My dearest friend Tracy is not a shortcut chef. In fact, were I a superhero, she would be my nemesis. She bakes. From scratch. She makes sauces and breads and even makes her own damn brown sugar. But this is one of the many reasons I love her. Her food is always amazing and nobody but nobody bakes like she does.

So when she told me she wanted to unload some of the curried apple chutney that she made and canned, I jumped at the chance. Then I had to figure out what to do with it. Pork seemed like a good idea, so I paired the curried apple chutney with some pork chops, cauliflower and carrots and baked it all.

The result was interesting, and I mean interesting in the best possible way. The flavors were unexpected and fantastic,  sweet and savory all at once. We’ve still got more chutney for experimenting with, but this was definitely a winner.

I’ve had my Bento Box for a little over a year, but this is the first bento I’ve really take a lot of time on making adorable. My friend Tracy’s on a bento kick and I decided to join in!

In the bottom tier I’ve got ants-on-a-log (celery with peanut butter & raisins) some cheese crackers with peanut butter and a couple cranberry nut clusters. The top tier has some All-Bran Multi-Grain crackers, Lauging Cow French Onion Cheese, sugar snap peas and baby carrots.

The sandwich container has a turkey and cheddar sandwich cut into an adorable flower and little stars with some assorted vegetables.

My favorite part of my bento kit is the Engrish on the cover. “Putifresh! Happy fruits is very delicious. I will eat this and will become fortunate all together!” ©Lube Sheep. This was actually a lot of fun!! I look forward to playing some more with this, and to see what Tracy comes up with.

This Sunday dinner was my first attempt at cooking a leg of lamb. With the helpful advice of my friend Tracy I made a delicious herb marinade. I started with the leftover mint from the chilaquiles and chopped it finely. To this I added dried basil and rosemary and 6 chopped cloves of garlic, salt and freshly ground pepper, olive oil and lemon juice. After spreading the marinade over the lamb I marinated for nearly 8 hours. This is a good starter recipe for quantities and I used it for reference, but, as I am prone, I totally winged the quantities on the herbs.

To make the potatoes I tossed them with the leftover marinade, some olive oil and Penzey’s Fleur de Sel, the best salt in the world.

Absolutely incredible. This had our entire Sunday Night Farscape group making yummy noises but otherwise eating in silence. I must admit, that’s my favorite part, knowing all this was worth it.