Instructions:

Soak your beans in 6 cups of water for at least 6 hours. Drain and rinse the beans and then add them to your pot with the ham shank and 6 cups of water. Turn the heat on and let it simmer for 2 hours.

When the two hours are almost over, start the rest of the ingredients. I like to cook everything down before adding it to the beans to let it develop it's flavor.

In a separate saucepan, add the olive oil and chopped onions with some salt and pepper and let those go low and slow. When they've just started to get color, up the heat to medium and add the garlic and herbs. In a minute those will start to smell heavenly, then add the carrots and stir them around, adding more salt and pepper. When the carrots smell good, add the tomato paste, the fresh tomatoes and let those just start to cook before adding in the vinegar. Let that cook down into a goopy mess. It should taste really, really strong right now. It has to in order to stand up to being mixed in with the beans and their liquid.

This is when you stir the two together. Taste for salt after you've thoroughly stirred it. Give it another ten minutes to come together in the bean pot and then serve.

Variations: Sometimes I'll add a big handful of shredded kale and other leafy greens. They go really well with the ham flavor, and add nutritious greens to your diet.

Instructions:

Start this dish in the morning to give it a lot of time to cook slowly in the oven.

Set a large dutch oven on the stove with some olive oil, and cook the sliced onions low and slow until they are just turning color. Remove them from the pan and reserve them in a bowl.

Mix the flour with salt and pepper (and any other spices you think might be nice) and use that to coat the seven bone roast really well. Turn the heat on under the dutch oven to medium high, add more oil if needed and set the roast in the pan. You're not trying to cook the meat through, just cook the flour and get some color from the meat and juices. Flip it once (carefully, it's heavy and unwieldy) and cook the other side as well.

Preheat your oven to 300ºF

Remove the meat to a plate for a moment. Up the heat to high and add the wine to deglaze the pan. Expect some sputtering. Stir up all the yummy bits and return the roast to the dutch oven. Add the root vegetables and pearl onions. Crush the garlic cloves and add them along with the bay leaves and any other herbs you might want to add (rosemary would be nice). Throw in the reserved cooked onions. Cover with the beef stock and bring to a simmer.

Once it has simmered a couple of minutes, cover and throw the whole thing into the oven. After it's been in there at least an hour, you can cut the temp to 250ºF and let it cook all day. You'll know it is done when the bones come out without any effort. If you don't want the root vegetables to be that mushy, feel free to add them an hour or so before you intend to serve it.

I remove the bones and use a spoon to make rough portions of meat and serve it as a stew in bowls with a slice or two of crusty bread slathered in butter.

Instructions:

Heat oil over medium heat in a pan large enough to hold the greens mounded high. Add the minced shallot and a little salt and the pepper. Once that just starts to cook, add the garlic and let that just get fragrant before adding the greens and a little more salt.

The greens should wilt and cook down nicely. The thickness of the leaves will determine the cooking time, you just want them wilted nicely and almost cooked through before adding the vinegar and tossing well before taking off the heat.

This recipe works with any leafy greens that you might have, and acts as a satisfying side to any meal in the spring and summer.

When beets are in season, we could have this every day. You'll be surprised how many greens this can work with.

Variations:

Use rice wine vinegar and add a splash of fish sauce, serve sprinkled with sesame seeds for an asian tang.

Sauté onions and carrots, add the greens and finish with the juice of one lemon for a different twist.

Instructions:

In a large dutch oven or soup pan, heat a little bit of olive oil and cook the chicken thighs until just cooked through. Remove them to a plate and keep warm in the oven.

Add a little more olive oil to the pan with about 3 T of butter. Turn the heat to medium low and add minced onions with some salt and pepper. Let that cook low and slow until the onions get really soft and just turn color. Turn up the heat to medium and add the herbs, give it a stir and then add the carrots and celery, stir to coat the veggies in the oil. Add the flour, stir and let the flour just get cooked. It should smell really good at this point.

Add the white wine and scrape the pan, add the chicken stock while stirring well. Once it is completely stirred in, start adding water until it is just a little runnier than you would like. Taste for salt and pepper. At this point, you need to decide how thick you want it. You want it quite a bit thicker for use as pot pie filling or for a gravy.

Throw the chicken thighs back in with any juice they've given off, bring back to temperature, stir in the lemon juice.

Put the egg yolk in a bowl and give it a quick beating. Add a little hot soup to the bowl with the egg yolk and continue beating. Add hot soup until the yolk mixture has gotten pretty hot and then add it all back into the soup and let it cook for a few minutes before serving.

