1/2 cup melted butter

1 TBS Just Cook Foods Close To Curry Blend

1 whole Mt Tam triple cream cheese (about 12 oz) or another round triple cream cheese with rind.

1/2 cup Frog Hollow Apricot conserve (or your favorite brand)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Slice baguette. Brush with butter and sprinkle with Just Cook Foods Close To Curry Blend

3. Toast for about 8 minutes until lightly browned.  Remove from oven and reserve.

4. Carefully slice the top rind off of the cheese

5.Place cheese in a small oven friendly dish and put in the oven.  It will not take long to heat the cheese through.  Timing will depend on the firmness or ripeness of the cheese.  A little color on the cheese is OK but try not to let the cheese explode.

6. Serve immediately with baguette crisps and apricot conserve.

2 pork tenderloins

3 TBS Just Cook Foods Gimme Steak blend

2 TBS grape seed oil

2 heads radicchio di Treviso, quartered and washed

2 TBS olive oil

2 TBS balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup shaved Vella Dry Jack cheese (or Parmesan)

2 pears (your favorite type which is ripe, yet firm), quartered and cored

1 tsp whole butter

1 TBS chopped chervil

1. Rub pork tenderloin with Just Cook Foods Gimme Steak blend.  Marinade in refrigerator overnight.

2. Remove pork from fridge and allow to come to room temperature.  (Chef’s banter coming up: 9/10, Chefs will heat your saute pan before adding meat to get the best sear.  In this case, I am going to tell you to do the opposite.  Trust me, it will prevent the meat from “curling up”!)

3. Add grape seed oil to a nonstick saute pan.  Roll pork tenderloin in oil to evenly coat with the oil.

4. Saute on a medium-high heat.  Turn as needed to brown pork on all sides.

5. Transfer pan to the oven and roast about 8 minutes.  Add pears to the pan and roast an additional 2 minutes.

6. The pork should be ready to eat after 10 minutes.  Test with a meat thermometer to ensure it is between 145-150 degrees.  As you let the meat rest on your cutting board, it will rise a few degrees as well.

7. Place the pan with the pears on the stove and add the butter. (don’t cook yet….we still have to make the Treviso)

8. Dress the Treviso with the oil and vinegar and place in an oven friendly casserole dish.  Top with cheese and roast for 10 minutes.

9. When cheese is browned, remove from oven and transfer to plates.

10. Now, saute the pears in the butter.

11. Slice the pork and distribute amongst the plates.

12. Garnish with the pears.

1.5 lbs flank steak

2 TBS grape seed oil

2 TBS Just Cook Foods Gimme Steak blend

1. Combine well and let marinade in refrigerator overnight.

2. When ready to cook, remove meat from the fridge and allow to come to room temperature

3. Preheat broiler.

4. Place flank steak on a thick casserole dish and broil about five minutes per side until medium rare. (Or until desired doneness)

5. Transfer meat to a cutting board and let rest.

6. Slice

Jalapeno Mayonnaise

1 jalapeno

1 egg yolk

1.5 tsp champagne vinegar

1 cup grapeseed oil

lime juice and salt as needed to taste

1. Over an open flame (gas flame from a stove top works fine), char the jalapeno completely

2.Transfer to a small dish and cover with a damp paper towel.

3. When cool enough to handle, remove charred outer skin.

4. Remove white vein and carefully chop finely.  Wash hands well when done.

5. Place jalapeno in a small bowl with the egg yolk and vinegar

6. Whisk while slowly adding oil until emulsified.  If it gets too thick, thin with a little lime juice or water.

7. Adjust seasoning with salt.

8. This can be made a day in advance.

To Serve:

1. Put a generous dollop of mayonnaise in 8 soft corn tortillas

2. add sliced flank steak and shaved iceberg lettuce.

3. Enjoy!

1.5 lbs boneless beef chuck, cut in golfball sized chunks

4 TBS Just Cook Foods Gimme Steak blend

1 cup Cabernet Sauvignon

1. Combine and let sit in the refrigerator from 1-3 days

1/4 cup grape seed oil

3/4 lb yellow onion, medium dice

2 slices of smoked bacon, julienned

1/2 lb oyster mushrooms, torn

1/2 lb carrot, cut in a medium dice

2 cloves garlic, sliced

1 oz dried porcini mushroom, reconstituted in hot water and diced small

2 TBS tomato paste

1 cup Cabernet Sauvignon

2 cups rich beef stock

1/4 bunch thyme, taken off the stem

1 bay leaf

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees

2. Remove meat from the marinade and pat dry.

3. In a large pan over high heat, sear the meat in the grape seed oil.  You need to get a very deep brown color.

4. Remove meat from the pan and scrape away the fond that has developed.

5. In the same pan, cook the bacon, onions, oyster mushrooms and carrots.  When they begin to brown, add the garlic and cook until aromatic.

6. Add the tomato paste and allow to caramelize slightly.

7. Add the beef back into the pan, deglaze with red wine and reduce until thickened.

8. add the stock which should come to just the top of the meat and not cover the meat.  Adjust amount as needed.  Add porcini, thyme and bay leaf.

9. Braise covered in the oven for at least 3-4 hours or until the meat is very tender

10. Adjust seasoning with salt, pepper and Just Cook Foods Gimme Steak blend.

11. If you like a more thickened sauce, remove beef from stew and reduce on stove top until desired consistency.

Sunchoke Puree, serves 4

2 TBS butter

3 cloves garlic, sliced

4 lbs sunchokes (peeled and held in water to prevent discoloration)

3 cups heavy cream

2 cups vegetable stock

1. Drain sunchokes.

2. Gently brown garlic in butter.

3. Add sunchokes, heavy cream and vegetable stock.

4. Bring to a simmer and cook until the sunchokes are very soft.

5. Strain them from the cooking liquid – reserve the creamy stock.

6. Puree sunchokes in a food processor with a little of the cream mixture and puree.  Add more liquid as necessary to achieve desired consistency.

Oven Fried Brussels Sprouts, serves 4

1 lb Brussels sprouts, bottom cut off and cut in half

2 TBS grape seed oil

1/2 TBS kosher salt

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees

2. Toss Brussels sprouts in oil and salt

3. Roast for 25 minutes (rotating occasionally to ensure even cooking) until crispy and brown.

2 TBS butter

1/4 cup diced onion

4 cups diced celery (reserve the light colored, inner leaves)

1/2 tsp coriander seeds, crushed

2 apples, peeled and cored and sliced

1 tsp grated ginger

1 TBS Just Cook Close To Curry blend

4 cups chicken or vegetable stock

2 cups half and half

1 diced russet potato

1. Over medium heat, cook onions and celery in the butter with the coriander seeds. Do not brown.  You just want to “sweat” the vegetables.

2. Add the apple, ginger and Close to Curry blend and stir for one minute

3. Add the potato, stock and half and half and simmer until the potatoes are fully cooked.  (if soup breaks, do not worry…it will come back when you puree)

4. Remove from heat and puree in a blender in small batches

5. Using a chinois or small strainer, strain the blended soup into another pot.  You will need to use a ladle or wooden spoon to push it through.

6. Whisk together and adjust seasoning

7. Garnish with the reserved celery leaves and serve.   Soup holds for 4 days in the refrigerator.

Smoked Ham and Cheddar Panini

8 slices of your favorite bread

1/4 cup whole grained mustard

12 sliced smoked ham, thinly sliced

4 TBS softened butter

1. Build four sandwiches with ham, cheese and mustard

2. Brush the outside of the bread with softened butter.

3. Brown in a Panini press or on the stove top.