Cuban sandwiches (Cubanos or "sandwich mixto") are marvelous things consisting of roast pork, ham, salami (sometimes), dill pickles, Swiss cheese, and yellow ball-park mustard. It's built on a bread similar to Italian and then grilled. In this case I used Dijon mustard instead of ball-park and Spanish Mahon instead of Swiss, but it's the pork marinated in citrus juice that makes this sandwich particularly distinctive. Recipe here...

My Citrus-marinated Braised Pork is inspired by Caribbean recipes. Although it requires advance planning in order to marinate it and cook it slowly, it couldn't be much easier to make. I like using a Dutch oven, but a Crockpot should work as well - although you probably need to cook it a couple of hours longer. Perhaps the best part of this roast, is the next day you can use it to make the famous Cuban sandwich (Cubano) that's so renowned in southern Florida. Recipe here...

In case you're unaware of it, the About.com guide sites are one of the most frequently referenced Web sites on the 'Net. Search for almost anything using Google or Yahoo and you'll likely find an About.com site on page one. And you're almost certainly unaware that About.com is a subsidiary of the New York Times. I knew neither of these things before becoming an About guide a year ago. But others are aware of these facts.

As a result of their awareness I get all sorts of press garbage in my email box - some appropriate: "Did you know this was National Pie Month?" - others not: "Our area of interest is quality Borosilicate 3.3 Laboratory Glassware at the lowest prices."

But some are surprisingly dead-on. As in this note from Jennifer who's a PR rep for Zip-Lock. She begins with, "I saw your recent blog post titled "Munchies, Tapas, & Hors d’ Oeuvres" where you discuss making great appetizers for holiday parties."

Kudos to her for actually paying attention. Then she continues with here spiel: "I ... thought you might be interested in hearing about Ziploc’s Shelf Life 101 tool that’s on the Web site. It helps you determine how long foods keep fresh in the fridge, freezer and on the shelf. A bit more info here: www.ziploc.com."

So I checked it out. This is one handy Web page. Want to know how long you can freeze bread or what's the 'fridge life of brocolli? It's there. When I think they err it's on the side of freshness, Zip-Lock isn't making outrageous claims for their bags.