spaghetti squash with parsley

• 1 medium sized spaghetti squash
• fresh parsley, finely chopped
• butter
• coarse salt
• fresh pepper

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cut squash in half lenghtwise and remove pulp and seeds. Fill up a casserole dish with about 1/4 inch of water, place squash face down in it and bake for 30-45 minutes or until tender. Let squash cool for a few minutes and remove the flesh (is there a better word for it?) using a fork and pulling it lenghtwise to form long strands. in a large bowl add parsley to squash and season to taste with butter, salt and pepper.

The dish: If you're a long time reader of this blog, then you know that I'm not afraid of carbs and didn't buy into the whole Atkins craze. That being said, spaghetti squash is great as it has the feel of pasta, but with a nuttier flavor that stands on its own better and has no fat and virtually no calories. If cutting a raw squash the size of a toddler scares you, then you can cook it whole and scoop out the funk once cooked. I typically will cut it when raw to avoid excessive handling when hot and I find that it tends to dry out a little when cooked whole. If you don't already own one, now is a great time to buy a knife sharpener (I have a Chef Choice 110 and love it) as all of these delicious fall and winter root veggies are thick skinned and tend to be difficult to cut.

chicken tortilla soup

• 1 ripe avocado, cut into small pieces
• 2 ancho chili peppers, seeded
• 5 large tomatoes
• roasted chicken, torn into bite sized pieces
• 1 white onion, chopped fine
• cilantro, chopped fine
• 1 can tomato soup
• tortilla strips

In food processor pulse tomatoes and peppers until smooth. Combine mixture with tomato soup and cook over a medium low flame for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Combine avocado, chicken, onion, cilantro and tortilla strips in bowl, pour soup mixture over it and serve immediately. Note- if you can't find tortilla strips in the supermarket, look in either the produce section or near the salad dressings.

The dish: It's common to say that when people move from New York to points south their blood thins. I never saw evidence of this fact quite as astounding as when I was in Fort Lauderdale last August and had dinner with a good friend who is an empire state expatriate. As I was trying to battle the heat in shorts and sandals, he sat coolly in jeans and ordered the soup. I thought he was nuts until it was brought out; a bowl of fresh ingredients was placed in front of him as the attentive waiter poured a steamy tomato based liquid from a ceramic basin. It looked and smelled delicious enough that I immediately ordered my own bowl, and was amazed at the taste. We were sitting in Bar Zen, looking out on the rain forest garden that was home for the resident swans at the Hyatt Regency Bonaventure. Real life returned for my friend who had to go home and go to work the next day, but Kim and I hung around awhile longer; me reading by the pool while she got pampered behind the red door. Our stay was just what we needed to re-charge and relax, and the Bonaventure did a great job of making sure we did just that. We had many great meals there, and they all began with a bowl of tortilla soup. We've since been to a few other Hyatts and have tried the tortilla soup when it's available, and they're all good, but the Bonaventure is the best. I suspect that the chef at the Hyatt skips using Andy Warhol's favorite subject and instead achieves a velvety texture by adding crumbled corn tortillas to the simmering tomatoes, but I'm not sure. Either way, this was made on a weeknight when my own real life beckoned and I had to take a short cut. It was enjoyable, but certainly not as good as the Bonaventure's. We're booked to return for a long weekend in January, so I'm sure on those chilly Florida winter nights when it dips into the 60s, we'll enjoy many bowls of tortilla soup.

pork verde chili

• 4 cans great northern beans, drained and rinsed
• 1lb boneless pork spareribs, cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 jar of good quality verde salsa
• sour cream
• fresh cilantro, chopped fine

Combine beans, pork and salsa in crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Garnish with cilantro and sour cream.

The dish: This is an easy recipe that comes across as more difficult than it should. Since there's only a few ingredients it's important that you use only the freshest and the best as the flavors will come through. I used Santa Barbara roasted tomatillo salsa and it was awesome. It was a bit more than some of the cheaper varieties, but well worth the added expense. We're quickly coming up on that time of year when it's cold and dark when we get home so walking into a warm dish in the crock pot is a great feeling. If you don't already have one I can think of a few reasons why you should part with the $30 and buy one.

seared sesame tuna

• fresh tuna steaks
• sesame seeds
• olive oil

Rub tuna in seeds, coating all sides evenly. Heat olive oil over high flame for 3 minutes or until very hot. Saute tuna, cooking each side for three minutes, turning once. Remove from pan and serve immediately, slicing into thin strips on the bias.

