1 pound flank steak, thinly sliced
5 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon water

2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 red chilies, seeded and chopped
1 tablespoons fish sauce

8 ounces vermicelli noodles
1/2 cup iceberg lettuce, chopped
2 small carrots, peeled and julienned
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds

1. Combine garlic, soy sauce, sugar, oil and water and marinade flank steak.
2. Bring vinegar, water and sugar to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and add the garlic, chilies and fish sauce. Set aside.
3. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the noodles, cooking until tender. Drain and set aside.
4. Meanwhile, heat oil in a skillet or wok and add the marinated beef. Fry until no longer pink.
5. Serve noodles topped with iceberg lettuce, carrots and beef with a dash of cilantro and sesame seeds. Serve with prepared sauce.

Makes 4 servings

I've read a lot about a Tortilla Soup over the year and never thought it sounded particularly appetizing. I was thinking about it today though and since I don't really have any other options off the top of my head, decided to make it. While searching through the recipes, there seems to be quite a flame war going on for what the "real" tortilla soup is! "So and so doesn't know how to make it properly, this is the real tortilla soup!" and then they go on to list a recipe containing something like onion soup mix, chili powder, tomatoes and tortillas. I decided to go with pork because I had some on hand.

Now, I couldn't find any corn tortillas, but luckily I had a ready supply of masa in my cupboard. I mean, who doesn't? It's a pretty accurate substitute for this purpose. I'm not really sure how the tortillas just dissolve in the soup because of my substitution though. I thought that the soup was incredibly thick and ate more like a dip for tortilla chips than a soup. We discarded of the leftovers and won't be making it again, as a soup or part of a party platter.

Since we were both starving while waiting for the soup to cook, I used the leftover ground pork to make Pork Tacos. I used the same principle as when making Gyros to make a sort of pork roll that I then sliced up. The pork meat was good, but I didn't realize we didn't have any taco toppings except lettuce and cheese until after preparing them, so the tacos were a little plain. This would be a winner if we had salsa and sour cream in the house! I'm all for this gigantic patty method of using ground meat now.

2 tablespoons corn oil
2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 red chilies, seeded and chopped
6 cups chicken broth
19 ounces canned diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 pound lean ground pork
1 cup masa (corn flour) or 10 corn tortillas
4 ounces cheddar, grated
4 ounces Monterey jack, grated
4 ounces mozzarella, grated
1 cup milk
1 cup tortilla chips
salt and pepper

1. Heat oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Sauté carrots, onions, garlic and chilies until tender.
2. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil, then stir in the tomatoes, cumin, paprika, cayenne and oregano. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Stir in the pork and masa or corn tortillas and cook until pork is done and masa is thoroughly incorporated, stirring occasionally.
4. Reduce heat and stir in milk and 3/4 of the cheese. Serve garnished with tortilla chips and remaining cheese.

Makes 6 servings

1 pound ground pork
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 cup bread crumbs
4 flour tortillas
2 ounces cheddar, grated
2 ounces Monterey jack, grated
salt and pepper

1. Combine pork, cumin, paprika, cayenne, garlic and bread crumbs and season with salt and pepper.
2. Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Flatten the pork mixture into a disk the size of the frying pan and fry until browned, then flip and continue cooking until cooked through to the center.
3. Remove the pork from the heat and cut into slices. Serve on tortillas with shredded cheese and other desired toppings.

Makes 4 servings

Today is my birthday. It's mid-week and I'm not feeling particularly adventurous, so we decide on dinner and a movie. After getting to the movie theater, we realize that there's nothing showing there that we wanted to see, so we decide to go for a walk. One hour leads to another before we're a block from our house, still trying to find something on a menu that I haven't eaten yet that we can afford.

We settled on a small Mexican restaurant called La Iguana, ignoring all of our previously bad experiences with bad Mexican dining so far this year, especially since moving here. I don't have any idea what I expected myself to be eating on my birthday when I started this project almost a year ago, but I really doubt it was enchiladas. I made Enchiladas with a mole sauce way back in January, but these were three different types of enchiladas, you see. Variations on things already eaten are becoming more appealing these last few months.

One enchilada was filled with cheese and topped with a fiery red sauce. One was stuffed with guacamole and chicken and the third with spinach and sour cream. Truth be told I barely made it through the second without feeling like I was about to burst, but somehow I finished off the third, as well as my beans, rice and salad, then a wonderful chocolate mousse for dessert.

I loved everything about this place. It had a nice atmosphere, the food was excellent and not afraid to be spicy (which is something I've found strange about nearly every Mexican restaurant I've been to) and with very pleasant staff. I left feeling completely satisfied, though a little too full, and retired to the bed while Shannon stayed up working overtime on her laptop.

