Here we are at the beginning of February and Mardi Gras is coming up – that’s a great reminder to make a dish with a bit of heat and a bit of spice to ward off the winter blues. A dish like this Cajun Fried Rice with Pulled Pork.

Sheet Tray Hasselback Smoked Sausage
Sheet Tray Hasselback Smoked Sausage is the kind of quickie, low-effort meal that’s really a “back pocket” recipe. If you’re not familiar with the term back pocket, it’s a recipe that’s easy enough to memorize that you can “pull off” at pretty much a moment’s notice, especially if it can be riffed on with what’s in the fridge and/or freezer or pantry.

Chinese Black Pepper Steak
East meets West in the restaurant version of Chinese Black Pepper Steak. There’s no doubt that this dish is a popular restaurant item and for good reason. First of all, it’s all about the beef with only an accent of familiar veggies for balance. That gives it a great appeal for many diners.

Sun-Dried Tomato Feta Pasta Salad
I first had this Sun-Dried Tomato Feta Pasta Salad from the grocery deli and I was in love at first bite! It was like every flavor in that salad (which is filled with bold flavor) was jumping in turn, hoping to get noticed; keeping my interest and making me want to go back for another bite and another!

Too Many Green Peppers
First of all, when deciding what to do with too many green peppers, I guess we need to define how many green peppers are too many! Here, I’m talking about a few, like the windfall of about a dozen green bell peppers (plus a few more the following week) we got in our veggie box.