The World’s Healthiest Things and Me

I eat my fair share of salt-cured pork products. I like sprinkling my food liberally with flaky sea salt. I enjoy rib eye steaks, and I’m a fan of potato chips and ice cream. But I also eat a good amount of some of the world’s healthiest things. And not because I should, but because I like them.

sardines

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Fennel Grilled Pork Shoulder

Certain flavors were just meant to be together. Such it is with pork and fennel. Add orange, and you’ve got a divine trinity of deliciousness. And here, I share one of my best grilling preparations with you. Make this for your next barbecue, tell your friends you made it up yourself (I don’t mind), and you’ll be revered in the backyards of your neighborhood.

I love pork shoulder. It’s one of the least expensive cuts, it’s usually huge, and it’s got an amazing flavor and meat/fat ratio. Confirming its pedigree, it’s the pork most often used for Mexican carnitas. Now that’s some street cred! More

The Accidental Beekeepers

Shortly after we moved into our house in Topanga a few years back, I bought an owl house. I had read that attracting owls to your property was one of the best ways to keep the rodent population in check. Barn owls will eat two to three rodents a night; a nesting pair with chicks up to 10 a night — that’s over 3,000 a year! So I climbed high in the oak tree outside our bedroom window and secured the owl house onto a branch.

Our honey

It took about a year before an owl moved in. It was the tiniest owl you’d ever seen — no match for an angry vermin. It stayed about 10 days. Every night, it would hoot away merrily in its owl box, sounding confident it had found the best house in the neighborhood. But disappointed, I suspect, with its inability to attract a mate to its new digs, it departed. That’s when the bees moved in. More

Secret Weapon Ingredient #2: Ponzu

Some of my favorite secret-weapon ingredients come from the cuisine of Japan. Ponzu is one such product.

"Japan's Favorite" ponzu

You’ve probably been eating ponzu all along, even if you didn’t know it. It’s the citrussy soy sauce they put on top of certain dishes at the sushi bar. But it has uses far beyond that in your kitchen. More

The Guilty Pleasures of Skinny Girls

Now that sounds scandalous, doesn’t it… I pity the poor pervert trolling the web, thinking he was going to find something completely different when his Google search landed him on this page. “Steve Garvey!??”

Steve Garvey with a Dodger Dog for you

Anyway, my local grocery store was closing for renovations and selling off everything on the shelves at 50% off. I was one of the late arrivals, and missed all the good wines and gourmet products. More

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