With my wife on the mend, I'm working to return our house to semi-chaos

For dinner, I’m prepping some Balkan-style small plates. Not even sure what “Balkan-style” means, but I ran across the term in one of my wife’s cooking magazines, while searching for new ways to burn a decent steak.

“Balkan-style small plates” seemed edgy and of the moment. In L.A., if you’re not...