The dish: In computer programing there's an old saying, gigo, or, garbage in, garbage out. That basic premise holds true in so many different areas of life that it's worth mentioning here. One of the basic steps to good cooking is to start off with quality ingredients. Eating a dish of rare tuna is highly dependent upon starting off with a pretty good grade of fish. I recently found a wholesaler that has some of the best frozen fish I've had at any price, and he's cheap. The tuna comes ready to eat and is sushi grade so eating it a little rare is no problem at all. I stocked my freezer full of fillets of salmon (who da thunk it?) and tuna. When they're ready to eat you can have a healthy a tasty dinner in a matter of minutes. If you're local to the orange county area, I encourage you to stop by 3 Kids corp and fill your freezer a little for the busy fall months ahead.

basic hummus

• 2 cans garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 tablespoons tahini (sesame paste)
• cumin
• adobo
• fresh cilantro
• juice of one lemon
• pita chips

Place all ingredients but pita chips in food processor, pulse until smooth. Serve with pita chips.

The dish: There are times when I see some truth in the old saying "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree", and then there are other times I think that my family's tree must be planted at the top of a large hill in an area that's prone to heavy winds. I was thinking this over just recently when my parents joined Kim and I for a weekend away in Wilkes-Barre PA to see The Royal Scam, the best Steely Dan tribute band out there. I invited the rents figuring that my dad would love to go as he went to King's College in Wilkes-Barre and has been a fan of Steely Dan for longer than I've been alive. My mom is not a fan of SD and for that reason alone I felt the hill next to the orchard grow steeper and the winds strengthen. Kim and I decided to make a pit stop in Scranton to look at fireworks (we didn't by any silly, that would be illegal) and have lunch at one of the last surviving Ground Round restaurants remotely within driving distance. The Ground Round holds lots of happy memories for us and we were so taken with nostalgia that I asked our waitress if we could purchase the ramekin our spinach dip came in as a memento. She happily brought us out our little dish wrapped up and ready for travel, a gift from everyone at the Scranton Ground Round. Later that night at the River Street Jazz Cafe (an awesome place to see a show with great music, food and staff), we all agreed that the plate that held our delicious hummus was unique. I must have gotten wrapped up in Steely's melodies after that, because next thing I knew our waitress was bringing out our dish wrapped up and ready to travel back to New York. Turns out my mom asked the same question I had a few hours earlier and the good folks at the jazz cafe were happy to see their plate go to a good home. Playing with my new food processor, hummus seemed like an obvious thing to make and what better way to photograph it then using the dish and the ramekin that suggests my family tree might just live in a flat orchard with only a gentle breeze.

strawberry banana smoothie

• 2 bananas
• 1 lb of strawberries, stems removed
• 1/2 cup fat free vanilla flavored yogurt
• 1/2 cup skim milk

Peel bananas and cut in half, place in blender. Add strawberries and yogurt, begin to blend. Add in milk as machine is on until desired consistency is reached. Serve cold.

The dish: 2009 has been a crazy year. Way back in December I got an awesome Christmas gift; a Cuisinart Duet blender and food processor. I'm ashamed to say that up until recently it was sitting in its original box just begging me to break it out. I finally got around to playing with it (it had instructions on how to remove it from the box) and I'm loving it. Expect to see a few more recipes that pour out of its glass blender jar or get chopped in its processor. I think I might be a little late in hopping on the whole smoothie craze, but I'm going to make them all summer and maybe even pour a little spirits in one or two.

radish canapes

• fresh radishes, sliced thin
• fresh baguette, sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
• spreadable cheese, I used rondele

Spread cheese onto slices of bread, top with radish slices and serve.

