I've been in the mood to make Swedish meatballs for a few weeks now. I usually make it with ground beef and ground pork, but the farm I buy my meat from gave me a great opportunity to experiment a little. Every week, when their butcher is making each type of sausage, he tosses in the bulk sausage that doesn't fit in the casing. Knowing that I love to experiment with my cooking, they gave me an interesting mix of chorizo, bratwurst and Italian sausage. The result may not have been authentic, but it sure was yummy!

Tender and flavourful meatballs for pasta, soup or meatball sandwiches.

While this recipe is not quite as nice as orange peel beef, it is a delicious quick and easy meal for one that has some of the citrus elements of that dish.

I've been trying to make a few meals a month that are as close to completely homemade/homegrown as possible. This lasagna is one of my most complicated yet. The sauce and veggies are from my garden, the pasta is homemade, and for the first time, I made most of the cheese. Where I didn't go homemade, I did try and buy local. The meats, milk and eggs were from local farms, and even the spelt for the flour was grown a few hundred miles from here. I guess I could have ground the meat myself, but I have to leave a few challenges for next time.

While it was time consuming to make all the different parts, it was also a lot of fun. And there is no arguing with the results, as it was one of the best lasagnas I ever made.

I got a good price on short ribs at the market a while back and I had several pounds cut into thin strips across the ribs - flanken cut. After eating batches of ribs with BBQ sauce, orange sauce, and chili sauce - I wanted to try something a little different. This curry dry rub is really nice on the beef ribs and the ribs went nicely with stir fried broccoli seasoned with my teriyaki glaze and a baked sweet potato.

After many disappointing attempts to make carne asada using marinade recipes I found on the web, I decided to go back to basics. In this recipe, I'm going with a fairly simple rub of salt and the basic Mexican spices, with just a light drizzling of lime. The final destination of my current batch of carne asada is tacos over the coming week, but nibbling on the pieces as I was slicing the steaks confirmed that it would be delicious as a steak dinner, served with rice and beans, or used in burritos or fajitas.

A rich and authentic tasting taco filling mixture. This mixture also works well baked into a casserole. Just increase the beef stock in the recipe to 1 c. and mix in with 1 lb. of cooked pasta and a couple of peeled and diced tomatoes.

During college I practically lived off the 29 cent Taco Bell tacos, or home made tacos using the packet mixes. I still get the urge for ground beef tacos a few times a year, but the way I make them now is much tastier, and better for me.

I use this mix for tacos, burritos and in nachos. It can be pretty tasty in a nice Mexican omelette as well.