This recipe is from Chef Ingrid Hoffmann, who serves it as a light lunch with just add a salad. You can play with the recipe and substitute other grains.

You can roast a pork loin just for this recipe, or roast one for dinner the day before and make enough extra to use in the fried rice.
 
 
RECIPE: PORK & APRICOT FRIED RICE

Ingredients For 6 Servings
 
For The Rice

 
For The Pork

[2] Dried apricots for the pork fried rice. Have extra apricots? They’re one of our favorite snacks. You can turn them into candy by dipping them halfway in melted chocolate. Set them on wax paper until they dry (Photo by Olha Afanasieva | iStock Photo).

1. MAKE the rice: Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the rice and cook, stirring often, until the rice looks chalky, about 2 minutes. Add the pineapple juice, water, apricots, and salt and bring to a boil. Cook until the liquid is below the surface of the rice and tunnels form in the rice. Reduce the heat to low and cover. Cook until the rice is tender, 15 to 20 minutes.

2. COOK the pork: Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Season the pork with salt and pepper. In batches, add the pork chunks to the skillet and cook, turning occasionally, until lightly browned, about 7 minutes. Transfer to a plate.

3. ADD the garlic, ¼ cup of cilantro, celery, scallions, soy sauce, sherry vinegar, and ginger to the skillet. Stir-fry until the celery is tender, about 3 minutes.

4. RETURN the pork to the skillet. Add the rice and stir-fry until well mixed, 3 to 5 minutes. To serve, sprinkle with the pistachios and the remaining 1/4 cup of cilantro and serve hot.
 
 

[2] Pear, Blue Cheese & Walnut Pizza from 2Teaspoons.com..

[3] Chicken Alfredo Pizza With Walnuts & Gorgonzola from Pillsbury.com.

The restaurant serves both conventional pizzas (arugula, mushrooms, pesto, sausage, etc.); but we can get those elsewhere. Instead, we go for the more unusual selections, such as:

 
This time, we chose a “special” topped with walnuts, goat cheese, and baby spinach.

We loved the toasty, nutty crunch—plus the opportunity to deny the carbs we were consuming by focusing instead on the added nutrition of the walnuts: protein, fiber and different phytonutrients (types of antioxidants).
 
 
INSPIRED BY WALNUT PIZZA!

We then returned to the office to research other approaches to walnut-topped pizza.

We found quite a few pizza recipes that combined walnuts with different cheeses—blue, cheddar, goat, and others—with fruits (apples, pears) and with more conventional pizza toppings (bacon, ham).

So this tip is for home pizza makers: Try some of these ideas for a gourmet Super Bowl experience or for a new take on comfort food.

You can also add some of the ingredients to delivery pizza and frozen pizza.
 
 
TAKE A BITE OF WALNUT PIZZA

So many walnut pizzas, so little time to try them all!

 
 
SUMMER WALNUT PIZZAS

These are summer recipes that require seasonal ingredients such as fresh tomatoes and summer squash (yellow squash, a close relation* of zucchini).

What’s your choice?
 
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*Both zucchini and yellow squash are varieties of the species Cucurbita pepo, which also includes crookneck squash, scalloped squash, straightneck squash, vegetable marrows (no relation to bone marrow, but a name given to the mature fruit (see below), zucchini and cocozelle, a type of zucchini with pale green or yellow stripes. Zucchini and yellow squash are picked from the vine before they are mature, but are tender. If they remain on the vine and grow to maturity, they are larger, drier and tougher—and referred to as marrow.
 
 

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

Chef Ingrid Hoffman created these fun marshmallow snowmen as a project for kids.

All you need:

 
Chef Ingrid stuck the skewers into a piece of styrofoam covered with burlap. You can use half a melon, a stale loaf of bread, or present the skewers on a tray.

Find more of Chef Ingrid’s recipes—serious and fun—at IngridHoffman.com.
 
FONDUE, ANYONE?

These snowmen make great fondue dippers to add to our list of 40 chocolate fondue dippers.

If you want to whip up a batch of chocolate fondue, here are our favorite recipes.