The Big Heat Coca-Cola Slow Cooker Pork BBQ Sandwiches

I was looking for a comfort read the other day and for some inexplicable reason, this old category romance came to mind. I read it over and over for a few months, but I got over it and eventually got rid of it with the rest of my books from what I now refer to as The Great Blaze Binge of 2008. I didn't even remember the title or the author, just that it featured a bounty hunter in a black t-shirt and a hot kiss where the hero backs the heroine into a closet door. Luckily that was sufficiently specific that I was able to turn up The Big Heat by Jennifer LaBreque.

Heroine Sunny Templeton is running for Memphis city council when the guy she's running against pulls a photo of her in a bikini off an internet dating site and uses it to brand her a party girl. She loses the election and her reputation is damaged, but it's not until he waves to her sarcastically from his brand new Cadillac that he really gets under his skin. And she rams him with her car. Sunny is smart, sexy and the owner of her own web design business. If she has any flaws, they're endearing. Normally this would drive me up a wall, but she's just so darn likeable.

Hero Cade Stone works in the family business, which just happens to be bail bonds. When his younger brother backs a skeezy poltician in the Memphis city council race to get them some publicity, and said skeezy politician undertakes some dirty tactics to win the race, Cade feels guilty. So when Sunny's sister stops in to post bail to get Sunny out of jail, but can't stay to finish the deed, Cade agrees to go across the street and pick her up. But his protective instincts are riled and circumstances conspire to send Sunny home with him to his house.

There are some hilariously goofy things about this book that could never happen anywhere but Harlequinland. It's all coincidence, temper tantrums, unlikely family dynamics and alphamale shenanigans. But it's hard to care. Because what these characters lack in depth, they make up for in charm. And if the conflict is a little too readily resolved and the courtship a little speedy (first kiss to marriage proposal in 2.5 weeks), it has enough redeeming moments that none of that bothered me.

Cade is exactly the kind of alpha hero I can get behind. He's loyal, caring and protective of both his family and his heroine. He restores muscle cars, drives a yellow Corvette, dresses all in black, catches baddies and buys crotchless lingerie (for her). He's strong and a little bossy, but not overbearing. Just enough to make for some hot alphasex scenes, complete with caveman carry, but not so much that he runs roughshod over Sunny. Sunny is smart, funny and resourceful. She may go home with Cade when her lawn is overrun with reporters, but she has her own car towed, calls her lawyer, changes her phone number and gets her work done all on her own. There's also a spiritual overtone to the entire book--with animal totems and hints at clairvoyance--not precisely paranormal, but a little mystical. I rather enjoyed it.

I enjoyed it enough that I'm inspired to go back to some more of the Blaze books I remember loving--Lori Wilde was a particular favorite as I recall and I bought the first of these Big, Bad Bounty Hunters by Rhonda Nelson as well. I'll see if any of the rest of them hold up. Maybe not every book has to be so deep and serious all the time, yeah?

Speaking of everything not having to be so deep and serious, I was tempted to scrap this recipe when it didn't completely knock my socks off. The thing is though, my friends liked it just fine and everyone had at least seconds, if not thirds. Five people (mostly guys, but still) ate three and a half pounds of pork. Sometimes the great is the enemy of the good. That said, I made it again, doubling the spices until it met my standards.

With the BBQ sauce I made for my review of Alexis Hall's Liberty and Other Stories (stashed in the freezer for a couple months) and a simple sandwich-style coleslaw, the full effect is appealing. This isn't contest-winning pork barbeque, but made in a crockpot, served with a five-minute vinegar-based coleslaw and letting the sauce be the star? It worked.

If you're wondering what the connection is, The Big Heat is set in Memphis, home of serious tomato-based BBQ sauce, and the hero and heroine stop for BBQ takeout when he rescues her from jail. By the way, how much do I love that the heroine gets thrown in jail? So much. Why can't more romance heroines be temporarily incarcerated? It's certainly a new angle on the damsel in distress.

Finally, this isn't really a coleslaw designed to be eaten on its own. It's a condiment, not a side dish. Which is good because I don't even like coleslaw. At least not creamy, American-style coleslaw. I'd be open to suggestions though. Who has a favorite coleslaw recipe?

