Meat & Potatoes. I promised a week of Meat & Potatoes. 6 recipes in 6 days. That's a week in my book. So this is the last of these recipes.

My meat is sausage. Spicy Italian sausage. My potatoes are potatoes. Is that clear enough?

If not I should also say this is a recipe for flatbread. Meat & Potato Flat Bread with Mustard Greens. I added the mustard greens because spring has begun to sprung here in So. Cal and the hills are alive! Every spring the first things to come alive in the hills near my house are wild mustard plants. That means urban foraging to me.

I live in the Hollywood Hills. My street backs up to some L.A. County conservancy property, which bleeds into Lake Hollywood and the land owned by Department of Water and Power, and culminates in 4200 acres of Griffith Park. That is a lot of wild land in the middle of one of the largest cities in the world.

As I said, winter rain makes spring come early in California. Julie Andrews has nothin’ on these hills, because they really are “alive” right now. That means the tasty young leaves of wild mustard are everywhere. So I was out bright and early today gathering a big bag of mustard greens. Naturally I just had to use them within hours of picking them. So they make an appearance here in the last of my Meat & Potato posts. Meat & Potato Flat Bread with Mustard Greens serves 8 CLICK here for a printable recipe.

I have a little story. Oh don’t look at me like that! You’ll like this story. It has a happy ending. I promise it’s about food too. Okay, I also promise it's brief. Now will you keep reading?

I have this friend (‘cuz this could never happen to me). He was in the middle of preparing a special dish. Let’s say it was Salmon Tartare inspired by his buddy Dash of Stash (who is coincidentally a buddy of mine as well). And for the sake of this story let’s say he’d gotten to a certain place in the preparation of this dish. He came across that moment. You know the moment I am talking about. We have all been there.

He had spent a considerable amount of time, energy, a pretty penny getting to this moment. As he leaned over his concoction of sweet salmon beautiness, the hills and crystal blue sky in view outside his kitchen window (okay, I am editorializing here somewhat). He took in the deeply savory aroma of his creation and he put a spoonful into his mouth. This is the moment of “taste”.

But something was wrong. You could see that by the look on his face. But he is an experienced cook. He knew this was no big deal. So he did not panic. This is why the phrase “season to taste” was invented. It’s that last shining moment when the cook gets to tweak his culinary baby into its peak performance.

He began to reach for the salt, because surely “season to taste” means salt and possibly pepper. Right?

Well, I don’t really know where to start.

You probably know this is day 4 in my An Apple A Day series. I mean that’s why you are here right? You certainly could not have googled your way on over, because today’s post is just too odd, too random.

Because I have a recipe for an easy but elegant pâté served with sautéed maple-glazed apples, and this recipe is sharing the stage with a pie-eating contest. See what I mean, you never would have googled that!

Which leaves me with the same question. Where to start?

I guess I will start with the pâté. Don’t let the term pâté scare you off. It’s not a difficult preparation. I based this recipe on Michel Richard’s Chicken Faux Gras. I simplified it, though his version is not too difficult either. He serves it with a Parsley Gelée that is every bit as ingenious as the cleverly named faux gras. But this is apple week… so no parsley for Sup!

Instead I paired my pâté with some maple glazed apple slices. It’s a natural pairing of flavors and really works well with the earthy richness of this chicken liver spread. I am pretty happy with my concoction.

I promised a recipe to accompany the Jenkins Jellies applesauce I picked up at Studio Root66 and here it is: Yam and Parsnip Fritters with Spiced Applesauce.

These could be called latkes too. Applesauce and sour cream are traditional accompaniments to latkes so it makes sense. But these felt more fritter-like to me, probably because the yams and parsnips are such a sweet combination. They are also really great foods for this time of year, and I guess I associate fritters with the warmth of hearth and home this time of year. In any case, call them what you like. I think you'll find they are delicious!

I choose these ingredients because I am always looking for new ways to enjoy yams and sweet potatoes. Especially as we are entering the holiday season, so it was not a hard reach to replace the russett potatoes I usually use for a recipe like this with this red skinned fall favorite. The parsnips were a last minute addition. Partly because they were handy and needed to be used today, but also I liked the contrast they provide in both flavor and color.

I love the ambience of a good old-fashioned chophouse. Red leather booths, dark lighting, questionable martinis, and oh yeah, steak.

Usually damn good steak too. That’s because a good chophouse makes no apologies for its red-meat-centric position. So there is no need to hide behind any of the foodie pretensions of the moment.

Chophouses do meat. Several cuts, all of them grilled.

Chophouses were never simply restaurants. In another time, on another continent, the original English chophouses could easily be called the16th century gastro-pubs (to borrow an au currant foodie phrase) of their time.

So here we are on day 4 of mint.

We did a mint tea that highlights the simplest essence of the herb. Then we used it as part of a medley of bright notes in a fruity tomato salad. We continued coaxing its distinctive flavor out by infusing mint into a classically French Cherry soup.

But I never really discussed why it is I chose mint in the first place. There certainly are more glamorous herbs in this world. What about shiso? Everybody is talking about that exotic little leaf.

It seems I have had a French flair going on here lately. So why not feature the most classic of the Provençal herbs, rosemary?

But I chose mint.

Partly because I wanted to prove it’s not just for Tic-Tacs and toothpaste, but also because I have a deep and abiding respect for mint. It took me a lot of years to get there though.