Cemita Poblana with Pork Milanesa

This Cemita Poblana is based on a regional Mexican sandwich from the historic city and state of Puebla located southeast of Mexico City. It is distinguished by its sesame seed roll.

I loved this sandwich! It's soooo good! The flavors of the layered fillings give it an amazing depth of flavor. There are no extraneous ingredients, such as lettuce, to fill out the sandwich. It stands on its own.

Stuffed Pretzel Bites

These pretzel bites are stuffed with little sausages or mini hot dogs. They are ridiculously good and amazingly easy to make. They only take about an hour and a half from start to finish.

That I could make something with yeast and serve it as an appetizer is something that seemed impossible to me. Yeast? Seriously? Yes!!

How To Transfer Bread Dough to a Hot Cast Iron Dutch Oven - Bread 101

Baking bread in a cast iron or clay pot is a great way to recreate the hot, moist environment of a professional oven. The super hot pot traps the steam that is naturally generated from the dough, and also encourages the dough to rise rapidly in the oven. This is called "oven spring." 

The bread in the photo above was baked in a cast iron pan that was preheated in a 500 degree (F) oven. I've posted lots of bread recipes that use this method so I finally decided to take some photos demonstrating how I do it.

Ka'kat - Middle Eastern Snack Bread

These tiny little Ka'kat rolls are a Middle Eastern street food and are flavored with mahleb, the ground kernels of black cherries.

When I pulled these out of the oven after a long day of baking, I could not stop myself from buttering and eating these. The aroma from the mahleb kept calling me back to the cooling rack "just to make sure" these turned out.

Corpse Reviver #2 Cocktail

Prior to the Prohibition era, the Corpse Reviver #2 Cocktail was originally meant to cure hangovers. Thus, the name "Corpse Reviver."

I first found a recipe for this cocktail in my 1948 edition of The Standard Bartender's Guide by Patrick Gavin Duffy (interestingly, the book does not contain a recipe for #1).

The least prominent, but the most interesting ingredient in this cocktail is absinthe. It has quite a history and ritual for consumption, and was often thought of as a hallucinogenic and associated with addiction. You can read more about absinthe here. It's pretty fascinating. It is a botanical liqueur with a very high alcohol content. It is traditionally prepared by holding a slotted absinthe spoon and a sugar cube over the absinthe and slowly pouring iced water over the sugar until it dissolves.

Romanian Easter Bread | Cozonac

This month, the Bread Baking Babes are making Romanian Easter Bread.

I posted my braided dough on a bread baking group, and a sweet person posted, "Cozonac! It looks perfect! I'm Romanian and I know!" How cool is that? I'm pretty sure she is referring to Elle's (the Bread Baking Babes' kitchen of the month) bread, which I also posted, but I still beamed with pride. Bread geeks do that.

Cantonese Style Stir-Fried Pork with Chinese Broccoli | Wok Wednesdays

This Cantonese Style Stir-Fried Pork with Chinese Broccoli was amazingly rich and delicious.

This dish requires quite a bit of preparation prior to the stir-fry (there are 17 ingredients), but it is so worth it. The combination of all of the ingredients creates a sauce that is just simply amazingly flavorful. Once you have the ingredients prepped, the dish takes just minutes to make.