Coca-Cola Slow Cooker Pork BBQ and Five-Minute Sandwich Slaw
Makes: About 12 sandwiches
Difficulty: Easy

2.5-3.5 pound bone-in pork half shoulder
3 tablespoons brown sugar
4 teaspoons smoked paprika
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons garlic salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 12-ounce cans  Coca-Cola
12 soft white or wheat hamburger buns
1/2 cup tomato-based BBQ sauce

8 ounces pre-shredded, bagged coleslaw mix
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar

1. In a large bowl, combine brown sugar, smoked paprika, dry mustard, cumin crushed red pepper, turmeric, garlic salt and black pepper. Coat pork shoulder with spice mixture, patting to adhere.

2. Heat oil over medium heat until hot, but not smoking. Sear pork on each side, 1-2 minutes. Reove pork to crock pot and drain off the fat, leaving any browned bits. Deglaze the pan with the Coca-Cola and pour the mixture into the crock pot with the pork. Set slow cooker to low and cook for 8-10 hours.

3. At some point before the pork is done, combine coleslaw mix, celery see, red wine vinegar, salt and sugar in a medium bowl and mix to combine, refrigerating until ready to use.

4. When the pork is done, shred it using tongs or two forks and remove to a bowl. Serve each sandwich with a heaping helping of pork, a spoonful of coleslaw and a tablespoon of your favorite BBQ sauce.


Disclosure: Unusually, for recent reviews, I don't know Jennifer LaBreque from Adam and I bought this book myself.

Flight of Magpies Szechuan Pork Tacos

It's books like Flight of Magpies by K.J. Charles that make my heart hurt every time someone says that romance novels are dumb. Because this book, even more than the two that preceded it (and those were pretty damn good), is absolutely brilliant. And it's brilliant in, like, three separate genres, somehow doing justice to each.

For those not familiar with the series, it follows justiciar Stephen Day, a hybrid policeman-wizard, whose job it is to track down and bring to justice magical lawbreakers. His job is not high status or particularly lucrative, but he's devoted to it. What power he has is entirely magical and he's very, very good. If you're a competence porn sort of reader, you're really going to love Stephen. In the first book, The Magpie Lord, his duties throw him into the path of Lord Crane, a man with a magical problem who just happens to be the son of the man who ruined Stephen's father. Crane is powerful in a more temporal way, with physical prowess, political clout and immense personal charm. Over the course of three books, they are drawn together and pulled apart by duty, circumstances, bad guys, wanderlust and a society that doesn't approve of their love, to put it mildly. Flight of Magpies is the culmination of all these conflicts and it is packed full of wickedly hot sex, heart-breaking emotional moments, fast-paced action and a sense of urgency that will make you wish you hadn't opened the book at 10 pm, all leading to such a dramatic climax that you'll be exhausted and speechless by the end. But in the best way.

Flight of Magpies is everything romance can be, wrapped up in one tidy package. It contains a story that just couldn't be told any other way. It's a gorgeous romance where two men who have quite different stations in life, quite different personalities and major conflicts between them fall in love, have fights, make up and do something amazing together. It's also a terrific fantasy, with coherent world-building, a highly logical magic system and a perfectly complex system of magical ethics. And it's accurate historical fiction, using the social mores of the time to stage the conflict.

And not only that, but each of these elements intersects so skillfully. The sex between the characters has magical effects. The historical context impacts the romance. For lovers of Victorian occultism, there are even historical magical intersections. Plus, it's so devilishly well-written by an author who doesn't feel compelled to over-explain things: it doesn't assume that readers are too stupid to read between the lines. And it doesn't have an ounce of fat. Every word, every sentence, every paragraph, every scene, every chapter serves a purpose with none of the curious looping about I've seen in too many romances with not enough conflict to carry the story.

The entire Charm of Magpies series is everything genre fiction should be, but often isn't. It's perfectly paced, engaging, hilarious, without pretension, and so finely crafted. I've pretty much used up all the adjectives in English that mean anything like "good" so I'll just say: buy it, read it, you won't regret it.

