The Ingredients

• 1.5 pounds carrots, peeled and sliced or julienned.
• 2-3 garlic cloves, peeled
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 2 tsp. caraway seeds
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 tsp. sweet or smoked paprika (I used smoked)
• 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp. Harissa or cayenne to taste
• 12 good-quality black olives, pitted (optional - I used kalamatas)
• 1/4 lb. feta cheese, crumbled (optional - I used this)
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped (optional - I skipped this since I was bringing this to a party where statistically someone wouldn't like cilantro)
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Put the carrots, garlic, sugar, caraway, cumin, paprika, and oil into a wide skillet or saucepan.
2. Add enough water to cover, bring to a boil, turn the heat to medium. Cook, stirring, until the carrots are slightly soft, about 10 to 15 minutes. (Bittman says to cook until the water is mostly evaporated. I never got that much evaporation, so I just scooped the carrots and spices out into a bowl with a slotted spoon.) Drain and remove to a bowl.
3. Remove and mince the garlic cloves. Add them back to the carrots. Add the harissa, olives (if using), and feta (if using) and toss to combine. Taste and add salt and pepper as necessary. Serve at room temperature.

The Ingredients

• 8 bamboo skewers, soaked in water for 20-30 minutes
• 1 package Aidell's sundried tomato chicken and turkey sausage
• 2 smallish baby eggplant (the long thin kind) cut into 1/2 inch thick rounds
• 2 smallish zucchini, cut into 1/2 inch thick rounds
• 1 large red or yellow pepper, cut into 1 inch squares
• 16 cherry tomatoes
• 1 tsp. smoked paprika
• thyme
• olive oil
• Pita bread (for serving)

• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 4 cloves minced garlic
• 1 - 2 tbsp. shatta hot sauce
• 1 - 2 tbsp. olive oil

1. Toss the vegetables in a bowl with the smoked paprika, olive oil, and thyme to taste.
2. Preheat a broiler pan about 4 inches from a broiler on high.
3. Cut each sausage into 4 chunks. Thread the sausage chunks and vegetables onto the skewers.
4. Broil for 6 minutes.
5. While the kebabs are broiling, stir together the ingredients for the yogurt sauce.
6. Slide the sausage and vegetables off the skewers, wrap in pita, and drizzle with yogurt sauce

Makes 4 servings.

Very tasty and only takes about 15 minutes to put together.

The Ingredients

• 1 lb. ground turkey
• 5 tsp. curry powder
• ~1 tbsp. minced fresh ginger
• 1 tbsp. or to taste shatta hot pepper sauce (shatta is a middle eastern hot pepper sauce - you could substitute the hot sauce of your choice, or red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 15 oz. container fresh marinara sauce (from the fresh pasta case)
• 1 6 oz. bag baby spinach

1. In a large skillet or saute pan, heat a tiny bit of oil and saute the ginger for about 30 seconds to a minute.
2. Add the turkey, curry powder, and hot pepper sauce. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until the turkey is cooked through.
3. Add the water, marinara sauce, and spinach. Stir the spinach carefully into the mixture until it starts to wilt down.
4. Simmer for 5 minutes. Serve with rice or naan or whole wheat pita.

Makes 4 servings.

This recipe needs a little time in advance to soak the bulgur, but otherwise comes together very quickly.

This recipe could very easily be made vegetarian by either omitting the chicken or substituting some cooked cubed tofu.

The Ingredients

• 1 cup bulgur wheat
• 1 lb. boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
• 1/3 cup cashew pieces
• 1/3 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 2 cups cooked shelled edamame
• juice of 2-3 lemons
• olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• a sprinkling of dried thyme

1. Put the bulgur in a large bowl. Cover with 1 cup of boiling water, and let sit until the water is absorbed. (About 25 minutes to an hour, depending on how coarse your bulgur is.) I went ahead and soaked the dried cranberries at this point as well, but I'm not convinced that it's particularly necessary.
2. When the bulgur is just about ready, put a little olive oil in a skillet big enough to hold the chicken in a single layer, and heat it over medium-high heat. Let it get nice and hot.
3. Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and cook them in the skillet, about 10 minutes or so to a side, until done.
4. Sprinkle the chicken breasts with dried thyme, and cut them into bite-sized chunks.
5. Add the chicken, cashews, cranberries, onion, edamame, and lemon juice to the bulgur in the bowl and toss everything to combine. Drizzle in a bit of olive oil. Taste, and add more salt, pepper, oil, or lemon juice as necessary.

Makes 5-6 servings.

The Ingredients

• approximately 1 lb. eggplant
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup olive oil, plus a bit extra for brushing the eggplant
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp. of Aleppo pepper or crushed red pepper flakes
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.
2. Prick the eggplant with a knife and brush lightly with olive oil. Put on a baking sheet and roast, turning occasionally, until the eggplant gets soft and starts to collapse. (15-30 minutes).
3. Remove the eggplant from the oven and let it cool. When it is cool, scoop out the flesh and put in a food processor.
4. Add the other ingredients and pulse until the eggplant is chopped, but is not quite a perfectly smooth puree. Taste and adjust seasonings.

