This is one of those recipes. It seems like there are a lot of steps. It's best if you can do them over a day or two. But I promise you these are the very things that make this recipe so EASY! Because all the steps take only a few minutes of actual activity, and they can be done all at once or over several days. The cooking itself is a snap and can be made snappier with a self-timed oven.

The method of preserving the tuna is really more of an oil-poaching method. It's a wonderful method to master and can be adapted in so many ways– from salads, to main courses. I particularly like serving this tuna on toasted baguette slices with shards of red onion! So you see, it's worth the effort, because the technique will pay you back– I promise. I think I may have originally learned this method from an Alice Waters recipe. But I am pretty sure serving it with a Panzanella Salad was my idea! But don't quote me on it...

This recipe has other virtues as well. It is a great opportunity to use up that day old bread, and those less than ideal off-season tomatoes you stupidly bought. What were you thinking? Plus, it's fun to introduce new tastes to the people in your life who may take a bit of prodding when it comes to unusual or strong flavors. I consider it our duty to educate them.

I call it a Three Bean Winter Panzanella Salad with Preserved Tuna.

Nature’s Pride sent me a couple of loaves of bread recently asking me to try their new product. Free bread – what’s not to like!

But seriously, I thought I’d put this bread through the paces. So I made sandwiches. Good sliced bread absolutely must do well with sandwiches. It’s 90% of its duty at my house.

I am pleased to report that it indeed made excellent sandwiches. The main reason for this fact was because it's not too sweet. Have you noticed that many of the grocery store brands of bread have gotten strangely sweet? It seems modern companies have crept up the processed sugar content in these breads slowly over time. As Americans began to turn to “healthier” whole grain sliced bread I think these companies doubled down on their bets by increasing the sugar content.

I have not bored you to tears much lately with the saga of my broken jaw. Well it’s mended, mostly. I still have some soreness, my teeth are slightly out of alignment, and I get weird headaches. But those problems are small and getting smaller everyday. In fact I predict a full recovery by the time you see me at the FoodBuzz Bloggers Festival. Did you nominate your favorite bloggers yet? There is still time.

Even though I have been unwired for quite sometime I have not been in fully functioning mouth mode. Today marks the day I go back to eating whatever I like (except: nuts, ice, corn tortilla chips, beef jerky, and hard candy, especially– pardon the expression, jaw breakers).

In honor of this great event I am making ribs. I have never made ribs before. But I was skulking around at Dash of Stash a while back. He made some lip smackin’ good lookin’ ribs. I commented about my fear of cooking ribs and he offered a challenge. He would cook “something from the sea” if I made ribs on the grill.

Sup! is up for most any challenge; especially challenges that expand my experience regarding food. So I accepted the challenge with the caveat that it would have to wait until I was mandibularly mobile enough to eat ribs.

The flavors of Viet Nam speak out loud and strong in this next burger. They were indeed the jumping off point for me in building this Asian influenced burger. You knew I had to do one, right?

After my love affair with the banh mi blossomed in San Francisco recently. I immediately began planning this burger. In fact it is where the whole idea of a week of burgers began. It was an excuse to make this burger. Hey! If Spud can do it with potatoes, then this is not such a far reach for Sup!

I used pork, which was an easy choice for me. I love pig in all forms. I also added several of the classic ingredients you find in banh mi. But that is where the similarities end.

While, I could have placed this burger onto a crunchy baguette, and called it a banh mi pork burger (and I thought about that). I decided to follow another Vietnamese food tradition and wrap this burger in a big lettuce leaf.

I also tucked in a salad-like mix of traditional banh mi toppings like: carrots, daikon, and cilantro. These were simply dressed with limejuice, fish-sauce, and coriander. I also used super hot Thai bird peppers (prik chi fa) instead of jalapeno because I had them handy.

Raise your hand if you like shrimp.

Now look around you. As you can see every single one of you is raising your hand. Which just proves one of life’s clearest maxims. Everyone likes shrimp. I say that all the time. I say it in my sleep. Or so I have heard…

So it’s good to have a lot of shrimp recipes in your back pocket. I hesitate to call this a recipe though, because I made it up with just a few ingredients from my nearly bare refrigerator (I have been traveling, give me a break).

Also, I have been jonesing for spicy in a big way. I seem to be stuck on Vietnamese flavors ever since over-indulging on really good Vietnamese cooking in San Francisco last week.

I was in fact considering a week of nothing but Vietnamese here at SippitySup. But in truth my culinary skills in this area are a bit limited. I have been spending quite a bit of time at Noodle Pie and Sunday Night Dinners hoping to remedy this dearth of knowledge. But I don’t think I am ready for a week of Vietnamese yet (emphasize yet…you know I like a challenge).