The weather is finally warming up here in Virginia and when it's warm, I start wanting tacos. Preferably with margaritas. Lots of margaritas. It happens pretty much every year. The first sign of temperatures above 60 degrees and I'm Googling the best place for tacos in Northern Virginia.

 

 

Or, you know, I could just make them myself. And I often do. I've been blogging here for a bit less than a year and there are already two taco recipes: Thai beef tacos and carne asada tacos. Today I'm adding a third.

These tacos are really easy. Basically, you brown a pork shoulder, throw it in the crockpot for eight hours, then shred, serve with a cabbage and lettuce slaw and top it all off with a drizzle of Sriracha. It's vaguely Szechuan-inspired, what with the five spice powder and sliced red chiles in the slaw, but with corn tortillas and Vietnamese Sriracha, it's nothing like authentic. Just an homage to Crane's time in China and a brief reference Charles drops at the beginning of the second book of the series, A Case of Possession.

Oh, and for those who hate multiple steps in crockpot recipes, you can totally skip the browning part and just put the shoulder in the crockpot. It won't be as tasty without the carmelization, but if you're in a rush, you can. Also, if you're not into spice, use half a thinly sliced red bell pepper instead of the hot chiles.

Now let's have tacos.

Szechuan Pork Tacos
Diffculty: Easy
Makes: 8 servings (24 tacos)
Time: 8 hours, 25 minutes (hands-on time: 25 minutes)

Pork
2 1/2 - 3 pound blade-in pork shoulder
1 1/2 teaspoons Chinese five spice powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoons grapeseed oil (or other high-heat oil--not olive oil)
1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons sweet chili-garlic sauce
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ginger, minced
24 corn tortillas
Sriracha sauce (optional)

Slaw
1/4 head of napa cabbage, sliced thin (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 Romaine lettuce heart, slice thin (about 1 1/2 cups)
2 carrots, peeled and shredded
2 Thai chile peppers, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon rice vinegar (unseasoned)
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon low-sodium soy sauce

1. Combine the five spice powder, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Rub the mixture all over the pork shoulder.

2. Heat the grapeseed oil in a large skillet over high heat until very hot, but not smoking. Sear the roast on all sides (don't forget the ends), about one minute each side. Remove to a 4 to 6 quarts crockpot. Turn down the heat on the skillet to medium-high.

3. Pour off all but one tablespoon of the oil. Cook the garlic and ginger until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Pour in the soy sauce to deglaze the pan and dump everything into the crock pot on top of the pork. Top with brown sugar and sweet chili sauce and stir everything around a little bit. Cook for 8 hours on low.

4. About 10 minutes before the roast is done, prepare the slaw. Combine the rice vinegar, honey, sesame oil and soy sauce in a large bowl. Add the cabbage, lettuce, carrots and chiles. Toss to combine.

4. When the roast is done, reserve the cooking liquid. Take the roast out of the crockpot and use two forks to shred the meat. It should fall right off the bone and shred very easily. Put it in a large bowl and combine with 4 tablespoons of the cooking liquid.

5. Serve shredded pork topped with slaw and a drizzle of Sriracha.

Liberty & Other Stories Smoked Tea BBQ Ribs

I'm a pretty cerebral romance reader. It's rare that I read one book by an author that so transports me I can't write anything intelligent about it, much less two. So when it comes to Alexis Hall's work, I'm three books in and still struggling to write anything coherent, both because it's just not how I want to experience these stories and because every time I try, I come out with a 6,000 word blog post (don't worry--this post isn't quite that long). There is plenty of meat on these bones. They're so infernally clever, complex, rich and varied that I want to do them justice.

Liberty & Other Stories is a book of short stories set in the same universe as last year's Prosperity, and there may be differing opinions on this, but I think it doesn't really work as a stand-alone. It's comprised of Shackles, Squamous with a Chance of Rain, Cloudy Climes and Starless Skies, and Liberty. I'm focusing on Shackles here because it's a prequel to Prosperity, the story of Ruben Crowe's first meeting with Milord. They're both characters I'm actually rather ambivalent about in terms of my personal feelings, but which somehow doesn't impact how I experience their interactions. Both characters have limitations in my eyes, which made them wrong for Picadilly, the charming, effervescent narrator of Prosperity, but perfect for each other.