The Ingredients

• a tablespoon or so of olive oil
• 6-7 medium-to-large sized carrots, peeled and cut into rounds a bit thinner than 1/4 inch.
• 1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 1 onion, diced
• zest from 1 lemon
• juice from 1 lemon
• about a dozen fresh sage leaves, coarsely chopped
• 1 bunch parsley, finely chopped
• 1 cup chicken broth (or vegetable broth or water)
• (Optional) a bit of butter to finish off
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat the olive oil in a saute pan until hot. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes or so, until the onion starts to soften.
2. Add the carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, for another 5 minutes or so. (I just let the carrots cook while I prepped the sage, parsley, lemon, and the ingredients for the rest of dinner.)
3. Add the chickpeas, sage, lemon zest, and enough broth to not quite cover the mixture in the pan. Stir it all up and bring it to a simmer.
4. Cover and cook until the carrots are tender, but not mushy. Probably about 8 to 10 minutes, depending on how thick the carrots were cut.
5. When the carrots are done, stir in the parsley, the lemon juice, and the butter, if using.

These days, with my trying to eat a low glycemic index diet, potatoes don't feature all that much in my cooking. So tonight, when I was thinking about an omelette for dinner, I thought, "Why not try to do a tortilla with that old stand-by of low carb potato substitutes: cauliflower?"

The Ingredients

• 1/2 a medium onion, diced
• about half of a medium-sized head of cauliflower, cut into small florets (you want enough to make a nice even covering over the bottom of a 10 inch skillet, without the cauliflower being so packed together that you can't stir it around. Cut the florets pretty small - they'll cook faster.
• 5 eggs, beaten
• smoked paprika, to taste (optional)
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Put a bit of olive oil in a deep 10 inch skillet or saute pan with an ovenproof handle. Heat it over medium high heat.
3. Add the onion and cauliflower and saute, stirring.
4. Season with salt, pepper, and paprika to taste.
5. When the onions are browned and the cauliflower is cooked through and browned a bit, add the eggs. As the egg begins to set around the edges, lift up the edge with a spatula and tilt the pan to let the uncooked egg run underneath.
6. When the egg is mostly set except on top, pop the pan into the oven and let the egg finish cooking. This took about 5 or 6 minutes for me.
7. Cut into wedges and serve. Smother inauthentically with salsa if you like.

Serves 2 if it's pretty much all you're eating. Could easily serve 4 if you served it with a nice salad and maybe a bit of good bread.

The Ingredients

• ~ 2lbs. pork shoulder, trimmed of excess fat and cut into 1 inch cubes.
• 1 onion, sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic, slivered
• 2 chipotle chilies, minced, plus 3-4 tsp. of the adobo sauce they're canned in
• 4 oz. can roasted diced green chilies
• 5 medium-sized tomatillos, husked, rinsed, and cut into bite-sized chunks
• 1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 12 oz. bottled of beer (I used a Gordon Biersch pilsner)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Season the pork with salt and pepper and brown it in a dutch oven or large ovenproof pot, working in batches if necessary. Remove from the pot and set aside. Pour off any excess fat.
3. Add the onions, garlic, chilies, and tomatillos, and cook over medium-high heat until the onions start to get soft.
4. Add the pork, the beans, and the beer and bring to a simmer.
5. Cover the pot and stick it in the oven for about 3 hours.

When it's done, the beer will have cooked down to a thick, delicious broth, and the pork will be tender enough to eat with a spoon. Mmmm. Oddly, though, I think the tastiest part of this recipe might have been the beans - I think I'm going to try just cooking a big pot of pinto beans with chilies and beer.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Grilling or broiling the chicken would probably work, too - I might try that next time.

The Ingredients

• 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into largish chunks
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 2 large cloves garlic, minced with some salt
• ~3-4 tsp Madras curry powder, or to taste
• juice of 2 lemons
• ~ 1 tsp. dried thyme
• a pinch or two of cayenne or aleppo pepper (optional)
• salt and pepper to taste

For the yogurt sauce:

• 1 cup plain yogurt


• juice of 2 lemons


• 2 cloves garlic, minced


• a few dashes of cayenne pepper

To serve with the chicken:

• pita bread


• shredded lettuce


• sliced red onion


• sliced tomato


• 1 carrot, shredded


• hot sauce (optional)

1. Stir together all the ingredients for the marinade in a bowl. Add the chicken pieces and toss to coat thoroughly. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator overnight.
2. When ready to cook, heat a bit of olive oil in a large saute pan, and saute the chicken over medium-high heat until cooked through. (About 10-15 minutes, depending on how big you cut the chicken pieces.)
3. While the chicken is cooking, make the yogurt sauce by whisking together those ingredients. (It now occurs to me that you might as well make the yogurt sauce at the same time you make the marinade, and let the flavors blend in the fridge overnight. But that wasn't the way I did it this time.)
4. Serve pieces of chicken wrapped in warm pita with lettuce, onion, carrot, tomato, yogurt sauce. Add hot sauce to taste.

Serves 3-4.