Notes

This goes great with a hunk of crusty bread. The lemon juice gives it a surprising tang.

Instructions:

First, make sure you've got everything prepped beforehand. Set the oven at about 180ºF to keep things warm. Heat oil in a large skillet, add carrots and toss to coat, then add zucchini and toss to coat. Let them cook at medium high heat until they're cooked but still crispy. Let your nose be your guide. Remove those to a bowl and place those in the warm oven to wait. Season the chicken pieces with salt, cumin, turmeric and cayenne pepper. Place the chicken in the hot oil and let it sear and get good color on one side before flipping the meat to cook all the way through on the other side. Remove the chicken to the bowl in the oven. Reduce the heat to medium low and add the onions. Once the onions are soft, raise the heat and add the peppers. Once those are just starting to cook, add the lime zest and the basil and let those get really aromatic (should take less than a minute). Lower the heat to medium and add the peanut butter, stir it around to let it just start to get warm before adding the soy sauce, fish sauce and lime juice. Scrape up all the great stuck on bits on the pan, if it is too dry, add a tablespoon of water. Add the coconut milk, and stir to combine. Once it is all up to temperature and a fairly smooth consistency, bring the chicken and veggies out of the oven and start plating. I serve this in a bowl with rice. Start with a generous portion of rice, top with chicken to one side and carrots and zucchini to the other then ladle a very generous helping of sauce over the whole thing, you want to drown it in sauce. You can garnish each plate with a small sprig of basil and a lime wedge if you desire.

The crispy vegetables and well seasoned chicken do well with the firey peanut coconut sauce.

Notes

As written, this is spicy... as in nuclear reactor spicy. Have plenty of beer on hand. Also, the lime and basil are surprisingly important in this dish. They are what really take it up a couple of notches, and help keep it from just becoming spicy and nothing else.

This dish does well having most of it prepared beforehand, and being assembled after reheating. Which means it's also great as leftovers, assuming you've recovered from the flames in your gullet from the first run.

Variations

The first variation is to tone down the heat... you wimp. The simplest way to do that would be to forgo the habeñero peppers and just do jalapeño peppers or just do a couple of thai chiles instead. I've also done this dish using saté pepper sauce instead of the peppers. That gives a it a very different flavor, but I would do that when peppers aren't in season, which means zucchini isn't in season either, so I switch the zucchini out for broccoli.

Instructions:

Make sure to get good quality import pasta, as it won't get covered up with a thick sauce.

Start the water to boil with a good amount of salt (think handfuls, not teaspoons) and cut up your veggies. Once the pasta water is boiling, cook pasta as directions indicate. Oil the pan and heat it to medium heat. Add the onions, and as usual, low and slow... cook until they are just turning translucent. Add nutmeg, basil, lime zest and garlic. Turn up heat and add all the other veggies, stirring every once in a while to get everything cooked and with just the beginnings of color.

Once the pasta is cooked, turn off the heat and add about half a cup or so of the pasta water to the veggies, be careful as it should steam up and spatter a bit. Drain the pasta and stir the veggies. Let the sauce cook down just a bit and then add the pasta to the pan with the veggies, add the lime juice and give it a good stir to incorporate. Turn off the heat and stir in some parmesan cheese and serve with more parm on the side.

The lime really brings this dish up several notches.

Variations

If I had the sense to take out some chicken from the freezer earlier, I would have sautéed the chicken and done a quick glaze with fresh tomatoes and basil to have on the side. Another variation that is similar to another dish I've done is to use bacon and it's fat as the initial fat for cooking everything else in. It makes it more rich and a little heavier, but would make it feel more like a meal if you are worried about that. Feel free to substitute lemon for the lime if that's what you have on hand.

Instructions:

You don't need a wok to do stir fry (I don't have one) any high sided large sauté pan will do. If you don't have fish sauce, get out and get some right now, without it this will not taste nearly as good as it should.

Get everything cut up and into separate bowls before starting, as once you start, you don't have time to prep anything in the middle. Stir fry the carrots, then remove from pan and set aside. Stir fry the zucchini, then remove from pan and set aside. Stir fry the chicken thighs, letting them brown and cook through, then remove from pan and set aside. Now comes the fun part. Add the onion, garlic ginger and some pepper, before that starts to burn (and it will happen quick) but not until it has had time to actually cook and release its flavor, add soy sauce, fish sauce, rice vinegar and honey. Add water to get the volume of sauce right. Stir to mix. Add cornstarch mixed with cold water and stir to thicken. Add back in all the other ingredients, stir to coat and then add the sesame oil last.