The dish: If you're new to the party, then you may not know that the red room is equipped with a deli slicer. I began slicer ownership with the idea of lunch meats and sandwiches, not thinking much beyond that. After the initial awe of making creations that would leave Dagwood jealous wore off, that's when the real learning began. Slicing veggies and bread wasn't something that I thought of the first time I took my slicer out of the box, but I can't imagine how I ever got along without it. There's an old saying, "if the only tool you have is a hammer, then everything will look like a nail". While this is true, figuring out new uses for your existing tools is a great compliment to acquiring new ones. I haven't figured out any thing else to do with a hammer, but I've learned that the usefulness of the slicer doesn't end when you're not eating cold cuts.

rotini with summer squash and peas

• 1 lb rotini
• 1 bag of frozen peas, thawed for 1/2 hour
• 3 summer squash, cut into bite sized pieces
• Olivio
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• Parmesan cheese
• fresh basil, chopped

Boil pasta in lightly salted water until just about fully cooked, maybe about 7-8 minutes. Scoop about 1-2 cups of the water (I recommend a pyrex measuring cup for the task) and set aside. Add squash and peas to pot and continue cooking over a high flame for about 2 minutes or until pasta is al dente. Drain mixture and return to the same pot, add 3 tablespoons of Olivio, lemon juice and enough of the reserved water to make a sauce that will cover all of the ingredients. Toss until Olivio is fully melted. Add basil and cheese and serve.

The dish: If you live in the beautiful Empire State, then you're going through this funky time where it's pretty hot out but constantly raining. I hate using the stove during the summer, but when it's wet out it's a necessary evil. This dish is great because it's a true one pot meal that only takes about 10 minutes to cook, so you can go from start to finish before your kitchen is even heated up. As always, try to use the pasta that's fortified with some good stuff like fiber and omega 3s, we like Barilla Plus or Hannaford has a similar house brand. You won't even taste the difference and you can feel good about eating a nice big plate of pasta.

salad with honey roasted rhubarb and Parmesan crisps in champagne vinaigrette

• mixed salad greens
• rhubarb, chopped
• honey
• Parmesan cheese
• champagne vinegar
• olive oil
• sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In large casserole dish combine rhubarb with a generous amount of honey and roast for 20 minutes or until cooked (I figured this would be messy, so I used a tray from the dollar store so I could just toss it when done). Once rhubarb is cooked, drain water and chill. Line a baking tray with parchment paper sprayed with olive oil, or a cooking spray if you don't own a Misto (there's that crass commercialism again- really folks, I don't sell this stuff). Place 3 inch ound piles of Parmesan cheese on tray and bake for 10-15 minutes or until just browned and crispy. Once done, set aside to cool. Whisk together oil and vinegar with a few pinches of sugar to taste. Assemble greens on plate, top with rhubarb and crisp, drizzle with dressing.

The dish: This salad was the beginning of a dinner where we hosted both Kim's and my own parents. Everyone had a great time (at least they lied to me and said they did) and this dish was a nod to both of our mothers. The rhubarb came directly from Kim's parent's garden, and my mother-in-law was happy to taste a new preparation of the amazingly bitter veggie. Them bringing me the rhubarb and wondering what I was going to do with it had a cool Iron Chef vibe to it. The crisps were something I made for Easter dinner last year (pre-blog) and my mother absolutely loved them. I would make them more often for her, but truthfully, Parmesan doesn't have the sweetest aroma and my kitchen tends to smell like a foot after making a batch. Be sure to have your exhaust fan on high when attempting this at home. Things went without a hitch though; Kim's parents loved the crisps, my parents loved the rhubarb and all we had were empty salad plates.

mixed fruit platter

• assorted fruit in season

Chop fruit into bite sized pieces, I used cantaloupe, honeydew melon and mango. Arrange on platter with toothpicks and serve.

The dish: This is it folks: crass commercialism has entered the red room. There's really no magic behind "chop fruit and arrange on a platter", but I felt the need to show off the cool toothpick holder I've got. You too can own one as well simply by visiting the what on earth catalog. The box he came in said "Fred", but depending on the day or week I've had he (or she) can take on any number of names. Foodies can go out and spend hundreds (thousands?) of dollars on cast iron cookware, aluminum pans and designer knives, but the one piece of kitchen equipment sure to elicit a response from most everyone is the four dollar toothpick holder. Of course, if you come over to our home and fail to notice our porous friend, you can pretty much count on him taking your name for awhile. You've been forewarned!