Ok, you actually get a break from all these pickles even though you’d never know it from the title.  Smoke & Pickles is a beautiful cookbook by Edward Lee, a Top Chef alum.  He is a Korean American writing on new Southern cookery and living in Louisville.  He maintains a few interesting and thoughtful things.  One is the Southern and Asian foods are similar for reasons of smoke & pickles.  Kimchi=Southern Pickled Things.  He maintains that smoke is the sixth flavor and says that his ‘recipes are filled with smoky flavors and pickles, but the also reflect the people who raise (his) animals, shoot wild game with (him), boil sorghum, pray and sing, and make moonshine.  For me it’s a challenging cookbook-full of things I want to love but would be more comfortable cooking than eating.  So, I start out easy with a recipe I am surprised didn’t come from Jamie Oliver and a British sensibility-Curry Pork Pies.  What is that?  Shortcrust pastry pies made in a muffin tin and filled with a luscious bacon and pork curried gravy filled with ginger, carrots, and peppers.  Small pies that were filling and comforting even though they were foreign in flavor.  Not your turkey pot pie but something more.  More challenging and more flavor for sure.  I will wind my way through more of these recipes but I am sure it will take me some time and a step away from my comfort zone.