Serve over rice, maybe with a garnish of sesame seeds.

Variations

This dish would lend itself well to different cuts of chicken. Chicken breast cut into 1/2 inch wide pieces across the grain would work, the high heat and quick cooking along with the rich sauce should help keep it from getting dry and tough. You can spice this up with the addition of some smaller peppers (Thai chiles or szechwan peppers would be perfect for this.) You could quadruple the garlic, and turn down the heat at the step where you add it to make it a more garlicky dish, just cook the onions, garlic and ginger slowly, then turn up the heat and add the liquids.

Instructions:

We start by sautéing most ingredients and then finishing it as a stew. Heat the oil in a medium to large dutch oven or medium size pot. Cut your zucchini and carrots into 1/2 inch rounds. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and sauté them over medium high briefly until they just begin to smell really good. Remove them to a bowl. Salt and pepper the chicken thighs and add them to the pot and sauté turning when browned nicely. Remove to bowl.

Turn down the heat to medium low and add the onions with some salt and pepper. Let these cook down for a while, scraping the pan as you go. Once these are getting nicely golden brown, turn up the heat, add the garlic, corn and peppers and let them just get warm before adding the cumin, oregano and basil (reserving a little of the basil and oregano to finish with.) Add salt and pepper and cook until they just start to smell really good. Add the tomatoes and let them cook down. Add chicken stock, scraping up the good stuff off the bottom and let it come up to temperature before tasting for salt. Dump the chicken back into the pot and make sure you have enough liquid to cover. Keep it at a simmer until the chicken is cooked through, then add the zucchini and carrots for the last couple of minutes to heat through and finish cooking. If you want it thicker, go ahead and add some cornstarch mixed with cold water to thicken. Serve in bowls, with a side of sour cream. Guests can add sour cream and stir it in.

Notes

The keys to this particular recipe are the corn and long slow cooking of the onions. If you can manage to take your time with the onions, this dish will have a sweet, rich and satisfying feel. As before, your choice of peppers will influence the spiciness of the dish. Chipotle peppers would be a nice addition to this as well, lending their unique smokiness to the overall taste of the dish.

Instructions:

Like before, you will heat up the oil in a nice big skillet over medium heat. I cut the zucchini and carrots into 1/2 inch half rounds, sprinkled with salt and a little pepper and sautéed them until they were still crisp. Again, remove to a bowl.

Season the chicken thighs with salt pepper and ground cumin. It is imperative that you season before you start cooking. Otherwise, the chicken won't get any of the flavor. Don't skimp on the seasoning here, you want this to sing. Sauté the chicken thighs until they are cooked through and nicely browned on each side. Remove the chicken thighs to a bowl.

The sauce is similar to the one we did previously, turn down the heat and add the onion, seasoning with salt and pepper. Once it has just barely started to get some color, turn the heat up to just past medium and add the garlic, herbs, red pepper and some more cumin (I like cumin, especially in Southwest style dishes) and let that just get aromatic. Add water or chicken stock to deglaze the pan, stirring up all the good stuck on bits and incorporating it. Stir in tomato paste. Stir in lime juice and sweetener and let it simmer down just a bit. Taste for salt.

At this point, you need to decide how you want your sauce. Do you like it runny like this? You can serve it just like this over rice and it will be really nice. Or you can mix about a teaspoon or so of cornstarch into some cold water, then stir while drizzling it into the pan. Stir to incorporate and let it simmer down. Now it can be served on its own or with rice to the side.

I added the vegetables and chicken back to the sauce and let it warm up. Serve this with simple rice, corn on the cob and some sour cream and guacamole on the side and you've got a meal, add margaritas and you've got a dinner party.

Variations

If you want (or for some of you, need) a little more heat (or a lot more heat) then you can either go to town on the red pepper flakes. Or better yet, chop up your favorite fresh hot peppers and add them with garlic and herbs. Two jalapeños in this would be a nice pleasant heat. Three habaneros and you'll be reaching for the margarita pitcher.

Consider using 1/4 cup of Tequila to deglaze the pan as well, but add the spirit with the pan off the fire, as nothing spoils dinner more than the scent of singed eyebrows.