Shackles was actually reminiscent of Rumpelstiltskin, the Grimm fairy tale. Both Milord and Ruben Crowe are struggling with identity here, a struggle which continues into Prosperity. Milord is a crime lord who can't be a crime lord from what is effectively death row. And Ruben feels out of place as a noble and has been defrocked as a priest. We get the sense he's just...drifting. And the way Ruben repeatedly leaves and returns to Milord in prison recollects the little man returning to the princess each night as she searches for his true name. I couldn't help but think of Ruben's desire for Milord's redemption, which definitely doesn't happen within the bounds of Shackles and barely happens within the bounds of Prosperity: trying to spin Milord into gold, despite his very straw-like, base capabilities.

There are some theological reasons that persistently annoy me about Ruben, but I'm not going to go into that here. Suffice to say, I find it hard to like him, which is actually a good thing. Otherwise, I might have had difficulty with the romance. And Milord is a master manipulator, controlling every move Ruben makes even as he pretends helplessness: both monster and princess. Knowing what's coming further down the line for them made Shackles all the more interesting because, aside from Ruben not dying at the end, there is little indication here that Milord is in any way redeemable in the way Ruben hopes for.

That said, the fact that I have doubts about both Milord and Ruben as people doesn't diminish my joy at their happy ending in Prosperity. Whether I like them isn't the point. The point is that they love each other and find a way to make it work, despite their limitations. It's a subject that seems to be emerging as something of a theme of Hall's: that everyone, regardless of their worth to society, is worthy of love. It's also the the perfect foil for the romance that develops between Picadilly and Byron Kae, the aethermancer of the ship that brings all of these characters together: a dramatic, tempestuous thing that highlights the slow-developing, quietly magical quality of Dil & BK's relationship. And it's that relationship, the one between Picadilly and Byron Kae, that I'm reluctant to spoil by writing about in depth. So you'll just have to read Cloudy Climes and Starless Skies, which is one of my favorite stories I've ever read anywhere. Ever.

I've said several times that these two books (Prosperity and Liberty & Other Stories) would make an excellent doctoral thesis in the future. But they also function as pure narrative: engaging stories that, in your excitement, you'll either rush to finish or pause to savor. I'd recommend reading Prosperity prior to picking up this volume. There is also a free short available in the same universe which further explores the dreams and desires of a minor character in Cloudy. And since anything to do with Byron Kae appears to be my kryptonite, I can only hope that more Prosperity universe books will be forthcoming, particularly as someone who was once kind to BK, Captain Edward Rackham, comes into focus in Cloudy Climes and Starless Skies and struck me as kinda dreamy. Probably needless to say at this point, I'd be overjoyed for more.

Smoked tea is definitely not for everyone. Which sort of makes lapsang souchong the perfect thing for Milord to love and for Ruben to bring him in prison because I think they're both sort of acquired tastes in their own ways. If you follow me on Twitter, you know that the first iteration of cooking-with-lapsang-souchong didn't work as well as I'd hoped. I tried several iterations of a sweet, dessert-like thing, but I apparently have odd taste because what tasted divine to me was too strange for everyone else.

Lapsang souchong has great body and complexity and was really fun to cook with. Instead of working against its smokiness like in the first recipe, I decided to work with it. And what says smoke more emphatically than BBQ sauce? From my searches online, it's pretty clear that this is not a new idea. That said, the recipes I saw tended to include things like pears in syrup and grape jelly and store-bought ketchup. Um...yuck. So I just decided to start from scratch.

The reason the smoked tea is perfect here is that I actually made these ribs in the oven instead of on the grill or in a smoker. For the simple reason that I don't have a grill. Or a smoker. And it's also January. And 10 degrees outside. Sometimes I really miss California. In the past I have often used smoked sea salt or bacon to give a smoky flavor to meat cooked in the oven, but in the future, I can see myself using a lot of finely ground lapsang. It's perfect for getting smoky depth without the fat and crunchiness of bacon or the...well...saltiness of salt.

