A few years ago I discovered a wonderful mustard at the Fancy Food Show. I wrote about it and not long after it won the gold prize at the Napa Valley mustard competition. That was just one in a long line of award winning products. Pam Kraemer founder of Dulcet Cuisine has a real knack for creating outstanding mustards, sauces, and now ketchups.

I'm always excited to try new products from Dulcet Cuisine and play with them. Kraemer uses very high quality ingredients and isn't satisfied until her products are the best they can be. They don't just make great condiments, they really shine as ingredients in recipes. She usually does all her own recipe development, but now and then I get to help out and share my creations.

I have to admit, I had never stuffed a pork loin before. But it turns out to be very easy and impressive. Rather than butterfly the whole loin and stuff, roll and tie, I just created an incision in the loin and made a pocket large enough to accommodate a very savory and sweet stuffing with a kick of spice. This recipe uses Dulcet Cuisine's wonderful new Sweet Orange Chili Mustard as part of the filling and the glaze. It's sweet and has a real kick to it and a rough texture. Once you have the basic technique down, you can change this up any number of ways--use different kinds of bread, dried fruit, liquid, mustard, etc. I think it would be a great dish for a dinner party.

Apricot Stuffed Pork Loin
serves 4 - 6

Ingredients

1 boneless pork loin roast, about 2 1/2 lbs
2 Tablespoons oil
Salt

Stuffing:
1 cup wheat bread cubed, about 2 slices
1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 Tablespoons Sweet Orange Chili Mustard
2 Tablespoons orange juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Glaze:
1/4 cup Sweet Orange Chili mustard
1 Tablespoon honey

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Make a hole for stuffing that runs lengthwise through pork loin. Insert a sharp long thin knife lengthwise toward center of loin, then repeat at opposite end of loin to complete incision running through middle.

Combine the stuffing ingredients and mix well. Stuffing should be very moist. Open up incision with your fingers, to create a 1 1/2-inch-wide opening, then fill with stuffing, pushing from both ends toward center.

Pat pork loin dry and and season well with salt. Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over high heat until very hot, then brown pork on all sides, about 2 minutes.

Place stuffed loin on rack in a foil-lined roasting pan. After 30 minutes, baste with the glaze, baste again 15 minutes later. Roast to about 160�, about 1 1/2 hours. ?

Enjoy!

My kitchen is overflowing. My freezer is so full I can barely close it. I sometimes hear the crash of bottles, jars and tins falling off my pantry shelves and onto the floor. I seriously think I could cook and eat without going out of the house for a month. Ok, I might get bored of tuna and beans and pasta, but then again, maybe not. I have no idea what causes me to hoard food, but I sometimes imagine I must have been a starving Italian casalinga in another lifetime.

The other day I was thinking about using the short grain Valencia rice I had languishing in the cupboard to make paella. I was going to buy some shrimp but as I perused various recipes it became clear to me that you can make paella with just about any combination of vegetables, seafood or meat. There is no one paella. I figured I might as well use what I have on hand. In my pantry I had a jar of artichokes and a can of green olives, and in the freezer I had pearl onions, peas and a single sausage. Those ingredients were what I used on top of the paella rice. I tweaked the technique I found in a Mark Bittman recipe Tomato Paella to make the rice.

I know it seems hard to believe, but I only used one sausage for 4 servings of paella! Actually, you could easily make this a vegetarian dish. The idea is to use any leftover cooked or prepared vegetables and meats you have on hand or to raid your pantry. I wouldn't make this recipe unless I had several things I wanted to use up. This recipe is a good excuse for not throwing away that 1/4 cup of leftover carrots or peas or whatever you find yourself staring at when cleaning up after dinner. The variations are endless.

Pantry Paella
Serves 4

Ingredients

4 cups liquid, a combination of broth, water and juice from toppings (see below)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Large pinch saffron threads
2 teaspoons paprika, preferably Spanish piment�n (smoked paprika)
2 1/2 cups toppings--cooked vegetables, seafood, meat (such as peas, artichokes, green olives, red peppers, shrimp, chicken, sausage)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2/3 cup onion, minced
1 tablespoon minced garlic, about 2 large cloves
2 cups preferably Spanish or other short-grain rice
Minced parsley for garnish
Lemon wedges

Instructions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine stock and water with tomato paste, saffron and paprika in a saucepan and heat.
Put oil in a 10- or 12-inch ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables soften, 3 to 5 minutes. Add rice and cook, stirring occasionally, until it is shiny, another minute or two. Add liquid and stir until just combined.