Instructions:

Heat up oil in a nice big skillet to a little over medium heat. A nonstick skillet won't brown stuff up as well, but it is fine to use it. Cut the zucchini and carrots into 1/4 inch rounds, sprinkle with salt. Throw the cut veggies into the skillet and let them just cook. You want them to still be solid, but not uncooked feeling. Remove to a bowl. Salt and pepper chicken thighs and add them to the still hot pan (if you need to add more oil, do so). You want them to brown and cook all the way through, turing once. The key here is to get a nice crust going. Once they are cooked thoroughly (don't undercook, no sense getting sick) remove them to a bowl. I use the same bowl to hold the chicken and veggies, since the chicken is now completely cooked.

Turn down the heat to medium low and add the shallot, with a sprinkle of salt and a grind of pepper.

When cooking onion or shallot, I like to do it low and slow as it brings out the sweetness. It takes a few minutes, but if you do it right, they will start to get a little color without burning and they will really add some richness to your dish.

Once the shallot has just started to turn color, turn up the heat, quickly add the garlic, oregano, thyme and parsley. Give it a quick stir and wait for the room to smell heavenly. I then add the flour and a little more butter. Stir it all up, it will look a mess, but don't worry, it will get much better very soon. Give the flour a moment to cook so it won't taste raw, but don't cook so long that stuff begins to really burn, the shallot and garlic are a bit touchy on that front.

Now add the wine, and start scraping the pan with your wooden spoon, get all that flavor up and into that sauce. The wine will be cooking down as you do this, and it should really start to thicken up so start adding your stock (or water if you don't have some stock handy) while stirring and scraping. Add liquid until it is just a little runny for your tastes and let it cook down for a moment and thicken up. You could keep the chicken and veggies in the oven to keep them warm and then make a really pretty presentation on the plate with the thigh placed just so, the zucchini and carrots placed artfully around it and the sauce drizzled on with so much flair...

Or you can do what I did. Turn the heat down and throw the chicken zucchini and carrots back into the saute pan (with all the juices) and stir them around with the sauce and let them come up to temperature. Then turn off the heat and drop a good Tablespoon of butter into it and stir it around just before serving over rice.

Variations

The herbs for this recipe were simply what I had on hand that sounded good in this. It would be fun to try the same thing with a completely different set of herbs to see how it changed everything.

Go and cook this for your loved ones.

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350F and prepare 6 4"x2" bread pans by buttering and flouring them. In a stand mixer, beat the sugar and butter together for 5 minutes. This is what gets the air into the batter. Add the eggs one at a time and then add the pumpkin. Once that is incorporated, add the milk. Sift together all of the remaining ingredients and add them to the mixer. Mix just until combined.

Divide batter into pans and place pans on a jelly roll pan (just in case the loaves go Mt Vesuvius on you) and place in the oven for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer loaves to a wire rack to cool for ten minutes and then turn the loaves out onto the wire rack to cool completely.

Instructions:

Seed and peel the pumpkin, then cut it into regular chunks. In a heavy pot, heat olive oil and 1 T butter, add cut onion and shallot with a little salt and turn the heat down. Let those sauté until just before they turn color, then add carrot cut into chunks and the pepper cut into rough chunks. Sauté those until they all get a little color. These steps take time, but this is where a good bunch of the flavor comes from. Once those have just started to get a little color, add the fresh herbs, give a stir and then add the pumpkin chunks with a little more salt. Let that mixture cook for a few minutes. Add the wine and the vinegar then add the chicken stock, if you need to, add water just to cover and bring to a boil, then turn down and let simmer at least one hour. You could instead add a teaspoon of lemon juice at the end instead of the vinegar if you'd like, but some acid really gives this soup some zing.

Turn off the heat and let cool until you can handle it. Blend half at a time, putting the first half into a bowl after blending and then return to the soup pot after you've blended all of it very thoroughly. You could use a food mill if you wanted more texture, but I like it silky.

Just before serving, bring the soup back up to a boil. While waiting for that, create the garnish by melting butter in a small sauté pan, add the shallot and before the shallots turn clear, add the crab meat and toss just to heat well. When the soup is at temperature, turn off the heat and add the 1 T butter (cold butter is best for this) and stir it in. Notice how that butter at the end really makes it silky smooth.

Ladle into shallow bowls, add a clump of the crab garnish to each bowl and serve immediately. We had ours with a simple salad dressed in a garlic/thyme vinaigrette.

This was the best part of the meal, in my opinion. It was hearty and satisfying and really yummy. I was going to take a picture of it, but I'll make sure to do that next time. I'm definitely making this one again

Instructions:

Put water into pot. Turn stove to high and place pot of water on stove.

Don't watch the pot, or it will never boil