Really LAME nerd jokes aside (oh god, stop), the culinary transition between winter and Spring has been a combination of the old and new. Some recipes I’ve developed from scratch and others I’ve simply borrowed from my library of awesome. I didn’t record much of these past few months in detail, but here are some of the menu items I’ve concocted:

1. Strawberry-mayonnaise in a turkey bacon wrap with fresh basil, mint, romaine, escarole, thinly sliced red onion, toasted slivered almonds, balsamic vinegar, and goat cheese (optional).

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In recent weeks, Creative Comestibles has featured the heavier, classic sauces and stocks of French-influenced cuisine. But today I mutinied and embarked in a new—or should I say old?—culinary direction. So-called "modern" sauces are popular, mainly because they are considered lighter, healthier, and less preparation intensive. The apricot-port sauce featured here generally fits these characteristics; the sauce can be assembled in minutes, is devoid of fat, and in appropriate quantities accents (not overrides) the savory with an aspect of sweet. I pair the sauce with marinated pork cooked to juicy perfection and sliced into medallions. Pork pairs very well with apricot and, as a tenderloin, is just as easy to finish as the sauce itself.

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As a child I ate from a variety of cuisines which reflected the life and travel of my mother and her mother. My grandmother was a typical White Anglo Saxon Protestant (WASP), famous in the family for her apple pies, her delicious meat-and-potatoes Midwest cuisine, and her generous, welcoming table. She married a missionary of the church and traveled overseas with him to Hokkaidō. There she raised my mother with the help of a Japanese nanny, whom Mom fondly remembers as oba-san. Between my grandmother sharing her apple pies with the locals and, in turn, "oba-san" preparing traditional country-style Japanese meals for the family, my mother grew up in the epicenter of a small cultural exchange. She took this experience with her and traveled to the U.S., France, Spain, Mexico, and other countries, studying language, literature, and, occasionally, new cooking techniques and recipes. Later, she married a third generation Japanese son of Hawaii and adapted some of the recipes for him. I had the pleasure of enjoying the accumulated results descended through the line of women in my family.

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I discovered a recipe from Emeril which brought back fond memories of thin sliced beef from KTA in a soy sauce marinade. (The butchers eventually stopped offering the thin slicing service; it’s a time-consuming process to keep the meat and knife sufficiently cold. Continue reading for more commentary on this subject.) I’m not sure I would call the recipe “Korean.” It sounds more like an American bastard child of grilled thin sliced beef teriyaki over sticky white rice and ground pork lettuce wraps with crunchy rice noodles.

Anyway, the only part of the dish I made word-for-word was the chile sauce. For the marinade, I just threw the ingredients together with a “Oh that looks about right.”

A few helpful hints for next time:

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