• firm packed tofu, 1 package
• 1/2 onion
• some broccoli florets
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1 large clove garlic
• dried sweet red peppers
• red wine
• almond milk
• eggs
• goat cheese

Begin by mincing your garlic and toss it in a pan with olive oil over medium heat with the dried sweet peppers (flaked). Cube the tofu into small pieces and add into the mix to brown. Chop the onion and red pepper and add in. At this point, pour on a little wine, not more than 1/4 cup, and about the same in almond milk. Reduce, adding in the chopped broccoli when it’s almost ready.

Meanwhile, cook two eggs however you like ‘em. I like over medium. Put ‘em on your plate with a couple scoops of the tofu scramble and top with a bit of goat cheese. Luxurious!

• thin pork chops
• kale
• marcona almonds
• vanilla almond milk, unsweetened
• piri piri (or other pepper mix)
• cumin
• olive oil

Heat up a little olive oil and sprinkle piri and piri and cumin in the pan, let it sizzle a bit. Put the pork chops down and flip over once cooked halfway through.  Steam the kale until bright, beautifully green.

Once the kale is cooked, put it on a plate with some marcona almonds. Slice the pork chops and put on top.

Deglaze the pan with almond milk, letting it reduce into a nice, thick sauce. This sauce is the best deglazed reduction ever. EVAR. Pour it on your dinner and inhale your food.

• 1 winter squash, cubed
• 2 golden yams, sliced
• 1 package mushrooms
• 1 large yellow onion
• 1 beet, cubed
• 1 rutabega, cubed

Spices:

• piri piri (peppers, fairly hot, purchased from World Spice in the Market)
• curry powder (also purchased from there)
• sage (same)

dump them all in a crockpot, spice to taste, and cook on low for about seven hours. yum!

This is the first pie I ever made and it worked! It actually worked! The pear/pomegranate combination is perfectly tart and mellow, soft and textured.

• 1 pomegranate
• 3 pears
• sugar
• butter
• Marie Calendar pre-made pie crusts (set of 2)

Separate the pomegranage seeds from the husk in a bowl of water (the seeds will sink, the rind will float – easy!). Do not juice or attempt to separate the fibrous part of the seed from the juicy one – that’s just silly. Throw these in a pan with melted butter. Slice the pears and throw them in, too. Pour in about a cup of sugar and let this cook until the pears are soft and coated in sugary goodness.

Dump the contents into one pie crust and slice the other crust to create strips of pastry on top the pie. Bake at 400 for one hour.

The pie is very good warm and will firm up into a perfect pie when cool.

• 1 Chicken
• thyme
• basil
• lemon
• 2 parsnips
• 3 yams
• 1 large beet
• 8 carrots
• 2 boxes o’ rice a-roni
• 8 cloves garlic

Start the box o’ rice a-roni cooking according to instructions and throw away the spice packet. Spice it yourself with thyme and basil and lots of garlic. Dice a cup or so of carrots and throw in. Stuff the chicken with the prepared rice and rub thyme and lemon between the skin and the flesh.

Slice the yams, beet, parsnips and remaining carrots and create a bed for the chicken in a roasting dish.  Pile the rest up around the chicken.  Bake the entire covered dish for one hour.

• 2 spelt and cornmeal pizza crusts (bought at Madison Market)
• prepared korma simmer sauce
• little purple potatoes
• 1 very large shallot
• 1 large portobella
• 1 sweet italian pepper
• frozen corn
• aged white cheddar

Slice potatoes, shallot, mushroom, and pepper. Start potatoes cooking in olive oil first, then add shallots after the potatoes deepen in color. Add pepper next, then mushroom, and lastly a handful of frozen corn. Saute veggies for a few minutes, spooning the korma sauce on the crusts in preparation. Pile the veggies on the pizza and top with some freshly grated cheddar cheese and fresh ground pepper. Cook at 425 for 15 minutes.

• one ripe plum, chopped
• one ripe pluot, chopped
• two large strawberries, chopped
• dash of brandy
• marscapone
• crepes (see previous recipe for spelt crepes)

Put all the chopped fruit into a saucepan and add a dash of brandy. Cook down on medium heat until the fruit melts, then bring to a boil and reduce for 20 minutes.

Put on crepes with a bit of marscapone, Freak out.

• 6 crimini mushrooms
• 2 small chunks of lobster mushroom
• 1 large oyster mushroom
• 1/2 large yellow onion
• splashes of brandy
• Chinese red pepper
• Rouclette (pungent aged cow’s milk cheese, soft)
• 1 cup spelt flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tbl butter

The crepe batter consists of the last four ingredients. Put flour and eggs together in bowl, add milk slowly. Add butter (melted but not hot) in, stir, and let sit. After mixture is made, spoon 3 tbl of batter into a small omelette or crepe pan, spread thin and cook lightly on each side.

The mushrooms and onion should be fairly finely chopped and thrown into a pan with a little heated olive oil in it. Splash about one shot worth of brandy and a little red pepper. When it’s almost done, add in about a 2×1″ square of the rouclette cheese (it’s very strong, even in that small amount) and melt it into the mixture.

Put in crepes, freak out.

Main Course

• quinoa
• 18 roasted almonds, sliced
• garlic, diced
• 1 yellow tomato, sliced
• 5 crimini mushrooms, sliced
• 1 red plum, cubed
• 1/2 lemon, flesh cut up
• urfa biber spice from World Spice

Salad

• salad mix
• five fingerling potatoes
• one halved canned pear
• salad dressing (pansy and violet vinegar, roasted walnut oil, sweet red pepper and melange classique spice from World Spice)

Start with roasting the fingerlings at 400 for 40 minutes. Cut up all ingredients. With about 20 minutes to spare until you are ready to serve, put quinoa and water at a 1:1.5 ratio and bring to a boil, then cover and simmer until water is soaked up. Saute the garlic, onions, almonds, and spices together until onions become slightly translucent on the edges. Add mushrooms, lemon, tomato and plum and saute for a few more minutes. You want all your vegetables to remain al dente, to borrow the pasta expression.

By now the potatoes should be done, so take them out, slice them, and toss them into the salad mix with the cubed pear half and the dressing.

• 2lb steak, sliced
• 1/3 lb. mini portobellas
• 2 large garlic cloves, diced
• 15 cherry tomatoes, sliced
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 1 small wedge bleu cheese
• worchestshire sauce
• dried sweet red pepper
• couscous

Coat pan in olive oil and saute the garlic and onion until onion is slightly soft. Add sliced steak, worchestshire and red pepper. After the steak is halfway cooked, add tomato and mushrooms and crumble the bleu cheese on top. The bleu cheese will melt down and form a nice sauce with the juice from the meat to soak into the cous cous. Let simmer while couscous is cooking and post about the recipe while it cools. Serve together.