The recipe is very simple: take 1 lb. ground bison and put it in a bowl. Slosh a good amount of Worcestershire sauce over it, and add a few dollops of harissa*. Mix it all up with your hands until everything is combined. Shape into thick patties, and sear on a hot cast iron skillet, about 3-4 minutes per side, until the outside is crusty and browned but the inside is still rare.

Serve with pita bread, some Greek yogurt stirred up with shredded cucumber, garlic, and mint, and a salad. Mmmm.

*If you don't have harissa, a sprinkling of cumin and a few dollops of tabasco or sriracha hot sauce would probably work well.

This soup would have been extra fabulous with a bit of grated pecorino romano or parmegiano reggiano on top, but we didn't have any.

Since this was an improvised dish, measurements are highly approximate.

The Ingredients

• ~1 tbsp. olive oil


• 4-5 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced


• 3 stalks celery, sliced


• 5 medium carrots, peeled and sliced


• 1/3 cup dry white vermouth


• 2 bay leaves


• a generous palmful of dried sage


• a somewhat less generous palmful of herbes de Provence


• a sprinkling of fennel seed (optional - I love fennel, and tend to use it at the slightest excuse. Mr. Spaceling would be just as happy if I left it out next time.)


• 3 cups chicken broth


• 1 can chick peas, rinsed and drained


• 1 can butter beans, rinsed and drained


• a handful of chopped fresh dill leaves


• 2 large spoonfuls of bottled garlic pesto

1. Saute the shallots, celery, and carrot in olive oil for a few minutes, until they start to soften.
2. Add the vermouth, bay leaves, sage, herbes de Provence, and fennel. Cook, stirring, until most of the vermouth evaporates.
3. Add the chicken broth and bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 10 minutes.
4. Add the beans and simmer for 5 minutes.
5. Add the dill and simmer for 5 more minutes.
6. Stir in the pesto. Taste, and add salt, pepper, pesto, or herbs as needed.

Serves about 4.

The Ingredients

• 5 cups chicken broth
• 1 carrot, sliced
• 1 stick celery, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup rice, orzo, or bulgur
• 6 chicken thighs, skin removed
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. lemon zest
• 3 tbsp. lemon juice, plus more to taste (this was the juice from about 2 and a half small lemons)
• salt and pepper to taste
• a handful of chopped fresh dill for garnish

1. Heat the broth to a gentle simmer in a pot. Add carrot, celery, rice/orzo/bulgur, and chicken thighs. Cook everything gently for about 20 minutes, or until the rice and chicken are cooked.
2. Turn the heat under the pot to low. Remove the chicken thighs to a plate. Let them cool a bit, and take the meat off the bones and shred it. Stir the meat back into the soup.
3. Whisk the eggs in a bowl with the zest and lemon juice. Still whisking, slowly add about half a cup of the broth to the eggs. Add about another cup of broth, and keep whisking.
4. Pour the egg mixture into the soup, and stir well. You can very gently reheat the soup a bit, but don't let it boil, or you'll get bits of cooked egg floating in your soup instead of the smooth egg emulsion.
5. Taste, and add salt, pepper, or more lemon juice as needed. Serve with a bit of chopped dill on top.

Serves 4 to 6.

First, the granola: 18 Rabbits Veritas granola, containing hazelnuts, walnuts, and cacao nibs. The perfect way to realize that desire to eat chocolate for breakfast while still having something sort of healthy.

Second, the cheese: a Spanish blue cheese called Valdeon. It's very intensely "blue" flavored without being excessively stinky or sharp on the tongue. The woman at the cheese counter at Whole Foods described it as a blue cheese that you could just slice up and eat in chunks. I put it in a salad with spinach, black beans, tomatoes, red onion, avocado, lemon juice and olive oil, and it was good.

This recipe involves marinating the fish briefly, then broiling.

The Ingredients

• ~ 2 lb. black cod filets
• 2 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 tbps. lime juice
• 1 tbsp. dry sherry
• 1 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 tsp. minced garlic
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Season the fish with salt and pepper to taste.
2. Combine the soy sauce, lime juice, dry sherry, sesame oil, and garlic. Pour over the fish, and marinate for 15 minutes.
3. Broil 6 inches from the heat without turning for about 10 minutes, or until cooked through.

Serves about 4.

So, I was intrigued to come across the claim by Jack Bishop, in his A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen that you can cook polenta with little stirring if you cook it covered, over low heat. I tried it, and it works. And produces a noticeably nicer polenta than the instant or precooked stuff.

The Ingredients

• 1 quart water
• salt
• 1 cup cornmeal (I used Bob's RedMill medium ground. Needless to say, good cornmeal = better polenta)
• 2 tbsp. of butter

1. In a largish saucepan, bring the water to a nice, rolling boil. Turn the heat to low and add the salt.
2. Pour in the cornmeal slowly, whisking constantly. (I actually just stirred rapidly with a wooden spoon. This part is important for not getting lumps. It takes about a minute to get all the cornmeal whisked in.
3. Cover the saucepan. Cook for 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mixture has thickened and the cornmeal doesn't taste raw or gritty.
4. Stir in the butter, and season to taste with additional salt.

Serves 4-6 people, depending on how much they like polenta.