow-Roast Tomatoes, to accompany a very substantial meal of sockeye salmon, potatoes, cannellini beans & pancetta

Cabbage-Portobello Pappardelle, a worthy accompaniment for roast duck leg

Five-Grain Rice w/ Condensed Milk: a great dessert (or midnight snack!)

Mama’s Ampalaya (Bitter Melon). Will you like it?

Duck Fat: How can something so beautiful, so white, so pure, be that bad for you?

Sweet Jalapeño Cupcake: my very first cupcake!

Soy Pudding Parfait w/ Orange-Ginger Syrup & “Streusel Brittle”

Five-Grain Rice. Look, it turned pink! (Served with Lime-Marinated Pork Skewers w/ Ginger-Guava Jam.)

Ginger-Guava Jam. Our first jam! Can be used for both sweet & savory applications.

Duck Breast w/ Pomegranate-Chipotle Glaze and Guava-Jalapeño Salad.