Put pan in oven and roast, undisturbed, for 15 minutes. Check to see if rice is dry and just tender. If not, return pan to oven and continue cooking for another 5 minutes. If rice is dry but still is not quite done, add a small amount of stock or water or white wine. Amount of liquid will vary depending upon the size of your pan. When rice is ready, turn off oven, sprinkle toppings on rice and cover with lid or foil. Let pan sit in the oven for 5 to 15 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley and serve with lemon.

Enjoy!

Last week it was so cold I was desperate for recipes that would warm the kitchen and the house, so I made baked beans. It was a long slow recipe that took 7 hours of baking. I used salt pork, onions, molasses, brown sugar and spices. The beans were good, but I got tired of eating them plain, so I made my version of franks and beans.

I hesitate to post this recipe because, it is pure white trash cooking, not exactly my specialty. But the truth is, it's delicious! I've seen this recipe called something like "Hawaiian Beans" which is kind of interesting because of course pineapple comes from Hawaii, and beans are very popular in Hawaii, especially in Portuguese Bean Soup. But also because this recipe has frankfurters in it. All kinds of processed meat--specifically Spam and hot dogs are very common in Hawaii and make their way into fusion food like Spam musubi and hot dog maki sushi.

While my parents have very sophisticated tastes, I credit them with this very budget friendly recipe. They made it with Heinz vegetarian beans, probably kosher hot dogs and French's prepared mustard. But what I've discovered is that it works well with baked beans, any kind of sausage and any kind of mustard you like. It's really less of a recipe than a formula. Please, don't hate me for posting it! I promise I will get back to regular programming shortly!

Franks & Beans, "Hawaiian Style"
makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients

4 cups canned or homemade beans, about 2 cans
4 hot dogs or sausages, any kind you like, sliced into bite sized chunks
1 cup canned pineapple chunks
3 Tablespoons ketchup
1 Tablespoon mustard, any kind you like

Instructions

Dump all of the ingredients into a large saucepan or dutch oven and gently heat through. Season to taste with additional mustard, ketchup, etc. Enjoy!

Sometimes the story behind a given dish is complicated. This is one of those recipes, though the recipe is is easy as can be. I'm particularly proud of it because it's rather original and I got a number of compliments on it and even a couple of requests for the recipe. It's spicy fennel flavored Italian sausages roasted with vinegar-marinated pears and onions. The resulting dish has spicy, savory and sweet flavors and can be made for as many or as few people as you like. It's a perfect dish for Fall.

It represents my favorite type of recipe because it takes very little time, few ingredients and techniques but yields something absolutely delicious. I think you could call it foolproof. It can also be varied pretty easily--add other fruit, seasonings, vegetables, or different kinds of sausages. Here are the steps that lead to the recipe:

1. My initial motivation was to make something savory with pears. My mom has a pear tree that went a little crazy this year so I had quite a few pears to use. In Marin County this is not an unusual occurrence.

2. I had a food blogger potluck to attend and I wanted something that would feed a crowd.

3. It was "Eat Local Challenge Month" and I feared the wrath of those who would question the provenance of my offering. The last thing I needed was a blog post blaming me for ruining their day!

4. What could I do to make pears, savory? Vinegar! I have made this recipe twice and it works with port wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar. I think you need something rich and dark, don't use supermarket red wine vinegar. Actually avoid supermarket red wine vinegar in general, it's terrible.

5. I wanted everything in the dish to be roasted, but not too saucy. My biggest innovation was to marinate the pears and onions in vinegar, but to roast them on a baking sheet.

6. Success! This recipe worked well the very first go, perhaps because it builds on the success of other recipes. Looking back I can say it was somewhat influenced by Mark Bittman's Sausages and Grapes recipe and also by a Grilled Chicken Sausage and Red Pear Skewer recipe.

Note: I used Fra'Mani Fully Cooked Spicy Italian Sausage I got from Costco. They are completely cooked and very good. If you wanted to use a raw sausage I would cut it into chunks and roast it for 10-15 minutes before adding the fruit.

Roasted Sausages and Pears
for 2 people:

Ingredients

2 fully cooked Italian sausages (but I bet it would be good with Kielbasa too)
2 firm pears, peeled and cored
1/4 cup balsamic or port wine vinegar (you really just need enough to make sure everything is mostly submersed)
1 small onion, optional

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Cut each pear into 4 - 6 chunks. Place in a very small bowl or plastic bag and add the vinegar to marinate. Allow to marinate at room temperature for about 15 minutes. If you are using an onion, cut it into smaller chunks and break them up into individual pieces and add them to the marinade.

Cut the sausages into 4 - 5 pieces each. Line a baking sheet, preferably rimmed, with aluminum foil and place the pears and onions on the pan. Dunk the sausages into the vinegar to coat them, then place them randomly on the pan as well. Bake for 15 minutes or until pears are soft and sausages are beginning to get crusty.

Serve with a baguette and a spinach salad.

Enjoy!