The Porketta sandwich has deep ties in Minnesota. The dish was made by Italian immigrants that came to northern Minnesota to work in the iron mines and has been a staple ever since. Porketta is a take of the Italian dish Porchetta, which is a whole pig that has been de-boned and stuffed with herb and slow cooked until tender.  This porketta sandwich is a great meal, the pork is extremely tender and packed with flavor from the herbs and spices that the pork marinates in and cooks slowly with. The cooked fennel is tender and is tamed down and almost sweet like caramelized onions flavor. The fennel is one of the most important part of the dish. Top it with your favorite dressing, a typical one is a creamy horseradish sauce. Check out the recipe below.

The weekend's to me are the only days I will sit down and actually have a breakfast. Hash browns are a classic favorite as part of a full breakfast. The downside for good hash browns is that you need a lot of oil to get a great crispy crust. For these potato waffles, the waffle iron gives a great golden brown crust while still having  a tender and moist interior. The second good part is that you don't need to  load the waffle pan with tons of oil so you don't have greasy potatoes like you will normally have with traditional hash browns. Check out the recipe below.

As the weather here in Minnesota keeps dumping more and more snow, it makes me want to hide inside and have some great comfort food. This  crockpot shredded pork chili is a great alternative to the standard beef chili. The best part of this recipe is that each spoonful had tender chunks of pork. You can easily  add jalapeno in place of the green chilies if you like to have a bit more spice to the chili. Check out the recipe below.

Soy-Braised pork comes out really tender and is packed with flavor. the Braising liquid is great with any cut of pork and even other kinda of meat. The mix of the soy, brown sugar and cinnamon mix very well and come out as a delicious blend . Check out the recipe below.

My two favorite hoagie style sandwiches are a meatball and a italian sausage sandwich and with this sandwich you get the flavors with it.  For this meatball sandwich, the meatballs are simple to make and are juicy and full of flavor and the simple tomato sauce is something anyone can do.

In Italian cuisine, a sugo is an Italian gravy (ragu) or sauce that normally has tomatoes, garlic and red wine within. This baked capanelle with pork sugo is a great alternative to the usual baked pasta dishes since it is not heavy and packed with cheese like most baked past dishes, but still very delicious and satisfying. Check out the recipe below.

Fall time here in Minnesota brings one of our most favorite crops here, APPLES!!. Every year we seem to have a new variety created here and they keep getting better and better. For a main dish, there is nothing that goes better with apples then pork, they both seem to balance the flavors out just perfectly. This one pan pork chops and apples is a great family favorite that everyone will enjoy. and is  one of those great recipes which looks and tastes a LOT more complicated than it really is.. Also its a easy and healthier family meal that only uses one pan for everything so clean up is a breeze.

This recipe is simple and only uses a few ingredients. You want to start off by slicing your apples thin and seasoning your pork on both sides with the seasoning.

 Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pork and cook until browned and just cooked through, remove the pork chops for the pans and saute the apples until light brown and add the cider and reduce by half. Then add the cream and mustard and heat until you have a thickened sauce, should be an additional 5 minutes. Plate and serve the pork chops with the apples and sauce on top.