NJ SPICE

January was a tasty month for sure. Some of the photos here are related to articles that are in the works, such as the upside-down cakes (pear and blood orange), others are just things I made for dinner or picked up along the way.

Note the gorgeous tray of cheesy sou-boereg that my friend (and chef/food writer) Pamela Parseghian made. I’d shared my father’s easy recipe with her, and she made this at home one night, emailing me a photo. She and her husband George just loved it. Dad would be so proud.

Pretend you don’t see that Taylor Pork Roll! I hadn’t had that in years (if ever), but thanks to a reference to it I read somewhere, suddenly I had to try it. I probably won’t bother again, though, even if it is a classic New Jersey product. It’s like liverwurst: every now and then I get the urge to have a liverwurst sandwich (with thinly sliced white onion), an occasional indulgence of my mother’s. But whenever I do, the saltiness just kills any pleasure I might have gotten from it. So much for salty “composite” breakfast and lunch meats. Move along, nothing to see here.

(Click on any photo to start a slideshow.)