This sauce is really easy. You basically just boil the heck out of it, puree it, then boil it again. So it's a bit time-consuming (more so than just grabbing a bottle of premade anyway), but since it makes 4 cups, you can freeze it in one cup portions and use it to dress up any grilled or roasted meat. I used it to make baby back ribs right off, which took about a cup and a half along with a spice rub that I'll also include below. It's sort of based off an Asian flavor palate too so it would be really good added to ground turkey turning these pork meatballs subs into turkey burgers with quick-pickled radishes, cilantro & jalapeno, but the options are really endless. I think that might be dinner tonight so I'll post photos to Facebook if it works as well as I hope.

But don't worry about using it up. It's good enough that you'll want it on pretty much everything.

Smoked Tea BBQ Sauce
Makes: 4 cups
Time: 30 minutes

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1 teaspoon minced garlic
6 ounces boiling water
3 1/2 tablespoons lapsang souchong loose tea, separated (see below)
1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes (fire-roasted preferable)
1 6 ounce can tomato paste
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon mustard
1/2 cup sweet chili sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
3 tablespoons lemon juice
salt & pepper

1. In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add diced onions and cook until soft and translucent, approximately 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds more.

2. While onions cook, combine 6 ounces boiling water with 3 tablespoons of lapsang souchong tea and allow to steep for 3 minutes. When onions and garlic are cooked, pour the tea through a strainer into the saucepan with the onion.

3. Add diced tomatoes, tomato paste, brown sugar, mustard, sweet chili sauce, soy sauce, crushed red pepper and lemon juice and stir to combine. In a spice grinder or mortar and pestle, grind the remaining 1 tablespoon tea until finely ground, adding 1/2 tablespoon to the sauce. Boil for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Using a stick blender or by pouring sauce into a standing blender, blend the sauce until smooth. Taste and add salt and pepper as desired. I used 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper. Boil an additional 5 minutes to reduce.


Smoked Tea BBQ Ribs
Makes: rub for 1 rack of ribs
Time: 5 minutes


2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 tablespoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 tablespoon lapsang souchong tea, finely ground (dry)
1 rack of baby back ribs
1 1/2 cups Smoky Tea BBQ Sauce, separated

1. Combine chili powder, brown sugar, salt, pepper, cayenne, tea in a small bowl and whisk to combine.

2. Rub ribs with the spice rub and bring to room temperature on the counter (about 45 minutes). Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

3. Bake ribs for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and preheat broiler. Baste with 1/2 cup BBQ sauce on each side and broil 3 minutes each side.

4. Cut ribs apart and serve with additional 1/2 cup BBQ sauce for dipping. I also made hushpuppies and sauteed garlic spinach, but any kind of traditional BBQ side would be great with these: coleslaw, potato salad, mashed potatoes, cornbread--the options are endless.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of Liberty & Other Stories form the publisher and I am friendly with both the book's author and editor.

Saving the CEO Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

There are generally several common features to romances that star billionaire CEOs. Overwhelmingly, the CEO is the hero, not the heroine. There's also better than average chance that he's into BDSM (and he's the top, natch). He probably doesn't actually do all that much work over the course of the novel and, since it's a romance, he's brilliant, confident, gorgeous and fantastic in bed. Chances are the heroine of these novels will be young, naive and will probably eventually end up working for him in some capacity by the end of the book. So it pleases me when I find a CEO romance like Saving the CEO, which pokes playfully at a lot of these standard features.

Jenny Holiday is a new author whose debut Saving the CEO has much to recommend it. The CEO is still our hero, and he's still gorgeous and good in bed. Jack Winter also has dyscalculia, a learning difficulty similar to dyslexia, but involving numbers rather than letters. So while he's perfectly confident in his ability to close a deal, he's not as assured in his ability to identify discrepancies in his company's books when it looks like his best friend and business partner may be embezzeling.

Cassie James is the bartender at Jack's favorite restaurant, Edward's. But Cassie isn't only a bartender. She's also a college student, working her way slowly through a math degree while paying for her mother's drug rehab. And it's only a little far-fetched when after they've connected as friends and lovers, Jack asks for Cassie's help in checking his books and helping him secure a critical real estate deal in the absence of being able to trust his partner.