Still having a bit of Gruyere leftover from the Potatoes Dauphinoise, I started looking for recipes to utilize it. I found one for a Syrian Cheese Pie that sounded interesting, so I went with that. I was expecting something like a turnover crossed with a Grilled Cheese Sandwich but what I got was something more like a Cheese Quiche. I should have been able to predict that better on account of all the eggs, but my hopes for an ooey gooey phyllo pastry overshadowed my ability to reason. This wasn't bad, but incredibly rich and I don't think I'd go through the trouble of using a bunch of phyllo dough to make something that essentially tastes like quiche again. It's amazing how quickly phyllo goes from golden brown to charred. As I noticed it was ready, I went to get oven mitts and by the time I'd got back the entire top was blackened.

Surprisingly, and after several searches for as many things I could think of, I realized I had not yet made Tabbouleh, a very common Middle Eastern salad. I can't possibly think of a healthier salad off the top of my head, being rich in everything touted by the Mediterranean diet aside from fish and wine, and you could just have those on the side. Typically tabbouleh is more of a parsley salad and has a brilliant green color, but since I only had a finite amount of parsley and a seemingly infinite amount of bulgur wheat, it became more of a bulgur wheat salad. I suggest using more dressing (lemon juice) if you go this route because bulgur requires more flavoring than a bowl full of parsley.

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1-1/2 cups milk
6 ounces Gruyere, grated
1 cup plain yogurt of soft cheese
3 eggs, beaten
10 sheets phyllo pastry
1/2 cup butter, melted
salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook for a minute or two.
3. Slowly whisk the milk into the saucepan and continue stirring until thickened.
4. Reduce heat to low and add the cheese, yogurt and eggs, stirring to combine. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Lightly brush an oven proof dish with butter and lay a single sheet of phyllo on the bottom. Brush lightly with butter and top with a second phyllo sheet.
6. Alternate layers of the cheese mixture and phyllo dough, brushing each layer of phyllo with the melted butter and ending with a layer of phyllo.
7. Transfer to the oven and bake until golden brown, about 40 minutes. Let cool slightly before slicing.

Makes 8 servings

1 cup bulgur wheat
3 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 medium cucumber, chopped
3 scallions, chopped
1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
3 tablespoons fresh mint, chopped
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons lemon juice
salt and pepper

1. Rinse bulgur wheat several times, then soak in hot water while preparing the rest of the ingredients.
2. Combine tomatoes, cucumber, scallions, parsley and mint. Toss with olive oil and lemon juice and season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Drain bulgur well and combine with the salad. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

Makes 8 servings

For anything involving pastry or some sort of wrapping or whatever, I usually have Shannon do it because I don't have the patience for it. After a few attempts she quickly becomes a professional whatever she happens to be making. In this case, it was wontons, which she affectionately notes look like bums under a skirt. We didn't feel like having the whole place smell like deep fryer again, so we did not make any deep-fried wontons unfortunately. Instead, we made a big pot of Wonton Soup. The instructions for making the wontons are a little sketchy on paper, but pretty much any package comes with visual directions which are easy enough to follow.

Shannon confessed that she'd never actually had wonton soup. It was much to my delight that this tasted pretty much like any wonton soup I've tasted. Originally the broth was too salty, but that was easily remedied by adding some water and then we were off. She really enjoyed it. I like how the boiled wontons taste like ribbons of pasta and meatballs rather than anything like what I associate a wonton to taste like. If it weren't for the Chinese flavors it could easily be an Italian soup. I definitely feel like I got the easy end of this one, only having to make a simple broth and mix together some ground pork.

1/2 pound lean ground pork
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 scallion, minced
24 wonton wrappers
1 egg, beaten
water

1 teaspoon cornstarch
3 cups chicken stock
1 cup vegetable broth
2 teaspoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 carrot, peeled and thinly sliced in coin
3 scallions, chopped
white pepper

1. Combine the ground pork with soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, sugar and scallion and refrigerate for an hour.
2. Moisten the edges of a wonton wrapper with egg wash and place about a teaspoon of pork filling into the center. Fold the wontons as directed by the wonton package; over lengthwise, fold over again, keeping your thumbs in place, then join the corners to make a wonton shape. Repeat with remaining wonton wrappers and filling.
3. Meanwhile, prepare the soup while making wontons. Combine cornstarch with cool chicken stock and vegetable broth. Put in a large soup pot over medium-high heat and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Stir in the soy sauce and oyster sauce then add the carrots and scallion. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until carrots are tender.
4. Add wontons to the simmering broth and cook until pork is fully cooked, about 10 minutes. Serve with a bit of freshly grated white pepper.

Makes 4 servings