Despite some category-esque cheesy parts that seem to have been added in for the trope factor, Saving the CEO was unexpectedly delightful. Cassie the math genius was bright, independent and doesn't end up going to work for the hero at the end of the book. Jack is alpha enough that he makes some fairly brazen moves early in the book, but the two of them then make a game of trading off who's "in charge" in bed. There are plenty of scenes where the two of them actually do the work they're being paid for: both at Jack's company and at Cassie's bartending job. It gave the story an element of richness that is missing from a lot of romance.

This is, I think, Jenny Holiday's first book and she's definitely a writer to watch. I'll be especially interested to see what she can do with a single title romance, just because that's my particular preference. But even if she just continues writing for Entangled, I'll definitely be picking up her work again in the future.

I considered buying some preserved lemons for this post because I wanted to see if I could make the pork and preserved lemon thing that Cassie gets wrong in one of the first scenes of the book. Couldn't find them anywhere. Had employees at four separate grocery stores look at me like I had three heads. Presumably someone knows how to get them, but that's not me apparently.

That said, the actual recipe the chef at Edward's seems to have had in mind is delicious. Or, at least, my version of it was. This is just a basic pork tenderloin stuffed with goat cheese, sauteed spinach and dried cranberries. I used a boxed rice pilaf mix made by Near East and made my very favorite brussels sprouts to go with them since it is very far from being anywhere near asparagus season, which is in the spring. You might think you don't like brussels sprouts. You're probably wrong. These are drenched in bacon, onions and balsamic glaze and are pretty much my favorite food ever. I make them a lot. They even converted my husband to brussels sprout love.

As for the pork itself, I just slit it open, put some plastic wrap over the top and then pounded it to a uniform 1/2 inch thickness (or as close as I could get). Aside from waking up the dog and sending him into a barking frenzy, it worked out rather well. I suppose you could also use a real meat mallet or a rolling pin, but my empty beer bottle worked fine.

I tied the meat up kind of fancy, but you can just use three or four separate pieces of cooking twine or even toothpicks to hold it closed while it bakes.

Serve with a glass of your finest Scotch.

Stuffed Pork Tenderloin
Makes: 4 servings
Time: 45 minutes (15 minutes hands on)

12 ounces fresh baby spinach
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 ounces goat cheese at room temperature
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 pork tenderloin
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 tablespoon butter

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Heat a large skillet with 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat. Add spinach and cook until it wilts, stirring occasionally. Remove to a medium bowl and let cool.

3. While the spinach is cooling, slice the pork tenderloin down the long side, but not all the way through. it should still be attached on one side. Cover the tenderloin with plastic wrap and pound until it's about a 1/2 thick with a meat mallet, rolling pin or empty bottle. Remove the plastic wrap Cut four lengths of cooking twine for securing the tenderloin closed once it's stuffed.

4. In the medium bowl, combine spinach, goat cheese, cranberries, salt and pepper. Mix until well combined. Spread the mixture over the entire opened tenderloin, then roll closed, using the cooking twice to secure it closed.

5. In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium high heat. Add the tenderloin and brown on each side, about 5 minutes total.

6. Oil a baking dish with the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and remove the tenderloin to the baking dish. Cook in the oven for approximately 25 minutes or until a meat thermometer registers 160 degrees F, flipping the meat halfway through the baking time.

7. When done, remove from oven and allow to rest 5 minutes. Slice into approximately 3/4 inch thick slices and serve.

Disclosure: I received a copy of Saving the CEO from the author for review purposes. We follow one another on Twitter.

Composing Love Smoky Pork Bánh Mì Sandwiches

While Composing Love by Audra North might look like a conventional contemporary romance, in a lot of ways, it isn't. There's the primacy of work, even something as formal as what I might term "calling". The hero and heroine are both enmeshed in questions of identity and ability as they relate to the world and even view themselves. And it's an intercultural romance between white, rebellious, hipster guy Chris Reichert and half black, half Asian, staid, conservative classical musician Minh Jackson. And at every moment, on every level, these two throw sparks when they brush up against each other.

When we first meet Minh, she and her Greek friend Gali are decompressing at a club in San Francisco. Minh has recently been on a series of bad dates predicated on the assumption that she can use a check-list to identify a potential mate. The latest in this ill-conceived string is a guy who likes both black girls and Asian girls and refers to dating half black, half Vietnamese Minh as like getting two for the price of one. In her entirely justifiable irritation, she slams headlong into Chris, sending her drink flying and her desires skittering in his unlikely direction. And when he shows up at her apartment later with his sister, who is looking for a new place to live, it sets them on a path toward both personal and professional fulfillment.

Minh captured my quirky little reader's heart immediately. She's bright, talented, loyal, a little bit uptight and entirely unsure of herself and her place in it. She really wants to compose music for movies, but whenever she submits her portfolio, she's told that her work is technically excellent, but has no passion. This has left her feeling uncertain whether she is really capable of composing at that level and getting ready to settle for something she views as "less". Chris, on the other hand, is bright, talented and has passion, but he's unwilling to compromise his unconventional outlook in order to fit in and it's holding him back, even if it takes Minh's gentle prodding for him to realize it.

A good portion of Composing Love takes place with Minh and Chris at work or discussing work, which is a relief in a romance marketplace full of billionaires and people who in theory have professions, but only seem to actually work when it's convenient for the plot. So much of both Minh's and Chris's identity is tied up in their capabilities and notions of success. Minh in particular struggles because her family has always cautioned her against breaking out of the box in any way (including her music), keeping everything she wears and is and does within very conservative bounds so she might fit into a society that is always to some degree biased against her. Both this logic and prior negative experiences with taking chances are things she has to think about critically before she can embrace both Chris and her potential as a composer.

I really enjoyed Composing Love, zipping through it in the course of a morning. Thoroughly three-dimensional characters with friends, family, personal histories and definite aspirations shouldn't feel this revolutionary in contemporary romance, but it did.

I found this recipe on Pinterest about a year and a half ago and it has become a staple of my weekly menu plan ever since. The title is "Smoky Pork Meatball Sandwiches", which sounds super conventional and American--like it might be served on a hamburger bun and have coleslaw on top. But I remember thinking when I made my grocery list that week that the combination of quick pickled radishes, cilantro, jalapeño and mayonnaise sounded awfully strange. Culinarily speaking though, I'm pretty adventurous and I decided to take the recipe at face value, thinking that I would taste as I went and if something ended up being gross, I'd just nix it and drench the whole thing in BBQ sauce.

So I made the quick pickled radishes, sliced up a pepper, pulled off a couple handfuls of cilantro and dug the mayo out of the back of the refrigerator while my husband looked at me skeptically. I baked the meatballs, cut open the hoagie/sub rolls and threw together a quick salad.

When we sat down at the table, we assembled the sandwiches, layering mayo with big handfuls of cilantro and nestling the meatballs in with sliced radish and jalapeño. I looked and him and he looked at me and we bit into them clearly thinking, "Well, here goes nothing."

I have no idea what my face looked like that day, but I know what my husband's face looked like. His eyes got all big and the corners of his mouth quirked up. And when we both finished chewing and swallowing that first bite, we both said, "HOLY CRAP THAT'S THE BEST THING I'VE EVER EATEN."

And once I thought about it for half a second, I realized that I'd been a complete idiot because even though the title of the recipe sounded all safe and conventional, what I'd really concocted was a very simple Vietnamese Bánh Mì similar to one I'd once had in a little sandwich shop in Falls Church. But when you're ordering off a menu that's mostly in Vietnamese and imperfectly translated, you just kinda avoid the tripe, you know what I mean? Once I understood that this was actually what the recipe was aiming at though, it suddenly became normal, familiar and honestly, not strange at all.

Check out the recipe here at Every Day with Rachel Ray. It's perfect just as it is.

Edited to add (10/13/14): If there's a reason for avoiding pork in your household, I would be totally comfortable substituting ground chicken or ground turkey in this recipe. Or even your favorite vegetarian meat replacement. I haven't tried it, but there's no reason at all why it shouldn't be equally delicious.

Disclosure: Audra North and I are friendly on Twitter and she gave me Composing Love for review purposes.